Consumer Recourse

["Kevin Donnelly" <KDonnelly@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have owned the domain kaditcha.com since 1999.  However, though gross
incompetence at a registrar, 1DNI, my domain is no longer announced.  I
won't go into the long story of how they screwed up this simple business
transaction.  For roughly two weeks, my domain has been down hard, and
neither the website nor email work, because the domain is no longer
announced.  This is costing me money and an inordinate amount of time to
try to rectify, because no organization has ownership and ultimate
accountability for this process  I would move the domain to another
registrar, but I am prevented from moving it because I cannot get a
transfer code from this completely unresponsive registrar.

 

So my input to the registrar contract is that there is no forum for
remedy when a registrar fails to perform the task which they are
"licensed" to do, and for which a customer has correctly and
sufficiently provided recompense.  The upstream, Tucows has no forum for
direct contact by a retail customer, even though they are the true
registrant of record.  Both ICANN and Internic wash their hands of any
responsibility to the end domain owner, leaving a gaping hole in
governance, penalty for performance and true ownership of this
incredibly important service.  There MUST be some forum for domain name
owners to escalate issues to the an ultimate authority, and either force
performance or at minimum facilitate a forced domain transfer to a
functional registrar.

 

As an advocate for an open and competitive internet since my early days
at DIGEX, I never thought I would say this, but this worked better when
the government had a hand in it.

 

Kevin Donnelly

VP, CIO Advisory Services 

kdonnelly@xxxxxxxxx 

301-575-4661 Cell

703-481-1001 x109 Office

1175 Herndon Parkway 

Suite 250

Herndon, VA  20170