Comments on: Did Parava Bilk Customers from Renewal Fees?

By: Domain Name Wire » News » 2009 Domain Dunce Award: Parava - The Domain Industry's News Source

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:12:03 +0000

[...] ICANN selected Tucows as the new registrar for the domains and the domains started transitioning there in May. As soon as the transition started, registrants realized something was wrong. People who had renewed for 5 or 10 years found that their domains expired this year. It turns out Parava was taking customer payments for multi-year renewals and only renewing a year at a time. [...]

By: Phill

Phill — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:32:17 +0000

This situation is flat out ridiculous.
ICANN is 100% to blame for this situation.
ICANN should be sued and Parava should be sued. Preferably ICANN because there job is to regulate registrars and they fail to do so. Also they should have some type of insurance policy to deal wiith this sort of situation. There is a simple solution.
There should be an insurance policy in place to compensate registries for fees lost. If I paid for a renewal and parava did not pay the registry the insurance should cover it. The registries should settle for half the amount they usually get. The problem is that ICANN or registries or not trying to deal with the situation. We should come together and file a class action lawsuit against ICANN. How can you regulate a billion dollar industry with no insurance policy in place. I have contacted ICANN and their response is the registries and HOVER is handling the situation. The registries are not helping. Hover is a big help but they are limited with option. The companies in charge are screwing up so they should be sued point blank !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lets get together and file a suit. My email is p.wilson80@gmail.com.

By: Leroy Nimka

Leroy Nimka — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:48:17 +0000

Ross Rader wrote:

“It might be helpful if someone developed a clearinghouse for this kind of information.”

It seems to me that nobody is in a better position to do that than you are. You could host the forum and provide a link to it on your hover.com home page, or at least provide the link if someone else is willing to host it. If you do that, I’m sure it will do wonders for your public relations situation. As it stands, there’s no hint on your website about why everyone lost all of those years they paid for, and without that information people have every reason to blame Hover itself.

By: Domain Name Wire » News » Editorial: Why I’m Opposed to New Top Level Domains - The Domain Industry's News Source

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:52:11 +0000

[...] Registries will fail, leaving customers in a lurch. Even when a registrar fails, such as Parava, people can lose access to their web sites and lots of money. The same thing will happen with new [...]

By: On

On — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:06:52 +0000

I would like once again to thanks Ross and the rest of Hover and Tucows Inc for the fantastic work they do.

At start I was very sceptic… and even thought that Rose was a member of some Piratic group… that has decided to take over my domains! LOL

Renewed my important domains with hover services for 5 years each.. at the last second.

THANKS ALOT FOR YOUR PATIENCE!
On Elpeleg

By: Andrew Allemann

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:52:06 +0000

Ross, when you pull that list of organizations together I will publicize it here. If anyone is pursuing legal action please let me know. I would think it would need to be some sort of class lawsuit or small claims court given the $$ involved.

By: Ross Rader

Ross Rader — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:37:47 +0000

We were quite shocked by the number of complaints that we saw indicating that Parava had taken money for renewals that they did not process with the registries. We’ve talked to some customers that have indicated that they have been taken for thousands of dollars in renewals. We have been encouraging our new customers to immediately call their credit card company and work on filing a chargeback. There are any number of consumer protection mechanisms that the credit card companies, and others, can bring to bear, to minimize some of the losses that may have been concurred. It might be helpful if someone developed a clearinghouse for this kind of information. My team is working on collecting a list of phone numbers for organizations (such as VIsa) that might be able to help you all get some or all of your money back.

Ross Rader
General Manager
Hover, a service of Tucows Inc.