Be Excellent To Each Other

Years ago a friend of mine purchased a domain through a company. They did all the registration details and then vanished (although they had a website they never answered the phone, responded to emails etc).

A couple of years ago we tried to contact them to release the domain. They never responded. We waited until the domain expired and then purchased it. Job done, everything worked fine and we were happy.

However we've just noticed that the domain is back with the original company. We've done nothing and no bills were paid to renew it with this company. Somehow they've managed to snatch the registration from Fasthosts at some stage without us noticing.

What to do? It's not my domain but it was a world of hurt first time around and now it's back.

How long did you wait after the domain had expired? The incumbent registrant has 90 days after expiry to renew the domain.

Pass. A month or so I think.

Then whoever you 'registered' the domain with is in the wrong, as they shouldn't have taken your money. A domain isn't available for registration until it's completely disappeared from the whois record.

Looks like it flipped back after we registered it.

The company that own it are defunct and apparently the owner has been declared bankrupt again, taking down a computer repair business with him. Why he's bothering to pay the renewal we don't know.

Really? I find that hard to believe. If what you said was true about it being a month or so after the expiry date, it's impossible for you to have registered it. Believe me, I've had people ranting down the phone to me about domains about it before, and there's literally nothing that can be done.

Plus disputes take an absolute age to complete. If you had truly registered it, you'd have been contacted about them disputing your ownership of it. You'd then have a certain period to contact the registrar to stamp your claim on it. It wouldn't just flip back that quickly.

I have seen mistakes like this before, usually when the whois that a registration company uses is down. We had to refund a load of domains that were registered in error, when in fact they still were in use.

All I know is that it was registered, it worked, and now it doesn't.

After that cunt that stole comicalgames.co.uk eventually got bored and let it lapse, I managed to wait ONE DAY too long before getting it myself, and its now in the hands of another speculative 'hey this domain is for sale, want it?' cunt that won't be getting a penny from me.

Although in the interim time it seems that sonicthecomic.co.uk, .net and .org all lapsed so I picked those up easily, and they're much more relevant and useful to me, so in your face, faceless domain-nabbing cunts.

It's not worth going after them unless you stand to lose a lot of money/business due to it.

Is it .uk or .com/net/org? Email the registrar and ask for a registration history, as you have proof (payment to registration co) that you should own it. The worst that can happen is that they say you never owned it. Then you tell your reg co to refund it.

Name and shame!

Client is now running through the reclamation process on the Nominet website.

So it's a.uk domain, then? It can be a costly and lengthy procedure, but ultimately worth it if the domain is important.

By costing you're talking £750 + VAT after the worthless 'mediation' stage to get a 'nominet panel' to decide the issue.

No no. Shouldn't take that. He already has his name on the domain, he just doesn't control it. It's a ISP type company that won't release it, not a squatter.

Yes, sorry, you're quite right, I'm getting hazed by my own unhappy experiences.

Well, why didn't you say? That should be easy to sort out.

-edit- I helped Paul Daniels do the same with pauldanielsmagicshop.co.uk once.

I'm such a fan of his blog. It's like Alan Partridge but in real life. Really addictive.

I didn't realise it was significant it had his name on it until I spoke to Nominet.

He was a lovely bloke when I spoke to him. Really humble - even introduced himself by saying, 'Hello, my name's Paul Daniels. I'm a magician", as if I wouldn't have known who he was.

He's a bit odd, but a top man.

That's why his blog is great. It's a cross between a blog of a man with an interesting life and suddenly veers into pure Partridge.

He does seem like a nice guy though to be fair

David Blaine? Bloody amateur! Here's some real magic:

I have quoted the important part of your post, here.