Moniker heading south - looks like they could drop to 9th largest registrar

[jrzeygirl]

Does that statement mean that Oversee had been dropping a lot of domains lately, or what?
Otherwise, if that was true, it is equally true across the whole board of registrars, and then moniker would NOT lose in the rankings!
I know that I have decreased the number of domains at Moniker, not dropping but moving to other registrars, and so has many others. Are you honestly saying, (honestly?), that you've been gaining from other registrars as many as you've lost?
It's no secret that many domainers have lost faith in you, so it seems that statement is quite far-fetched... (Additionally, Moniker used to be among the cheapest for bulk pricing. No longer the case, so not even that is a reason to stay.)
But do you have numbers (lost/gained/dropped/newregs), to verify that statement?

Poohnix – It’s no secret ALL registrars lose names on a daily basis. I said these names were expired/dropped/not renewed. I said nothing about them coming out of the Oversee portfolio. I (personally) don’t manage the Oversee portfolio so I don’t know the status of it. I can tell you we receive transfers into Moniker everyday.

Moniker has never been about pricing. Moniker is about complete domain asset management. Service, support, security, experience, industry participation and contribution all cost money....so although Moniker isn’t the cheapest, we are the best value!

[Poohnix]

Poohnix – It’s no secret ALL registrars lose names on a daily basis. I said these names were expired/dropped/not renewed. I said nothing about them coming out of the Oversee portfolio. I (personally) don’t manage the Oversee portfolio so I don’t know the status of it. I can tell you we receive transfers into Moniker everyday.

Obviously you didn't understand my question.
IF the expired/dropped/not renewed were NOT mainly from the Oversee portfolio, you would NOT lose in rankings, since the same thing happens everywhere. Simple arithmetics.
But SINCE you lose in rankings, it's EITHER a lot from the Oversee portfolio OR more transfers out than in.

You can't deny that, since anything else would defy any mathematical laws known to mankind.

[Bill Roy]

jrzegirl, thank you for comming and posting on Moniker/Oversee behalf, it is appreciated.

Now that is out of the way let us get some 'honest' answers from you please on behalf of Moniker/Oversee.

1) Why have Moniker lost the registration of more domains over the past six weeks than the other leading registrars? (And we are not idiots on here, if it was normal non-renewals then the same would apply to all other registrars - break the Moniker/Oversee habit and actually answer this honestly please.)

2) You say "Service, support, security, experience, industry participation and contribution all cost money....so although Moniker isn’t the cheapest, we are the best value!", do you not understand that Moniker/Oversee are regarded as the worst 'major' (well out of the top 9 now) registrars for service and support - the first two items in your list! So when will phone calls be answered immediately by Moniker/Oversee staff?

3) What is Moniker/Oversee's helpline phone number for domainers to call and get problems dealt with by staff immediately? (I am sure Adam would not object to you advertising an effective helpline number for members here to use.)

There you are just three simple questions for you to answer 'honestly' and fully, not very difficult at all really I would have thought. (And just to think I have not mentioned once the 'Halverez' or 'Chef Patrick' shameful episodes, I must be getting soft in my old age.)

[jrzeygirl]

jrzegirl, thank you for comming and posting on Moniker/Oversee behalf, it is appreciated.

Now that is out of the way let us get some 'honest' answers from you please on behalf of Moniker/Oversee.

1) Why have Moniker lost the registration of more domains over the past six weeks than the other leading registrars? (And we are not idiots on here, if it was normal non-renewals then the same would apply to all other registrars - break the Moniker/Oversee habit and actually answer this honestly please.)

2) You say "Service, support, security, experience, industry participation and contribution all cost money....so although Moniker isn’t the cheapest, we are the best value!", do you not understand that Moniker/Oversee are regarded as the worst 'major' (well out of the top 9 now) registrars for service and support - the first two items in your list! So when will phone calls be answered immediately by Moniker/Oversee staff?

3) What is Moniker/Oversee's helpline phone number for domainers to call and get problems dealt with by staff immediately? (I am sure Adam would not object to you advertising an effective helpline number for members here to use.)

There you are just three simple questions for you to answer 'honestly' and fully, not very difficult at all really I would have thought. (And just to think I have not mentioned once the 'Halverez' or 'Chef Patrick' shameful episodes, I must be getting soft in my old age.)

BillBo - I can only tell you what I know.

1) Why has Moniker lost the registrations of more domains over the past six weeks than the other leading registrars? (And we are not idiots on here, if it was normal non-renewals then the same would apply to all other registrars - break the Moniker/Oversee habit and actually answer this honestly please.)

Honestly….All I know is what I’m told and that is the names were NOT transferred out. If that makes me mathematically challenged, so be it.

2) You say "Service, support, security, experience, industry participation and contribution all cost money....so although Moniker isn’t the cheapest, we are the best value!", do you not understand that Moniker/Oversee are regarded as the worst 'major' (well out of the top 9 now) registrars for service and support - the first two items in your list! So when will phone calls be answered immediately by Moniker/Oversee staff?

I’m sorry you feel that way but I can assure you not everyone does. I (personally) do not work in the support department however I am always available to help when it’s needed. Everyone knows how to find me

3) What is Moniker/Oversee's helpline phone number for domainers to call and get problems dealt with by staff immediately?

800-688-6311 or email support@oversee.net

For the record, all I was doing was trying to clarify the statement that the names were not transferred out. If anyone (still) has additional questions, issues, concerns or comments I suggest emailing me directly.

I’m out. Have a fantastic day! Happy Passover/Easter!

[ninjadomain]

I really like Moniker and purchase lots from them, but I have noticed that the service is not what it used to be.

Hopefully this changes soon.

[Bill Roy]

jrzegirl, thanks for the quick reply, but your answers do raise a few points that need clarification for transparency.

BillBo - I can only tell you what I know.

1) Why has Moniker lost the registrations of more domains over the past six weeks than the other leading registrars? (And we are not idiots on here, if it was normal non-renewals then the same would apply to all other registrars - break the Moniker/Oversee habit and actually answer this honestly please.)

Honestly….All I know is what I’m told and that is the names were NOT transferred out. If that makes me mathematically challenged, so be it.

I think the serious point here is "All I know is what I’m told"!

Following the 'Halverez' and 'Chef Patrick' cover-ups the vast majority of domainers do not take seriously anything they are 'told' by Moniker or Oversee, and who can blame them. Therefore please tell us who at Moniker/Oversee has told you this misleading information? Unless of course once yet again another cover-up is being attempted by Moniker/Oversee to deceive us all which could be the only reason for a senior VP or President not putting their name to these so-called 'facts'.

2) You say "Service, support, security, experience, industry participation and contribution all cost money....so although Moniker isn’t the cheapest, we are the best value!", do you not understand that Moniker/Oversee are regarded as the worst 'major' (well out of the top 9 now) registrars for service and support - the first two items in your list! So when will phone calls be answered immediately by Moniker/Oversee staff?

I’m sorry you feel that way but I can assure you not everyone does. I (personally) do not work in the support department however I am always available to help when it’s needed. Everyone knows how to find me

Do you actually read the forums? This is just absolute rubbish. Oh sorry I will re-phrase that. Apart from some 'special customers', members of staff, their family and friends, paid consultants, etc, how many domainers are included in that very small fraction you say make up the group that do not feel this way? That is just a meaningless statement with no numerical perameters with which to gauge a measurement by. Typical meaningless twaddle.

As you clearly state you do not work in the 'support department' then get someone on here who does. Yes you are a member here, but do you answer posts and PM's immediately? No. Let us get this straight, from your answers you do not work in support, you do not know the answers to the points raised, and you are 'obviously' mathematically challenged if you swallow the twaddle about all registrars lose registrations on a daaily basis and this explains the massive drop in Moniker registrations in the past 6 weeks.


3) What is Moniker/Oversee's helpline phone number for domainers to call and get problems dealt with by staff immediately?

800-688-6311 or email support@oversee.net

For the record, all I was doing was trying to clarify the statement that the names were not transferred out. If anyone (still) has additional questions, issues, concerns or comments I suggest emailing me directly.

I think public posting is way better than emailing you personally, after all then everyone can get the same answer (well we can 'hope' to get the same answers). Also let this be public and honest, new concepts it would appear for the present day Moniker/Oversee, so in that respect alone it will be novel.

I’m out. Have a fantastic day! Happy Passover/Easter!

Happy Passover/Easter to you as well.

[jrzeygirl]

THANKS Ninjadomain!

Ok BillBo, we seem to be going round and round on this issue/thread. As I said earlier… I’m passing along to you what I’ve been told and that’s all I can do!

What exactly is your issue/problem/concern BillBo? Tell me - the difference if Moniker dropped from #9 to #7? It’s a number on a report! Who cares if the domains were dropped/not renewed, expired or transferred out? At the end of the day, does it really affect you or anyone else’s day to day business on how many domains Moniker has under management? Everyone has their preferred registrar!!

I have no comment on the 'Halverez' and 'Chef Patrick' incidents.

It’s obvious I do read and participate on the forums. I know there are some who don’t like Moniker but I can also tell you there are some who love Moniker. There are plenty who don’t like Go Daddy or Enom or any of the other registrars too. Again, everyone has their preferred registrar.

I may not be a message board stalker, but yes BillBo I do answer posts and PM's immediately - and anyone who is a member of this board can vouch for me. Do a search yourself. You’ll see I’m all over the board.

Fine….You think public posting is way better than emailing me personally – so be it. That’s your opinion. For me, I’ve publicly posted all I can and I’m done with this thread.

Ciao

[PRED]

It is a crying shame Monte has gone. I hope oversee will sell Moniker on the cheap in years to come and Monte can buy 'her' back cheap and make a big profit and return to the mothership

i must say I hate the salesforce thing oversee have set up, everyone agrees.
I will say that I have dealt with Bari for years as the rep from Moniker and you couldn't want a finer representative. she's the tops and probably the best asset Oversee have.

please do not leave Moniker Bari or i will transfer all my domains to nodaddy!

we love you Bari!

[Bill Roy]

jrzegirl, the fact is that MANY domainers are saying that they have or are transferring their domains from Moniker, and not just small portfolio domain owners although this would be bad enough for Moniker obviously. Then an industry report comes out that shows that Moniker has lost 100,000 registrations in a six week period and I post the fact and a link to the report. You, on behalf of Moniker/Oversee then come on the thread and come out with total rubbish about all registrars have domains that are not renewed and that this is the reason for the 100,000 drop and that it does not infact reflect any domains being transferred! That is absolutely unbelievable given the facts concerning other registrars and the posts from domainers who directly contradict YOUR STATEMENT, further when questioned all you say is that you are only saying what you have been told!

I do have problems with Moniker/Oversee, I observe that they are not open with the truth, they purposefully mislead and misinform domainers concerning what could be interpretted by some as criminal acts and breaches of contracts by some of their 'past' employees, and now they try to whitewash an independant report showing that they (Moniker) have lost circa 100,000 total registrations in a six week period and try again to cover it up with meaningless drival. Like many other domainers I think domaining should be cleaned up in all areas, and when a company so involved in domaining as Moniker/Oversee try to undermine the industry I think they should be brought to account.

Unfortunately jrzegirl you have decided to have no more to do with this thread, but I do note that once again it would seem nobody at Moniker/Oversee is willing to put their head above the trenches and take responsibility for the rubbish that is being spouted as the reason for the drop in total number of domains registered at Moniker. An all too familiar story it would seem at Moniker/Oversee.

Just like with the Halverez and Chef Patrick incidents Moniker just seem unable to just tell the plain honest truth. I will therefore give them a helping hand, their official comments should be along these lines:

'Following two very bad incidents that severly affected the confidence of domainers generally in the company (Moniker/Oversee), namely what is commonly referred to as the 'Halverez' and 'Chef Patrick' incidents, and following what can only be described as a continual decline in our level of customer service we have suffered the backlash from the domaining industry. Openly acknowledging these downfalls is our first step in the long road to rebuild the confidence of our clients in our company and from this moment on our No.1 priority is to revitalise our customer services so that they may become in the long run the envy of the industry. We welcome suggestions from our customers both past and present how we may achieve this and will work totally openly with them so that again we may become an ever increasingly potent force that is widely respected.'

I somehow doubt that the above, or anything like it, will be forthcoming.

[katherine]

Additional info: http://www.webhosting.info/registrar...s/MONIKER.COM/

[Bill Roy]

Thanks katherine, so 12,524 domains transferred over the 6 weeks according to the report - that is somewhat different to what jrzegirl was told by her colleagues or bosses and passed on by her to us here in her post above. That is 12.5% of the total loss over the period, or 1:8 of the domains lost were via transfers to other registrars. Hardly surprising to most that even on this Moniker/Oversee seem unable to actually just come clean!

Now the remaining loses, circa 87,500 over the last 6 weeks, means that people are not registering new names with Moniker at a rate that either equals or exceeds the number of domain drops. Now comes the big question, referred to by an earlier poster in this thread, could that be Oversee dropping domains?

Because of the attempted cover-up the intrigue grows as to the real story behind the fall in domains registered at Moniker.

[David G]

Billbo, can I ask you why you seem so mad at Moniker? Was there a problem with your acct?

GD is clearly #1 what with a 67% US market share and has unmatched features including Instant purchase premium listings, ongoing auctions, ability to see how many Whois searches were done for your domains, plus excellent 24X7 support, etc.

Nevertheless, I believe Moniker is a solid #2 behind GD (if you can overlook some employees they hired who had bad publicity). A pet peeve with Moniker is to get support they require you open a support account (Salesforce?) and use seperate login and paswrd instead of simple link to support as they had before the site upgrade, which only made sense. In addition, they removed some nice features from their new site when they upgraded it (seemed more like a downgrade to me what with some missing features).

[Bill Roy]

GD I can assure you that I have had no domains at Moniker for some time (over a year I think off hand). I am not personally 'mad at Moniker' at all, I am though mad at any company in this business (a business which is mainly built on trust) who deceive and lie, something that is all too proven with Moniker/Oversee. My only personal problem has occured with another Oversee company, Snap Names, who since I started talking out against the obvious company ethos of Moniker/Oversee I have had my account 'suspended', which from my point of view is a somewhat annoying irritation but nothing else, but it does show how the Oversee group of companies seem to behave and their philosophy.

JD, I do not just speak out against Moniker/Oversee, I spoke out vehmently against sedo concerning the .mobi auction fiasco, and I speak out against 'parking companies' in general where there is a total lack of transparency. So when I take a stand on an issue I hope I am doing so impartially, that way I know I can answer ALL questions concerning my motives for doing so in an fully open and honest way.

My personal view is that if 'we', individual domainers and the companies involved in domaining, do not regulate ourselves by bringing to light irregularities, shoddy and shady practices, and down and out wrong-doings within the industry, then we are without integrity and we cannot bemoan those that would have us seen as nothing more than some kind of infestation afflicting the world of the internet. Moniker/Oversee seem not to have learned from their mistakes in how they handled the 'Halverez' and 'Chef Patrick' incidents, their response to this thread was again to try and mislead and/or deceive, this just does not sit well with me and I hope it does not with many.

JD, I hope that answers both your question and explains my personal stance on this matter.

[jmcc]

Additional info: http://www.webhosting.info/registrar...s/MONIKER.COM/

The problem with any figures from webhosting.info is that they can't accurately count domains. The only accurate figures when it comes to registrar counts are those from ICANN itself. The webhosting.info "count" on .com is almost 3 Million domains in error. Unless webhosting.info is using ICANN data, their figures cannot be considered reliable.

http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/monthly-reports/

The ICANN data is delayed by three months or so but it is the most accurate source of data on registrars.

The domain business operates on a yearly cycle so a lot of the domains being culled from portfolios are remnants of activity on 2008-2010 and the death of easy credit in 2008. Some would be tasted domains that had been released and were reregistered by smaller portfolio domainers. There is a deletion/new registrations spike around this time each year.

There's a monikerdns.net set of nameservers that had a large number of inbound transfers (its total of gTLDs and detected ccTLDs as of 01 April 2011 was 53069). The creation date on the whois record for this domain was 2011-03-02 11:46:20.0.

Regards...jmcc