Background: I have a personal domain that is my entire full name, because my last name ends with ms. My name is Derek Adams, so I decide to do something a bit nerdy and register derekada.ms.
I did this last year, godaddy tell me every 5 minutes that there’s a sale on, but they proceeded to tell me once, about a month out that my domain would expire next month, and recieved no further warning. i happened to miss the date for the cutoff, so I tried to immediately re register it. it still said it was in use, so my domain was stuck in ‘limbo’. the whois reported that there was a ‘recovery period’ so I raised a support ticket about it, so thats when this whole thing started.
Support ticket #1 (incident no #13961460):
1/20/2012
9:40 pm
I was the previous owner of derekada.ms.
I received an email telling me about ‘confirmation’ of my deletion.
I can’t seem to re-register my domain, because it shows up as ‘taken’. and its no longer in my management console to re-register.
Apparently the ‘exemption expiry’ i have until feb 8th to get it back according to the official tool at http://whois.nic.ms/whois.jsp.
Can you please do whatever you have to do to let me re-register my own domain?
Godaddy Response (email template back to me):
Go Daddy Support
1/21/2012
6:37 am
Dear Derek ,
Thank you for your response.
I understand you are experiencing an issue with the domain derekada.ms. A review of the domain shows it has been registered to a new owner, you will need to conduct a Whois Search to locate the new owner of the domain and contact them about the registration of the domain.
Domain Backorders is a service that helps you attempt to acquire a domain name when it becomes available for registration. It includes a Domain Monitoring membership, a Go Daddy Auctions® membership, $10 toward your first auction bid, and one year of domain name registration.
… and it goes on, i’ll cut it here for brevity, but they’re trying to upsell me.
My response:
1/21/2012
6:42 pm
I have reviewed a whois, as I indicated - I have attached the result of said whois, this morning.
My name is Derek Adams.
The registrant information is SET TO ME, MY NAME, DEREK ADAMS.
with my phone number, email, etc, information etc.
I’ve been talking to myself and I’d like to be able to re-register the domain.
the only bit that doesn’t make sense is the registrar information - key-systems.net.
Godaddy is a big company, and for all i know this is some weird subsidiary? Is it? has someone re-registered my domain with ALL OF MY INFORMATION?- even though it’s currently saying PENDING DELETION?
how can a re-registered domain be EXLUDED - PENDING DELETE?
Can you please review your template and stop trying to upsell me to your backorder service, when I am currently listed as the contact for derekada.ms.
What needs to happen for me to register this? am I going to have to wait for it to be deleted? it says currently that it’s “in redemption” phase.
Godaddys response (Finally! a human response!):
1/22/2012
4:36 am
Dear Derek,
Thank you for reply. I understand you need assistance with your domain name. After reviewing your account i see that the domain had expired and canceled. The .MS domain extension has no redemption option.(empasis mine, this is important later) The domain canceled at the end of the expiration period. I see that the MNI Network who is site has the redemption time frame on there but i don’t understand why they do. Please let us know if we can assist you in any other way.
Regards,
Jim P.
Online Support
My Response to “yeah. it does that. dunno why… anything else I can do?”
At this point i had to go off and do other life stuff, and i decided I may as well wait for it to be “deleted’ fo’ real this time, because I’m getting no help here, BUT I still can’t re register. so another contact is needed:
2/12/2012
10:03 pm
I’ve decided to wait to well outside of the time that my domain should have been deleted - It still says it’s registered in my name and it’s pending delete.
the GoDaddy whois service says that the whois servers aren’t available - I have tried this every time i’ve sent a ticket, but i thought it might be an outage.
I’m beginning to think that my domain is stuck in limbo - the registrars need to be contacted - perhaps Godaddys partner, I’m assuming Key Systems is (Godaddy is not listed even as a authorised rep for the .ms domain).
I have one very seemingly simple question:
What do I have to do to get Derekada.ms registered?
Note: You cannot say ‘contact the owner’ because the contact information is me. In addition I don’t need a backordering service - because according to the .ms registry, ever since the first incident, the status of it has not changed.
My parents house is listed as the phone number. feel free to phone it and speak to <dad> or <mum> adams, as I’m at work. its a +61 number as I’m in Australia. feel free to send me an email on the email contact, as that’s me too.
If you’re not sure: - I emplore you to go have a word to your manager and explain the situation, as this is probably something that doesn’t happen often.
I’m trying to give you guys some money here to re register my own domain, because i missed the cutoff period (I would actually note that the date i recieved the godaddy cancellation notice is actually about 3 days before the whois states, so this irks me too), and this is my 4th contact with you guys (ed: it’s the third actually for those playing at home, but I’m frustrated at this point).
Help, please.
Godaddys response (I think someone spoke to a manager)
2/13/2012
7:40 am
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for contacting Online Support. I understand you wish to recover the Derekada.ms domain name. The domain name is eligible for recovery from the domain Registrar. If you wish to recover the domain from the redemption period, please reply with the following information:
A specific request to redeem the domain (include the actual domain name).
The last four digits of the payment method already on file that you would like billed.
An acknowledgment that your card will be charged $124.99 ($80 redemption fee plus $44.99 renewal fee).
Confirm that you have read and agree to our ‘Universal Terms of Service.’
Please be sure to reply by the end of the month in which the domain expired in to ensure your domain can be redeemed.
Please note that after receiving your confirmation to redeem the domain, it can take up to 3 business days for the redemption request to be completed.
Please let us know if we can assist you in any other way.
Sincerely,
Stan P.
Online Support Team
My response (Hooray! i can get my domain back… for 3 times the price? when the domain expired? but it expired already. what? I’ll just cut my losses and re register… oh wait)
2/18/2012
9:43 pm
Dear Stan,
I’d like to start by first of all thanking you for finally offering a solution on the 4th contact.
I understand the need for administration fees, but this will now no longer be necessary. you advised that I had until the end of the month to renew the domain with this extra $80 administration charge.
I understand the need for administrative costs, but nearly 2x the domain charge is a littlexcessive, however I really need the domain and I was going to ask how else i could register as the credit card you had on file is now expired, it wasnt previously.
I decided to see if i could just register the domain again in the normal method. I can, and have. So the solution provided was invalid.
I can see that the domain has finally been freed up past the expiry, hopefully this is due to me contacting you, if so, thanks.
So, I have NOT taken the route of paying an extra $80 to renew a domain that was already cleared of its registration.
You can now close the ticket or escalate it for investigation into failure, your choice.
It’s been a long and pointless ride.
I hope somehow that some action will be taken to provide better support in future, if it does, let me know what.
I would think about moving registrars, but the .ms domain space is a small one and godaddy appears the least dodgiest.
I may contact some other registrars to see if they’re interested in investing in the space.
Sincerely,
Derek
UPDATE: Godaddys response: (Ok, I’ll close it then)
Derek
We appreciate your feedback and look forward to assisting you in the future. It does not appear as though further assistance is required at this time. Please let us know if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns. Our service departments and telephone lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to accommodate your needs anytime.
You can reach us by phone at any time at (480) 505-8877, or simply reply to this email.
Kind regards,
Christi E.
Customer Support
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So it finally freed itself up and i re registered it… anyone know any .MS registrars who aren’t dodgy and/or stupid?
Source: godaddy,com