For those who haven't already seen this, Network Solutions is sending
"FINAL NOTICE" bills to domain holders who've transferred their names to
other registrars. Many people get nervious when they receive something
which looks official and says "your domain name will be repossessed" or
something like that.
I have been advising clients to file complaints with the Federal Trade
Commission. This is a flagrant attempt to bilk end users. It is unclear
if those who DO pay wind up getting their domains transferred back to
Network Solutions, or if they just pocket the money.
Anyone from the press who wants some choice quotes from me on this
matter, feel free to contact me.
Daniel:
While I don't know specifically, I don't believe this is anything
intentional on NSI's part but is rather an artifact of their billing
systems. I've known for a long time that their billing systems frequently
lag current registration data by months, sometimes many. My guess is that
the invoices are entered into the billing system at some time prior to the
due date of a domain and are not updated regardless of what happens to the
domain registration. At least that was the apparent situation the last
time I tried to trace such a problem. They've made a lot of changes in
receint history, so who knows if this behavior is changing. I wonder if
anyone on this list has real knowledge of the billing processes at NSI?
Related to this, you should be warning your customers of the bogus
"FINAL NOTICE" scam that is unrelated to Network Solutions. You can see an
older copy at the following URL. Note also that there have been a few
variations of this. If you do have customers who are still receiving
these, let me know. I've been asked to pass on contact information for
further investigation of these.
That is rather dumb not being able to reconcile accounts paid with accounts
received like any other normal business model that has a billing department.
That is rather dumb not being able to reconcile accounts paid with accounts
received like any other normal business model that has a billing department.
No kidding.
I don't know, though. With most companies I'd chalk it up to stupidity. With
NSI I'd be much more likely to attribute stuff like this to greed and malice.
I know several people who NetSol have scammed this way, & they are
considering reporting it to the US postal service as mail fraud.
Apparently it's illegal to bill for services that haven't been rendered.
Those of you in the USA who've been billed fraudulently might consider
doing the same.
In network solutions favour, I have to say that I have not recieved any
invoices for the domains I've renewed in the past few months (quite a few)
only a letter confirming that payment was recieved and that it will be up
for renew in another x amount of years. OTOH, I have recieved letters from
network solutions that look like bills for renewal, that are actually
changeover forms to move your domain from another registrar (opensrs in
the 3 letters I got) which I greatly dislike. (it's real fun when the
customer gets it and calls to complain that they paid us for it already,
and want to know why they're getting a bill from NSI). NSI, moving from
one bad marketing ploy to another.
I would be more forceful with the original registrar and make them deal
with the problem since they are the ones not being forceful enough to
get the desired result for your money and if they do not give the desired
result I would file an official complaint with ICANN they are sanctioning
bogus domain registrars that are not living up to their commitment.
