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 The contact details are 10 years out of date (it is a London firm and the contact numbers still start 0171...)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! |