NSI/Verisign Customer Service, Tech Support and Domain registration processes are one of the worst in the industry. This monopolistic approach dictating policies, breaking ICANN rules, throwing up smoke screens and clouding real issues with single goal in mind - the allmighty Dollar - certainly does not elicit any votes of confinece to let Verisign control yet another spectrum of internet services - expiring domain market
CONCERN 1: EXPIRED DOMAIN HOARDING :: NSI / Verisign has been repeatedly reported by consumers and competing registrars for HOARDING EXPIRED domain names - the industry seems to agree that NSI is hoarding more valuable domains with intention of selling/reselling/auctioning those domains. Most other Registrars delete a domain within 40 days of non-payment - except Verisign - they seem have a "special" need to hoard expiring domains for months or years in some cases. SUPPORTING LINKS : http://nsihorrorstories.com/archive.shtml - A large number of consumer, registration provider complaints against Verisign/NSI on hoarding expired domains routed to ICANN since July 2000. http://www.eyeondomain.com/NSIcase.pdf Class Action Lawsuit against NSI for hoarding Expired Domain Names - more info here: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2644260,00.html dating October 2000 - http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr16jul01.htm Verisign proposal to FIX the expiring domain issue dated July 16th. or a better digest of it at http://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=416 was just another smoke-screen to cloud the real issue of greed. CONCERN 2: Questionable ANTI-CONSUMER and MONOPOLISTIC practices and clear DISREGARD for ICANN RULES SUPPORTING LINKS: http://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=169 Ex-Verisign employee reports ICANN Agreement violations. predatory practices against competitors, fraudulent behavior, unfair dealings with consumers,.... http://www.opensrs.org/archives/discuss-list/0012/0137.html DOMAIN RENEWAL INVOICES being sent to customers who transferred their domains out of Verisign / NSI months prior to issuance of this invoice - link to Netsol Rep answering this issue over a year ago - this fraudulent practice still continues we speak The issue of Verisign billing for services they do not deliver: . http://forum.icann.org/regxfer/ Verisign continues to DECLINE DOMAIN TRANSFERS to competing registrars http://nsihorrorstories.com/cgi-shl/news/news.pl?action=allnews&start=36 http://forum.icann.org/cgi-bin/rpgmessage.cgi?regxfer;3C0684AA00000073 If a domain is renewed by a customer and transferred to a competing registrar within 45 days of renewal, NSI/Verisign will obtain a refund of $6.00 from itself but WILL NOT refund the consumer AND WILL further penalize the consumer by NOT TRANSFERRING the RENEWAL year to the gaining Registrar. We are a registration service provider and register domains with Verisign/NSI and other ICANN approved Registrars - our customers resonate with complaints about Verisign/NSI's poor practices. Forgive me for citing only negatives or sounding too harsh, but being a NSI partner/customer/reseller since 1997 - unfortunately - we do not have any positive experiences to report. The last thing we need is NSI/Verisign controlling expired domain market! All we have is the Registrar Accreditation Agreement that states: <<quote>>5. Registrar shall register SLDs to SLD holders only for fixed periods. At the conclusion of the registration period, failure by or on behalf of the SLD holder to pay a renewal fee WITHIN THE TIME SPECIFIED IN A SECOND NOTICE OR REMINDER shall, in the absence of extenuating circumstances, result in cancellation of the registration. In the event that ICANN adopts a policy concerning procedures for handling expiration of registrations, Registrar shall abide by that policy. <<unquote>> All issues at hand were repeatedly reported to ICANN by multiple parties. None of the above issues were resolved by ICANN - EXPIRING DOMAINS = SINCE 1999 DECLINED DOMAIN TRANSFERS = SINCE JUNE 1, 2001 DOMAIN RENEWALS BEING BILLED AFTER TRANSFER TO COMPETING REGISTRAR - SINCE 1999 REMOVING DOMAIN RENEWAL YEAR FROM CONSUMER IF TRANSFER WITHIN 45 OF RENEWAL - SINCE JUNE 2001 As Verisign/NSI blatantly disregards or bends ICANN rules and ICANN seems to have no interest in correcting these issues it encourages other smaller Registrars to follow in NSI footsteps. This is slowly but surely resulting in NSI/Verisign being THE namespace Regulator (again). Considering all reports at hand - Please let's not let the Wolf do the shepherding! Respectfully, Genie Livingstone Magi Inc Internet Services Provider 511 G 5th Street San Fernando, CA 91340
