Enjoy unlimited access to all forum features for FREE! Optional upgrade available for extra perks.
Domain summit 2024

ARE THE LIGHTS OUT AT ROOKMEDIA?

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
The lights seem to be out at Rookmedia (opinion, not allegation), now that I'm in line for another payout. My 'acct exec' Ray Goodwin doesn't seem to be contactable (over the past month or so), and there's no apparent link on the home page for help or support - dead air - radio silence - like lying at 1200 feet with the hull about to be crushed, waiting for a clearance diver to tap the outer hull with a hammer - oops, another strained metaphor.
 
Domain summit 2024

Mr. Deleted

DNForum.com
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
4,173
Reaction score
528
Feedback: 58 / 0 / 0
Have not been with them in a good while. I always got paid on time from them though. I have been with ParkingCrew and mailboxPark for one name that is doing well.
 

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
Have not been with them in a good while. I always got paid on time from them though. I have been with ParkingCrew and mailboxPark for one name that is doing well.

Often did in the past (apart from one glitch when it changed hands) but there just doesn't seem to be anyone home at the moment. if there were they might have got in touch with me right here already. My account with them goes back at least 10 years and I have circa 300 names with them
 

Mr. Deleted

DNForum.com
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
4,173
Reaction score
528
Feedback: 58 / 0 / 0
mine is from around 04-06 so at least 10 years. But the parking business is not what it was at one point.
 

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
mine is from around 04-06 so at least 10 years. But the parking business is not what it was at one point.

G'day - no, the parking business is not.

However, this thread is concerned with whether Rookmedia still exists or whether it might have done a flit as they say in Glasgow (pronounce: Glaz-go). There is no obvious 'support' link on the home page and my acct exec, Raymond Goodwin has not responded to emails for some weeks. he used to be quite responsive.

Ironically, smartnames appears to have taken over either Rookmedia or the traffic thereof with immediate manyfold positive effects on revenue, begging the question of why revenue was so low under Rookmeia's tutelage. One reason could be that Rook was only assigning pennies on the dollar to publishers but how can one possibly audit a parking company's revenue and revenue split/s.

it all seems rather murky. They were never able to provide a simple accounting of revenues in a standard DR CR BAL book-keeping format.

Have i been conned? A simple reply from Rookmedia would belie that conclusion and thus I wait.

Here's an email I sent to them a few minutes ago:


To
Raymond Goodwin
From: urlowner@gmail.com
Subj: Raymond Goodwin, Esq., I need to hear from you

Without Prejudice

Bit of a crisis looming, Ray. There doesn't seem to be anyone at Rookmedia to communicate with. Are you still there? Is the company still a going concern? Rookmedia has a fiduciary responsibility to its publishers which includes providing reasonable support; advising publishers of what documentation is required to ensure payment and making timely payment according to the explicit terms of the contract inhering twixt Rookmedia and its publishers.

Can you please write back since I have heard nothing from previous emails for approximately 4-6 weeks.

I need to have this email on record to show that i have made reasonable attempts to contact your goodself/Rookmedia to ask the following:

(a) what documentation do you require before making payment to me?

(b) has my account met the payment threshold yet?

These are routine, straightforward questions, Raymond, and I look forward to your timely reply.

Kind regards,

Carl

Carl Edgar Law

Without Prejudice
--


-30-
 

Mr. Deleted

DNForum.com
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
4,173
Reaction score
528
Feedback: 58 / 0 / 0
Address not found
Your message wasn't delivered to mmorrison @ domainsponsor.com because the address couldn't be found, or is unable to receive mail.
This is strange, seeing as this is the email listed as my account manager at their DomainSponsor site.
 

Castion

Level 8
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
1,336
Reaction score
852
Feedback: 62 / 0 / 0
Pretty sure they all moved to smartname.com after the merger. DS site is a ghost town
 

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0

Castion

Level 8
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
1,336
Reaction score
852
Feedback: 62 / 0 / 0
Did you try calling them?

I see this number listed +18455086575 as reference on their domains. But might be a decoy.
 

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
Did you try calling them?

I see this number listed +18455086575 as reference on their domains. But might be a decoy.

I will give this a try, Castion, but it's the old story of if you want your hjundred dollars you'll have to do $150 of admin to get it
more to the point though, only 80 names had been ported over to smartnames and it wasn't clear who was doing what to whom

I do notice my dashboard at domainsponsor racks up revenue in the 'smartnames' column but only the occasional penny in the rookmedia column

I never fund rook to have any experise at domain categorisation despite their nergetic claims of state-of-the-art technology

however, how can one know how much money they were keeping for themselves. Like most things n the domaining industry - very little is transparent
 

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
The lights seem to be out at Rookmedia (opinion, not allegation), now that I'm in line for another payout. My 'acct exec' Ray Goodwin doesn't seem to be contactable (over the past month or so), and there's no apparent link on the home page for help or support - dead air - radio silence - like lying at 1200 feet with the hull about to be crushed, waiting for a clearance diver to tap the outer hull with a hammer - oops, another strained metaphor.

There's been zero progress since I first posted this. Here's a substantially complete email I just sent to <info@rookmedia.net. I should note that my account is now over the threshold for payment but I have no idea whether my domains have been moved to smartnames (they are racking up daily revenue as displayed on the same 'domainsponsor' dashboard that I've had for many years but they don't seem to have actually been transferred FROM domainsponsor TO Smartnames.

The dilemma is i cannot determine a named person to contact, do not know where my domain names are actually parked (domainsponsor, rookmedia and smartnames are the three apparent choices) - do not know what payment info update they need, whom to contact for payment and whether I will ever get paid in the absence of query to BBB, lawyer's letter or any of the litany of the legal remedies available to parties of the second part (as it were), none of which generally apply to the parking business.

However, dnforum's reach is far and wide and this site has some powerful members so perhaps someone will advise whom I might contact (with email) to get this all sorted.

I also notice that the FOR SALE banners (kmy default has always been = ON) have disappeared offscreen on my 1000s of domains (there's a sliver of the for sale banner splash just visible but no contant - that's one essential reason for parking since the money's not much good any more.

I've also attached a screen shot of my former account manager at domainsponsor - Ray Goodwin, a Santa Fe College alumnus. I'm not sure whether he's failed to survive the move to Smartnames or not but he went dark sometime in early Spring this year.

"
To: info@rookmedia.net, support@domainsponsor.com
Re. 3gbar.com and 212date.com
An incomplete version of this email suddenly sent itself while I was typing


You'll notice that, for 3gbar.com, the FOR SALE banner's content is off-screen and that the main content field is blank. In the case of 212date.com, which has perfectly acceptable content, there is no FOR SALE banner at all. Clearly, a primary reason for publishing at rookmedia is to solicit bids (which actually happens occasionally).

The default condition for ALL my published names is SALES BANNER ON. Please advise that this has been fixed.

Off-screen sales banners occur randomly throughout my parked domain portfolio and there is no means by which publishers can effectively manage this - it's a Domainsponsor/Rookmedia/Smartnames issue

Can you please step up to the plate and manage these parked domains (I have close to 300 with you) according to your contractual undertakings.

You should also note that I have earned more than US$100 since my last check and there's no one in the store - no one to contact since late winter.

I need to know:

What documentation do you need from me to pay me (currently in Canada)? I assume a W-8 but could not see how to fill it out online and get it back to you.

When do you propose to render payment, as you have contractually so undertaken.

I noticed at one point that you had transferred only 80 of my names to Smartnames and now those 80 seem to have evaporated.

I realize that the intellectual challenges of moving from one platform to another can be daunting and indeed there appears to be some daunting going on. No one is quite sure whether Domainsponsor still exists. What relationship does Rookmedia bear to either Domainsponsor or Smartnames?

How are publishers to be made whole following an arguably 'iffy' transmogrification from the Domainsponsor chrysalis to the Smartnames butterfly?

Ray Goodwin, an alumnus of Santa Fe College, used to be my account manager. Has he been consigned to the outer darkness or is his formerly wise counsel still available to be tapped?

He is the last human being with whom I interfaced (we used to say "the last guy I talked to") and there hasn't been a peep since from anyone, except for one email from some guy at Smartnames, which didn't cover any of the foregoing.

Kind regards,

Carl

--
If you have an hour to save the world, you should spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it (Albert Einstein)
-30-
 

Attachments

  • RAY GOODWIN JUNE 2019 ROOKMEDIA.jpg
    RAY GOODWIN JUNE 2019 ROOKMEDIA.jpg
    43 KB · Views: 2

Castion

Level 8
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
1,336
Reaction score
852
Feedback: 62 / 0 / 0
Carl I think you need to turn your eyes to Godaddy at this point.. Back in 2017 I got this email:

We've got exciting news: GoDaddy can confirm that Rook Media customers are moving to GoDaddy's SmartName parking platform. GoDaddy and Rook Media will team up to make this transition as seamless as possible for our new customers while doing everything we can to provide best in class support and a top-of-the-line customer experience.


What does this mean for you:


  1. You don't need to lift a finger: within the next 24-48 hours your portfolio will be migrated to GoDaddy's SmartName platform automatically
  2. You can expect the same top support and monetization performance from SmartName
  3. You'll receive an email from SmartName within the next 24-48 hours containing details on how to access your new account
  4. Your historical stats and credit notes will not be available in your SmartName account, however you can continue to access your DomainSponsor or Rook account
  5. Post migration to SmartName, you will receive payment for your earnings on SmartName from GoDaddy
  6. We encourage you to speak to your GoDaddy account manager asap to discuss how to dramatically improve your domain portfolio sales numbers using the GoDaddy aftermarket. (parkingsupport@smartname.com)
Feel free to contact your DomainSponsor or RookMedia account manager if you have any questions. If you don't have a DomainSponsor or RookMedia account manager, please contact either Ray Goodwin (ray@rookmedia.net) or Simon Pupo (simon@rookmedia.net).



A few days later I got a confirmation email from smartname that my names had been migrated there.. So I think the interface you are seeing at DS is just a courtesy legacy one. As you say... The lights are out at Rookmedia...

At this point I would write the "parkingsupport@smartname.com" address to get guidance.
 

Castion

Level 8
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
1,336
Reaction score
852
Feedback: 62 / 0 / 0
Also.. I just tried logging into my DS account.. If I look at payment history I have a column that is called "domain sponsor revenue" which has no income in the last two years, but next to it is a "Smart Name revenue" column that contains data up until January 2019 when I moved my last names away.

So it does seem that there could be some revenue still being accrued at DS, though I dont know how that would work.
 

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
Carl I think you need to turn your eyes to Godaddy at this point.. Back in 2017 I got this email:

We've got exciting news: GoDaddy can confirm that Rook Media customers are moving to GoDaddy's SmartName parking platform. GoDaddy and Rook Media will team up to make this transition as seamless as possible for our new customers while doing everything we can to provide best in class support and a top-of-the-line customer experience.


What does this mean for you:


  1. You don't need to lift a finger: within the next 24-48 hours your portfolio will be migrated to GoDaddy's SmartName platform automatically
  2. You can expect the same top support and monetization performance from SmartName
  3. You'll receive an email from SmartName within the next 24-48 hours containing details on how to access your new account
  4. Your historical stats and credit notes will not be available in your SmartName account, however you can continue to access your DomainSponsor or Rook account
  5. Post migration to SmartName, you will receive payment for your earnings on SmartName from GoDaddy
  6. We encourage you to speak to your GoDaddy account manager asap to discuss how to dramatically improve your domain portfolio sales numbers using the GoDaddy aftermarket. (parkingsupport@smartname.com)
Feel free to contact your DomainSponsor or RookMedia account manager if you have any questions. If you don't have a DomainSponsor or RookMedia account manager, please contact either Ray Goodwin (ray@rookmedia.net) or Simon Pupo (simon@rookmedia.net).



A few days later I got a confirmation email from smartname that my names had been migrated there.. So I think the interface you are seeing at DS is just a courtesy legacy one. As you say... The lights are out at Rookmedia...

At this point I would write the "parkingsupport@smartname.com" address to get guidance.

Thanks Castion. I will take a look at that

so many steps have accumulated - the sales banners on names have shifted a bit off-screen so that the FOR SALE content is no longer visible and there's no response from the current stated account executive - info@rookmedia.net

I did actualy open an account at smartnames and it seemed at the time (about 6-8 weeks ago that about 80 names had been ported over to smartnames while the rest were left behind - I had no idea where to turn to resolve that - I DID get one eply from smartnames that seemed to indicate it was a domainsponsor issue

Further issues included - do they now have a current W-8, which I think is the non-resident alien requirement for payment - I think I noted the form but couldn't see a means to complete it online

then the question - what is their current payment threshold and do they still issue checks. a Canadian address apparently cannot hold a US$ Paypal account but converting to CAD$ and then immediately back to US$ is an asanine way to do business (all my online tranactions ar ein US$ so CAD$ are a non-starter - no interest.

So, I ask myself - if I detailed a temp to take care of all that - how long would it take them - a day - two days - what would that cost - a bit of an admin hill climb after years of virtually turnkey service. I coould say more but it's not a big enough issue in DNFORUM terms to take up people's reading time.

I certainly appreciate your input and it may well lead to a solution

Thanks mate.

Carl
 

Castion

Level 8
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
1,336
Reaction score
852
Feedback: 62 / 0 / 0
Carl I am pretty sure that if you do a search for emails from Rookmedia you will have received an email from them back in 2017 with information for creating a password for your autocreated account. They ported my names with no work from my side.

My guess is that at this point you have two smart name accounts.. The one they made for you in 2017 and the one you created manually. Perhaps your names are split between the two?
 

carledgar

Exclusive Lifetime Member
Legacy Exclusive Member
Joined
May 13, 2004
Messages
133
Reaction score
26
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
Carl I am pretty sure that if you do a search for emails from Rookmedia you will have received an email from them back in 2017 with information for creating a password for your autocreated account. They ported my names with no work from my side.

My guess is that at this point you have two smart name accounts.. The one they made for you in 2017 and the one you created manually. Perhaps your names are split between the two?

Yep - I have at least one smartnames account - possibly two - but neither to my knowledge is populated. I'll report back.
 

The Rule #1

Do not insult any other member. Be polite and do business. Thank you!

Sedo - it.com Premiums

IT.com

Premium Members

AucDom
UKBackorder
Be a Squirrel
MariaBuy

New Threads

Our Mods' Businesses

UrlPick.com
Free QR Code Generator by MerchArts

*the exceptional businesses of our esteemed moderators

Top Bottom