ORG Contact update info taking too long

Stuck on the update not taking place

[explorador]

Hi, I'm having a hard time with this. I have this plain .ORG domain registered for a client. As many of you already know, domains have 4 diff areas of "contact info", one for billing, one for administrative, one for contact, etc.

So, this client asked me to perform an update on the domain information and so I did

The process took place and I received confirmation emails at the registered mail accounts

Yes I confirmed the changes

Nothing happened

It says the changes are pending, but if I want I could click "resend emails"

PAUSE: The wording doesn't states there was any error in the process, the wording explains the update IS pending, and doesn't say any confirmation is needed, it just says "if you want you can resend the confirmation emails". Sounds to me a bit confusing, but that's not all.

So I experimented doing the same contact info update on 5 different domain names (.com and one ORG.gt), the changes took place in the matter of minutes in the panel and started propagating such info. So, in my case, there is a different behavior between .com, .org.gt and plain ORG domains.

At some point during this week a message appeared (pop up) saying changed would probably need 5 days to take place.

Those five days are already gone

No update took place

The panel states the update is still pending

On another page in the panel says "it's not pending, it's on the way"

The panel blocks any further updates

The panel offers an option to CANCEL the update

That button doesn't work, says an error happened

There is still a link to "resend" the confirmation emails, tried using it

The confirmation emails were sent but after initiating the process, a final button and a checkbox appear to approve

Button + checkbox won't work, they report something went wrong

Why am I asking here? well, the company is not the same anymore. It used to be a full hosting company with buttons, colors, logos and offers, they had a name, let's say "mickey mouse", but then over the years the hosting became problematic so I left, but I kept some domains at this company registrar service, no problem during those years but I noticed the website changed, the website is dead, despite the name "mickey mouse" there is a new URL, few buttons, hidden offers (not in plain sight) and there is absolutely no way to get help.

I looked everywhere and can't find ticket support, every path brings me to an automated forum trying to offer me answers based on a set of questions, there is no chat. After a while found some old page with a link taking to a contact form, tried and received an automated response that I have to be patient because they are receiving too many requests during COVID.

I guess some of you know how a hosting company looks when they try to hide all the contact information and become a walking zombie company, leaving a few dead pages behind.

So I'm still waiting for a response, but I'm also curious on why this is only happening with a simple ORG domain, but not showing the same issues with the rest of domains registered there.

Any comments will be appreciated.

[jmccormac]

Is the hosting company an accredited ICANN registrar? Most hosting companies are not and use a registration as a service registrar for the gTLD registrations.

Do a WHOIS check on the .COM that you changed and then do a WHOIS check on the .ORG to see if they are the same registrar.

Regards...jmcc

[explorador]

Thanks jmccormac.

The company I'm talking about is "mickey mouse.com".
A whois check for a .com registered there reports "spidermandomains.com"
A whois check for the .ORG reistered there reports the same "spidermandomains.com"

So, while it's not the same name/company where I bought the domains, it's the same name at the end who appears on the whois report.

I'm curious if this could have anything to do with what the other threads talk about ICANN and ORG domains.

[explorador]

Well, the phone number provided for support takes forever, it's automated, no options for domains only for hosting and sales. Requests to provide in automated form the client number, access pin and 8 last digits on CC, a few tries and still waiting. Sounds just like the website: no way to contact them.

[jmccormac]

This is the list of ICANN accredited registars:
[icann.org...]

"Spidermandomains.com" may be on that list. What happens with hosting companies is that they use one of these registrars to handle their gTLD registrations. Most of them are very good and update quickly. Some might do the updates manually at certain times of the day. If it is using one of these registrations as a service registrars, it might be possible to contact them directly as the domain name owner.

It is unlikely to be anything to do with the ICANN/ORG thread. That was about the sale of the .ORG registry.

Regards...jmcc

[explorador]

Thanks jmccormac, Just spent a couple of hours that felt like more over the phone with them, it's upside down. They tell me it shouldn't take more time (org vs org.gt, or com), and can't explain why this is taking so long. As I explained I followed/tested the same procedure with other domains registered at the same company with exactly the same configuration (privacy, etc) and it worked in 5 minutes, also tried on other registrars (org.gt) without any issues. It's... just this one, this plain ORG. Why? who knows.

They just can't explain it, and the people who tried to help were waiting for long periods of time for the techs to answer, turns out something is wrong at their end, on their system, but they can't unlock it o it's up to the techs with higher powers, but they are not answering... and I'm talking hours here.

They insisted on apologizing because due to COVID they are working from home and lost personal too. However there is no tech answer on why something took 5 to 10 minutes on other domains but it's been 5 days with this one. I'll just have to wait.

I wouldn't mind so much a failed update as long as I can keep updating the DNS records, but at the moment everything is locked "waiting for a process to end". Another issue is their system is not well written, not in english or spanish as several messages are not clear, and even contradicting (also confirmed at their end).

It's going to be a long weekend.

[explorador]

It's COVID, or so it seems. Spent long hours on international call with the company, God they are lost, they were insisting it was a BROWSER CACHE ISSUE that would be solved using a private/incognito window. The waiting took forever only to insist on this, after long explanations (over and over), I mean in how many different ways can you describe a monkey eating a banana? that happened and they just couldn't understand what the problem was.

Finally they got it, there was something odd on their side, and so they were trying to contact the techs so they could do something because they had higher privileges on the system. They never answered, we were waiting in line (hours it's not an exaggeration), finally I got tired and decided to let it go and just continue with my day of work.

They sincerely apologized explaining due to COVID they have huge amounts of work (attending calls from home) and also lost personal due to the pandemia.

After a few days from the origins of the issue (20 July), I received an automated email saying the change couldn't be applied and so the system would revert to the previous settings. There were several confusing messages on their panel (both English and Spanish), I talked to them about the UX issues and they agreed, there are confusing messages and contradicting texts, cancelling the procedure doesn't work.

So, COVID or so they say. It took 6 days and a half for the system to vanish the attempt of changes by itself.