My local client lost his domain name :(

7 replies
Hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on my client's current problem.

I provide local marketing/email, etc., but did not design the website. They worked with a web designer before I was involved and he seemed like an okay guy. He helped me install the updated SEO info on the site and so forth.

Well all of a sudden he skips town. Flakes out, who knows what happened. Fell off the face of the earth lol.

My client didn't let me know about this and one day BAM, their website and domain is GONE.

My guess is that old web guy didn't renew the domain name (sadly it was registered through him). Now the current owner is webmasters.com. That is the company that served as the registrar/host.

From everything I can tell, they renewed the domain themselves and are now running ads on it. The domain name is my client's exact business name.

Since it is their business name, does my client have any recourse? We tried contacting webmasters.com but they won't even talk to us unless it is the original web guy calling, and he's MIA.

Any suggestions?

The moral of the story, be in control of your client's domain names! This is a terrible terrible situation. I have a new domain name for them, but at this point all of the backlinks I did are lost

Matt
#client #domain #local #lost
  • Profile picture of the author beeswarn
    This happens all the time. Call the registrar or use their website to begin the process of recovering the domain name in case of fraud or negligence on the part of their reseller. Be persistent.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nail Yener
    If there is no info on file about your client, then it is natural that webmasters.com will not answer you unless contacting with the previous web guy. Because, they will have no idea on what terms your client was using the domain as it seems your client was not the owner.

    I think the moral of the story from the business owner point of view is "be in control of your domain names".
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  • Profile picture of the author ChristineCobb
    If the domain name is the registered name of your client, you might have a lawyer send a letter to the owner per the Whois. Big companies do that all the time when someone puts their brand name within a domain name. One letter or email from the lawyer will probably get the job done.

    In the meantime, if you had set up the website in Webmaster Tools, you can go back in and tell Google that there has been a change of address. There's no guarantee that your rankings will come back as before but it will help.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    Use archive.org to show the registrar that indeed the company was really using the domain for their business web site. It should show all the contact details and you can just have the registrar call the number depicted on the archived page to verify who they are indeed speaking too.
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    • Profile picture of the author ronr
      If you can't get it back, or even if you can register the .net version of the domain and also a keyword rich domain. It will probably rank higher anyway.

      While you always want to have your own domain name of your business,
      usually a name like AustinCarpetCleaner.com will rank higher than BobsCarpetCleaning.com.

      It doesn't even need to be the exact keyword domain either. In one location I have a clent with the keyword domain for the area, (not the real domain) SalemCarpetCleaning.com but someone else has Salemcarpetcleaningv.com and ranks just above my clients.

      So try to get the domain but also check out the available keyword domains also.

      Ron
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  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Thanks for the feedback everyone. When my client called webmasters.com (it always goes to a recording) and left a message they didn't get a callback. I called today and mentioned how the next step was legal action and they called back within 30 minutes

    And when they called........... I was already on the other line and missed it! I'm heading out to a meeting so I will be calling again later today when I can ensure I'll be available.

    As far as proceeding with something else, we are doing that. It is just a bummer because they've spent thousands upon thousands of dollars branding their website in the community for the past 6 years.

    I'll keep you updated

    Matt
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    • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
      This is a very good example of why we need E&O insurance. This web firm could easily be sued for a **** ton of money for negligence.

      When they registered the clients domain and failed to pass it along they took on a good faith responsibility which I'm pretty sure doesn't even need to be in writing.

      Originally Posted by freudianslip27 View Post

      Thanks for the feedback everyone. When my client called webmasters.com (it always goes to a recording) and left a message they didn't get a callback. I called today and mentioned how the next step was legal action and they called back within 30 minutes

      And when they called........... I was already on the other line and missed it! I'm heading out to a meeting so I will be calling again later today when I can ensure I'll be available.

      As far as proceeding with something else, we are doing that. It is just a bummer because they've spent thousands upon thousands of dollars branding their website in the community for the past 6 years.

      I'll keep you updated

      Matt
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