Advice Please

Brassneck · Jun 29, 2005

Recently acquired an expired name, but have now been contacted by former owner who said that it had only expired because of problems with re-registrering it.

It belonged to a small business and I have no desire to keep the domain if it is going to damage the business so I will transfer it back.

Question is, is it reasonable to charge a small admin fee to sort this out (e.g. £50 to cover my reg fees and time) or should I do it free of charge. The domain is quite generic so there aren't any obvious TM issues.

Thanks

Stephen.

bb99 · Jun 29, 2005

I think £50ish is reasonable although I've never been in that situation.

One thing I would say though - make sure that the person you're in touch with really is who they say they are.

Any idea what the re-registration problems were? Presumably they weren't able to use the name (email or www) for the duration of the suspension period so why couldn't they rectify the problem there and then?

Brassneck · Jun 29, 2005

Thanks for this - yes I will pursue exact nature of problem to ensure good faith. Apparently the person had been in contact with Nominet too - I've just got my TAG so don't want to get into trouble.

Stephen.

bb99 · Jun 29, 2005

At the end of the day you registered a domain name that was available for registration - there's probably no way you can get into trouble

Would be interested to see what others have to say on this matter also...

domainer · Jun 29, 2005

If its generic then I would charge them a reasonable fee. I picked up a domain and was contacted by the previous owner. I charged him £XXX for something that cost me less than a tenner.

Remember they get 3 months grace to sort these things out.

bb99 · Jun 29, 2005

domainer said:
If its generic then I would charge them a reasonable fee. I picked up a domain and was contacted by the previous owner. I charged him £XXX for something that cost me less than a tenner.

Remember they get 3 months grace to sort these things out.

As Donald Trump says, "it's nothing personal, it's just business"... :smile:

shaunjock · Jun 29, 2005

Personally I would not worry about it too much. The website/email is "obviously" not critical to their line of work as they managed to do without it for quite a time period during the suspension period. Their loss, your gain!

You could always come up with a "domain rental" agreement whereby you get a cut for all your *hard* work and they get to keep the identity associated with the domain. Test the water by starting at a relatively low monthly/annual fee and if they do not buy it then it not that important to them and they are just trying it on having realised that the name has some value.

Wiggy · Jun 29, 2005

Having a laugh, right?

I think somebody might be taking advantage of your relative inexperience.

They had months to sort this out and the domain would have stopped working for quite some time before it dropped. I know - I forgot to renew a domain at my place of work a few months back, and we suddenly had a non-working website and no e-mail for a week whilst I got it sorted out.

If I were in your position, I would at this very minute be placing the domain on eBay and informing them of the location of the auction. Place a £50 reserve on it. If they want it, they can bid for it. If they are just pulling your chain (which I think they undoubtedly are), then you can still try and achieve a reasonable market value for it, especially if it's a generic.

I think you would be acting out of good faith, as you got the domain with no intent to exploit somebody and you can't verify their true nature. Remember this - unless they have a trademark on the domain they have ZERO rights to own it now. They had MONTHS to sort this problem out and they didn't. They are now asking you to hand over a domain that is potentially worth a lot of money.

Assume they are lying, and act accordingly. It is now YOUR domain, the law is on your side as possession is 9/10ths and all that. Hand it over to them even for £50 and they're making a fool of you, IMHO.

keys · Jun 29, 2005

This is business. The bad management or misfortune of others is not your concern, unless you have caused it.

It is common for buyers to provide a hard luck story in the hope of getting a reduced price. This is especially true of a high street bank, as we know from our own experience.

If you want to hand over a domain for £50 expenses, that is your choice. In my view you should seek and receive market value, you can accept less as a gesture of goodwill.

On several occasions we have replied to paltry offers with a realistic price and buyers have paid asking price or close to.

If a domain name is important to a business they must expect to pay the going rate to obtain one. If they already have a domain/s then they should take care to renew them, even if they are just shelved for future use.

domainer · Jun 29, 2005

We had a situation now where we were contacted by someone who let their domain lapse - sob story of why it happened etc etc - wondered if we would consider giving it them back. No chance but they could have it for a low price as I was sympathetic - They replied "You should let us have it for the reg fee as we could get 'verysimilarname.co.uk' for £6. So I regged 'verysimilarname.co.uk' before they did and they had to buy both off me. I did feel awfull about doing this (for a while anyway).

retired member 1 · Jun 29, 2005

domainer said:
We had a situation now where we were contacted by someone who let their domain lapse - sob story of why it happened etc etc - wondered if we would consider giving it them back. No chance but they could have it for a low price as I was sympathetic - They replied "You should let us have it for the reg fee as we could get 'verysimilarname.co.uk' for £6. So I regged 'verysimilarname.co.uk' before they did and they had to buy both off me. I did feel awfull about doing this (for a while anyway).

Hahaha, I laughed for ages after reading this.....that's a classic :wink:

Brassneck · Jun 29, 2005

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I need to get a harder edge to my business practices - loads of great stories here and lots for me to think about.

I'll let you know what happens in due course.

Stephen.

philipp · Jun 29, 2005

J2theIZZO said:
Hahaha, I laughed for ages after reading this.....that's a classic :wink:

How exactly is this funny? The company in question was naieve, but by domainer's own admission he registered the second domain in the worst form of bad faith, in the hope that he could hold them to ransom over it.

Pretty wretched behaviour really.

P.

retired_member16 · Jun 30, 2005

philipp said:
How exactly is this funny? The company in question was naieve, but by domainer's own admission he registered the second domain in the worst form of bad faith, in the hope that he could hold them to ransom over it.

Pretty wretched behaviour really.

P.

I too thought it was fantastic. A little shady maybe, but you have to be on the ball all the time and the company in question were sadly lacking.

philipp · Jun 30, 2005

firestars said:
I too thought it was fantastic. A little shady maybe, but you have to be on the ball all the time and the company in question were sadly lacking.

Yeah but you have a history of registering names in bad faith, so your view is unsurprising. I imagine Ricky Gervais would agree with me on this.

P.