Transfering domainzero domains?

[lpok]

I want to transfer my domainzero domain to another registar. Has anyone done this before? Successfully?

[jiminsd]

No one that has posted here... If you give it a shot, let us know how you did.

[Chicken]

That burning nagging question... I thought there was someone who was attempting that?

[lpok]

No one that has posted here... If you give it a shot, let us know how you did.


My domain hasn't been register for 90 days yet so I can't transfer at this time. But I guess no one tried transfering it yet...

[Chicken]

At issue is the 'register lock'. Due to this, you'd think it wasn't possible.

[someone else]

Has anyone tried transferring a DomainZero domain yet?

I got one back when all you had to do was agree to receive junk e-mail. They suckered people into a good deal, then once they had enough people signed up, they changed the rules. The agreement I signed said you could renew your domain yearly by continuing to receive junk mail. If they fail to hold up to their part of the bargain, I see a nice lawsuit if they don't allow transfers of the domain at no cost.

Um, that was just ranting. ;)


Anyone tried to get off of them yet? I need to move mine.

[Mrh0ax]

just buy a real domain ( not that domain zero is not a real domain ) they should cost 9$

if you like your domain try a .net :)

domain zero turned out to be a ----- :(

[Chicken]

Originally posted by someone else
The agreement I signed said you could renew your domain yearly by continuing to receive junk mail. If they fail to hold up to their part of the bargain, I see a nice lawsuit if they don't allow transfers of the domain at no cost.

Although I don't remember seeing anyting about domain transfer costs, I do remember that the agreement did not say that you could renew your domain yearly by continuing to receive junk mail.

It said someting more to the effect of, there was a *possibility* that you could renew the domain by continuing to receive junk mail or paying a reasonable fee (which I guess has been decided - $10).

[someone else]

Actually, I have a printed-out copy of everything that was agreed to when I signed up. No access to a scanner for now, so I can't put up a copy of it.

But it said that you could continue to receive junk mail. If you decided not to receive the junk, then you could pay for the domain.

That was the agreement, and I'm not going to let them get away with changing that *after the fact*.



Plus, it's already .net domain ( FreeMailGuide.net ). The site is already designed around that name, .net is the perfect top-level domain for it, etc. and I'm in the process of paying for hosting and putting the final touches on the site. Changing the domain now would be a nightmare.


I should never have used DomainZero in the first place, I know that now. At the time, I wasn't expecting the site to be as big as I'm now planning it to be. I won't let that company screw me over now, as there's too much riding on it.

[lpok]

Good luck with your lawsuits. I hope they lose cause domainzero are scum! Anyways, $10 for renewal is a very reasonable fee, but I probably won't renew because I just don't want to give them a single cent. I say we start a boycott on their services; no one renew your domains, just wait for them to expire and register it again with someone else! :)

[Chicken]

They are scum? My my. I guess giving you a free domain wasn't good enough. Yes, they probably want to make a buck off you, and if you didn't see that coming, well...

If you did renew for $10, that means you would have paid $5/yr. for your domain for the two years, (something I paid $35 year for two years ago).

Don't knock it so much. It isn't that bad. Where else are you going to regiter the domain? $10 is pretty damn good you know.

[Mrh0ax]

where is ur site chicken??

[Chicken]

The ones I have with domains registered via domainzero? I don't think I ended up doing anything yet with them.

[someone else]

It's not a matter of whether their current offer is bad or not.

The matter is that they put up an agreement. Once that agreement is made, it cannot be changed just because it was on the web. It's a contract. If I held up my end of that agreement, then they are required to hold up their end.

I'm not giving those thieves a damn penny. What they've done is pulled a bait-and-switch. That's theft, no matter how "good" the offer is that they changed it to.



---

On another note, I'm wondering if this whole discussion is in vain anyway...

The WHOIS info for the domain I got from DomainZero used to give DomainZero as the technical, admin, and billing contacts, with me as the registrant.

Now all the contacts are listed as me.

Has anyone else noticed this with their DomainZero domains (those who got them before they changed the rules)? Does it mean anything?

[Chicken]

Well for one, on my domain this information hasn't changed. It still lists domainzero for some contacts. For other domains, I changed some of the info.

I'd like to see the document you printed out. Unless it is different than what I saw (I don't think so), there was *never* a guarantee stated nor implied that you would be able to renew the domain if you agreed to receive junk mail (not 100%, yes, a possibility).

Something to the effect of, if this program is still available, you will have the opportunity to renew your domain by agreeing to continue to receive emails, or pay a nominal fee to renew the domain. I'm pretty sure it stated this clearly.

If you want to make a copy of it and send it to me,

PO BOX 1496
Redondo Beach, CA 90278

-I'll take a look. I don't have the original agreement anymore.

[someone else]

Okay, rather than argue over this and send mail overseas as well... ;)


Suppose I was one of the first group of people to sign up... I did get to them pretty early in the game because some of my SEO contacts were made aware of them before the service opened. I got this agreement, and printed it out for future reference.

After a certain number of people sign up, they realise "Wow, we may not be able to do this later," and change the agreement so that they can back out of the free renewals. i.e. They add the "maybe you can renew free" clause you're speaking of.


I didn't keep up with domainzero after signing up, so it could have quite possibly changed more than once between then and now. Heh, they've proven they can't stick to one thing.


So maybe we just signed up at different times and got different agreements? Mine says nothing about "if this is available" or "maybe you can renew free".

Considering how drastically different their new policies are, it's very possible that's the case.


---


Hmmm... just thought of something... DomainZero isn't responding to e-mail, so maybe I can get some info from Enom. DZ is a reseller for Enom, so maybe it's possible to get away from the "middlemonster".

[someone else]

chicken:

I found this http://www.domainzero.com/help.htm while doing some searching. It's the agreement you're discussing.

That one states what you're saying... it has the "if available" clause.

My print-out copy has almost the same wording, only without the "if available" part. So they definitely changed it after I signed up.



I've been studying this more, and I think contacting enom.com about the situation is the best thing to do at this point. So I've mailed them. Hopefully they're better at responding than those Domain Zeros...

[Chicken]

Yes, well this is the FAQ, not the agreement but it staters what I read in the agreement:

You have three options when your domain name comes up for renewal. In the event you elect to renew the domain name registration after the first year, you may either (1) pay us the renewal fees required by the registry administrator or, if available, (2) accept additional promotional offerings via email of third party Merchants listed in our renewal notice.

Anyway, this isn't the agreement, but if you have yours, check to be sure it doesn't say that. It may even say that they reserve the right to change the agreement without notice. This is the usual catch-all that they can get you with (any company, any service).

Anyway, I never thought they'd be able to keep up free registration for email ads, and I don't know anyone else who did either. I'd say that even if I had to renew for $10, this would be the cheapest I could have found for 2 years.

I would like to transfer the domain to another registrar however, and am unsure of the possible problems (due to that nagging 'register lock').

[someone else]

Update:

Enom responded to my mail to them with this:

"Domain Zero has ALL the control at this time, you are thier customer, and they are our customer."

(Spelling mistakes are theirs, not mine. ;))


According to the DomainZero FAQ I linked to in a previous post, we own the domain and can transfer it as we wish, unless I'm reading things wrong.

However, we have to get DZ to get off their lazy a$$es, and actually respond to requests to unlock the domain. Somehow, that leaves me with the feeling that we're screwed...

[jiminsd]

I too got one of their domains but I don't understand why people are so upset. It didn't take an economist to see that their original business plan didn't add up. At that time, there were many discussions on these boards about this. Now DomainZero is bailing water trying to figure a way to stay alive. I'd bet that if they made the same offer today, knowing what we know, most of us would be at their site signing up.

Do I trust them? No. Am I happy in having a free domain for a year? Yes.

This is a company that has put out a big chuck of money for domains and has not been paid for most of them. Do you think anyone will be able to move their domain and not be charged (probably at a premium trying to cover their costs) for it???

[Mandrake]

Out of all the e-mails that I "signed up" for there, I only get anything from one of them... That plan was a BIG bust! :)

[dysphoria]

i'm still not sure why you all are bad mouthin domain zero
my domain is hosted by them and i've transferred the domain to quite a few other hosts without the slightest of hassle
exactly WHAT is so bad about domain zero?

[Chicken]

Well, what people would like to do is transfer to a different registrar, not a different host (but I don't understand why people are upset either).

[psalzer]

Well, if anyone finds out anything, or succeeds in doing it, I'd like to know, too. I registered a domain with them, more to try it out than anything else. I decided that the domain would be useful at least for e-mail, but I'd like to register it through mydomain.com (namedirect or something like that), just to support that service. I don't anticipate needing to register a lot more of my own domains in the near future, but I figure I could transfer that one there.

But if that doesn't work out..where is the current information at Domain Zero about renewing registration? All I can find out there is about the paid plans for hosting or redirection.

One more that I've been wondering about..what happens if your registrar disappears? Like if Domain Zero tanks..or some of the others..what happens to the domains?

[Chicken]

Well, you'd deal with enom then. They'd contact you directly if the domain isn't renewed (in theory according to emails I've received).... which might not be a bad thing, heh.