A long time ago, there once was a good, helpful, and inexpensive way to register domain names at cheap prices. It was an era when folks were jumping on the HTML band wagon. This is before the myspace kids, the youtube phenomenon and well, before google was as big as it is now. In that time, registerfly was a good choice for getting your site, proudly written in notepad, out on the web. THOSE DAYS ARE GONE.

About two years ago, without my knowledge or consent my .com business domain was silently expired. When I discovered this it was too late, despite my contact info being up to date, Registerfly had expired the domain without notifying me. My choices were slim. I could pay hundreds of dollars to the scumbag that snapped up the domain and parked it or I could make my primary address the .biz derivation. I chose the later, got my client’s sites running again and set up godaddy to snatch the name back when it could.

Here we are later, I’ve never really been able to transfer the .biz because of Registerfly’s constantly changing UI, iron grip on the domain, and archaic tools. My domain came up for renewal on Feb 6th and I began receiving the renewal notices. So On 1/31/07 I once again endured the, yet again changed UI, and attempt to renew my domain. Everything seemed to go smoothly, and I thought I was all set. The renewal messages went away and all was good with the world.

Until I began receiving expiration notices again. I once again logged into the poorly designed UI (notice a theme here?) and found that the money I had applied to the domain was sitting as a balance and not actually applied. Yes I received an email specifically stating I had RENEWED my domain. I applied the money to the domain again.

Here we sit on the 16th of February and my domain is in an expired status. I have submitted trouble tickets and emails and not heard from them. We’re going on a week and a half or so since the first ticket was submitted with NO RESPONSE.

Now the address continues to resolve correctly, but every time I log in to the craptacular ever morphing UI of this 2-bit company I find that my domain sits in the expired bin, and my money is gone. It’s just a bit concerning. What’s the true status of the domain? Why won’t anyone get back to me?

What’s funny, is in the midst of this whole thing I received an email from a company called eNom. Apparently Registerfly was nothing more then a domain reseller. Due to various customer complaints and not fulfilling quality standards, eNom has severed their ties with Registerfly.

Stay tuned to see what happens. I’ve contacted Registerfly yet again, eNom to see if there is some issue there, and the better business bureau. It seems the fox guards the chicken coupe. When your domain expires, Registerfly buys it, then will sell it to you for several hundred dollars.

My word of advice if your looking to register a domain? GoDaddy all the way.

BTW, why don’t I name the domain? With my luck it will be expired and point to something I don’t want advertised. I’ll most likely have to re brand my business, which might not be bad, and continue from there. It’s true I’ve been out of the consulting gig for a yr or two now. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, and I can live comfortably working as a cubical pilot. In fact, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some very interesting projects that way.