[sf-lug] Network Solutions / Web.com & renewing expired domains

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> At least twice I renewed balug.org before it expired, when I was not the
> registrant (or admin contact, etc.) for the domain (I was not at all
> listed on the domain).  Network Solutions was more than happy to take
> the money from me.  They were also more than happy to take it from me
> again 30 days prior to the next time the domain was about to expire, though
> I *never* gave them authorization to charge my card again, or autocharge
> it for subsequent renewal, nor did I give them permission to stick my
> card (at least at that time) on or associated with any permanent records
> of the domain or give the registrant any access to any part of the card
> information ... but they did all those things anyway(!).

Somehow I'm thinking of the phrases 'criminal fraud', 'RICO Act', and
'first up against the wall come the revolution', but -- once again, I
try to not make specific allegations of felony scummery towards
identified corporations unless I'm prepared to back them up in a libel
lawsuit.  So, I'm specifically _not_ associating that phrase with any
specific domain registrar that nobody with a grain of sense has
willingly done business with for over twenty years.  ;->


> If you want to buy a ham sandwich with it or something else not
> directly related to domain registration, Network Solutions / Web.com
> have plenty of such they're more than willing to sell, and of course
> which they're quite happy to market and advertise to any and all they
> can.

There was an old saying:  'If [person X] tells me the sun's going to
rise in the east, I'll probably get up early to check.'