Grabbed a domain through Namewinner two days ago. All previous names I grabbed went to Dotster, who is part of the same company, but this latest one went to the registrar register.it
I got a user name and pass to manage my domain over at register.it. I logged in and there were no easy ways to manage the domain. If I wanted to make any changes such as contact info, dns, etc. I would have to send in a support form request.
So I tried to have the domain transferred through my registrar. Got a failure notice saying the domain is locked. Contacting register.it to see what they can do.
This happen to anyone? Register.it is good or some third rate registrar where I'm going to have to pay extra fees to get things done? I did a few searches and found some forums where people had serious problems getting their domains moved out.
I always liked Namewinner and I knew about them using other registrars as partners but this seems a bit too far.
A newly registered name is always going to be locked for 60 days, per ICANN rules. Assuming it also isn't specifically locked (in which case you can write to them and have them unlock it) you can transfer out at that point.
Not an immediate solution or anything, but since you mentioned the transfer attempt I thought I'd explain that part.
If you have to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to do basic admin just wait until you try and transfer the domain out. I had a domain stuck in the Middle East for quite a while and only through many threats and the help from the owner of a large registrar was I able to move it away. I think these types of registrars just hope you will give up and stay with them.
The instructions are in English, right? Once I had to get someone to translate a site from Korean... what a pain (I bet there are a few people reading this that know who I am talking about).
You could try contacting Namewinner and see if they can help - If you get fed up and don't want the domain you can always do a chargeback. :(