Nor is my case an isolated one. Postings to various discussion lists I belong to and a little bit of research have netted quite a few similar practices by NSI that are highly questionable. Some of these practices coudl be paralled to insider trading on the stock exchange. I am beginning to wonder at the standards of ICAN accreditation.
I know I can lodge a complaint with ICANN and the Better Business Bureau but as an aussie I am not aware if there are any other USA official bodies where I can lodge complaints. Are there any others? (If they were in Australia,, for example, one of the bodies there practices would draw the attention of is ICAC - Independent Commission Against Corruption.)
Needless to say that with nearly 100 domains registered with NSI and the amount of problems I have had with them in the past, this is the last straw and will be transferring my business elsewhere and want as little to with the likes of NSI - I think they should change their name to Network Problems Inc.
First off. The are most likely correct that your domain is expired. Just because an Internic look says 2004 expiration date doesn't mean the domain is still current. The registry doesn't have the proper date. That is up to the Registrar to show. Let me explain why Jan 2004 expiration date still means you own them money...
Apon the REAL expiration of Jan 2003, The registry auto-renews for one year. Note, the registry does this. Not the consumer, so the registrar is getting charged for that one extra year. But if the registrar doesn't receive payment within a few weeks, they will delete the domain and the registry will refund the auto-renewed year.
I suggest you pay the fee, and then transfer away. There is nothing more you can do. Fighting them on a small issue like this will not get you anywhere.
And I would advice against, not paying. Waiting for the domain to delete. Then register it again somewhere else. This is very risky. Someone may grab the domain the second it is available before you can say, boo.
I am not aware that everyone is into NSI bashing. If their treatment of me and the people I know (as the stories keep coming in) are any guide then perhaps they deserve it.
From my perspective, now, they do.
As Lisa points out, the expiry date shown via the WHOIS lookup won't necessarily reflect the genuine expiry date of the domain & without evidence that you did pay for renewal, this matter won't progress further - if NetSol's records don't show payment for renewal, there's no way to transfer the domain.
R.
I just spoke to a good sysadmin friend online who is going through the same hassle. He just tried to transfer away a client's domain from NSI that still has 14 months to go before expiry. They denied it and he has just been issued a renewal notice. So figure that one.
From the stories I am hearing from other developers, designers, sysadmins, etc. it seems that my problem with NSI over one domain is not isolated not can it be ascribed to "computer error". I am thinking of putting all the info I have been gathering over the last couple of days on the web - if I have the time. If I do I will post the URL here.
The frustration of emails and phone calls with NSI going nowhere resulted in a lot of time being consumed with subsequent investigation. There are a LOT of bad stories about NSI out there. I found a link that listed all the places you could complain to (link is below) and I was about to raise hell. Before doing this I fortunately took one final step.
I went to the NSI wholesaler that I purchased domains through (they no longer buy domains from NSI) and they told me the tech contact email was bouncing so they told NSI this. All other email contacts were working.
So instead of telling me what was wrong - NSI was saying the domain was unregistered and demanded money.
I fixed the broken email, the domain owner redid the transfer with Go Daddy and after a couple of confirmation requests from NSI the domain was transferred.
Maybe you have done this but make a careful check of your domain name details and ensure everything is correct.
I found these links that may be useful to you if you want to lodge complaints:-
[forum.icann.org...]
[nsihorrorstories.com...]
It does seem that NSI have a terrible reputation out there, are also notorious for hanging onto domains after they have expired far in excess of 45 days and there are still many outstanding issues by domain holders with NSI (all info from ICAN site). Also, after about 14 days they charge something like $150 to renew an expired domain. Not only this, but people can submit requests for a domain and your domain may already be requested by someone else who will pay NSI a premium price for that domain.
So do NOT let the domain expire!
ICAN is "supposed" to be the controling body for registras so if all your info is correct on the domain they should be the first org you complain to.
good luck!
