Domain transfer problem

what a mess

[texasville]

I was hired to redevelop a website by a person I know. Up til now a relative had been doing the site and he wanted to take it in a different direction.
I wanted to transfer it to a real domain since it was currently on a subdomain and I pointed him to the hosting service I currently use.
Unfortunately, the relative seemed to not like the whole thing and there seems to be a problem. She contacted the registrar she had and told them she wanted to get it out of her name. Turns out she is the person listed on the who is data not the person that actually owned it.
She now claims that they told her the only way to get it out of her name was to delete the domain and then in 35 days it would become public so the owner could register it. She now claims that t they say this is mandatory. It should be publicly available in 35
days. The other option is to pay the redemption fee of 99.95$. they say, there is
no way to take a domain out of the redemption period. At all, other than paying for it.
I've never encountered this. Don't know what to do. Never heard of this "redemption period" and the price of $99.99 seems awfully high for anything. Any suggestions?

[stu2]

Well I think they can't be a very good registrar if their advice is to delete the domain, wait for it to expire, and then renew it. That's basically bad advice. So did she delete the domain? Is that why it's now in a redemption period? For sure, the only way to get it out of redemption is to pay the redemption fee. $99.95 is one of the lowest redemption fees I've seen. I'd pay up immediately to get the domain back, if I were you. As soon as it's back under your control, then transfer it out to another registrar, although there might be a 60 hold period, depending on the registrar's policies.

[trader]

If it's taken out of redemption status by paying the fee it always will revert back to the original owner who was on the WHOIS before redemption started so you can not get it or make any changes to it yourself, regardless of who pays the fee.

Also, if it finally expires instead of being redeemed chances are very high a drop chaser will get it and not you.

Basically there is absolutely no way you can gain control unless the owner agrees to transfer it to you.

[jtara]

I wanted to transfer it to a real domain since it was currently on a subdomain and I pointed him to the hosting service I currently use.
Unfortunately, the relative seemed to not like the whole thing and there seems to be a problem. She contacted the registrar she had and told them she wanted to get it out of her name.

I'm confused.

If it was on a subdomain, there is nothing to transfer. You can't transfer a subdomain "registration" to a real registrar.

And the original problem was that it was on a subdomain. So, presumably, he didn't want the subdomain "registration" anyway.

He'd be registering a new domain name, and then pointing it to either the existing or new web host.

I think there may be some confusion about terminology here. Can you give an example, in generic (example.com, etc.) terms?

[texasville]

It was on a subdomain because it had a 301 redirect to the subdomain for hosting on a free service. it was www.example. but when you tyoed that in it went to smith.host dot com. smith is just an example.

I really doubt a drop chaser would be after this domain name. It isn't that desirable for others.
So, I have a question. Who determines the price of redemption...the registrar? Seems like terrible business to gouge your clients like that. So far, the dealings with this particular registrar have been realllly subpar.
/Bad thing is I have the redeveloped site ready to go and my suggestion was, let's go with a variation of the old name. But he has a ton of color brochures with the old address on it. Thinking of just going ahead and do it and when the original comes up just redirect it to the new one.
This site was so poorly done only the index page was in google, but it's who is registration goes back to '03.
BTW..the actual original date of expiration in whois registration is in July '06.
<edit..reason: add info>

[trader]

If it gets traffic (even light traffic) a drop chaser will likely go after it and get it. There are several large ones who grab most every name that expires with even a bit of traffic, even no traffic at all if the domain consists of real words too.

BTW, if it expires July 06 as you say it does you must be in error about redemption as it could not possibly be in redemption status several mos before it expires.

P.S. Tell me the name and I can estimate its value to others.

[texasville]

It is in redemption according to whois. I bet til now it didn't get 50 hits a month.
Supposedly it went into redemption because she told the registrar she wanted her name off of it and they told her the only way was to delete the domain. So she deleted it. Instead of just transferring it to the actual owner. blecchhh...
All I really wanted to do was move hosting so it was on a real domain and the owner went online and ended up registering it thru another registrar. An email had already been sent to the old registrar when this all happened.

[davezan]

In that case, follow the steps below:

1. Get the domain redeemed ASAP. At least you have one last chance of getting it back before someone else does.

2. Once restored, get the relative to give you control and access to the domain name so you can change the details. Follow whatever the registrar tells you as long as it results in giving you access.

3. If the registrar really won't allow its ownership to be changed, transfer it to another registrar.

Note: I'm not sure if it'll be possible to transfer a recently-redeemed-domain out if it qualifies under the 60-day transfer rule. If it does, that means you can only transfer it out 60-days after.

I wish there's another alternative. But there's none at this point based on what you described as happened.

The relative may object. But give him/her as much reassurance as possible you'll handle it.

[cerebrum]

You can never get a catchy expired domain name. Better pay the fee if you think the domain is important. If you are not much interested, then just place a backorder for the domain.