Daily failed to renew my domain - help!

[stellar73]

Hi,

I just noticed that one of my better domain names was not in my Daily domain account.

I knew I had definitely renewed it earlier this year, checked and found the invoice from Daily from July this year.

I have a spreadsheet and typically renew domains a couple of days before they would drop so it wouldn't have been a completely last minute renewal.

The Whois is now showing it as being registered to someone else 2 days after my invoice date.

Does anyone know what my legal rights are please? I've just sent a very angry email to Daily. I need to get this domain back

 

[CatchDrop]

Was the domain definitely with Daily? sometimes I move domains and they stay within the old registrars account even though the tag has been changed.

 

[stellar73]

Yes have used Daily for years as only registrar for all my domains

 

[CatchDrop]

I think this has come up before, although the Registrar are supposed to email you as a fail safe Nominet email registrants directly too when the domain is suspended and about to be dropped.

 

[stellar73]

Thanks but that's not the issue - I renewed it before it dropped and was sent an invoice stating the new registration period - never heard anything further from them so as far as I was concerned it had renewed normally

 

[CatchDrop]

Nothing from nominet?

 

[stellar73]

Just been on the phone to them - they said they hadn't received any renewal request instruction from Daily for the domain and so the domain went on to drop. I need to wait and see what Daily have to say for themselves before I can do anything else.

 

[CatchDrop]

But did Nominet email you about the expiry and drop of this domain?

 

[stellar73]

They did yes, not sure what your point is? I already knew when the drop date would be hence I made sure to renew it before the drop date

 

[CatchDrop]

I suppose you're right, Nominet aren't at fault, it's Daily

 

[stellar73]

Nominet *could* be at fault but only if Daily can prove that they issued a renewal request to Nominet which Nominet failed to act on. (Nominet say they didn't get one) - I suspect Daily are at fault though which is why I want to know what my rights are. The new registrant currently has the domain listed for sale at over £2000 :-( Totally infuriating trying to get hold of Daily - no phone number on their site, found one online which goes to Vidahost and been on hold for 10 mins now

 

[Skinner]

Daily are trying to be the new HEG, having acquired TSO, Vida, Evo, and some others.

When I had this situation with 123-Reg (long before I got a tag) they basically pointed me to the small print and told me to run along now. The best they did was offer to refund my £6 which about 10 yrs later they never have.

 

[stellar73]

Daily are trying to be the new HEG, having acquired TSO, Vida, Evo, and some others.

When I had this situation with 123-Reg (long before I got a tag) they basically pointed me to the small print and told me to run along now. The best they did was offer to refund my £6 which about 10 yrs later they never have.

Wow! That's terrible. I've only just realised Daily and Vidahost are part of the same company. Couldn't find a phone number for Daily and eventually managed to speak to someone by being on hold to Vidahost for half an hour. Wish I'd recorded the conversation now as the person checked the details and more or less admitted that something appears to have gone badly wrong at their end. Am now waiting on an email reply from someone else once they've investigated further. If they try and say all they can do is refund the reg cost then I'll have to look at legal options. I wouldn't have thought small print could be used to get out of failing to register a domain by a company whose primary purpose is to register domains (it would surely be classed as an unfair contract term if so?!!)....anyway will wait and see what emerges today, thanks for replying.

 

[Skinner]

Long time ago now, I don't have the hard drive to hand for the mail server (pre-gmail etc still using outlook) to hand but as I recall, they said it was my responsibility to check the whois had updated correctly.

They used the same excuse when names I had paid for had not been registered, and tried to blame Nominet who said rubbish.

It was one the final push which moved me to Daily. Then daily started to go down hill and thats the final push to get my own tag.

Without sounding like a arsehole, maybe this is your final push to get a tag ?

Doesn't stop screw ups, I've dropped a few names I didn't mean too simply because i forgot, but means the buck stops with me.

@RobM domain view's basic epp controls make basic management a doddle, if you have no interest in catching his automatic catch system would recoup your costs in no time.

 

[stellar73]

I totally take your point - I always thought Daily were good (pretty much till today actually!) - it's not worth me getting a tag though as I only own about 80 domains now (of which about 50 are for sale). This one has obvious financial value though (in my opinion anyway) hence I was careful to renew it!

 

[stellar73]

Thanks Invincible!

I don't always wait to the last few days to renew domains, just depends on cashflow. Risky I know but I'm fairly organised with dates, never lost any domain before. On this occasion the problem doesnt seem to be that it dropped earlier than the expected date (since there is a 2 day difference between my "renewal" and the new recipients successful registration) - it was just within 90 days anyway (according to what Nominet told me and the maths I have just done)

Not sure what you mean by "renewal acknowledgement" but what they sent me was an invoice which states that I have successfully paid and has a line which states "renew xxxxx.co.uk for 1 year from xxxx". From past experience with Daily this invoice sometimes comes instantly and other times it's a few hours after registration, never more than this. This was all I had from them, no further communication to say registration had failed.

 

[martin-s]

FYI, HEG own Paragon/Vidahost/TSO etc as of 2016 some time.

 

[stellar73]

Sorry to bombard everyone with questions on this same issue but does anyone know whether a DRS claim would be a possible option here? The only reason I ask is the Nominet person I spoke to this morning mentioned it. It doesn't seem like an obvious course of action to me though as would presumably require me claiming against the new registrant (who as I see it is not at fault in any way whatsoever, the fault has to be with either Daily and/or Nominet.

Still waiting to hear back from Daily though I have worked out I definitely renewed within the renewal grace period

 

[dee]

Seems unlikely a DRS would work unless there are copyright/trademark issues on your business and new owner is stepping on toes.As you say, its not the new owners fault. Did you have an existing site/business on the domain ?

 

[stellar73]

Seems unlikely a DRS would work unless there are copyright/trademark issues on your business and new owner is stepping on toes.As you say, its not the new owners fault. Did you have an existing site/business on the domain ?

Hi, thanks for replying - no I mainly acquired this domain because of it's resale value (I buy and sell domains, albeit on a fairly small scale) - the person who's acquired it obviously has the same view since they have it for sale at over £2000. I have had sites on it in the past (I sometimes use existing domains I own to put up temporary sites when I'm testing things - this was actually how I came to notice it wasn't in my domain account this morning)

I didn't think DRS would be appropriate either however part of the DRS criteria mentions being able to claim if you have a prior contractual right to the name (which I consider myself to have) so I dont know