[thelist] Expired yahoo domain

Ellen Cotton jellenc at ellensplace.net
Wed Feb 22 06:09:01 CST 2006


>I have a client who had their domain registered with Yahoo small 
>business.  The account and domain registration have expired.  Now the 
>domain management has been transfered to http://www.melbourneit.com.au/  
>The status of the domain is "Pending Release" but the original owner is 
>still listed.   I've written to them twice asking what we need to do to 
>regain control of the domain but haven't heard back. 
>
>Has anyone come across this problem before?  How can we get control back?
>
>Thanks
>Rich
>
Toward the end of last year Yahoo stopped paying the yearly fee for domain
names that was part of a package website deal through them that I had been
paying a monthly fee for since 2000. The rats didn't even notify me they 
had
dropped renewing domain names...although they said they sent out 
notification
of this, it was a lie. Fortunately the company who they were buying the 
domain
name through, Network Solutions, kept sending me expiration notices. 
This had
happen before and Yahoo always renewed so ignored the first few, but when
they sent one that said it was my last chance I called Yahoo and they 
matter-a-
factly informed me they no longer paid for domain names!

I immediately got in touch with Network Solutions, reviewed their rates, 
and
renewed my domain name along with transferring my website to their service.
I was furious with Yahoo for doing this to me! They are not to be 
trusted. I'll
never do any business with them again.

The long and short of it is...if the domain name has not been sold your 
client
can get it back but he needs to do it quickly if it's any kind of name 
that might
be wanted by another. You can do a search on WHOIS and see if the name
is still available. A domain name can be sold by a number of services 
not just
Network Solutions but should show up in WHOIS. I see that:

http://www.melbourneit.com.au/ has a search feature so just 
enter the domain name in that and see if it's still available. 
Unless they paid for it, they don't own it. It is true that 
some services will buy domain names from time to time and then 
pedal them for preminium fees if they think it's a popular 
name. Maybe this service buys expired names in hopes the 
previous owner will take their website package. As we all 
know businesses can be underhanded and not always fair! If 
they bought the name I don't know why they didn't try to 
sell it back to your client? 

You can checkout other host provides also and see if that 
domain name is available. 

....Ellen 






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