As website owners, we often spend a considerable amount of time and effort when choosing a web host to trust with our precious virtual real estate. The one thing that’s often overlooked is who we entrust our domain names to, but as I’m finding out, this is something that can bring your virtual empire to its knees.
Over the last two years, I’ve registered well over 200 domain names at RegisterFly. Most have been for my own use (including this domain), but a number have been for other people. RegisterFly didn’t offer the perfect domain registration service as their website was achingly slow and like any other established service provider, they had their share of complaints. Their redeeming qualities included offering seemingly good value and their website functionality, although slow, included bulk management. With lots of domains, this was a great time saver.
Their slow website was partly addressed with a redesign and whilst RegisterFly were previously an eNom reseller, that changed earlier this year when they became a fully-fledged ICANN accredited registrar. Any renewals after that actually initiated a registrar transfer from eNom to RegisterFly. Whilst these two points might seem like a great improvement, they actually spelt a great deal of trouble for me.
- The website was still unbearably slow at times.
- Live sales chat simply wasn’t.
- Problems with the new website meant that I had to raise over 20 support tickets this year.
- Support tickets were being closed with stock replies that didn’t address the specifics and left me with unresolved issues. Most recent, I’ve been trying to renew a couple of domains and had to raise three separate tickets because they were being prematurely closed.
- Their support pages say “If at anytime you feel the support team at Registerfly.com is NOT properly handling your support request please contact us via this form. Please include your userid and the nature of your issue.” When I did so and asked them to not close my tickets until they reached a conclusion, my Rapid Response ticket was deleted from the system. I can still access it directly via the tracking URL, but it’s been trashed.
Currently, automatic renewals aren’t working because of insufficient funds in my account – not true as I have more than enough credit remaining to renew a domain – and manual renewals are also failing due to unknown reasons. With domains about to expire, I was forced to make a half-hour international support call, which did nothing to progress my domain renewal issues.
To make matters worse, I discovered that there’s now a requirement to supply EPP codes when transferring .com and .net domains when I tried to transfer some of my more valueable domains away from RegisterFly. I asked RegisterFly to provide the necessary EPP codes and their reply was,
Please be advised that we are having an temporary issue receiving authorization codes for domains that were registered prior to 2/1/06 with our previous backend provider. Unfortunately our previous backend provider has not generated EPP codes for all .com and .net domains. We are terribly sorry for this setback. We ask that you bear with us during this period of time as we are work to get issue resolved
According to some other users, the EPP codes for those domains that still name eNom as the registrar can be obtained from eNom directly. I’ve sent my request and am awaiting eNom’s response.
So here I am with domains that are nearing their registration expiration date, stuck with a registrar that can’t renew them, can’t transfer them and will keep a hold of any expired domains for a year after their due date.
What a farce.
Technorati Tags: RegisterFly, Domain Registrar, Domain Transfers, EPP Codes, ENOM
Guess I’m lucky I didn’t actually go through with registering a domain name with them because they botched it from the beginning. Now, they insist on spamming me.
Although they still have a few of my dollars (they double charged me and didn’t even answer my e-mails/tickets when I asked for it to be corrected), I consider it a learning experience.
The way I figure it, a company who can’t even get it right from the beginning doesn’t deserve to stay in business.
Good luck and I hope you’re able to get the transfer issues sorted out.
~ Teli
Teli, thanks for the well wishes. Fortunately, I was able to transfer away those domains that were registered under eNom’s umbrella and hadn’t yet been transferred to RegisterFly (the registrar as opposed to the reseller).
I too have experienced GREAT frustration with Registerfly.
The only reason I’m posting this is to save someone else lots of time in support requests.
My domain was NOT expired and I had a few days to renew it. After ‘quick’ (yeah right) checkout kept failing I tried to cntact support (through a ticket since ringing from Australia I couldn’t find an international number) which we also badly responded to and just closed.
Anyway, I still haven’t solved the issue and now my domain is down while Registerfly sits on their fingers saying the problem will be solved in 24 hours, 6 hours – 3 days ago!!!
So, I would say make your choice wisely and find a registra which can provide good support when something bad happens. Unfortunately it’s like paying insurance, you hate giving out money for nothing but when something bad ahppens you’re covered. Same with costly hosting and registration. You might think you’re saving money but in the long run it’s costing you more time.
It’s so true, David; cheap hosting and domain registration is a false economy because when the stuff hits the fan, you’re left dealing with the monkeys you pay peanuts for.
Having said that, I’ve heard only positive things about NameCheap and they’re not much more expensive than RegisterFly.
Are you too late to try a transfer of your domain?
As for calling them from outside of the US, all I can say is thank Skype!
Yuup Altough I have had no gripes with the registerfly support I am extremely annoyed with the speed of their site. I mean come on they must be aware that the speed is amazingly slow. It takes 30 seconds to switch pages sometimes..
This has to be addressed.. And it really is making me re-think my future domain purchases.
I’m sure it won’t make you feel any better, but you’re not the only person getting screwed.
http://eunknown.org/version2/?p=339
http://www.ducea.com/2006/11/12/howto-fly-away-or-how-to-escape-from-the-registerfly-nightmare-part2-how/
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/A_warning_about_the_registrar_RegisterFly
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=193465
http://registerflies.com/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,26/func,view/catid,6/id,125/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum25/3143217.htm (requires login)
http://www.internetmarketingfool.com/2006/11/09/nightmare-at-registerfly/
http://digg.com/tech_news/RegisterFly_preventing_Domains_from_being_renewed
If you’re reading this and thinking about transferring domains to NameCheap.com, ‘Feblove’ is currently good as a coupon code.
My hosting plan went dead on Tuesday; no warning, no explanation, nothing.And I have been trying for days to get in contact via phone, email or web. I’ve sent about ten messages– I’ve stayed on hold for up to an hour to no avail…. they just never pick up.
How can I get my hosting service switched to someone more reputable??
Barker,
Who is your domain registered with? It should just be a case of changing your domain’s nameservers to point to another web host.
As long as your domain registrar isn’t also RegisterFly then that should be easily done.
There is a very interesting article someone wrote about registerfly:
Registerfly Debacle: The New World Orders Ultimate Reigns of Hell.
http://www.xenacarpenter.info/2007/02/registerfly_deb.html
Now that’s a rant!