I've been doing a little more Web design work lately. One customer
asked me to help her with her site after it was already up, and the
designer who had been working on it was unable to resolve some display
and layout problems. Fortunately, solving those problems was
straightforward.
Issues with the domain name registration have proved far more
complex to deal with.
When I looked up her domain registration information, I found that
her name was nowhere in it. The Web hosting company she used had
registered her domain in their own name. Not a particularly good
situation; although they did tell her she was free to move her site, it
seemed only right that she should be the registrant of record.
Looking around for hints on how to deal with this type of situation,
I saw some rather disturbing information on some websites. One advised
that when this happens, you may need to hire a lawyer. Another said
that there is nothing illegal about hosting companies registering
domain names as their own and then selling them to the original
would-be registrant at exorbitant prices.
Fortunately, in this case the hosting company was willing to
transfer the registration to my friend's name. Not everyone is so
lucky, so my first piece of advice to potential domain name owners is:
Make sure you're going to be the listed registrant.
After various negotiations and delays, we succeeded in getting a
signed, notarized copy of the current Registrant Name Change Agreement,
all ready to be faxed to VeriSign, where the domain name was
registered.
Ah, I thought, our troubles are almost over. True, Network Solutions
(now absorbed into VeriSign, as I understand it) had lost a fax the
last time I had to do something with them, but once the fax was sent
again, everything went smoothly, if a bit slowly.
Accordingly I faxed the four page document to the fax number listed
for "Regular" service on this issue. "Expedited service" mentions (but
does not exactly promise) 48-hour turnaround and costs $199; "Regular"
is supposed to take 7-10 days and costs $15.
A week passed. Still no change in the Whois listing, and no bill for
the change on my credit card. Next morning, I called VeriSign customer
service to see what was up. "What number was that sent from?
. . . I have no record . . . no, no indication that
we ever received such a fax. Why don't you send it again?"
"How will I know that you've gotten the second fax?"
"Call us tomorrow, and we'll tell you if it's come in."
Fair enough, I thought. I sent the fax again.
The next morning I called. I will note here that in this and the
subsequent calls to VeriSign, I never got the same customer service
representative twice. Some of the people I spoke to sounded like native
English speakers, but a number of them had accents that aroused my
curiosity. "Can I ask where in the world you are located?" I ask one.
"This is the Manila office," he says. No wonder he can't find the fax I
sent to a number thousands of miles away. "What number was that sent
from? . . . no, well, I can't tell you that it has come in,
and I can't tell you that it hasn't come in. I don't know. I'll find
out for you and send you an email either way."
I keep being reminded of government press conferences: "We can
neither confirm nor deny...."
Next day: no email. I call again.
"Yes, it says here that you are going to fax again."
"I did fax again."
"When?"
"36 hours ago."
"Let me put you on hold (distorted Vivaldi for several minutes)
. . . No, I can't tell you that we have received it, but I
can't tell you that we haven't . . . Yes, I understand you've
been trying to get this through for a while, and I will put a note to
speed it up when we do receive it."
"Well how will I know when you have received it?"
"I will email you either way, for sure, by the end of today."
Next day: no email. I call again.
"What number did you send that from? . . . Twice? No, I
have no record from either date . . . Let me ask you this:
what number have you been faxing it to?"
I tell her the number.
"Why are you using that number? Where did you ever get that
number?"
"It's the one on your form, version 4.0, downloaded from your
website two weeks ago and still listed on your website as current."
"Well, no matter where you got the number, I suggest you send it
again, to a different number, our main fax number. That way we'll be
sure to get it, although it will take a few more days to go through at
that number . . . Yes, I will try to speed it up when it gets
in."
So I fax a third time. I call the next day.
"You sent it to (the number the last person gave me)? Who told you
to do that? No wonder it takes so long, if you use the wrong
information . . . tell you what, for high level customer
service, because you're a WorldNIC customer, you should call the
following customer service number."
He dictates a number, and I write it down. Only after I hang up do I
realize that this is the same number I just called to get the guy who
just gave me the "better" number.
I call again and get a different rep.
"Where did you send the fax? . . . You should send it to
(the number on the form) . . . "
"I have sent it there, twice, once two weeks ago and again a week
ago, could you please look and see if you have any record of receiving
it?"
"Can I put you on hold? (distorted pop music . . . ) Oh,
yes, I do see, you sent it . . . hmm . . . weeks
ago, but I do request, we will need substantially more time to do this
. . . yes, I know you sent it a long time ago, and it should
have been done by last week . . . I will send a note to that
group to ask . . . call again any time, and have a great
day."
Another rep tells me that the registrant name change department is
backed up and I can expect the change to take a month to go
through.
"A month! Is there any way to get it to happen faster?"
"Yes, if you pay the $199, I'm sure we can have it for you in
two."
Which leaves me wondering: Is this customer service or information
highway robbery?
The change does take a month to go through, almost to the day. I am
notified in duplicate that it has gone through. I am also billed in
duplicate.
I call VeriSign. The representative agrees that I was billed twice
and tells me that someone will call me back "in 3 to 5 days" to see
whether they should "investigate" the possibility of giving me a refund
for the second charge.
"You can't just give me a refund?"
"No, that's not the way we do things."
I begin to sense a pattern, and it's not a pretty one. A Google
search reveals many customer complaints about VeriSign's business
practices and customer service.
Is this any way to run a domain registration business?
