< US$10 OpenSRS registration for Canadians

**Anthony Ng** · 11-18-2002, 01:20 PM

I'm not in any way affiliated with them but look.ca (the same company that operates Tucows/OpenSRS) is running a special promotion till the end of this year in which CNO registrations are only CAN$14.95 each, which translates into less than their own US$10 wholesale price.

If you have been admiring their solid operation model like me (much better than those of GoDaddy and eNom I'd say), this is your chance of turning back the clock and register some CNO with the price that they first rolled out before jumping to CAN$19.95.

Of course, if you are not Canadian, the double exchange rates might actually cost you more.

**DnPowerful** · 11-18-2002, 01:41 PM

As I have noted on other boards, I had a year-long battle with look.ca to stop billing my credit card--a good two years after I had used the card! I would steer far and wide from this absolutely low-rent scamarama.

They blamed a "database error" for billing 1000's of users cards, in some cases for thousands and thousands of dollars. My own battle with the CEO to stop billing my card culminated in me threatening to buy a billboard at the corner of Yonge and Bloor to broadcast their ineptitude.

My simple advice to you: Don't give them your credit card. You'll regret it.

Don't say you weren't warned.

**Anthony Ng** · 11-18-2002, 01:59 PM

>DnPowerful: My own battle with the CEO to stop billing my card culminated in me threatening to buy a billboard at the corner of Yonge and Bloor to broadcast their ineptitude.

Yonge and Bloor? You surely know Toronto well!

Sorry to hear about your credit card problem. The only reason I started moving my domains away from them about a year ago was that they refused to renew domain names for just an additional year; instead, they only allow renewals in either 2 or 5 years term.

**DomainPairs** · 11-18-2002, 02:11 PM

As most domain dealers seem to pay less than $8 per year, I'm not sure of the attraction of paying $10 to use a problem registrar.

**DnPowerful** · 11-18-2002, 04:00 PM

Originally posted by nameslave

Sorry to hear about your credit card problem. The only reason I started moving my domains away from them about a year ago was that they refused to renew domain names for just an additional year; instead, they only allow renewals in either 2 or 5 years term.

Their awful marketing was the least of their sins. They handed their market to other registrars by enforcing that ridiculous minimum term. Not only that, their interface was clumsy, and, oh, by the way, they billed my credit card over and over!

Bastards.

**Anthony Ng** · 11-18-2002, 04:38 PM

>DomainPairs: As most domain dealers seem to pay less than $8 per year, I'm not sure of the attraction of paying $10 to use a problem registrar.

First of all, price is NOT everything, especially when it's just a dollar or two (We're not talking about $35 here.). Many eNom resellers or wannabes are competing for a cent or two, which I think is senseless, unless you are a big spender with thousands of names.

Moreover, you might want to isolate the problems we are talking about here between Look/Easyhosting and Tucows/OpenSRS. Organizationally speaking, Look and DomainDirect are resellers although they are both subsidary/affiliate companies of the same larger corporation as Tucows. But then the operation or development of the OpenSRS is in different hands, good hands I'd say.

**DomainPairs** · 11-18-2002, 04:50 PM

The only experience I've had with Tucows was when I took over the admin of a domain for a client and it was reg'd with Tucows. There was so much messing around that I had to have the transfer letter resent twice and the domain actualy expired. It got sorted out in the end, and it was probably the resellers fault, but the whole operation was fairly difficult.

On the price issue, I've found that some of the low price registrars are highly automated and this is how they are able to offer low prices. For a professional trader that doesn't require basic support this is much better. On reflection, I'm probably assuming that this board is used mainly by domain professionals or volume purchasers. This is probably not true and, of course, it serves a very useful function in helping people who just want to set up a couple of web sites and don't want to be locked into their ISP.

**Anthony Ng** · 11-22-2002, 07:20 AM

I have to agree that Look/EasyHosting.com's support sucks.

I was talking to a support guy last night and you know what: after not finding the dot-ca domain that one of my clients was trying to renew (the password that had been resent earlier on did not work), I told him that OpenSRS's own whois clearly showed EasyHosting.com as the registration service provider. But then he said it could be outdated and pointed me to checkdomain.com and said that the domain name was NOT registered with them but a company called "Canadian Internet Registration Authority" which might also be a reseller of Tucows. Can you believe this?! We all know who CIRA is, right? I decided it's time not to engage in further conversation with this "knowledgeable" person.