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I am posting this in several forums because I am not sure which one is more appropriate and because this is too severe a problem for me and I would like it resolved as soon as possible.  Feel free to delete it from the other forums when it is answered in one of them

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I have what could possibly by a very serious problem here.

Yesterday I deleted a large amount of domains within the grace period and almost all of them received some kind of problem and the delete did not go through.  I kept trying and trying but I kept getting a "Status: Problem" on most of the domains.

To make matters worse, the few domains that did delete have not credited my account yet.

The two order numbers are 200643 and 200606.

Since your phone support was closed yesterday(sunday), the best I could do was to use your support email address and request help.  I have still not received an answer yet.  

Today I got ahold of your customer support line and I was told that the deletes did not go because of some kind of technical difficulty on your end.  She also told me that she was not sure what the problem was, and that since the domains are NOW past the grace period, that the money may not get creditted to my account!  

This is not an insignificant amount we are talking here.  If these domains do not get deleted and credited to me I stand to lose hundreds of dollars!

Since I expressed my concern to your phone rep she said the best she could do was to contact her manager (thru an email no less) and that even then she wasn't sure he would get my money back!

I am very confused...  

If the problem was something technical on your end how there be even a chance I will not get my money back?

PLEASE look into this matter ASAP.  I am very concerned over the whole thing.

And why in the world don't the account managers have a direct phone line?  Why the need for the slow email process for the phone support reps??

Thank you.

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UPDATE:

Ok, I just received a call back from the support rep and she informed me that the problem was with Verisign.  The connection to them was somehow dropped yesterday and the deletions could not go through.

She also said that her manager wanted me to know that since the grace period was over I will not be getting my money back!!  

THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.

Why should I lose several hundreds of dollars because of a problem with Verisign???

At the very least if Verisign will not refund the money than Dynadot should do the right thing and refund the money in order to protect a customer.  This would be a far superior approach than to have a severely disgruntled customer who could potentially go on a bad publicity campaign against them.

PLEASE resolve this matter in the only way it should. I am trying to start a home-based domaining business and this is not a mere inconvenience to me.  This could potentially put me out of business!  Delete the domains and credit my account and ensure you will have a happy and life long customer instead of an extremely ticked off one.


[This post has been edited by tony_warwick_us on Oct 22, 2007 3:21pm.]

(message deleted)


[This post has been edited by tony_warwick_us on Oct 22, 2007 3:09pm.]

What happened was that we lost our connection to the central registry as we were processing your deletion. Apparently this happened to all registrars last night, and so it appears to be a Verisign technical issue. We have contacted them to refund your domain fees.

To guarantee an account credit, you have to request your grace deletions 24 hours before the grace period ends. This is so we can manually fix problem orders like this one.

http://www.dynadot.com/domain/grace_deletion.html

"Most grace deletions are processed in a few minutes. However, sometimes registry errors will cause a delay."
"To guarantee a successful grace deletion and an account credit, please allow 24 hours to process your request. In other words, make your request before the start of the 5th day."

"To guarantee an account credit, you have to request your grace deletions 24 hours before the grace period ends. This is so we can manually fix problem orders like this one."

That may be so, but you are not made aware of this until AFTER you start the delete process.  I didn't see this warning message until I had waited over 4 days, then started the delete process.  

This it too important and potentially damaging a point to leave to chance for your users.

If this sort of thing can happen (and apparently it CAN) then you should not promote the grace period as 5 days and the Summary page should NOT count down from 120 hours.  That is not the true grace period.  It should instead count down from 96 hours.  The way it is now is very misleading and very dangerous to new users, like me.

Thank you for contacting Verisign and pursuing this to the best of your abilities.  I anxiously await their decision, and yours.


[This post has been edited by tony_warwick_us on Oct 23, 2007 7:32am.]

I gotta tell you, I think I am getting an ulcer over the last fews days.  Why the long delay to get news from Verisign over this?

I would like to say I am waiting patiently.  But the truth is that I am waiting very anxiously.  My money is on hold.  My domain business is on hold.  My sleep schedule is on hold. My breath is on hold.  My sanity is on hold.  

I am living in dread that you will get bad news from Verisign and that I in turn may have a very difficult time getting back all my money.

Do you have ANY news at all?  It's been 4 days now since I asked for the deletes to take place and I think I have suffered enough.

Verisign has told us today that our grace deletion request is still under management review.  They will let us know once they have reached a final decision.

It's day 9.  Do you know where my money is?

Thank you.

For the love of GOD.  How long must I wait to get my money back?  It's been 2 WEEKS now and still no word from verisign?  I think I have been more than patient, don't you think?  

Something tells me that the longer this goes on the easier it is for them to say, "We cant give him a refund, he has had the domains for weeks!"  When, in actuality, I asked for the deletes within the "5 day" grace period!

If it wasn't for the fact that I WANT to like Dynadot and I WANT for this new domaining business to work and I WANT to keep this situation civil, I would have lost it by now and ranted and raved in my many emails to you, and in my many calls to your customer support line, and in my many posts to this forum.

Please do not leave me no other recourse but to start discussing this terrible situation in other domaining forums, blogs, and websites.  I really do not want to start a negative campaign against Dynadot.  But even my patience isn't infinite and at this point what other recourse do I have?  All my attempts to get satisfaction from you have been totally fruitless.

PLEASE tell me something.  Preferable some GOOD news.

You think this is the fault of Dynadot and you are going to discuss this in other places?

I think this is only going to make you look silly because you did not know how the grace period works.  I also don't think you will get much sympathy with ICANN because domain tasting is a bad word in the industry.  Other domaineers would actually be happy if you were to bury your business from a noob mistake because you are competition to them.

Domain tasting costs the industry money and Dynadot is offering this service for free.  They don't even have ads stuffed into every nook and crannie like Godaddy does.  You are taking advantage of this feature to use it for something it was not designed for (domain tasting as opposed to a spelling mistake) and you cannot expect your money back because your game blew up in your face.

If you are going to run a domaining business then you should use tools that were designed for this purpose rather.  If you are cheap with your business tools then the success of your business will reflect that.

I would suggest a service such as Pool.com which caters to domain tasters (they automatically delete your domain unless you specifically opt to keep it.)  I believe Enom also allows free deletion via the API.  Actually I think Dynadot also allows deletion via the API.  In any case, a system which automatically deletes your domains for you will work much better than having to do everything by hand.

With such a low profit margin, Dynadot would have to sell thousands of registrations to pay you back.  The already get a low profit over the registration fees and operating costs cut that profit even lower.  If they had to cover all the noob mistakes people make with the grace deletion then they probably wouldn't be in business.  I like Dynadot, don't go bashing them because you screwed yourself by not allowing plenty of time for deletion.

I think Dynadot should charge 10 cents per deleted domain.  Sorry dude, no sympathy here for you.  Take your lumps and learn.  Even Pool.com automatically deletes domains a half day ahead of time.


[This post has been edited by j_f_missoula_us on Nov 4, 2007 8:18pm.]

By the way, if you don't get your money back then you will just have to sell the domains.  Provide a list if you like, I might be interested in some of them if you would be willing to sell for a discount.

Ha.  Never fails.  You make just the hint of a threat (and in this case a very weak and reluctant one) and then people finally start responding to all your pleas for help and information.  Too bad it was not the sort of help and information I was looking for.  

Ah well, let me try to address this then...

I am more than a little confused by your post.  As a noob I started out by buying all sorts of domains at other registrars. Sadly, most of those domains did not produce very much in terms of traffic.  

So I started reading domain buying forums.  And then read some more.  Guess what a lot of people on those forums said?

They said they do tasting all the time to pick good names to add to their portfolios.  

They said that tasting is a great way for the little guys like us to compete with all the large companies who do this  sort of thing by the thousands of domains at a time.  

They said its also a great way for noobs, who do not yet know the finer intricacies of assessing a domain's potential traffic, to "try before you buy" the domains.

Then those same domaining forums went on to talk about the best registrars for tasting and, you guessed it, Dynadot was one of (if not THE) registrar recommended to do this tasting at.  Not just for their great service and features, but also because they give you a full refund with tasting domains.

Imagine.

What you describe as me using a feature for something is was not designed for is actually Dynadot's claim to fame. What makes them unique in the world of domainers. Domainers who buy not just one or two domains at a time but hundreds, sometimes thousands.  

I am quite sure Dynadot is very much aware of that unique position they have with this very very important segment of their business.  And indeed they try to preserve that position by maintaining the free and easy service for deletions.  Heck they have a grace period countdown right on the domain summary page!  If features like these are not a way to cater  to domain tasters, like me, I dont know what is.

Now, about my particular problem.  Sure, I am a noob, that much is clear.  But why tell a noob after the fact that he should have made his delete requests YESTERDAY?  That is pretty much what happens with the message you are given during the delete process!

Why tell a noob that he has X hours left in the grace deletion countdown when he in fact DOESN'T for a safe and speedy deletion?  

And please do not forget that Dynadot HAS my $500 already.   (Which incidently they point out gives people who buy domains in bulk an advantage.  Which is just another great feature for bulk domain buyers, and tasters.) So I am not getting all this tasting for free.  It cost me Five. Hundred. Dollars.

So it's fine if I have no sympathy from you, and it's also fine if you are in a position to kiss this sort of money goodbye.  I however, being a noob, cannot.

Now about your kind offer to potentially buy some of these domains, thanks.  Maybe we can talk more about that when, if, the time comes.  

However I sincerely hope I am not put into a position where I have to sell all these domains on my own.

BTW, I think you sending people like me who want to buy lots and lots of domains to Dynadot's competitors (like Pool.com) is just as bad as any sort of negative campaign I may start against them, if not worse.

I hope all that came across properly.  It's 3:30 am for me here and I am very tired.  I have been getting very little sleep over this whole thing.


[This post has been edited by tony_warwick_us on Nov 16, 2007 12:37pm.]