123-Reg sending autorenewal notices for unsolicited .uk domains

[stitchbob]

They're now backpedalling and claiming that nobody will be charged for renewal unless they explicitly request it. Let's see, shall we?

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/16/123reg_namesco_uk_domains/

 

[Edwin]

That story reminds why I was right to turn my back on anything to do with Nominet after the .uk fiasco bedded down. Now I won't even give them the time of day.

 

[Nigel]

Fat cats get fatter - scamming unsuspecting registrants. What would we do without news articles like this? Great piece of journalism.

 

[dee]

That story reminds why I was right to turn my back on anything to do with Nominet after the .uk fiasco bedded down. Now I won't even give them the time of day.

Did you get completely out of the uk market Edwin or you still have some ?

 

[stitchbob]

On Twitter, 123-Reg say "if you do not actively opt-in you will not be charged and the domains will be placed back on the open market."

I've asked them to confirm that they mean they will be allowed to lapse, since it seems to me that there's no way 123-reg can have the right to sell them on.

 

[Nigel]

Worth reading the numerous comments on the Register. Looks like there are a number of registrars involved. One registrant says he found the initial email to him (from a major registrar) from 2 years ago including the comment saying "it's a FREE gift from us to you!" well that's nice of them! (and not entirely true - as it was nominet that allowed the free bulk registrations) - The registrant has now found that the domain is shown as due for renewal with the default set for a 3 year renewal.

Updated - I have edited this post as on reading the updates to the article I can see that the registrar in question is denying that the domains were set on auto renew. Instead it appears that the 'free gift' domains appear in registrant's account as due for renewal, with the default set at a 3 year period.

 

[RobM]

Well who could have foreseen this?!

 

[Craig]

Dont want to take it off thread..but.. Is there a reason why the 'Naming Committee' / Nominet didn't just keep providing .uk rather than .co.uk? I understand there was gov, ac, org, etc but always strike me as odd that the 'top level' (.uk) wasn't chosen from day 1 as both were in use before the 'standardisation' came in eg british-library.uk, just would love to know why they went with .co.uk rather than .uk

 

[Siusaidh]

It's weird really, because both Nominet and some of these large registrars have told me these mass-registrations are justified "to stop cyber squatters" and yet the registrars themselves have been by far the biggest cyber squatters of all, in preventing 100s of thousands of domains from being made available to the public, as Nominet themselves promised to do, once .co.uk registrants had had FIVE years to register them.

They are sitting on 100's of thousands of domain names. THAT'S cyber-squatting.

There are names I have good reason to register and use, but I can't because of these cyber squatters.