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Username: icannforum@spyproductions.com
Date/Time: Wed, January 16, 2002 at 8:27 PM GMT
Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer V5.0 using Windows 98
Subject: SpyProductions.com direct response

Message:
 

 
        It has been brought to my attention our company name is being dropped a bit in this forum.  First off I'd like to say that we registered less than 300 domain names in sunrise.  Compare those figures to Verisign and Register.com with over 20,000 each.

Our names were not masked, nor did they display phantom information. Our applicants entered their real names and contact info.  We speculate VeriSign entered phantom information to buy names for aftermarket sale. But that can't be proven as the information is masked in many domain name registrations.  Nice play.

Now lets look at SpyProductions.  We took what we thought was the high road.  We brought all the information we could on how the sunrise would operate to our advance request customers.  We informed them of how we expected VeriSign and register.com and other registrars to operate. We were correct for the most part, but they even went farther by masking data to insulate themselves from someone being able to inspect their registrant records.

So how about Spy's 300 names, NOT 300 applicants.  In fact one applicant had close to 100 names alone. Our total number in the pool was less than one percent of one percent.  However with our name being splashed around here and on other lists you’d swear we were as big as VeriSign with thousands upon thousands of sunrise registrations. Not so.  This flies in our face of what we intended, to give the little guy an equal ground against the big registrars.  In an effort to be a hero to small registrant applicants, we are being depicted by people that want ride the fence and portray us as the bad guy because it serves their cause for the time being.   Talk about eyes without a face. I’d like to see every person with something bad to say about us, post your real name and real contact information.  Then you can pop off all you want and I won’t dispute your real position on the issue.  Otherwise, you are no better than what you accuse us of.                  It has been brought to my attention our company name is being dropped a bit in this forum.  First off I'd like to say that we registered less than 300 domain names in sunrise.  Compare those figures to Verisign and Register.com with over 20,000 each.

Our names were not masked, nor did they display phantom information. Our applicants entered their real names and contact info.  We speculate VeriSign entered phantom information to buy names for aftermarket sale. But that can't be proven as the information is masked in many domain name registrations.  Nice play.

Now lets look at SpyProductions.  We took what we thought was the high road.  We brought all the information we could on how the sunrise would operate to our advance request customers.  We informed them of how we expected VeriSign and register.com and other registrars to operate. We were correct for the most part, but they even went farther by masking data to insulate themselves from someone being able to inspect their registrant records.

So how about Spy's 300 names, NOT 300 applicants.  In fact one applicant had close to 100 names alone. Our total number in the pool was less than one percent of one percent.  However with our name being splashed around here and on other lists you’d swear we were as big as VeriSign with thousands upon thousands of sunrise registrations. Not so.  This flies in our face of what we intended, to give the little guy an equal ground against the big registrars.  In an effort to be a hero to small registrant applicants, we are being depicted by people that want ride the fence and portray us as the bad guy because it serves their cause for the time being.   Talk about eyes without a face. I’d like to see every person with something bad to say about us, post your real name and real contact information.  Then you can pop off all you want and I won’t dispute your real position on the issue.  Otherwise, you are no better than what you accuse us of. 

SpyProductions.com is NOT the bad guy.  Example, during the .biz pre-registration hoopla, we only took UNIQUE applications.  Only one person could request movies.biz for example. Our database is clean.  No duplicates.  We started that back in November of 2000!  No one came to us in August of 2001 and asked us why we had 3000 applications for movies.biz because there were no 3000 applications for movies.biz.  There was one happy applicant.  And guess what, he will still be the only one to be entered when Neulevel begins their round robin, if they do it. Again, we are not the bad guy. 

Nay Sayers here will say, "wrong is wrong" and that SpyProductions should not have entered registrations during sunrise.  We don't dispute that wrong is wrong.  However we are NOT the Internet police, we are a registrar. We can't say to Joe Applicant, "Now Joe, is all your data accurate, if not we won't do business with you."  For instance, who on this list would not have taken advantage of the chance to play within the rules provided to get their favorite name?  So how then would you define right or wrong?  You could imply moral or ethical means, but that means throwing out the rules as they were laid down.  So many complainers across the Internet forums miss one extremely important point, THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE PROCESS, THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE RULES, THEY ASSUMED THINGS COMPLETELY UNAPPLICABLE TO THE PROCESS.  I'm not yelling, I'm emphasizing.

But more to the point, we understood the system. We expected the system to allow customers to modify data at a later time. HERE WE MADE AN ASSUMPTION BUT IT WAS CORRECT (fortunate perhaps). If a customer did not have a valid TM, we supplied default data which could be changed later to reflect accurate records.  For instance, a controller of a company wants xyz.info and does not have the TM data handy but he must get his application in before deadline.  He does so, under the assumption he can fix it later. 

Yes there are speculators.  We did not cater to them. 

We did however explain to would be customers that the system was broken before it began in our opinion and they could decide for themselves if they wanted to participate in a game of cat and mouse so to speak. 

What has happened over the last six months is sad.  However we did what no other registrar did.  We explained the process to our customers.  If you were one of those customers, you made a conscious decision to go into the sunrise queue or to not go onto the sunrise queue.  We did not pass judgment on you.  For the most part every one of those customers has gone on to do more business with us because they know we understand the domain name industry and we don't screw around.   We call it like it is.

I've respected every e-mail and call that came to me about this issue.  I hope that people on this list can see we are real people; we did not steal money we have been open and played smart.  It should be clear we have demonstrated a will to do the right thing for registrants.  Anyone can criticize.  Try offering a solution.

If you need a registrar that works nights and weekends, respects you as a customer then go with us.  We have been doing this since December 1999 and outside a few complainers about this whole dot info mess we have never had some one post a negative about us. We are not the cheapest, but we are low priced.  We get a fair dollar for a fair service.

Regards,
Lars Hindsley
SpyProductions.com

     
 

Link: SpyProductions


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