Why cheap domains may become very expensive…

It’s one story among many about lost Internet addresses:

"Early Tuesday, gamers woke up to find out that they couldn’t login to any Sony Online Entertainment games – no Everquest, no Planetside 2, none of them.
Oddly, the forums where company reps might have posted some explanation weren’t reachable, either. A bit of journalistic investigation by EQ2Wire came across this explanation: SOE forgot to renew the domain registration on SonyOnline.net, the hidden domain that holds all their nameservers. After 7 weeks of non-payment post-expiration, NetworkSolutions reclaimed the domain, sending all access to Sony’s games into an internet black hole. Sony has since paid up. SOE’s president, John Smedley, has admitted that the expiration notices were being sent to an ‚unread email‘ address."

Some domain owners will think, "This can’t happen to me: I pay my domains on time."

However, only a part of the domain loss is due to unpunctual payment.

Companies that move run a high risk of losing their domain because the invoice may not be delivered. The same applies to companies that change their e-mail address for any reason. They often forget that many registrars send the invoice by e-mail. If the invoice cannot be delivered, it will not be paid. So the domain of the customer is deleted.

Forgetting the invoice number on the bank transfer receipt can also lead to domain deletion. At the accounting department of the registrar, such cases go into the pot of "problem cases". If the accounting department does not solve the problem until the expiration date, the domain is deleted in spite of payment.

But even if the domain fee is transferred with the invoice number, it happens that the domain is deleted, nevertheless. The domain owner has not noticed that the registrar has changed his account for domain payments, and has paid into an old account. The domain may be deleted.

What is the cause of these problems?

US registrars and low-cost providers in Europe delete a domain if the domain fee has not been paid until the expiration date of the domain.

The ICANN accredited registrar, Secura, works differently: all customer domains are on auto-renewal. Some registrars also practice auto-renewal, but delete the domain before the expiry of the so-called grace period if they have not received payment. They are "on the safe side" because they do not have to pay the domain fee to the registry.

ICANN registrar Secura, on the other hand, takes the risk: The company gives the customers enough time in the interest of the security of their domains to clarify why a payment has not been received.

Secura proactively addresses every customer with an unpaid domain invoice – by e-mail, with letters and by phone.The domains of the customer will be renewed in any case.

Hans-Peter Oswald

secura@domainregistry.de

https://www.domainregistry.de

https://www.com-domains.com