Can anyone give me some advice please?

[dashu1]

Hello,
I wondered if anyone would be kind enough to share their opinion/advice on a situation please.

A new customer of mine wants a quite simple website building, they have come to me since the webdesigner they were using has been a complete pain in the a*se and his behaviour is questionable.

Basically he has registered a domain in their company name for them and stuck up a monstrosity of a website that is littered with spelling mistakes, won't ever show in Google, has booking details with the wrong venues on it, etc, etc and he hasn't changed it despite numerous requests from them.

They have no access to the site or it's content, and worse still he won't redirect emails to the site to their Gmail account - meaning he has access to all of their email & they don't!

This is where notifications of bookings come to since they use paypal and the paypal account *was* linked to this email address. They've now removed the email address from their paypal account which is even worse since he'll know they have payments waiting and they won't!

They've had enough and want to break all dealings with him.

However, the situation is that there is a website about their company on a domain that is their businessname.co.uk that they have no control over, they don't want it up, they don't want him to have access to the email, or their customers details or payments - and he won't take it down or transfer the domain.

What chance do they have of winning a DRS, or is this even the route to go down?

To my mind there are more serious implications here than who owns the domain - getting the domain would solve the problems - but that's going to take time IF they can win a DRS.

They're only a very small new business so what do you think should be their course of action?

I don't want to post the URL here for obvious reasons, but if anyone wants to have a look PM me.

Thanks.

 

[rob]

Ring Nom, ask for info on registrant correction.

Chargeable Changes



Domain name originally registered by an ex employee

If the domain name was originally registered by an ex employee, the company will need to complete a transfer form and indemnity form. They should contact Nominet for further information.

That type of thing might apply.

 

[FC Domains]

Hello,
Basically he has registered a domain in their company name for them

If it's registered in the company name it should be a simple matter of them requesting a TAG transfer and gaining control.

If the TAG is with a large hosting company this will probably be quite simple.

However if the domain is held on the developers own account with Nominet, he could pull a 'fast one'.

 

[dashu1]

Thanks fr your replies, there's some stuff in there I didn't know about.

It doesn't help that the 2 ladies don't seem to have much of a clue of whats going on themselves.

 

[dashu1]

Well, I spoke to nominet and the answer was that it belongs to the web developer and there's not a lot can be done about it since they operate a "first come first served" basis.

I pointed out the domain is:

the company name
was bought for them
is populated with information about them
etc

But to no avail - the chap I spoke to suggested either a drs or legal advice.


Seems a bit daft to me, what's happened is pretty straightforward really.

 

[bensd]

Well, I spoke to nominet and the answer was that it belongs to the web developer and there's not a lot can be done about it since they operate a "first come first served" basis.

I pointed out the domain is:

the company name
was bought for them
is populated with information about them
etc

But to no avail - the chap I spoke to suggested either a drs or legal advice.


Seems a bit daft to me, what's happened is pretty straightforward really.

Is the domain registered in the developers name then?

 

[dashu1]

Yes unfortunately.

He's now told them that he isn't going to take the site down unless they pay him the £650 they'd agreed to build the site - which he hasn't even done properly!

I think he's treading on thin ice here, since they have asked him for a couple of weeks prior to dropping him to remove incorrect venues and details.

So he now has a website purporting to represent an organisation that is offering bookings to non existent events that could cause them losses and/or damages.

I think he's overstepping the mark and is potentially leaving himself wide open to legal proceedings.

 

[bensd]

Yes unfortunately.

He's now told them that he isn't going to take the site down unless they pay him the £650 they'd agreed to build the site - which he hasn't even done properly!

Why don't they just pay him £650 via an escrow site for ownership of the domain, won't that cost them less than a drs or involving solicitors?

 

[GreyWing]

Why don't you just DRS them? I'd rather pay £750 to nom than £650 to this company.

There are plenty of cases of this happening before and being turned round on a drs.

Try the default drs for £10

 

[willbon]

It's actually cheaper to change the company name and find a new URL... depending on how much investment there's been in signage / stationery / marketing etc...

Sounds like a start-up.... I'd point them to pastures new....

Good luck!

Will