Steen said:
EV1 is most likely taking a loss (or no profits) on registration, as discussed countless times over. And I am confident EV1 could offer Tucows a lot of volume.
True, and nothing should prevent Tucows from offering EV1 a lower price than they offer to me, or prevent EV1 from selling at a loss. But it is frustrating to Tucows resellers to have to pay more wholesale than many registrars offer retail.
This has been discussed repeatedly on the OpenSRS discussion list. Complainers are typically told to compete on service, not on price, or to not make domain name registration the core of their business. While it may be true that a business plan that involves only cut-rate domain name registrations by a non-accredited company is doomed to failure, it is also true that any business needs to keep an eye on costs, and throwing money away is always a bad plan.
I don't try to tell Tucows how to run their business, and I really can't say if their bottom line would have improved if they had increased their market share by competing on price. But given the deal they were willing to give me, it made no sense for me to stay there, and the only domain names in my OpenSRS account now are old customers who have not bothered to move their names (a steadily shrinking number). I really need to find an active OpenSRS reseller willing to take over those accounts.
