CIRA Whois expiry dates wrong????

[onlinestoreca]

I use a program that autochecks my renewal dates on my domain names. I run it monthly to make sure I am on top of things and not accidentally dropping any names. Yesterday several names that I am ready to drop have showed up with an extra year before expiry, that I didn't pay for.

I decided to do a CIRA whois and it shows the name is in an auto-renew grace period and has an expiry date of November 2011. At my RegistRAR it shows that the expiry date is November 2010, as it should be.

Am I missing something?

It was a fluke that I noticed this, and it scares the hell out of me that if I didn't double check I would have thought a lot of names were okay that weren't. I am hoping other people can see if they are seeing the same thing with names that are past due.

[liberator]

Cira automatically renews domains into what is called an "Auto-Renew Grace Period" this period I believe lasts for 45 days. During this time the registrar can "Delete" a domain which moves it to the "Redemption Grace Period" which lasts for 30 days. After that 30 days it goes to TBR.

So it is technically renewed for another year but your register can delete it within that 45 day period to get a refund on the automatic renewal price they had to pay when it automatically renewed. That is why they haven't shown you the updated date as they are going to delete it before the auto-renew period ends.

Cheers,

Jay

[onlinestoreca]

Thanks for explaining that Jay. I am sure that is not going to cause any confusion at all.

I wonder how many people will get an email from their RegistRAR reminding them to renew, look at the CIRA whois and see the word auto-renew and an expiry date that is a year later, and then think they are okay. I can see that easily happening with companies of any size at all. That will be very good for the TBR.

[westcoaster]

Me for one would be confused checking the whois and thinking it's all good. In fact I am sure I just had one like that and said " i don't remember paying for that" but it said 2011 so I assumed I must have.

Today I was trying to change registrars with a domain that was in the 30 day grace period and my current registrar would not move it, saying they have to pay CIRA once it expires and if they transfer it they won't get their money back from CIRA ( or me) . I guess if it's in the grace period you can't transfer it until it's been renewed. Anyone else familiar with this?

Here is the response to my query on transferring a domain in a 30 day grace period.

Hi Phil;

The new CIRA system allows us to delete the domain names upon expiry as well.


We will have no choice other then deleting your domain name to cover our costs ;

So we choose to follow that route as advised by CIRA when we asked them why they do not refund our payments;

We are not going to pay for your domain name renewal which would be the case if we let you to transfer the domain name.

This is a problem for you and for us too. we have already paid so much for the domains tranferred out during the auto renewal period.

CIRA has not even refunded us back;

Please simply pay the cost of this renewal at _______and we will not delete the domain name. Please pay _____only because this as not unexpected by you as much as by us;

Your complain to CIRA would be appreciated because they need to fix this problem and my efforts were not enough.

Normally gTLDs are refunded to the registrar if transferred out during the Auto Renew period;



Please do not hesitate to reply to this ticket if you have more questions or problems;

Best Regards;

[liberator]

Just so everyone knows, a registrar cannot refuse to give you the authorization code, or force you to renew to get that authorization code. They also must provide it to you within 5 business days. A domain is transferable right up until it hits the TBR and its their responsibility to "delete" the domain prior to having it transfer, in order to obtain a refund.

[CanSpace]

Those guys have no idea what they are talking about. They can "delete" the domain and then give you the EPP code. That way they get their money back and you can transfer the domain elsewhere.

[liberator]

I agree CanSpace, I believe in this case its a misinformed customer service repersentitive that believes deleting the domain, actually deletes the domain from the registry. I don't think they are trying to do anything harmful or deceiving but possibly haven't received the proper training on the new EPP protocal.

[westcoaster]

Pretty sad when it's Sibername a well know registrar. I don't want to make anyone look bad and i am sure there is plenty of confusion with all the changes that have been going on. Howver, it does seem that other registrars understand the correct procedure.

[Belzibut]

I went from happy to suicidal to happy. I got an email from Cira saying 1 of my fav domain was canceled or deleted!!! I was so disappointed I couldn't believe it but 2 weeks later realized that it was in redemption period and could still renew it !! Yay! Not quite canceled but I can see that a lot of people will be going nutz when they get those emails.