For those who haven't already seen this, Network Solutions is sending "FINAL NOTICE" bills to domain holders who've transferred their names to other registrars. Many people get nervious when they receive something which looks official and says "your domain name will be repossessed" or something like that. I have been advising clients to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission. This is a flagrant attempt to bilk end users. It is unclear if those who DO pay wind up getting their domains transferred back to Network Solutions, or if they just pocket the money. Anyone from the press who wants some choice quotes from me on this matter, feel free to contact me. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel Senie dts@senie.com Amaranth Networks Inc. http://www.amaranth.com
Daniel: While I don't know specifically, I don't believe this is anything intentional on NSI's part but is rather an artifact of their billing systems. I've known for a long time that their billing systems frequently lag current registration data by months, sometimes many. My guess is that the invoices are entered into the billing system at some time prior to the due date of a domain and are not updated regardless of what happens to the domain registration. At least that was the apparent situation the last time I tried to trace such a problem. They've made a lot of changes in receint history, so who knows if this behavior is changing. I wonder if anyone on this list has real knowledge of the billing processes at NSI? Related to this, you should be warning your customers of the bogus "FINAL NOTICE" scam that is unrelated to Network Solutions. You can see an older copy at the following URL. Note also that there have been a few variations of this. If you do have customers who are still receiving these, let me know. I've been asked to pass on contact information for further investigation of these. http://www.gaslightmedia.com/final-notice.gif Chuck Scott Gaslight Media cscott@gaslightmedia.com On Fri, 5 Jan 2001, Daniel Senie wrote:
For those who haven't already seen this, Network Solutions is sending "FINAL NOTICE" bills to domain holders who've transferred their names to other registrars. Many people get nervious when they receive something which looks official and says "your domain name will be repossessed" or something like that.
I have been advising clients to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission. This is a flagrant attempt to bilk end users. It is unclear if those who DO pay wind up getting their domains transferred back to Network Solutions, or if they just pocket the money.
Anyone from the press who wants some choice quotes from me on this matter, feel free to contact me.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel Senie dts@senie.com Amaranth Networks Inc. http://www.amaranth.com
That is rather dumb not being able to reconcile accounts paid with accounts received like any other normal business model that has a billing department. Charles Scott wrote:
Daniel: While I don't know specifically, I don't believe this is anything intentional on NSI's part but is rather an artifact of their billing systems. I've known for a long time that their billing systems frequently lag current registration data by months, sometimes many. My guess is that the invoices are entered into the billing system at some time prior to the due date of a domain and are not updated regardless of what happens to the domain registration. At least that was the apparent situation the last time I tried to trace such a problem. They've made a lot of changes in receint history, so who knows if this behavior is changing. I wonder if anyone on this list has real knowledge of the billing processes at NSI? Related to this, you should be warning your customers of the bogus "FINAL NOTICE" scam that is unrelated to Network Solutions. You can see an older copy at the following URL. Note also that there have been a few variations of this. If you do have customers who are still receiving these, let me know. I've been asked to pass on contact information for further investigation of these.
http://www.gaslightmedia.com/final-notice.gif
Chuck Scott Gaslight Media cscott@gaslightmedia.com
On Fri, 5 Jan 2001, Daniel Senie wrote:
For those who haven't already seen this, Network Solutions is sending "FINAL NOTICE" bills to domain holders who've transferred their names to other registrars. Many people get nervious when they receive something which looks official and says "your domain name will be repossessed" or something like that.
I have been advising clients to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission. This is a flagrant attempt to bilk end users. It is unclear if those who DO pay wind up getting their domains transferred back to Network Solutions, or if they just pocket the money.
Anyone from the press who wants some choice quotes from me on this matter, feel free to contact me.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel Senie dts@senie.com Amaranth Networks Inc. http://www.amaranth.com
-- Thank you; |--------------------------------| | Thinking is a learned process. | | ICANN member @large | | Gigabit over IP, ieee 802.17 | | working group | | Resilient Packet Transport | |--------------------------------| Henry R. Linneweh
"Henry R. Linneweh" wrote:
That is rather dumb not being able to reconcile accounts paid with accounts received like any other normal business model that has a billing department.
No kidding. I don't know, though. With most companies I'd chalk it up to stupidity. With NSI I'd be much more likely to attribute stuff like this to greed and malice. -- Steve Sobol, BOFH, President 888.480.4NET 866.DSL.EXPRESS 216.619.2NET North Shore Technologies Corporation http://NorthShoreTechnologies.net JustTheNet/JustTheNet EXPRESS DSL (ISP Services) http://JustThe.net mailto:sjsobol@NorthShoreTechnologies.net Proud resident of Cleveland, Ohio
On Sun, 07 Jan 2001 14:25:08 -0500, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@NorthShoreTechnologies.net> wrote:
"Henry R. Linneweh" wrote:
That is rather dumb not being able to reconcile accounts paid with accounts received like any other normal business model that has a billing department.
No kidding.
I don't know, though. With most companies I'd chalk it up to stupidity. With NSI I'd be much more likely to attribute stuff like this to greed and malice.
I know several people who NetSol have scammed this way, & they are considering reporting it to the US postal service as mail fraud. Apparently it's illegal to bill for services that haven't been rendered. Those of you in the USA who've been billed fraudulently might consider doing the same. -- W . | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because \|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est ---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
In network solutions favour, I have to say that I have not recieved any invoices for the domains I've renewed in the past few months (quite a few) only a letter confirming that payment was recieved and that it will be up for renew in another x amount of years. OTOH, I have recieved letters from network solutions that look like bills for renewal, that are actually changeover forms to move your domain from another registrar (opensrs in the 3 letters I got) which I greatly dislike. (it's real fun when the customer gets it and calls to complain that they paid us for it already, and want to know why they're getting a bill from NSI). NSI, moving from one bad marketing ploy to another. Matthew S. Hallacy XtraTyme Technologies On Sat, 6 Jan 2001, Henry R. Linneweh wrote:
That is rather dumb not being able to reconcile accounts paid with accounts received like any other normal business model that has a billing department.
Thank you; |--------------------------------| | Thinking is a learned process. | | ICANN member @large | | Gigabit over IP, ieee 802.17 | | working group | | Resilient Packet Transport | |--------------------------------| Henry R. Linneweh
I would be more forceful with the original registrar and make them deal with the problem since they are the ones not being forceful enough to get the desired result for your money and if they do not give the desired result I would file an official complaint with ICANN they are sanctioning bogus domain registrars that are not living up to their commitment. poptix@sleepybox.poptix.net wrote:
In network solutions favour, I have to say that I have not recieved any invoices for the domains I've renewed in the past few months (quite a few) only a letter confirming that payment was recieved and that it will be up for renew in another x amount of years. OTOH, I have recieved letters from network solutions that look like bills for renewal, that are actually changeover forms to move your domain from another registrar (opensrs in the 3 letters I got) which I greatly dislike. (it's real fun when the customer gets it and calls to complain that they paid us for it already, and want to know why they're getting a bill from NSI). NSI, moving from one bad marketing ploy to another.
Matthew S. Hallacy XtraTyme Technologies
On Sat, 6 Jan 2001, Henry R. Linneweh wrote:
That is rather dumb not being able to reconcile accounts paid with accounts received like any other normal business model that has a billing department.
Thank you; |--------------------------------| | Thinking is a learned process. | | ICANN member @large | | Gigabit over IP, ieee 802.17 | | working group | | Resilient Packet Transport | |--------------------------------| Henry R. Linneweh
-- Thank you; |--------------------------------| | Thinking is a learned process. | | ICANN member @large | | Gigabit over IP, ieee 802.17 | | working group | | Resilient Packet Transport | |--------------------------------| Henry R. Linneweh
participants (6)
-
Charles Scott -
Daniel Senie -
Henry R. Linneweh -
Lionel Lauer -
poptix＠sleepybox.poptix.net -
Steve Sobol