Just after the dot com boom a mate and me purchased some domain names. We hoped that we would sell them for millions and never have to work again!!!

Now a good few years later we have decided to finally sell the names. Im once again starting a few sites and he has been building a few sites of his own for the last few years. Every year we were reminded to renew the domains and as they were in his name I gave him cash and he paid the people we dealt with.

When we have gone to list the domains on an auction site it turns out one of them is no longer registered to us. My mate claims to have a receipt at his house showing that the domain name had been renewed. I have not seen this so at the moment im assuming he is reading the recipt correctly.

If it turns out that he is correct and it looks like the domain company has not renewed our name do we stand to any costs from them or is it just tuff luck?

At the moment my mate / business partner of is dealing with the company we generally buy names from. I guess I have to wait to see what they come back with but don’t see how we are going to get the name back as its now being used!

Do you have any experiences of the above?

Regards

James B

First of all, you have to make sure that your partner isn't playing against you and see the receipt. Then contact your registrar and be ready to provide all the documents. When was the expiry date of your domain? Who's your registrar? It's important to know that. If you're interested in getting your domain name back, you should act very quickly.

Yeah that would blow if someone has a domain you paid for.

Chcek the receipt out for yourself before thinking out the next course of action. It all depends on what you find!

Christie

Hi All.

Right we have had email confirmation from the domain company we bought the name from that it is their error. As far as I am now aware they are trying to contact the current owner to see if he will give it back.

Lets be honest that aint going to happen!

So what can we say we want from the domain company?

Thanks

James B

What is the URL ?

James B – You have a upper-hand at the moment against the domain company and you can obviously sue them for the damages for that particular domain name. As being a responsible company they should have taken care of this issue which could have got you good $$$. If you have all the required documents and evidence to prove the company’s fault go ahead and get compensated.

I'd consult an intellectual property lawyer and see what he/she says. It would seem as if you have a good lawsuit, but the law is not all that clear in areas that deal with the Internet.

Next time you should set "auto-renew".. i am not sure whether you can get back your domain.. nowadays, any domain can be transfer to other registrar easily once their expiration date is up.

James-B, Please contact an attorney who deals domain related cases alongwith all the available documents. If the documents you have is valid, then you can easily file a lawsuit against the registrar

All this talk of lawyers and lawsuits!

You aren't going to collect much more than the actual loss. That is after you prove the loss.

If we are talking about a domain like sex dot com it might be time to get a lawyer. If we are talking about a domain that might sell for $50 or even $500 on a good day.........Well call a shyster and check their hourly rate.

Having admited to a mistake, I suggest you see what the registar offers you and then take it from there. Chances are their first offer won't be their best offer.

Hope this is still on topic, but can a domain registrar or reseller refuse to devulge your EPP codes and confiscate your domain using sneaky ways, especially for a valuable domain?

Cos, its plausible that this thing could happen, couldnt it? What recourse does the user have apart from lawsuits to compel the registrar or reseller to give up the domain back to us?

We have been contacted by the registration company to inform us that they are purchasing the name back. The guy I own the name with contacted the registrars to find out what price they were paying.

$1000 is what they are buying the name back for. So my contact informed them that we would rather have the money than the domain.

See we were going to put it and the others we own up for sale. Unfortunately after getting the name appraised its worth nothing so the money they are intending to buy it back for would be a welcome bonus.

I think we are to late though as we have been advised that the transaction is going through and that they don’t expect they can stop it but will try.

Oh well. So close to making a small profit but yet still so far away.

James B

wow that is great that they are paying 1000. I want that registar. Who is it by the way? Also whats the url of urs.

Hi,

I wouldnt want people to name me online if I had made a mistake and Im not going to name them.

I also have another 15 domain names with them and a hosting package so dont want to get into a tit for tat situation were they may not renew another name or not give me as much help as they have been.

At the end of the day Im sure we have all made mistakes during our working lives. In my day job I make them all the time. Its just lucky I can spot them before any one else most of the time and fix them.

Sorry.

James B