Public Comment: Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery

["editor" <editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery -

 

It would seem that the biggest problem is that there has been an evolution
in the timing, such that there hasn't been any consistency.

 

When I registered the first domain at the company where I was working, it
was the beginning of the dotcom boom, and I guess the processing queue was
backed up for months.  The timing from expiration to deletion was sometimes
as long as 120 days or more.  If you forgot, you could basically get it back
whenever.  Everyone was announcing the lag was supposed to come down, yet it
took forever to happen, and while a whole bunch were released at once, a
bunch more were still hanging in limbo.  But then it went to about 60 days
and still stayed about like that until maybe 3-4 years ago, when it went
down to about 30 days.

 

After a bit, there were a couple of times when I suspect someone had put in
a bid for our domains, and the time was decreased to an almost no grace
period to move them out.  When one of them was only about 15 days expired,
it had already gone to someone else!   There had been no announcement
informing us of timing changes - probably because the rules in their
contract had always allowed for it - but after so many years of the longer
grace period, it was rude and even harmful to shorten it that much all of a
sudden.  I called my registrar to complain, but they told me that expired
meant expired and that they had no other responsibility in the matter.  I
had to agree that it had been expired, but we had the domain for several
years, and it would seem that should have counted for something.

 

One other confusing aspect was.not everyone was following the same set of
"rules".  We had our domains registered with about 6 different registrars
over that timeframe, and each one had a different timeframe policy for
dealing with expired domains.  In fact, one of the registrars (who has
suffered some bad pr about domain practices), has never let any of our
domains get away under 30 days, and because of that (along with human help
for emergencies), we are most loyal to that registrar.

 

Bottom line.there isn't any consistency - so that is a huge factor.  Lack of
grace period consistency causes the user to make more mistakes as registrars
keep shrinking the grace period and it causes confusion as different
registrars have different policies.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the problem has gotten much worse because of
this.

 

We are of the feeling that a company who has had a domain registered for
years should get a bit more consideration than "sorry, you're time's up."
Considering the impact of losing one's internet address.it should be treated
akin to losing one's utilities to the home (like shutting off water or gas).
Maybe people who have domain names can accrue at least some additional grace
time in accordance with how long they maintain the same domain.

 

Another big issue is the cost of retrieving after it's past grace.  If it's
still available, it is often well over 100 dollars per domain, which seems
excessive.  Maybe there is a reason for it, but while I understand and
concur with extra fees at that point, it feels like gouging.

 

As to notification -- except for one very poor registrar (who we never use
anymore), I have always found the notifications to be more than adequate.
The problem we have here is we will have a bunch of domains that come due at
once, so we try to spread out the renewals so it doesn't hurt as badly.  But
then we can end up forgetting some - which is how we end up making mistakes
regarding expirations.

 

Again, consistency within all aspects of the renewal policies would help the
consumer.

 

Thank you for opening this up for comments.