Help! Unusual situation transferring a .uk

Someone please advise, this is doing my head in...

I'm having problems transferring a domain to someone in the Netherlands. He has asked me to release the domain to the REGISTRAR-EU tag which appears to belong to a fairly large registrar openprovider.com i.e. this tag is not the buyer's own self-managed tag. I have tried to put the domain on this registrar's tag twice now but they have their tag set to handshake request and they aren't accepting the handshake!

BUT I'm concerned that we're just wasting our time because even if the registrar accepts the domain, it won't result in the domain being properly transferred as the registrant name will still be in my name won't it? Or do some registrars enable their customers to change the registrant field in their account?

I thought the only ways you could transfer a .uk domain to someone else were:

1. via the standard Nominet transfer process on the Nominet website where a fee is charged, or
2. if the buyer has their own self-managed tag you release the domain to that tag and he can change the registrant details to his own.

Am I right? At least that is what I have been trying to explain to him. I've sold hundreds of .co.uk/.uk domains and each transfer has been via one of the above methods. I'm not sure if he has understood my English perfectly but he is still insisting I release the domain onto the REGISTRAR-EU tag.

To top it off in the last 24 hours I've got another buyer for another domain in the Netherlands who also wants me to release it to the REGISTRAR-EU tag! Help!

 

We've sold a couple of domains to european buyers using that tag. I said the same as you initially but they've got the registrar to accept the transfer, change the registrant info and the domain has been removed from our nominet account.

 

I had a similar situation recently, where a domain name was transferred to me but I ended up with the domain name in my Nominet account, but with the previous registrant's name, not mine. I ended up transferring it to myself.

 

Depending how much the sale is for I would just initiate a transfer and pay the £12. I do this where I know I'm going to have problems with the receiving registrar and the client probably doesn't understand what's going on.

 

I think even paying the transfer fee will still result in the handshake failing. I have no experience with that Registrar but a similar thing happens with LCN and the way to resolve it is for the purchaser to add the domain into their LCN account BEFORE the transfer and then the handshake will accept, but it isn't immediate I think an hour or so from memory, so maybe its a manual process

 

Tell your client(s) to follow these instructions:

1. Request the transfer in your Openprovider Control panel. Without an active incoming transfer request, our system will not accept the incoming transfer!
2. Contact your current provider and request to change the so-called IPS tag from the domain to REGISTRAR-EU.
3. Once the current provider has changed the IPS tag of the domain the transfer will be completed.

https://support.openprovider.eu/hc/...8-Extended-information-on-a-uk-co-uk-transfer

 

Many thanks to everyone who chipped in to this thread. I think perhaps the buyer didn't request the transfer in their Openprovider Control panel first. I believe they now have so hopefully the tag change will go through. And hopefully the registrar will facilitate the registrant details change.

 

Sometimes it's easier to walk them through initiating the transfer first on their end, and then it will open an expected handshake request with the receiving registrar. Best thing to do then would be to transfer the registrant information into the buyers, ask them for full details (since GDPR fucks everybody in the arse) and then release it to the receiving registrar who should be expecting it by then.

 

GDPR doesn't appear to affect spammers/scammers though - in fact it actively increases the likelihood of a scam. Good thing people's details are 'protected' though, even if it does mean it's easier for criminals. Who could have foreseen such a thing?!

 

I hate GDPR. Most pointless thing ever

 

aside from Nominet's AGM of course