123-reg

[opps]

Ok, my bad...

I accidentally allowed my primary (email) domain name for my email account to expire.

I rang 123-reg,co.uk once I had noticed.

They now want me to pay £95 to their parent company (Godaddy) to act as a go between who will "negotiate" a price with the company who purchased bulk domains via auction. Typically, they seem to be Chinese companies who hoover up millions of domains for cents (per domain).

Losing my primary email address is going to be a short term pain, divesting from the wider GoDaddy ecosystem, will be a blessing and save me money in the longer term.

Long story short, try to find a registrar that allows you to pay via your bank account number rather than your debit card (which changes each time a new card is issued).

 

[noseall]

Ok, my bad...

I accidentally allowed my primary (email) domain name for my email account to expire.

I rang 123-reg,co.uk once I had noticed.

They now want me to pay £95 to their parent company (Godaddy) to act as a go between who will "negotiate" a price with the company who purchased bulk domains via auction. Typically, they seem to be Chinese companies who hoover up millions of domains for cents (per domain).

Losing my primary email address is going to be a short term pain, divesting from the wider GoDaddy ecosystem, will be a blessing and save me money in the longer term.

Long story short, try to find a registrar that allows you to pay via your bank account number rather than your debit card (which changes each time a new card is issued).

Sounds like a scam to me.

 

[opps]

Sounds like a scam to me.

I put my hands up. I should not have allowed my domain to expire but GoDaddy do look like they have taken the concept of mass auctioning off recently expired domains to be a very lucrative way of fleecing money from those of us that are not particularly good at paying attention.

As an aside, I used to use Godaddy and one day ordered a .co.uk from them. Only after paying, I discovered that they do not let not-for-profit sites to opt out of the Who Is. Godaddy charges you for that, even though NOMINET say it should be free. I asked for the order to be cancelled within an hour of noticing (NOMINET do not charge registrars who cancel orders within a handful of hours). GoDaddy refused to cancel the order. I paid but refused to use the domain name. I will wait until the domain name is available again and use an honest registrar.

 

[motorbiking]

Have you done a Whois on the domain?

Is it a co.uk. ?

It should not have been available to purchase unless you were never the domain owner or you left it for months.

Have you established a trading entity registered or unregistered trademark using the domain?

In the past I’ve been able to get Nominet to force the recovery of the name based on IP ownership.

Might be worth searching their website to see if they have a process.

 

[securespark]

I registered mine with Freenetname in 2000 and have never done anything else. Madasafish took over from them and then Plusnet took them over.

They are still hosting, but I am now with BT.

 

[opps]

Have you done a Whois on the domain?

Is it a co.uk. ?

It should not have been available to purchase unless you were never the domain owner or you left it for months.

Have you established a trading entity registered or unregistered trademark using the domain?

In the past I’ve been able to get Nominet to force the recovery of the name based on IP ownership.

Might be worth searching their website to see if they have a process.

I inadvertently allowed it to expire late November 2024. Again, my bad.

I checked a WHOIS today, it shows the expiry as 22-Nov-2004, on 30-Nov-2024, it was listed as suspended.

Registration status:
Renewal required.
*** This registration has been SUSPENDED. ***

I first registered the domain in 2004. It had never been registered prior to that.

I only used the domain for my primary email address, there was no website associated with it.

Increasingly, I suspect that Godaddy are strong arming me. Nominet rules say that .uk domains registered by businesses must be listed on their WHOIS.

I have however taken your advice and emailed Nominet. Tnx

I have quite a few domains listed with 123-reg, I am considering paying for the IPS tags (£15 per) and moving to another registrar. My registrar of choice is quite a bit cheaper than 123-reg or Godaddy, the £15 or so to migrate now looks like a no brainer over a 3 or year period.

 

[opps]

I registered mine with Freenetname in 2000 and have never done anything else. Madasafish took over from them and then Plusnet took them over.

They are still hosting, but I am now with BT.

Website hosting isn't a problem. I have been paying Total Choice Hosting $19 pm for a reseller account for about 30 years. Their support has been faultless. They let me pay via my bank account, rather than a bank card that changes regularly.

 

[motorbiking]

I inadvertently allowed it to expire late November 2024. Again, my bad.

I checked a WHOIS today, it shows the expiry as 22-Nov-2004, on 30-Nov-2024, it was listed as suspended.



I first registered the domain in 2004. It had never been registered prior to that.

I only used the domain for my primary email address, there was no website associated with it.

Increasingly, I suspect that Godaddy are strong arming me. Nominet rules say that .uk domains registered by businesses must be listed on their WHOIS.

I have however taken your advice and emailed Nominet. Tnx

I have quite a few domains listed with 123-reg, I am considering paying for the IPS tags (£15 per) and moving to another registrar. My registrar of choice is quite a bit cheaper than 123-reg or Godaddy, the £15 or so to migrate now looks like a no brainer over a 3 or year period.

If it’s a co.uk contact nominet.

 

[opps]

If it’s a co.uk contact nominet.

I emailed NOMINET on Saturday.

As an aside, I would be interested in finding out how they feel about the GoDaddy empire charging people to opt of of the WHOIS when it should be free.

 

[motorbiking]

They have been suspended a few times.

It’s pretty standard to attempt to sell you a “service”. In my own experience I just force the transfer threatening legal action for damages. But your situation is different.

 

[opps]

They have been suspended a few times.

It’s pretty standard to attempt to sell you a “service”. In my own experience I just force the transfer threatening legal action for damages. But your situation is different.

I think your suggestion of contacting NOMINET may have worked. I received a non committal reply from them suggesting that I try 123-reg.co.uk again. I did so late last week, and voila, the domain was available to register again. No longer did I need to pay Godaddy £85 for them to act as a mediator (seemingly with themselves).

Not wanting to deal with any company related to Godaddy, I then found a different registrar, which is about £8 rather than the £12 that 123 charge.

I registered the domain with Name.com. 2 minutes later, I logged in and changed the name servers. I now have access to my email account.

Thanks for your advice. I will email NOMINET and hint that I owe them a thanks.

 

[CarltonBancroft]

I inadvertently allowed it to expire late November 2024. Again, my bad.

I checked a WHOIS today, it shows the expiry as 22-Nov-2004, on 30-Nov-2024, it was listed as suspended.



I first registered the domain in 2004. It had never been registered prior to that.

I only used the domain for my primary email address, there was no website associated with it.

Increasingly, I suspect that Godaddy are strong arming me. Nominet rules say that .uk domains registered by businesses must be listed on their WHOIS.

I have however taken your advice and emailed Nominet. Tnx

I have quite a few domains listed with 123-reg, I am considering paying for the IPS tags (£15 per) and moving to another registrar. My registrar of choice is quite a bit cheaper than 123-reg or Godaddy, the £15 or so to migrate now looks like a no brainer over a 3 or year period.

Thank you so much for the suggestion.

 

[ETAF]

i have dealt with name.com and ionos, which seem to be pretty good
We also have a few domains registered with 123-reg

- My understanding now is somthing along these lines
as we had 20+ domains all expire on ionos in Dec24

, it enters a grace period of 30 days where you can still renew it, after which it will be suspended for 60 days before finally becoming available for anyone to register;

 

[motorbiking]

that is basically the sum of it. However, its relatively easy to create a trademark that would survive someone else using the name.

for example I could trademark NotDiy and if diynot didn't notice, it would be as significant headache to prevent me pursuing a similar platform, since they have not registered diynot as a trademark.