I moved some 30+ domains to RegisterFly a few years ago. I did so because I was tired of paying Register.Com’s $30 plus domain renewal price, for the same services other domain registers provide for a lesser price.

So I moved things too RegisterFly, it was cheap and after the DotCom Bust I needed to reduce my domain-sustain expenses (renewal cost). My experience back then was that, RegisterFly’s User interface [the Domain Control Panel] was somewhat confusing, but being a gentleman, I figured it was just a learning curve that needed to be passed. For that matter I don’t like the Plesk control panel interface either, Register.com is friendly – but costly.

Anyway things were going ok while parked at RegisterFly, until I started to get the dreaded Nigerian Scam Spam-Mail. I couldn’t figure it out, how the hell did my admin address get on these spam list. Voila! RegisterFly’s Domain Zone Files were compromised (or possibly sold by a disgruntled insider).

After one year of being with them and being whois-violated, I decided it was time to move. This is when I experienced the ‘nightmare’ you-all so affectionatly explained.

My last domain to transfer-out was about year ago.
-And- I still get “Renewal-Notices” from RegisterFly well after the fact that my domains are now far-far-away from them.

I survived, and today I am quite pleased with my current Register and their Control-Panel interface.

? Will there be a Class-Action-Suite be filed against RegisterFly? and will People who have/had suffered under their Register-Regime be eligible for damages?

I feel that it should be allowed, so that Icann’s Registers know that there is a ‘responsibility’ to the Domain-Owner (Customers). Icann allowed this to happen, and it is much more wide-spread than Icann will admit. Other Registers are just as ‘messy’ as RegisterFly. Icann should take a closer look at those in the After-Markets, like those in the expire-snap market, who capture expiring names. Icann should also mandate ‘Control-Panel-Standards’, this would clean-up many registers acts.

Thanks for the info and links on this situation.

I have a domain that I renewed on February 23, 2007 at Registerfly – one day before it was due to expire. My payment processed normally, and I expected that my domain would NOT go offline. Without fail, my past domain renewals at RegisterFly have always taken effect within minutes.

Later that day, I still had not received confirmation that my renewal went through, so I sent in a support ticket and Registerly responded saying that I should have paid 2 weeks in advnce and that I had to wait 1 – 5 days for the renewal to be processed.

I didn’t panic too much, but when I later checked my site: vip-biz-net.com, I found that Registerfly had my domain name directed to the PPC advertising site they use when a domain expires. At that point, I replied to the support ticket and asked them what was going on.

They repeated their earlier reply about a 1 – 5 day wait time due to heavy volume of renewal requests.

Later, I opened my RegisterFly account and clicked on my domain name and they had an offer for me to renew my “expired” domain for $12.99. This is after I had already paid to renew my domain one day prior to the expiration date. I returned to my RegisterFly later and my domain was gone – vanished – disappeared from my account while they had and still do have my domain name pointing to their PPC ad page. Now, some 11 days after I paid to renew my domain, RegisterFly still has domain name going to their ad site and my domain is still missing from my account.

This is what got me searching online for answers and led me to this blog.

One of the stops I made was at ICANN.org where I found a mention of trouble with RegisterFly. They have posted a letter that their attorneys addressed to RegisterFly, dated March 2, 2007:
http://icann.org/correspondence/levee-to-mirzaian-02mar07.pdf

In the letter, it is made clear that ICANN sent investigators to Registerfly’s offices and that RegisterFly refused them access to the records RegisterFly is required to show them under their accredidation agreement.

Based on everything I have been able to gather, web site domain owners have a lot to be concerned about if the government, law enforcement and the regulators allow RegisterFly’s abusive practice to continue unchecked.

I am praying that I will be able to get my domain back after paying for it and building my site since 1999.

Last August (2006) I noticed the transfer messages when renewing my domain. Needed RF’s support to get it going again. Didn’t think much about it other than I couldn’t see or edit my e-mail forwards. Now that I’ve switched ISP’s I found they weren’t too eager to get that stuff visable for me. Searching the web I quickly found that I’m not alone. Fortunately I found my auth code on the domain info page so I started the transfer process.

About 24 hours after the start I got a confirmation request from the new registrar, about 12 hours later RF confirmation mail came. After approving that the transfer happened within 7 hours (I was sound asleep at the time).

They’re obviously not geared up to be a full registrar.

Finally called enom support:
http://www.enom.com/aboutus.asp

They took care the domain-push back to enom. From there, we can renew our domain.

It has been a 24 hr nightmare with RegisterFly.