argghhh... namejet/enom problems...

mogtnomr · Mar 13, 2013

So an old high school buddy asked me to help him get an expiring .com domain. It was reg'd at enom and was just into the redemption period, so we backordered as a pre-release from namejet. We were the only bid @ $69 (their minimum).

Tonight the domain went into pending delete... frick. So I guess namejet's pre-release service is bullshit? Namejet had a minimum bid weeks before and enom still let it drop anyways. wtf? I mean I could understand if the owner renewed it, but they didn't and enom just dropped it.... what a waste of my time... Anyone else have this problem with them?

DomainsInc · Mar 13, 2013

you would of had to backorder it as a pre-release before it went into redemption. once its in redemption, its too late. they can still catch it for you as a pending delete though.

mogtnomr · Mar 13, 2013

DomainsInc said:
you would of had to backorder it as a pre-release before it went into redemption. once its in redemption, its too late. they can still catch it for you as a pending delete though.

Really? That doesn't make much sense, no one's even going to even get serious about backordering a domain until it hits redemption anyways. At least when it hits redemption you think maybe there's a chance the domain owner is really going to let it drop. Also, Namejet's website says "if a pre-release domain is not backordered, ... the name continues into pending delete status" - which makes it sound like pending-delete occurs right after the pre-release period ends. And why wouldn't they allow pre-release backorders during redemption? That's another 30 days they have to try and sell it as a pre-release before it drops?? That's totally lame - bordering on useless... Namejet really needs to explain how and when domains go into pre-release.

Thanks,
Rob

katherine · Mar 13, 2013

When a domain is in redemption, it is no longer under the control of the registrar.
It can still be redeemed by the owner but it is an expensive operation.
The prelease is just the grace period between expiry and redemption.

mogtnomr · Mar 13, 2013

katherine said:
When a domain is in redemption, it is no longer under the control of the registrar.
It can still be redeemed by the owner but it is an expensive operation.
The prelease is just the grace period between expiry and redemption.

First off, thanks for the answers. Its unbelievable that neither enom or namejet support could explain any of this, nor is anything explained in their faqs or help online that I could find.

Random thoughts from this experience:

1. I didn't realize that the verisign fees to the registrars for recovering a domain in redemption were so high - the best I could find was that it was around $80. Anyone know for sure? I always figured it was just a registrar's opportunity to jack up prices.

2. The high Verisign redemption fee clearly explains why a $69 backorder fee isn't going to work...

3. Namejet should clearly explain that pre-release backorders are only available to domains in grace period, not redemption...

4. Rather than ignoring orders during redemption, why don't they have a minimum charge $169? They're completely missing an opportunity there! Who's going to pre-release domains during grace when I bet the vast majority never actually get released?

Thanks again for the replies.