Domain Name Shenanigans
So, I received a letter the other day from a company called Domain Registry of America, and it just about made me sick, to be honest with you.
It said that domains for two of my clients (both non-profits with .org domain names) were expiring over the summer, that not renewing them would result in them becoming available to the public, and that I could renew the domain registration with any registrar that I wanted, including them. All of these points are true.
What really got me upset was the price they were asking: $35 for a one year renewal. Now, for anyone that has never registered a domain name, 35 bucks for a year really doesn’t sound like all that much. It is, in fact, an outrageous price. To renew with the current registrar, all fees and taxes included, would only be $15.17 for a one year renewal.
Even worse was that it seemed aimed directly at non-profit organizations, as the .com and .net variations of the domain names, which are also registered by me, were not even mentioned.
The bottom line is that Domain Registry of America is looking to charge folks an inflated fee for re-registering their domain name that quite possibly don’t know any better.
What a bunch of creeps.
For those businesses, non-profits, or what have you, that have domain names registered, keep an eye out for this. Sadly, Domain Register of America is not the only company doing this, so if something seems odd, it just might be. If you are in the Barnesville area, feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email, and I’d be happy to look at it for you, free of charge.