Read the terms, but also consider which company you trust to hold your domains.
My story this week about Uniregistry adding a late renewal fee has snowballed. People actually read Uniregistry’s terms for perhaps the first time, and they didn’t like everything they saw.
The language suggests that Uniregistry can take your domain away without giving a grace period. That would obviously be bad.
But take a look at many other registrar’s terms of service and registration agreements and you’ll see something similar. They often reserve the right to not allow renewal past the expiration.
There are other terms in agreements, especially registry agreements, that let many parties take your domain name away.
Despite what Uniregistry’s terms say, the company told Domain Name Wire, “Uniregistry.com has never and will never simply appropriate someone’s domain name immediately upon expiration.”
Ultimately, choosing which registrar you work with comes down to more than a question of what’s in their legal terms. It comes down to a question of trust. Who do you trust to serve as your registrar and not screw you?
I’ve observed the trust factor of various registrars ebb and flow over the years. Sometimes it’s because key personnel leave or the company is taken over. Sometimes the registrar is run unethically, other times it’s run ineptly.
I definitely encourage domain investors to read the terms they agree to. But I also suggest that they think about which registrar they trust.
Snoopy says
“Uniregistry.com has never and will never simply appropriate someone’s domain name immediately upon expiration.”
Why is it in the terms then?
Mike says
This is a good point, and who at Uniregistry stated that a “name” has to own up to it. Frank, John B (Attorney)?
It seems pretty clear in TOS, it could be after 30 days they reserve the right to, could it be if it is a very valuable name, and they get some kind of offer, they can make off with 6-7 figures, and be legally off the hook?
As stated above why is it in the TOS as such?
Michael says
I feel it is difficult to find a registrar that provides really good service and cares about you these days. GoDaddy, NameSilo, Uniregistry, Dynadot, NameCheap all getting worse in my opinion.
Then there is Epik with a lot of good stuff, but also many not so great things.
What other choices are there? Name.com, 101Domain, Porkbun (few ccTLDs though), LCN, Internet.bs? Anyone can recommend a place?
- says
comment deleted for fake email address
Michael G says
Any recommendations for a non US based registrar for a large portfolio other than Uniregistry?
Sergey says
InterNetX – very nice German registrar
Mike says
To be honest they all seem to be very greedy, and couldn’t wait for you to die quick enough so they can sell of your names. RIP domainers
Happy Halloween
You-Know-Who says
Silver wrote a post about this back in 2017 where Frank talked about not keeping names or some such thing.
About that same time, a handful of my domains that expired from Uni when my CC had expired became suddenly owned by “North Sound”. . . . My rep had also been canned so he obviously couldn’t notify me of the issue with my card. Not sure if the domains hit grace period or just an expiry but they definitely never dropped. Go figure. In the scheme of things, the highest value name was a mid-range name (probably 2-5k). I was first told when asking about the most valuable of the bunch that it was probably a bogus TM complaint (it was 3 very different names) . Then I was told that they’d be held and then deleted. They were not. Then I was told they have tons of names and they can’t possibly troll a bunch of expiring names for nickels. ( isn’t that exactly how the business was built ? ).
My names were also parked at uni where they could see the “nickels” they made. With the exception of buying a customers names, I have not used any of their services since that exchange.
Mike says
What are the names, maybe list them here, and people can trace them via whois, and nameservers
Mark Thorpe says
Trust no one! You’re playing with fire by not renewing domains on time that you want to keep.
Mike says
Your blog was awesome, you should start it up again.
Mark Thorpe says
Thanks. Hard to come up with new worthwhile content. So much domain information is reapeated on all the blogs.
I usually post my two cents worth on other domain blogs like this one though.
Jack Hammer says
Andrew, for topics like this, it helps if you have some degree of familiarity or even formal education about how contract and commercial law really works.
Companies you do this kind of business with on the Internet are always going to have completely lopsided and unfair clauses in their terms statements which essentially say “Notwithstanding the aforementioned elements of basic minimum human decency and morality, we can do anything and everything we want with impunity, always and forever.”
However, in law that does not by any means mean such grossly lopsided terms are enforceable. On the contrary, the issue of invalid, “unconscionable” and unenforceable contracts and contract terms is one of the first things you learn about in any applicable law class.
Google search q=unenforceable+contract.
“Unenforceable Contracts: What to Watch Out For”
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/unenforceable-contracts-tips-33079.html
So, companies which place such scary evil clauses in their terms statements nonetheless still tend to be run by enough people who at least have a sufficient trace of sanity and even ordinary self-interest if not basic human decency, and they realize things like:
1. There can be a huge publicity cost which hurts their bottom line big time if they engage in evil in literal fulfillment of such lopsided statements.
2. You can still sue them and win for terms which are “unconscionable” and really amount to virtual crime, degenerate evil and “racketeering” if they decide to do evil.
3. As you are able, you can decide to spend the rest of your life both suing and providing them with the negative publicity they deserve and enlisting everyone you can for it.
Get the picture? So it’s not that simple by any means, i.e. merely adding such lopsided statements and terms, and the lawyers who work in the industry also know this too.
Andrew Allemann says
Isn’t this the gist of my article?
Jack Hammer says
No, not at all. The only point of overlap is addressing the existence of such anti-social terms. To my recollection I have never even once seen anyone in any blog or forum address what I’ve addressed here about how contract law really works and the important issue of when contract terms are deemed invalid, unenforceable or “unconscionable.” Most conspicuously, I have never even once seen any of the well known attorneys in the industry ever address that in discussion threads where they could have, despite that they all know all about it and it’s one of the first things they even learn about in the first year of law school if they didn’t know it already going into law school.
Jack Hammer says
And as a consequence, it has been clear for a long time that domain investors have been led to believe companies really do have a blank check and can simply always get away with acting upon such lopsided terms if they wish and that there is no real recourse to it. Because no one ever talks about how such clauses can be deemed “unconscionable” and unenforceable or against public policy and so forth.
Andrew Allemann says
The only thing I can think of that would be “unconscionable” would be if a registrar literally took your domains from your account and put it into their account before they expired without reason other than to take your domains. Not giving a grace period, turning off domains for doing bad things…those all seem legit.
Jack Hammer says
Apropriating one’s domains, i.e. stealing, is a no-brainer. Not giving a normal renewal grace period is bad and undesirable, but I agree may not be deemed “unconscionable” and void. Turning off for doing bad things is a no-brainer if there is due process.
But things like not allowing someone to even renew before expiration, not renewing when someone has paid for renewal, or refusing to provide the auth code and enable or implement unlocking for transfer, for instance, would certainly be “unconscionable.” And no doubt one can think of more. Just recently I saw someone talking in one of the blogs about a terms statement not even explicitly allowing one to renew domains in fact.
Violating some or all of this may perhaps qualify as “unconscionable” too, or at least be a remediable breach:
“FAQs for Registrants: Domain Name Renewals and Expiration”
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/domain-name-renewal-expiration-faqs-2018-12-07-en
Jack Hammer says
But once again, registrars do not merely include the kinds of things people can agree on. Instead they often tend to include what I described before, statements which amount to “Notwithstanding the aforementioned, we can literally do anything and everything we want with impunity, for whatever reason or for no reason, always and forever.”
Ravi says
I found out this recently with one of my names at Network SolitSolu…
I was unable to transfer name…after sending out an email cust support they forwarded me to T&C page…where it said grace period can be reduced or not given according to NetSol interests.
I was not surprised since it is NetSol…but it seems more registrars are out there..
I think it happened only with one name…may be NetSol interested in that name..I left it to them..
Mike says
Report their failure to provide an auth code to ICANN. They did actually do something and sent the auth code after ICANN involvement. There WAS a time when Network Solutions were very good.
Undaunt. says
Uniregistry becoming desperate.I am left with the last batch of names at netsol.10 more to and i am free from their shady management.I pity those with highly valuable names at uniregistry.
Dont cry when your names gets taken.Remember it is owned by a top domainer but when it happens,he is not going to vouch for you.He is in it for business and money. Time will tell.
joesaba2014 says
I with Uniregistry when letting expire domains (.com) and org etc., They notify by email once or twice before meeting the deadline in case I am interested in recovering and renewing them, so I notice that I always comply with the terms in each extension.
Also Marketing Uniregistry send an email to Customer and Domain Investor Uniregistry.com that have changed the system to be able to use the Brokerage Uniregistry Team to sell premium domains to Domain Investors that do not have sales like others, this is a very important change today November 1 , 2019 start this new way of serving all Customer …… alike.
WQ says
Why not just for renew your Domains before they expire and not leave the decision to babysit them in the hands of others?
Richard says
TBF, Uni sends out A LOT of emails prior expiration and even when names are already expired. If you have a 6 figure name in your account take action and max it out for the full 10 years. Less than 100 bucks on your credit card. It‘s like an insurance contract for 0.1% of assets value. No one needs to lose domain names, be smart.