WARNING! - Enom - Mock Redemption

[StockDoctor]

Enom, GoDaddy, Netsol cherry picking?

I talked to GoDaddy and Enom recently and they use the term "Mock redemption" pretty frequently now with their move toward exclusive drops.

We domainers are familiar with the term "Redemption", but here's a new twist.

At Enom, when some names expire, we expect that they go to the "expired list" where we can select them for renewal. It now appears that some names once expired don't ever make it to that list. Even worse, some of those names when selected to renew are returned with a "This name cannot be renewed" message, and will NOT go to your cart. Worse still, they will pick and choose some names (say that expired 4-3-05) to forward to "mock redemption" leaving names with earlier expiration dates (say 4-1-05) still in the expired list. What a surprise when it's found that the names they chose to move to "mock redemption" are some of the more valuable .coms.

The problem is compounded when they pay the fee to renew and all whois services show the expiration dates as 4-3-06 including the whois link at the bottom of the redemption list page on Enom itself. Enom does NOT send the owner (their customer) an email telling them they have done this.

I'm also wondering how Enom etc. can list those names as in "redemption" when they are really in "mock redemption"? Further, how can several customer support people at Enom state varying expiration grace periods and the powers that be, may decide to end the grace period on certain cherry picked names at their discretion and in difference to the rest of the expired names?

The warnings about the possibility of registrars confusing the order and pushing certain names to redemption instead of other names of the same expiry date to charge the higher redmption fee ($160) or get control of the names (for their move to exclusive drop services) has been warned about before. In the case of Enom, it certainly looks to be happening. Otherwise, how did they decide which names to put through "mock redemption" earlier than the other expired names of the same expiry date?

What angers me is that I have been a huge customer for Enom, and have had to use domain portfolio software from independent providers to manage thousands of names. When Enom does NOT place some names in the expired list for my renewal and instead picks certain names themselves to renew through this "mock redemption" all my services indicate that these names are still under my email address and renewed.

So far all they say is that "yes it doesn't seem right, but that's the policy they have now". Policy? Thank God they haven't gone so far as to set a "policy" that they can just steal the names BEFORE they expire. Maybe that's next.

 

[NameYourself]

This happened to a client of mine. She accidently let her name expire (for a non-profit organization) and enom automatically renewed it after a few weeks for another year. My client got confused thinking that she had already renewed the domain, but for some reason it wouldn't show up in her account. After searching around I found out why, and that it would cost her $160 to renew it since enom already selected it as a name they should renew themselves and hold hostage. I called and asked them what would happen after that year, if she could just register it again once it became available, the rep said it could either expire or enom could keep it, no one really knew.

This poses a major conflict of interest between registrar and registrants. What's to prevent a registrar from selecting a few valuable names and accidently auctioning them off when they know they could go for tens of thousands each. This is a huge risk.

 

[mole]

You can always ensure that your names are under 'auto-renewal'.

 

[StockDoctor]

You can always ensure that your names are under 'auto-renewal'.

True, but I sometimes haven't made up my mind on renewing some names 6 weeks before expiry. Why do they need to renew so far in advance? Oh yeah, they want the use of the cash. Same as me sometimes.

This now from Enom.

"There are two different "redemption" statuses a domain name can go into once it expires. eNom's grace period for renewing expired domains is generally up to 29 days although it may be more or less; there is no guaranteed grace period. After the grace period it may enter either of the following:

RGP: Redemption Grace Period - Offered by the registry and available for recovery for 30 days via eNom. If not recovered, will be dropped for regular registration.

ERGP: Extended Redemption Grace Period - eNom has selected to pay the registration fee on selected names on behalf of the registrant. Whois information will remain as registrant. Up to 90 days to renew otherwise the name has been abandoned and whois information can be changed.

After the 90-day ERGP lapses, the original registrant has relinquished all rights and use of the domain name. It will be removed from the account, and their name removed from the whois. eNom may dispose of the name as they see fit. For more complete details, please refer to the Registration Agreement under the Expired Domains section."

What's with this "selected names" stuff? If that doesn't say they are cherry picking to set different treatment for "selected names" I don't know what does.

 

[NameYourself]

For the ERGP where you have 90 days to renew though, what is the fee? Can they make it whatever they want from name to name? If so and they see a really good name has expired, can they just say the extended renewal fee will be $1,000?

 

[StockDoctor]

Couple problems with Enom's so called "extended grace redemption period" or "mock redemption period" is that it is really NOT the "official" redemption period put in place by the registry. Rather they CREATE this registrar designated status after they renew the name on their own behalf and not on behalf of the registrant (you). Of course they say they paid for the renewal in the "name" of the registrant (I don't remember telling them they could do that), and the whois still reflects your information, but what they are really doing is selecting certain names from others expired with the same dates, renewing them for themselves, and then pushing them to a "mock" redemption status that would cost the registrant an additional $173 to renew over and above the cost to renew other names with the same expiry date, but NOT selected for "mock" redemption. Get that?

The other problem is that since they do this renewal "in your name", the whois still reflects your information (still your domain?) but the expiration date has been moved up a year. In large portfolios it's difficult to keep track of whether you already renewed the names, or Enom did "on your behalf" but not really. Until of course you find the name up for auction.

 

[dotNetKing]

I don't like this either

It adds to the confusion of the renewal process, especially, like Stocdoctor says, with larger portfolios.

I don't think this has happened to me yet. But then I might not know anyway, until it is too late.

I have noticed several of my names being auctioned off at Godaddy.com. If only I could warn prospective bidders that the names are in fact going to be renewed!

I just hope Godaddy et al don't suddenly remove their current grace period of around 30 days. I would be in real trouble then :-(

ps The argument for charging $90 to $300 for getting a name out of RGP is that some of this had to be paid to the central registry and the rest was the registrar's fee for processing the paperwork.

If the name doesn't have to be released from the registry, what is this amount being charged for? Presumably to pay for all the extra renewals enom are paying for on our behalf, and to cover those names that are renewed and no one bids for, plus some profit for them for their effort.