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advice on getting hotchilli.com to release a domain

by Jon Alexander
6 replies
This is an interesting one. An old buddy of mine has been hosting a domain at hotchilli.com for several years. Over the course of the last year or so, hotchilli has gradually become unreliable, culminating in his site being 'unavailable' for several days.

The hotchilli support, of course, is non-existent, so he did what anyone would have done - he moved it to another host. However - he made the schoolboy error (admittedly a few years ago!) of registering it with hotchilli.com as well as hosting it there, so he now has a problem. Hotchilli.com are refusing to unlock the domain unless he pays them $40 or some such, and naturally, he doesn't see why he should pay them for screwing up his business.

Personally, I only have niche sites, and none of them are worth 'fighting' for, so I can't really offer him any advice. Anyone got any suggestions? ANy legal route he can take to stop hotchilli.com effective stealing his domain?

disclaimer - I have no persoanl knowledge of whether hotchillic.om are as useless as he says - all I will say is that they seem to think (on their website) that $100 is a 'fair' price to register a domain, so that probably gives you some kind of idea about them.

Oh - and there's sweet f.a. about them online (except for a couple of complaints on ciao) , so I assume they are a tiddler in the scheme of webhosting.
#advice #domain #hotchillicom #release
  • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
    And that is why you don't get free domains from a hosting company.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jon Alexander
      yeah, I can't really beat him up about that tho. First, it wouldn't do any good, and second, he did it years ago, before that one became common knowledge.

      So anyone got any ideas? Anyone ever gone into dispute over a domain?
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      • Profile picture of the author Jon Alexander
        the plot curdles. It turns out that 'hotchilli.com' are only a reseller for Melbourne IT (big Aus registrar). They don't even have any servers - they just rent space at a London UK 'Telehouse'. And operate out of a tiny serviced office in the same city... which highlights a valuable lesson:-

        if you want to pretend to be a big successful company, hike your prices. People tend to think 'wow - thats expensive. MUST be good!'

        For the last x years, they've stung my buddy $400 a year for hosting I could have supplied at like $20. or he could have gone to any of the big cheapies for $10 a month or less.
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        • Profile picture of the author CSwrite
          Jon,

          Is he the actual "owner" of the domain or is Hotchilli in the admin contact section?

          If not, I guess I would take it to the main company that Hotchilli is reselling for and plead my case there.

          Legally, if your friend is the owner of the domain (and provided there is nothing in the TOS about charging a fee to unlock it) he has the right to transfer it anywhere he pleases.

          Cary
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          • Profile picture of the author davezan
            Originally Posted by CSwrite View Post

            Is he the actual "owner" of the domain
            Specifically, is the friend the registrant of the domain name? Whoever is listed as
            such is considered the legal "owner" of it, no ifs ands or buts save for going the
            legal route.

            Jon, the $40 thing is what various hosts "typically" charge to give the domain to
            its end user, especially if it was a free domain included in the host's offering. I'm
            aware of many people disagreeing with that, but that'll hardly do any good if it's
            included in the host's agreement as CSwrite suggested above.

            First, find out if your friend is the listed registrant of the domain, even if none of
            his contact details are listed under administrative contact. If he is, then find out
            from Melbourne IT their stance.

            OTOH, if he's not, then he'll really have little to work on...except to pay.
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            David

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