Lost Domain Names

As mentioned a few months ago, the Warren Jaycees lost a domain name to Kenyan spammers due to the lack of domain management. Recently a client of mine almost lost his to neglecting the renewal date.

While TeraScape does deal with domain names, we do it on a more personal level, and not through a customer account (yet). What this means is... we buy the domains for our clients and generally simply attach our own whois info onto it unless otherwise asked. We get 90, 60 & 30, 15 & 5-day reminders of when a domain will expire, and then promptly remind our customers from the beginning. The fee for this: maybe a couple bucks more than the actual cost of the domain. Hardly a money maker for us.

Our client, however, has had his domain for a couple years before switching to our host. He contacted me through Skype and asked what happened to his email & site. Sure his hosting fee is due, but I certainly didn't shut him down. I know him personally, and has always been good for the money for over 2 years. The reason he didn't know about the domain expiration was because the contact information on the domain wasn't him, but a former business partner. His domain name company is AIT, and having formerly worked with AIT, they've always been good at nearly spamming its clients when bills are due. Ample warning. It doesn't help though, if the contact information is wrong.

What can you do?

CHANGE THE CONTACT INFORMATION! If you're the primary business owner, make sure your name is associated with the contact information at the registrar. Your business partner could be listed under "Admin", "Technical Contact" or whatever else the registrar lists as contacts. Whether it be in your name, your business partner's name or a 3rd party manager (like us), the notices should go out a bit better. Of course this really has to do with how each registrar sends notices, but its also your best bet in case you forget about domain registration & your partner quits the business (or in some cases in China, steals your information & client list & starts his/her own.)

This was very similar to the mistake made with the Jaycees over a year ago. The contact information was under a Jaycees member from years ago, who simply wasn't around anymore. Fortunately, our client got his domain name back just in time (less than a day to spare) and is now back in operation.