dispute... trying to get domain back... advice plz

DJB

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice. A new client came to me and wants to get a website done. Nothing major, just a simple brochure site for a b&b. About 2/3 months ago, they went to get it done cheaply with a beginner, just finishing college. It would have been his first website. He was charging 300 euro. They paid him 100 euro up front.

So, he registered their domain and organised hosting it appears. Then after a couple of "months" and nothing to show for it, they queried when they would have their website. He showed them what he had, a few photos taken and some text but no site exactly! Anyway, he threw a wobbler when they said that they didn't think he was up to the job.

So, what he did was put up on their website a picture of their b&b and that this is the unpaid website of xxxx b&b, anyone who wishes to work on this domain may purchase it for 300 euro from the webmaster.

So, I checked the whois of the domain. They are down as the Registrant for the domain but the webmaster is down as the admin/tech contact.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to how I could get the domain back off this "gangster" without paying the 300 euro. First I was going to contact him and see what his position is but I think it is clear from what he put up on the site. So, other than that, I was going to contact him and threaten with legal action (as he was paid 100 euro, which more than covers the domain costs). Failing that, try and get the registering company to modify the contacts over to me, with a letter to their company from the b&b themselves.

Anyone got a suggestion or similiar story that they could lend advice to this situation.

Thx,

Dave

Serbian

Is it a .ie or a .com address? If it's .ie then I imagine there would be no problem reacquiring (is that a word?) the domain as you have to show a reasonable business link to the domain to have it in the first place. You can just request a change (e.g. moving the name server) and send the request on headed notepaper to the IEDR.

If it's .com then I'm not so sure, but I'd imagine you would have a lot of difficulty without the control panel username / password from the registrar that the domain was purchased off.

DJB

Sorry, forgot to mention. It's a .com.

They want to go with another domain if nothing can be done but it's a bit annoying to have that message up on the this domain.

GoneShootin

What's the domain?

If the domain isnt locked its possible that someone like godaddy will be able to automatically transfer the domain to another account. But I'm not sure if its

"if you dont reply to this email by X when the domain will be transferred"

or

"if you dont reply to this email nothing will happen and the domain will remain yours".

Is the domain registered a few years in advance?

DJB

I rather not give out the domain but I checked and the status is set to "locked"!

Domain expires next April!

mneylon

If the registrant is listed as the B + B owner then they *may* be able to get it sorted out by going directly to the registrar, however this maybe more painful than simply registering a new domain.
As the site wasn't developed I presume they don't have publicity material based on the domain or anything, so the change of domain wouldn't have any tangible costs associated with it...

GoneShootin

What blacknight said

As a workaround, why not just use a .net instead of .com? Or come up with a suitable .com to match.

In the meantime, you *can* try to use a backorder feature supported by godaddy.com. Its prolly not going to work as this chap seems to be holding out for the cash (bad bastard tbh), but the backorder system will attempt to grab the domain for you if he slips up and forgets to register it again.

If I was you I would create a quick and easy site (at a minimal fee) and register a .net for the one year, as a show of support for these guys. That would make you look fantastic in their eyes.

dahamsta

DJB wrote:

I was going to contact him and threaten with legal action (as he was paid 100 euro, which more than covers the domain costs). Failing that, try and get the registering company to modify the contacts over to me, with a letter to their company from the b&b themselves.

Those are your two options. The former is the easier, but he has to be relatively gullible. The latter is guaranteed if the registrant details stay the same, but if he changes them to himself you'll have to challenge the registration via the UDRP (cheaper, less complicated) or in the courts (more expensive, more likely to go in your client's favour).

adam

DJB

Well, I've already suggested an alternative domain that is more discriptive of their business than this one. However, more than anything, this is a matter of principle and I hate to see ppl that don't know the game and are testing the water for the first time, getting screwed by some d*ck still in college! I'm sure everyone will agree!

Anyway, I'm sure that nobody will ever see that webpage as there are no keywords on it, nothing is linking to it... so it souldn't show up in google or any other search engine. They are happy to go with an alt domain but not knowing too much about the web, they think that anyone can see this and they want it off if possible!

I've sent the old webmaster an email explaining that we are developing the site, and we see that he has been paid for the domain registration, and that we need the domain contacts updated in order to do a transfer.... as I would do with any new client that wanted to transfer a domain. It's worded in a very nice manner and mentions nothing of payment or outstanding bills. I'll see what his response is like and push him if needs be.

I'll let you know how I get on but any other suggestions are most welcome!!!

Dave

mneylon

dahamsta wrote:

UDRP

adam

Don't you mean: http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm ?
not an IP on a windows server

dahamsta

blacknight wrote:

Don't you mean: http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm ?
not an IP on a windows server

Indeed I did. That's what I get for working my DNS server and Boards at the same time...

adam

mneylon

dahamsta wrote:

Indeed I did. That's what I get for working my DNS server and Boards at the same time...

adam

And you're using windows for DNS? Tut tut

rsynnott

DNS on WINDOWS? Eek. How odd. Didn't know it did it

dahamsta

Look up the IP block blacknight. Do I need to answer that question?

adam

rsynnott

I was sort of joking about that. What server is it? Does it come with one, or is it a BIND port or something?

mneylon

Rsynott - there are a number of DNS servers for windows.. I just don't like them

rsynnott

Yep, I realise that they must exist, just honestly never occured to me (seems silly to have graphical interface on server, anyway).

dahamsta

*sigh* I was working on my DNS server and copied the IP address of a Windows server to my clipboard. I forgot to copy the UDRP URL to my clipboard and pasted the IP address instead. The DNS server runs Linux, the Windows server belongs to someone whose DNS I host.

I don't operate Windows servers. I never will. Trust me on this.

adam

mneylon

dahamsta wrote:

I don't operate Windows servers. I never will. Trust me on this.

Aww Adam don't worry, your secret's safe with us

dahamsta

Well, I was going to say that if anyone came looking for a Windows server I'd outsource it to someone like yourself, but you can piss off now...

adam

mneylon

*sniff*

DJB

Jesus! If this isn't thread hijacking, I don't know what is!!!! Thx :mad:

dahamsta

DJB wrote:

Jesus! If this isn't thread hijacking, I don't know what is!!!! Thx :mad:

What's to hijack cranky, hasn't your question been answered?