Quote:
Originally posted by NameBox
They haven't been affected, however, in their attempts to co-opt registrations. If reports are correct, they must be one of the most successful registration companies out there .... |
No doubt, through suits and other pressures, they're still going strong. They've added varbage (oops, I meant "verbage") to their notices (the tone almost sounds "hurt" that someone would not otherwise understand the "clear" purpose of the letter), and marched on. The prices I've seen in their invoices have been as much as $24.99 or so to "renew". Technically, its "transferring" (kind of a geeky techy term, that almost implies no real value), but to any customer, the term "renew" sounds much easier to understand (although confusing as all hell), so I can see the pitfalls and the opportunity for them in wording.
At any rate, I don't think eNom should be blamed for the practices of its resellers, anymore than ICANN should be blamed for allowing Register.com or NetSol to have allegedly run the same "slamming" practices.
Register a trademark with the USPTO and you'll recieve many notices claiming to be trademark monitoring services (and other things). In many instances, I have to read through it closely to make sure this isn't an official communication that I need to respond to. One called the "United States Trademark Protection Agency" (USTPA) sent me one the other day.
I think consumers just need to be aware. DiscountDomainRegistry.com sent out warnings to its customers about the practice, and they sounded fairly desparate about it.
I've been used to deceptive "Please, please, your attention, please!"-type notices for a while, so maybe that's why I would more look at "education" rather than "legislation" for remedy here. It strikes me as strange that someone would register a domain with ONE company, and then get an e-mail from another company and not look closely for the name of the previous company somewhere in the notice... before sending the new company a check. Usually if I can't get appropriate identification from the company via their letter, I check them out online, and if no luck there... I disregard the notice.
Now Register.com is sending me notices to switch for just over $10, from a different registrar. Its amazing. It must be a freakishly hectic market out there for the big boys.
I think all domain registry companies should make "information" and "education" a standard part of their website and service.
~ EG
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