hi,
just posting this to inform people of what happens if you do not renew your domain(s)! currently i noticed that an old domain of mine "dbforums.co.uk" has been snapped up by someone else and has a price tag of $4000~ on it.
the story started when i kept receiving emails about my domain will expire in 30days so i contacted the company i had it signed upto, they said i can either let it die or get it renewed only. i asked for it to be transferred to another domain provider, they asked for a "fee" for transferring it. i said no way im gonna pay that and decided to let the domain expire. what they failed to tell me was they keep it for 3 months before they finally expire it.
so right now 3 months has passed and the domain is gone! no contact to say "we will be opening the domain to the market again" just dropped it. clearly whoising the domain right now shows it's a company that snaps up expired domains and the ip claims to have 600,000 other websites on it.
currently the fear is i have other domains by that same domain provider that have also expired, including my lagmaster.net domain! i fear i will lose all my decent domains and will have to start a fresh with new domain names.
this could happen to anyone who thinks their domain provider fees are extorionate and decides not to pay the transfer fee. my advise is:
- read their toc/tos
- read up any fees there are including the fee to transfer (if needed!)
- ask them about what happens to the domain if you fail to renew it.
- check how they change domain settings, like dns and nameservers. either it's automatic online, or they have to do it manually after you fill out the form.
so right now i've gotta contact them about the lagmaster.net domain and i will pay whatever money there is to move it so i can keep it.
