Crisis at Registrar RegisterFly: company in disarray, 2 million domains at risk

[mandy]

Registerfly is an ICANN-approved provider of internet hosting and domain name registration services based in New Jersey that controls approximately two million domain names for 900,000 different owners. Unfortunately for those whose domains seemingly are disappearing into the ether by the day, the company appears to be coming apart at the seams, with no resolution or government action in sight.

An apparent power struggle between two partners in the company has left customers scrambling to recover domains that were not automatically renewed as agreed, or were paid for and for no apparent reason allowed to lapse well before the agreed upon expiration date...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/19/...customers/

Up to two million domain names, including many with associated Web sites, are at risk over the apparent failure of ICANN-accredited domain registrar, RegisterFly.com.

The company in recent weeks is reportedly almost dysfunctional as customers scramble to register, renew or transfer names. RegisterFly.com's support systems appear to be down, or completely overwhelmed.

It appears all domain names with the registrar are locked, preventing clients transferring, or even updating them. Attempts to change the status of domains are being overridden by the registrar...

full article: http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/c...9050/cs/1/

[jezebel]

Unable to connect 

         
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.registerfly.com.           


    *  The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
          moments.

    *  If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
          connection.

    *  If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
          that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

[jezebel]

Their site is down but their DNS servers are still running.  If the DNS goes out 2 million domains will stop working.  The domain owners are fucked  .  They can't make any changes or transfer their names as long as the main site is down. 

[mandy]

Their website is back online.

This from registrar Enom's website dated 7 February, 2007:

As of February 6, 2007, eNom, Inc. terminated RegisterFly, Inc. as an eNom reseller. RegisterFly will continue to have reseller access for thirty days to resolve any outstanding issues. For any pending customer support issues concerning Registerfly, please contact them directly. If you have any questions regarding eNom products or services, please contact eNom directly.

http://www.enom.com/news.asp

from a FAQ on Enom's site:

RegisterFly Reseller Termination FAQ

By now you may have received the formal notice to owners of domains which have been registered by eNom via its reseller, RegisterFly.com. Although you purchased your name at RegisterFly, eNom is the actual registrar of record for your domains. eNom powers thousands of domain name retailers and web hosts worldwide.

As an eNom reseller, RegisterFly is contractually bound to adhere to certain standards of customer service in a speedy and diligent manner. Despite our warnings, RegisterFly has elected not to abide by the agreed standards as outlined in their eNom reseller agreement. Effective March 9th, RegisterFly will be terminated as an eNom reseller. You now have two options to retain further management of your domain names, as described below:

full FAQ: http://www.enom.com/migrate/faq.asp

[accentnepal]

Firstly - Registerfly became an indepedent registrar something like 1 1/2 years ago so the Enom announcement applies to domains first purchased before that time. Those are the lucky ones, Enom will pull the names out and set you up with an Enom account at the same price you were paying at Regfly.   

Secondly - I have found I cannot sign in with Firefox -BUT I can with IE. So use the old clunker to check on your names. ( yes, I have three there, fortunately it is a while before they expire, and no, it was not my choice.)  >

Thirdly I do not see how names could actually vanish, before they expire. ICANN keeps those records, and for all the criticism they get, I have never heard of them losing names. If names are about to expire and you can  not renew them because of RegisterFly problems I do not know what you can do.  :'(

I just tried to access the site - it is slow to dead. Their SSL certificate expired five days ago, the    :turkey2:  s. Looks like a meltdown. Funny thing is they have (had) one of the best websites in the domain business. Nicely laid out, easy to find what you want, well, everything  except the EPP codes you need to transfer out!  Maybe the owners can get together enough to sell it. Customers are jumping ship as fast as they can so the value of the business deteriorates every day, but if they have 2 million domains then the business is worth a considerable amount of money if they sell quickly.

There are two Dec 2005 threads I saw in Tulip search (for "Registerfly") telling about the wonders of Registerfly SSL certificates at $9.99. Perhaps they should be updated.

[regic]

ICANN is expected to take action today:

Domain name industry overseer ICANN is today expected to take 'decisive action' to help protect the approximately 900,000 domains that customers of scandal-ridden registrar Registerfly.com believe are in danger of being lost.

The ICANN move, whatever it may be, will be merely the latest stage in a strange tale that involves allegations of Registerfly executive corruption, high-class escorts, liposuction, borderline suicidal customers, and a $6,000 chihuahua.

full article: http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.as...7EA05CBF15

This explains the downtime the other day:

According to the web site Registerflies.com, operated by a disgruntled former customer, staff at Registerfly were this week forced to reboot their whole system and change root passwords after being locked out by deposed chief executive Kevin Medina.

[mandy]

More:

The split between the founders of Registerfly.com, the leading domain name registrar, took a tawdry turn last week, as court documents filed by John Naruszewicz and Unifiednames, the corporation that owns Registerfly.com, made some shocking allegations against ousted CEO Kevin Medina.

The complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and alleges that 75,000 domain names were lost in January 2007 alone due to failure to remit registry fees. The complaint goes on to accuse Medina of using corporate accounts as private slush funds, thereby failing to maintain sufficient float to cover registry fees...

ICANN's ombudsman, Frank Fowlie, issued a testy response on his blog yesterday. He takes issue with our analysis that ICANN bears some responsibility for supervising the activities of its accredited registrars when those activities impact the integrity of web itself. The loss of tens (hundreds?) of thousands of domains would seem to impact that integrity...

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/22/...o_lawsuit/

From ICANN's blog:

I’d like to clarify a few points.  First, with respect to the jurisdiction of my Office; the ICANN Ombudsman is established in the ICANN Bylaws.  It empowers the Ombudsman to look into matters of fairness concerning decisions, actions, or inactions taken by the ICANN Board, its staff, or supporting organizations.  Therefore,  the ICANN Ombudsman does not have any jurisdiction over the commercial relationships between registrants and registrars.  To give an example that may be more understandable, you live in San Francisco; if the City of San Francisco had an Ombudsman, that Office would have jurisdiction the city government, its staff and services.  The Ombudsman would not have jurisdiction over disputes between consumers and business owners, just because the business or the consumer is located in that fine city or because the city passes bylaws that may regulate those businesses.  ICANN can no more empower its Ombudsman to investigate registrar - registrant disputes than the city Ombudsman can act to resolve disputes between a computer retailer and its customer.

To put it another way, General Motors can’t help you if you received poor service at the local gas station...

full article: http://omblog.icann.org/?p=9#comments

RegisterFly protest/information sites:
http://www.stopunifiednames.com/
http://www.registerflies.com/

[accentnepal]

So lame. "it's not my responsibility". 

And just whose responsibility is it?? This issue has been going on for a long time.

I hope the chihuahua finds a good home. The escorts probably can take care of themselves.   

[jezebel]

ICANN Accredidation: $6,500 ($2,500 application fee + $4,000 yearly)
Escort: $9,000

:blinkie:

[regic]

[quote author=jezebel link=topic=7603.msg44701#msg44701 date=1172164440]
ICANN Accredidation: $6,500 ($2,500 application fee + $4,000 yearly)
Escort: $9,000

:blinkie:
[/quote]

You left out the $70,000 liquid capital requirement that ICANN requires