Can anyone help?

They have: 5,633 posts

Joined: Jan 1970

Hello. I was a computer dinosaur until two years ago. I have tried to learn as much as I can but still feel clueless. I managed to learn some rudimentary html and managed to build a website for my business as a glass blower (starving artist). I have had my site online for a year now with a few little problems. Now I have what seems to be a big problem. Recently my website disappeared. After the support people finally contacted me this was their reply...................
Domain Name: DAVIDBUCKARTGLASS.COM
Registrar: ABACUS AMERICA, INC. DBA NAMES4EVER
Whois Server: whois.names4ever.com
Referral URL: http://www.names4ever.com
Name Server: NS1.IXPRES.COM
Name Server: NS2.IXPRES.COM
Status: REDEMPTIONPERIOD
Updated Date: 19-jun-2004
Creation Date: 09-may-2003
Expiration Date: 09-may-2004

Redemption is a term used by Verisign - What has happened is by not re- registering the TLD Domain within 30 day of expiration - It now
carries a fine ( $ 150 to renew ) - This period run for 75 days past the expiration - After it is released and can be picked up or re-registered by
Names4ever - dpt

The only way to pick up the domain is for Ixpres or Name4ever to pay the fine - We are not willing to cover this fine -dpt

You will need a new Damain name -d tp...................................

I am totally confused by this since I pre-paid all fees for a year. I never received notice that my account was about to expire or that I needed to re-register my domain. I feel like I've been scammed, but don't really know. Is this normal procedure? Do I need to pay $150 to get my domain back? I'm just not sure what they're telling me here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx.

He has: 1,380 posts

Joined: Feb 2002

You should always keep a log of when your account expires.

And, since you don't want to pay the fees, you could do one of two things:
(1) Let it expire and hope no-one takes it
(2) Backorder the domain, and then let it expire, so you still have it

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Any responsible registrar will give you plenty of warning when your renewal is due. Looks like this company aren't too good at what they do. I reccomend you is pay the fine (backordering doesnt guarantee you get it, because someone else can back order it too... then it's just a lucky dip!) then once it's back in action find another registrar and move to them (check their renewals policy first).

The company I work for sends 4 emails and 2 letters to customers informing them of renewals starting 6 weeks before the due date. Annoying, maybe but it stops things like that happening.

Andy

He has: 12 posts

Joined: Jul 2004

Backorder your domain at godaddy.com I recently did this for a friend, and got their domain name back for them. The redemption period lasted for a while, but we finally got it back.

In a Movie Place <-- Movie Reviews, etc

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