Networksolutions.com - Review this Registrar

[Dnforumadmin]

Networksolutions.com has been in business for 25 years; we pioneered the domain name registration service and are the leading provider of Internet services. Over 65% of Fortune 100 companies, along with many other individuals and small, medium and large businesses, rely on us for products and services to do business online.

We are reliable, with 99.9% server uptime and live customer service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We host 7 million domain names, 500,000 e-mailboxes and 200,000 Web sites.

[David G]

From what I understand they were sold to new ownership in Arizona and since then are significantly better IMO than over the yrs when they had a terrible reputation and lost vast numbers of customers due to it.

Their pricing is still very high at $30-yr. However, if you persist you can talk them down to $15-yr by asking for an online coupon code on the phone. They will say they do not have them available but will lower the price 50% anyway but only on the phone, not online. Been there and done that.

[LizzeyDripping]

Network Solutions are far and away the worst registrar it has ever been my misfortune to have involvement with. On behalf of a particular client - a massive UK firm - I was tasked with consolidating their domains with a single registrar and updating their contact details etc. Several brand name domains were registered in the late 90's by a then-employee of the business who due to a slight lack of understanding, opened an account with Network Solutions in his own name and then registered the domains with his name as contact and the company name as the organisation. This individual left clients approx. 10 years ago and vanished into the ether.

This landed in my lap 2 years ago and since contacting Network Non-Solutions to try and get access to the account to update the contact details and get the domains the *?%$ out of there and to a more reasonably priced registrar I have been amazed and appalled at their conduct.

They told me that the domains were registered to the employee as an individual, and their records showed no link to my client so my options were to 1. "register an alternate spelling" - laughable if you knew what the domains are - it's a household name in the UK; 2. take legal action against the ex-employee (whose only contact details are an email address at my client and an address which is my client's); or 3. allow the domains to lapse and then attempt to re-register them (do I look stupid? Guess I must do!).

When I pointed out that the contact details on the Whois record gave this guy as the contact and not the registrant and the organisation as my client's organisation, at my client's address, with the guy's email address at my client - well let me tell you that was no problem at all for them. They just changed the Whois to remove any reference to my client's business name and then stated that their records showed this had always been the case. Seriously.

The latest installation in the saga is that I got client's to reactivate the old email address used for the account and sent a password reset link to it. This worked insofar as I was able to gain access to the account - but NS have set the sub-accounts containing the actual domains so that the details cannot be edited. They have told me that unless the ex-employee contacts them personally they will not allow my client to access the domains. The contact details are 10 years out of date (it is a London firm and the contact numbers still start 0171...) - which breaches their own terms and conditions - but we can't do anything about it.

I know these rules are in place to prevent unauthorised transfer etc, but frankly I have never encountered anything like it from a registrar - my client clearly is the owner of these domains but NS are taking every action they can - including amending the official register - to prevent client's access.

OK - rant over. But seriously - use ANYONE but these ****jockeys!

[beyond.domaining]

I hate Network Solutions with a passion. They're super expensive and their customer service sucks. I've had names there that I picked up in drops from NameJet and it can be nearly impossible to get them out. They had some billing glitch once that effectively froze one of my names there. Their prices are three times higher than other registrars, so I had to renew my name at NameJet until they fixed their billing problem and unfroze my domain.

Stay away from Network Solutions. Stick with GoDaddy, Moniker, Fabulous, or Answerable.