Potential client got taken advantage of. BADLY

Just who owns the domain anyway?

[The_Hat]

Had a guy come in wanting to move over to our hosting service. I said shouldn't be a problem at all and got some information from him to take a look at a few things. Well I went and did a whois over at netsol for his domain name and it came back without his name on it.. From what I can tell the guy went to a "service" and wanted to get a business running (and I do mean a business, domain on his bizz cards, side of his vans etc..) the "service" evidently registered it for them selves. Well I told him of the red flag I saw and told him to get in contact with the company that owns it.. They right back saying that they are not interested is releasing it because it is part of a large sell off of assets to another company..

Now I feel sorry for the guy, ,what with his domain, the domain he spent time and money into getting traffic to, getting sold off to somebody else.

What can I tell the guy besides "Sorry you got taken advantage of mate, better luck next time"

[jtara]

Unfortunately, this is all too common. It seems most common with low-end hosting packages, as well as with some "consultants" who are probably well-meaning in wanting to take care of ALL of their clients needs and not bother them with details.

I'd be interested in knowing if there is some legal recourse, as this situation seems to come up a lot. I suppose it would depend on what the agreement is that he has with the service, whether it is in writing or not, etc.

He did READ the agreement, right?

That people don't read all the fine print doesn't make it right. It's sleezy. But it may just come down to that.

[cerebrum]

Many small and cheap webhosting companies are following this procedure to snatch domains. They register the domains in their name.

[The_Hat]

I plan to tell him to pursue with the registrar and see if they can't get the domain transferred due to trademark infringement or the like.. I don't think he will tho.. just makes me mad.. this kind of thing gives us all a black eye..

[davezan]

These sorts of things just happen, even if it's not really our fault. We just...didn't know.

We have a tae kwon do athelete who won a gold medal in our recently concluded regional athletic competition. A few weeks later, she was asked to return her gold medal because her drug testing revealed she took a banned substance.

Where did that banned substance come from? Herbal tea.

She didn't know that, of course. And no one knew about it, either, not even her coaches.

That's life...

[graeme_p]

This needs legal advice. There may be a way to get the domain back, or to get compensation.

I can certainly think of a couple of things that might give you a claim in the circumstances under UK law, but it depends on exactly what happened, what the contracts said, what the relationship between your potential client and the "service". In other countries I do not know, but it is probably worth getting proper advice.

[The_Hat]

Yeah, as it turns out the domain evidently expired and was picked up by another company who are the ones planning on selling it. On the other hand the people that let it drop would have been the "service" so.. I guess I don't know now.. before it seemed pretty clear cut.. not quite so now.

[chicagohh]

Your potential client is hosed. Domains don't suddenly drop without warning. Even if the client isn't a contact on the domain the domain will stop resolving long before it's dropped.

It sounds like someone wasn't paying attention to their business.