Someone bought the domain name :(

seachto7

Hi all. I was preparing some work for a new website which was due to kick in to place in the next few weeks, but the domain expired last weekend, while I was away. It's something I should have noted.

Someone else bought it, so the overhaul that was going to happen now can't.

I am unable to log in to wordpress. I am not sure what to do. A disaster

Is it a case of contacting who bought it and hopefully getting some clarification?

PaulPinnacle

seachto7 wrote: »

Is it a case of contacting who bought it and hopefully getting some clarification?

I don't really understand the question here. Clarification on what?

There's nothing really to clarify. They own it. You don't. (Unless there's something more to the situation you haven't mentioned such as passing off, copyright infringement, a trademark breach or something else of that nature)

You can contact them and declare your interest in the site and make an offer to purchase it from them, but they're under no obligation to discuss this with you and can ignore your attempts at contact (that's even assuming you can find contact details and they haven't used an anonymous WhoIs listing). They can also, which is more likely, ask for a fee well over and above the true value once they know you're interested in it.

aN.Droid

There is a grace period after a domain expires that only you can extend or rebuy the domain. If the domain is pointing to another website then you likely missed your expirey date AND the grace period which can be up to 90 days extra.

If it is pointing to a website filled with ad's it may just be parked by your registrar until you renew it. Log into your registrar account and see if it is still there waiting to be renewed.

If it has totally expired and past the grace period you are SOL when it comes to getting it back unless the new website is trying to pass off as your own or is committing copyright fraud.

You can however try to contact them and try your luck at getting it back at an inflated price (usually in the thousands of percent more expensive than what you paid)

Good luck getting it back.

mneylon

You normally have a "grace period" after the domain's expiry when you can still renew it, though you may need to pay more (depending on how long after expiry it is and which registrar the domain is with)

As others have mentioned, it might be simply parked by the registrar as it has expired, but you might still be able to renew it

seachto7

Yep, it was in "redemption" or something like that, and cost €100 to reactivate.

Vurnon San Benito

seachto7 wrote: »

Yep, it was in "redemption" or something like that, and cost €100 to reactivate.

And you're complaining, why?

aN.Droid

Doocey wrote: »

And you're complaining, why?

He wasn't?

You got lucky this time op it would of cost way more if someone else grabbed it. ALways keep your domains in date and if possible register for a few years at a time (I usually do 5 years)