Domain names on monthly renewal with Inspire?

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tonyhughes

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#23708 7-Jul-2008 18:47

I look after a business with 16 or so domain names.

I went through them all today, checking for expiry dates to find that most, but not all, are within a month of expiring.

The explanation from Inspire was that after the first year, the domains simply renew on a month by month basis, despite the fact that we have paid one year in advance.

A couple of our domains with them are registered for the full time we have paid, but its a bit disconcerting to see our main domain name, which is also tied into our television advertisements, in a perpetual state of being close to expiry should something go wrong.

If this domain was down for one day, we could probably start counting losses in 4 - 5 figures per day.

Is this normal?
Am I edgy for no reason?
What are your guys thoughts?

All my own domains (.co.nz and .com) expire at the date I have paid to.

sleemanj

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#143998 7-Jul-2008 19:33

tonyhughes:

The explanation from Inspire was that after the first year, the domains simply renew on a month by month basis, despite the fact that we have paid one year in advance.

I believe (and IANAL, or registrar for that matter) that this may be in violation of section 7.11 of the "Registering, Managing and Cancelling Domain Names" policy document -

7.11 The registrar must identify the full billing term and ensure they pay the full amount to NZRS. If the registration is for a significant term, eg 10 years, the billing term can be set from 1 - 120 months. Registrars are able to register for an initial period until they have received the monies from the registrant, as long as they specify this approach in their terms and conditions and update the domain name billing term as soon as those monies are received.

http://dnc.org.nz/content/rmc.html

They are not correctly identifying the billing term, or paying the full amount to NZRS.

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

sleemanj

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#144002 7-Jul-2008 19:35

Also section 9 of that same document makes it quite clear

9.2 Registrars will be obliged to disclose the billing term arranged between a registrar and a registrant to NZRS through the registration transaction, so they are billed for the same period that they have billed their registrants, on an individual domain name basis.

I'd say you need to send your complaint to the DNC.

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

freitasm

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#144007 7-Jul-2008 19:37

Yes, I've noticed ICONZ does the same...

Not amused.

sleemanj

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#144008 7-Jul-2008 19:37

Complaints to the DNC go here:
http://www.dnc.org.nz/drs/form1_1.php

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

alasta

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#144057 7-Jul-2008 20:27

Essentially the .nz registry allows registars to register or renew domain names for any term as long as it is in increments of one month. However, as someone else has pointed out, registrars are bound by terms which state that they must commit a domain name to the registry for the full term that the registrant has paid for. Registrars can have (and have had) sanctions imposed on them for failing to comply with the registry rules.

The big telcos tend to renew domain names month-by-month and bill customers on a monthly basis because it make it easy to charge an exhorbitant amount since the end user doesn't notice what appears to be a small monthly charge on an otherwise large phone bill.

Is it a risk to you? Probably not as long as you have confidence that it will get renewed each month as it falls due. However, if you transfer the name to another registrar then I would advise you to immediately ensure that the new registrar continues the monthly renewals, or pushes it to the registry for a longer term.

Disclaimer : Any views or advise expressed here is purely my own and does not necessarily reflect the views or advice of my employer.

freitasm

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#144276 8-Jul-2008 09:37

From ICONZ:

Unfortunately we have an issue at the moment which our engineers are trying to resolve with our link to the Domain Name Registry of New Zealand.

Basically after the first year of registration our domain names start renewing monthly rather than annually. This still happens automatically therefore there is no danger of your domain name/s becoming available.

We apologise if this causes any inconvenience and are working to try and resolve this as soon as possible.

Same "fault" as Inspire?

rphenix

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#145139 8-Jul-2008 23:04

Get a reseller account at mysrs.co.nz and move all your clients across to them :)