I recently become aware of a renewal method by Internic.ca for .CA customers.
1. Customer buys a .CA domain for 2 years from Internic.ca 2. Internic.ca registers the domain to expire in 1 year 3. 11 months, 3 weeks pass 4. Internic.ca renews the domain with CIRA for the additional year. If the customer in step 3 does a WHOIS and contacts Internic.ca about the missing year, they get an email back saying that they shouldn't worry - the domain years are added once per year on the anniversary date. NOTES: ====== 1. I don't know what happens if the customer tries to transfer away from Internic.ca during the first year period. I assume they will get their extra domain year back, but what what if they don't? 2. Could this be a new way to retain customers? Would ICANN disapprove of this method for .COM renewals? Basically you could charge your customers that want more than 1 domain year ahead of time. You could then keep the money, and if they transfer to another registrar, only the 1 domain year goes with the domain. Benefits would be: ================== a) More money remains in your business account collecting interest b) Encourages customers to contact you to obtain a refund if they want to transfer, thereby adding more red tape and making them say "forget it, I'll just stay with you -- it's not worth the hassle" c) Incase a customer does a credit card chargeback, the most you lose is 1 domain year since the remaining funds are still in your account. You can always refund or allow the credit card company do a charge back since the cash has not been spent on domain years yet.
