double billing for domain names
It is with some caution that I post this query to nanog, but I consulted with a colleague who runs a root server and he indicated that this note might be of interest to the readership as it is an operations issue that may affect your users. This note concerns what appears to be systematic double-billing for domain names by NSI. Here's how it works: 1) You work for corporation A and have registered a domain name for several years which has an anniversary date of April 1. Each April 1, you receive a bill for $35. 2) On December 31, you transfer that domain name to corporation B, which pays $70, good for two years. 3) On April 1, corporation B will receive a bill for $35 from NSI, despite the fact that the domain name is paid for a two year period. On December 31, I executed such a transfer for a couple dozen domain names. In early February, I received my first duplicate bill from NSI. I raised a considerable stink and eventually got them to cancel the invoice. Since then, I receive a consistent string of bills, each on the previous anniversary date of the domain names. Each time I've raised a considerable stink, but it is very hard to get the double bills cancelled. The manager of the billing department finally reported it to the NSI engineering team in June, and NSI confirmed that this is a systematic problem in their billing machinery. So, here is my query: Do other people also have these double bills or do your customers have this issue? I suspect that NSI does this on a regular basis and there are a lot of NSI customers that are paying money for domain names they already paid for. If each domain name transfer yields $70 in revenue for NSI (paying for two years) and then yields another $35-$70 in double revenue, this seems like it might be a lot of money. I'd appreciate notes from anybody else who has a similar issue or is aware of people with a similar issue so that I can document it as a systematic practice. Regards, Carl Malamud Invisible Worlds http://invisible.net/
At 06:07 PM 7/19/99 , Carl Malamud wrote:
2) On December 31, you transfer that domain name to corporation B, which pays $70, good for two years.
At the risk of distracting your query, but not wanting to -- and hence I've changed the Subject line -- I'm finding myself also wondering why a friendly transfer should cost anything at all, never mind an entire $70. The NSI charging model lets one make changes to the registration fields for free. If the transfer is a friendly movement, then it is no different from any other change of information to the fields. d/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dave Crocker Tel: +1 408 246 8253 Brandenburg Consulting Fax: +1 408 273 6464 675 Spruce Drive <http://www.brandenburg.com> Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA <mailto:dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
On Mon, Jul 19, 1999 at 06:50:51PM -0700, Dave Crocker wrote:
At 06:07 PM 7/19/99 , Carl Malamud wrote:
2) On December 31, you transfer that domain name to corporation B, which pays $70, good for two years.
i just started wondering about that whether or not they would do such a thing. thank you for confirming my fears. :)
At the risk of distracting your query, but not wanting to -- and hence I've changed the Subject line -- I'm finding myself also wondering why a friendly transfer should cost anything at all, never mind an entire $70.
The NSI charging model lets one make changes to the registration fields for free. If the transfer is a friendly movement, then it is no different from any other change of information to the fields.
the "company owner" transfer is a little more complicated, since it can no longer be accomplished with a "single transaction". one used to be able to just send in a form that changed that information. now one must send in a single message with a "delete" request and a "new" request. presumably the domain gets "newed" which triggers the $70 charge, but never actually gets "deleted", leaving the old billing cycle intact. i was considering transferring some domains between names, but in light of this, i think i'll hold off. besides...how would i get credit for the "unused" portin of the registration fee that i had paid? -- |-----< "CODE WARRIOR" >-----| codewarrior@daemon.org * "ah! i see you have the internet twofsonet@graffiti.com (Andrew Brown) that goes *ping*!" andrew@crossbar.com * "information is power -- share the wealth."
participants (3)
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Andrew Brown
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Carl Malamud
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Dave Crocker