Bought a .com last year - renewals...

toString · 14 Jun 2007 at 13:06

I've bought several .co.uk's in the past (all from register1) and they tell me (email) when to renew, and I do.
I bought a .com last october from them, and today I got a letter saying I should renew by july 12 (bearing in mind there's 4 months to go before it expires...)

Is this a scam?
It's from the "domain registry of america". It looks like it was posted from new york.
The other fact I'm suspicious is that they want 18 quid for 1 year..

MNuTz · 14 Jun 2007 at 13:24

i thought once you bought the domain name it was yours for good, the only thing you have to pay for on a regular occasion is the hosting?

Or am i wrong?

psyr33n · 14 Jun 2007 at 13:33

What registrar are you using?

Zaphan58 · 14 Jun 2007 at 13:34

I'd contact register1 and see whats going on.

MNuTz - You need to renew your domain every year or two or however long you paid for, if you don't renew eventually someone else can register it.

Augmented · 14 Jun 2007 at 13:44

Scam: http://www.nameroute.com/domain-registry-of-america.html

The only official contact you should get regarding your .com, other than the registrar (or the company the registrar is a reseller of e.g. Tucows for reg1 iirc), is Verisign or perhaps ICANN.

paulsheffII · 14 Jun 2007 at 14:09

KingAdora said:
I've bought several .co.uk's in the past (all from register1) and they tell me (email) when to renew, and I do.
I bought a .com last october from them, and today I got a letter saying I should renew by july 12 (bearing in mind there's 4 months to go before it expires...)

Is this a scam?
It's from the "domain registry of america". It looks like it was posted from new york.
The other fact I'm suspicious is that they want 18 quid for 1 year..

Yeah but have you checked the address the cheque needs to be posted to? It's usually somewhere like Stoke or Grimsby. Like Augmented said, it's a scam, had quite a few and get many a client on the the receiving end of them as well. Bin it.

Abraham · 14 Jun 2007 at 14:18

the letter even says you dont need to renew through them and can continue with your registrar

i had similar a few weeks ago for all my .coms

Craig321 · 14 Jun 2007 at 14:21

KingAdora said:
I've bought several .co.uk's in the past (all from register1) and they tell me (email) when to renew, and I do.
I bought a .com last october from them, and today I got a letter saying I should renew by july 12 (bearing in mind there's 4 months to go before it expires...)

Is this a scam?
It's from the "domain registry of america". It looks like it was posted from new york.
The other fact I'm suspicious is that they want 18 quid for 1 year..

Just renew from the register1 website when you need to, don't click any links in the email...

toString · 14 Jun 2007 at 14:32

It was a posted letter, not email, but cheers everyone, I wouldn't have sent a cheque, register1s renewal is good enough for me! I hate to think how many people pay up though.

Adz · 14 Jun 2007 at 14:41

KingAdora said:
It was a posted letter, not email, but cheers everyone, I wouldn't have sent a cheque, register1s renewal is good enough for me! I hate to think how many people pay up though.

Thousands. If you did pay up they would have simply transfered the domain in from Register1.

MNuTz · 14 Jun 2007 at 14:44

Zaphan58 said:
MNuTz - You need to renew your domain every year or two or however long you paid for, if you don't renew eventually someone else can register it.

Thanks

roboffer · 14 Jun 2007 at 19:02

Yeah I get numerous of these evey year, just bin them and renew through Register1.net

iCraig · 14 Jun 2007 at 23:15

MNuTz said:
Or am i wrong?

You're wrong. In most cases a domain is registered for several years, the maximum might be 10 per renewal/registration. You can keep the domain as long as you like but you have to renew it when the time comes.

stoofa · 15 Jun 2007 at 11:09

The "Domain Registry of America" and "Domain Registry of Europe" are not exactly scams.
They are selling a service and if you pay for it they will actually give you the service you are paying for.
A scam would indicate that once paid they would vanish with your money.

Before going on I'd just like to say I don't agree with the company, I don't agree with their tactics and I certainly don't agree with their pricing.

It used to be the case that they more or less told you that unless you sent them a cheque you would lose your domain.
This got them into a lot of trouble.
The wording now does state quite clearly that by saying "Yes" to their offer you will be asking them to take over the running of your domain and that you would be signing the domain over to their control.
It's just they really don't have any right to write to you and their prices are just terrible.

Personally I bin letters from either company without even opening.

stoofa · 15 Jun 2007 at 11:16

MNuTz said:
i thought once you bought the domain name it was yours for good, the only thing you have to pay for on a regular occasion is the hosting?

Or am i wrong?

It depends really.
The bottom line is that no, you are wrong.
A domain name is taken for a certain number of years.
A .uk domain for example is always taken for 2 years.
A .com, .net, .eu etc can be taken from 1-10 years at a time.
Once this time runs out you need to renew the domain or it expires and once fully expired anyone can register it.
Some hosting companies give you a free domain with your hosting package.
As long as you pay for your hosting each year they continue to pay the renewal fees on your domain for you.

Personally I keep hosting and domain renewals apart - this way the domains are always under my full control and there is no chance of a hosting company holding it to ransom.