£10 + VAT charge to change tag

[bensd]

I have a couple of domains with ukdomains.com (names.co.uk) which i would like to move to a different registrar. I have just gone to change the tag in my control panel and seen there is a £10 + VAT charge (per domain) to do this.

Most of my .uk domains are with 123-reg and they don't charge to change the tag.

Is is normal to charge for this?

 

[itrends]

Varies per registrar. Many sell domains cheap and make money on the renewals or transfer / edit actions. Pain is that you have to find out about them before registering or you are stuck like you currently are.

 

[bensd]

Thats a pain in the a. Luckily i only have a few reg's with them.

Thanks for the the quick response itrends.

-Ben

 

[Jeewhizz]

Just do a bulk via Nom for £10+VAT in total

 

[Skinner]

I was gonna say bulk it with nom too.

I'm going to do this with my 123-reg account as i'm just goddamned lazy to change the ISP tag on about 800 names in 1 account, and 100 in another and about 1200 in my joint account, I just hope you can do that volume in a bulk jobby I figured maybe have to transfer owner if no tag update.

Sucks ass you have to do them 1 by 1.

 

[blacknight]

Unfortunately Nominet policy allows tag holders to charge for something that cost nothing.

 

[retired_member12]

Ooooh, this thread just sent that 'UK2.net' shiver down my spine! I thought those days had long gone, seems not!

 

[blacknight]

Ooooh, this thread just sent that 'UK2.net' shiver down my spine! I thought those days had long gone, seems not!

Unfortunately it's "alive" and wrecking people's heads ...

Personally I cannot see how any registrar can justify charging for a tag change. It takes us all of 30 seconds (if I type slowly) to retag a domain. The only thing that takes any time is making it 100% clear that we won't have any control over the domain once it's left our tag

 

[retired_member12]

^ Yes, and a fair registrar should allow the registrant to change the TAG themselves through thier control panel, with all the usual warnings to boot. Should be a requirement through the Nominet T&Cs tbh, but there's no chance of that happening!

 

[blacknight]

^ Yes, and a fair registrar should allow the registrant to change the TAG themselves through thier control panel, with all the usual warnings to boot. Should be a requirement through the Nominet T&Cs tbh, but there's no chance of that happening!

Ideally - yes

(I don't think our control panel has that functionality at the moment, but getting us to do it only takes a few minutes to a few hours)

Getting Nominet's members (en masse) to accept that kind of change to policy is unlikely to happen, but I do feel that it would be possible to make it attractive to registrars to adopt a "registrant friendly" code of conduct that included free tag changes ...

 

[grantw]

Unfortunately it's "alive" and wrecking people's heads ...

Personally I cannot see how any registrar can justify charging for a tag change. It takes us all of 30 seconds (if I type slowly) to retag a domain. The only thing that takes any time is making it 100% clear that we won't have any control over the domain once it's left our tag

Indeed, I just had a client that had to pay a £30 + VAT 'admin' fee for a TAG change. Wish I could find a job that pays £60 a minute!

Grant

 

[blacknight]

Indeed, I just had a client that had to pay a £30 + VAT 'admin' fee for a TAG change. Wish I could find a job that pays £60 a minute!

Grant

It would have been cheaper for them to go direct via Nominet to get that done

Which company charged that much?

 

[grantw]

It would have been cheaper for them to go direct via Nominet to get that done

Don't get me started on the Nominet account system :evil: My intention was to talk him through that but : he had never received a login for online services, the domain was registered 11 years ago and he had no idea what the admin email address associated with the domain was so therefore could not do a password reset. His only option would be to 'reestablish his identity' for £10 + VAT and then do the TAG change for £10 + VAT.

He was a busy guy and said sod this, I'll just pay the 30 quid.

PS. I guess Nominet are not setting a good example to registrars by charging £10 + VAT for a TAG change that is 100% automated!

Grant

 

[blacknight]

PS. I guess Nominet are not setting a good example to registrars by charging £10 + VAT for a TAG change that is 100% automated!

Grant

Their argument, which I would accept, is that the fee is to cover their administration costs etc., while tagholders would / should be able to do it for their registrants without involving the registry

 

[ratboy]

I can see why Nom would charge this as many would involve a phone call and a lot of explaining, but a registrar - it's all automated so just an excuse to charge a desperate punter!

 

[blacknight]

I can see why Nom would charge this as many would involve a phone call and a lot of explaining, but a registrar - it's all automated so just an excuse to charge a desperate punter!

Exactly my thoughts and it's something that the Nominet PAB should be looking at.....

 

[grantw]

I can see why Nom would charge this as many would involve a phone call and a lot of explaining

Agreed, but if Joe Public cannot use online services without calling Nominet then somethings wrong. I waste hours every week talking end users through transfers and have sometimes resulted to asking them to send me the £11.50 and doing the transfers myself. The system is so alien to most people it needs a comprehensive help section and an explanation of what the system actually is, I can't find one anywhere?

The TAG change I mentioned earlier was for a domain I was buying. The seller had no idea what online services was so I just told him to change the domain to my TAG and I would transfer it to myself. I don't really want to be doing things this way but it saves me a lot of time and hassle!

Grant

 

[Jeewhizz]

I happen to agree.

However, I'm going to play devil's advocate here...

A registrar has to maintain systems/staff etc. This comes at a cost. So should they charge for a tag change? The length of time it takes for a tag change to be made is irrelevant really, as it still requires either:

a) A member of staff to verif the user, generate a PGP email etc
b) The company to have developed an online system to automate this (which isn't free).

If you put it that a decent online registrar system using EPP would cost around £5k to setup (that's fairly optimistic), they need to cover this cost somewhere. And as a lot of registrars sell at a loss, or with v little margins, this cost has to be met elsewhere.

(I am not condoning the charge btw!)

 

[ratboy]

Fair enough Jee. I bet there is a strong corrolation between those with bargain prices and those who charge for "extras" - like you say they need to make money somehow.

As to the Nom system. Yes old domains with old emails seem to be a nightmare to transfer, especially if you buy from someone who doesn't know anything about computers.