For example.co.uk it was simple - we contacted Nominet, authenticated ourselves as the owner of the domain, requested that they make a "tag change" as the ISP was being unresponsive/unhelpful, paid a small fee, and it was done. See:[nominet.net ]
For the .com domain this seems to be harder!
Although the friend is listed as the owner of the domain in whois, the ISP put *their* email address in, not my friends, and the ISP is also listed as the technical contact. So, when we go to another ISP and request to transfer the domain, our old ISP will get the transfer request emails, not my friend, and the old ISP can refuse the transfer request until my friend pays up.
Is there any way round this? I don't think the equivalent of a "tag change request" exists for .com domains, but I could be wrong. Is there anyway of contacting the 'upsteam' registrar and getting them to update the owner and technical contacts for the domain?
TIA for any suggestions...
webdoctor
As for a fee for leaving them, I doubt that a fee like that would ever hold up in a court of law. You can do business with whoever you want.
Are you listed (or is your friend listed) as the domain owner? If so, then you should be able to change the owner, technical, and billing information before the transfer is made. I would change all the contacts and then simply change the nameservers to the new host.
The owner lists my friend's name, his address, but the ISP's email address (i.e. support@<bad-isp>.com), and they refuse to change this part of the entry.
So, if we request a transfer to another ISP, the transfer request gets sent to support@<bad-isp>.com, not to my friend.
The ISP say this is the way they run things, and they won't change the owner entry.
webdoctor
Check ICANN. I believe exit fees are expressly forbidden for gTLDs. I once had a registrar attempt to impose such a fee. A little "ICANN says no, do you want me to tell them you are being bad" was all it took to get prompt attention and no fees.
Thanks for this tip. In case anyone else is in this situation, it seems as though this is the relevant document:-
[icann.org ]
Now I just need to take a copy of that, and a big stick, round to the ISP :-)
webdoctor
Threat = "If you yank my chain I will file suit as a class representative of all those people who you wrongfully charged this fee or who have renewed domains with you instead of transferring out to another registrar. You will disgorge all past gains and I will get a specific injunction barring you from ever doing this again. While I'm at it I'll sue you for consumer fraud, both your corporation and you individually since 'you' were the person who crafted the fee charge in violation of ...."
This ought to work.
