Many people receive letters that say their domains are about to expire. They assume they should pay this bill and I am going to tell you what to do and what to avoid.
When You Register a Domain…
Always remember who you registered it with. For example, GoDaddy.com – If you buy a domain from them you should continue to pay them each year to keep the domain name. I set my domains to auto-renew so I have no problem. If you bought a domain from GoDaddy and then get a letter from GoDaddy saying your domain is about to expire you need to pay it, BUT if you get a letter from a different company then the one you bought the domain from you have a few options:
- Ignore it – (my suggestion)
- Check out the company online and see if they are trustworthy if you are unhappy with your current domain registrar
The Danger – Losing your Domain – A Client Example
A client of mine has an accountant pay her bills. The bills come in and they get paid. Well, the accountant got one from the Domain Registry of America and the letter explained that her domain was about to expire (which it wasn’t) and that they could pay and keep the domain safe. Well, guess what? By signing the forms they transferred the domain to Domain Registry of America. We only found this out because we had built a new site for this client and went to change the DNS and it was gone.
My client has spent many hours trying to get them on the phone and they won’t answer. They will not respond to emails either, so the client have decided to get an attorney because they were lied to in the letter. Their domain was not about to expire and this may help them in the long run, but that doesn’t help us with their new site. We can’t change the DNS to the new site until we can get access to it and at this point they can’t access it. So, the client has a new site sitting here and we can’t use it. We cannot start over with a new domain at this point because what they have rocks (google is loving it).
The accountant didn’t know any better, but I think it is important for you to talk with anyone at your office that pays these bills or your assistant or whoever and let them know to throw these things away. We have no idea how long it will take to get access to this domain. Trust me that you want to avoid the nightmare this has become for our client.
That is very shady, but surely they will be able to access the account and transfer it back… Godaddy is pretty good about helping you out as well so try their support.
Also, be very careful with your autorenew… If your credit card exp date rolls over, it will not be able to charge it automatically. Check those renewal emails!