The RegisterFly Debacle

by Joshua Brauer on August 19, 2005

Wow! This is a huge mistake in the making. It all started a few months back when a colleague was looking to register a domain name. Another colleague suggested RegisterFly.com. All went well and both colleagues were happy.

Earlier this week I finally got around to getting out from under Network Solutions. I'm tired of paying premium prices for terrible service. So having collected several domains I'd left with another terrible registrar (EnameCo), I set out to transfer the domains to RegisterFly.

The first problems came when one domain wouldn't transfer in the RegisterFly system. It claimed it was locked but whois said otherwise. An email to support, a retry and it worked. Oddly no response came from support but what the heck it worked so I wasn't too concerned. Then a few days ago the first domain transfer went OK. I got the email, logged in to RegisterFly and setup the DNS. All looked good. Even if there were problems, there is the convincing "24/7 Phone Support" icon in the top right of the screen.

The death spiral

Today everything went bad. Network Solutions emailed that four domains, including AddingUnderstanding.com had been transfered. No notice from RegisterFly. They still show the transfers as pending. So now there's no DNS, no email, nothing.

So a call is placed to the 24-hour support line. The guy who answers tells me that RegisterFly is a bunch of crooks and I should take my business elsewhere. He goes on to report he's constantly getting their calls transfered to his phone though he has no affiliation with them. For the next hour the phone rings busy. Finally it rings and I wait on hold for 45 minutes before a belated departure for work.

So now, going in to Friday it's been 10 hours since the domains were up and looks to be untold hours until the problem gets attention. It's also 60 days until I'll be transferring to GoDaddy.com.

60 Comments

Registerfly hijacked my domains

I have some very valuable domains that RegisterFly hijacked out of my account by changing the contact information to their own and changing the contact email addresses, and actually moving the domain out of my RegisterFly account.They changed Whois Records for those domains, registerfly only put their contact and no real contacts. Registerfly had replaced my email address on the domains with support@registerfly.com no real admin contacts.
They don’t reply my support request.

Submitted by Anonymous on May 5, 2007 - 13:07

FIGHT BACK REGISTERFLY VICTIMS

Registerfly Victims STAND UP FIGHT BACK!!!

Contact Kevin Medina Directly!!!

Losing you domains, fraudulent credit card charges, fight back NOW!

Read Article:
businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070309_245992.htm

Contact Kevin Medina's lawyer directly, I would suggest contacting the entire firm, because my complaints were emailed directly to Kevin Medina. Kevin's personal lawyer Eugenie F. Temmler won't help you, but if you contact all the lawyers at once that will get your problems forwarded directly to Kevin Medina CEO of Registerfly (Scumbag)

I made it simple to just cut and paste in to your email program. This firm wants to represent this idiot then they can help the thousands of victims.

ballcorn@rabnerallcorn.com,ebaumgart@rabnerallcorn.com,dben-asher@rabnerallcorn.com,jbourne@rabnerallcorn.com,tboyle@rabnerallcorn.com,
kcarlson@rabnerallcorn.com,fkatcoff@rabnerallcorn.com,dowen@rabnerallcorn.com,hrabner@rabnerallcorn.com,breilert@rabnerallcorn.com,
dsabourin@rabnerallcorn.com,jsharfman@rabnerallcorn.com,etemmler@rabnerallcorn.com

ballcorn@rabnerallcorn.com S. Robert Allcorn
ebaumgart@rabnerallcorn.com Elliot M. Baumgart
dben-asher@rabnerallcorn.com David H. Ben-Asher
jbourne@rabnerallcorn.com Jonathan Bourne
tboyle@rabnerallcorn.com Teresa Boyle-Vellucci
kcarlson@rabnerallcorn.com Keith B. Carlson
fkatcoff@rabnerallcorn.com Fredda Katcoff
dowen@rabnerallcorn.com David Owen
hrabner@rabnerallcorn.com Harold Rabner
breilert@rabnerallcorn.com Robert Reilert
dsabourin@rabnerallcorn.com Dennis H. Sabourin
jsharfman@rabnerallcorn.com Jerome E. Sharfman
etemmler@rabnerallcorn.com Eugenie F. Temmler

CALL THEM OR EMAIL AND HAVE THEM FORWARD YOUR COMPLAINTS DIRECTLY TO KEVIN MEDINA!!
Rabner, Allcorn, Baumgart & Ben-Asher
52 Upper Montclair Plaza (Upper Montclair)
Montclair, New Jersey 07043
Telephone: 973-744-4000
Fax: 973-783-1524

Submitted by Anonymous on May 17, 2007 - 11:55

Registerfly Victims STAND UP

Registerfly Victims STAND UP FIGHT BACK!!!

Contact Kevin Medina Directly!!!

Losing you domains, fraudulent credit card charges, fight back NOW!

Read Article:
businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070309_245992.htm

This firm wants to represent this idiot then they can help the thousands of victims.

Submitted by Anonymous on May 17, 2007 - 12:53

Registerfly is ignoring me too

I, too, have been affected by their dirty business deals. I knew I should have jumped ship last year when my domains were down for over a month while I wrangled with them over renewal. When it finally did and I was eventually credited for the overcharges, I told myself "60 days" and I can transfer. As sometimes happens, I got busy and let is slide by. Recently, I began experiencing a lot of problems. I have had numerous support tickets go unanswered and their phone is disconnected. I cannot get them to release my domain names for transfer. I went through the eNom FAQ steps to create a free account. Unfortunately, the domains did not transfer automatically as infered in the article. I am requesting assistance from them through their support system. I also fired off a letter to ICANN for assistance. If anyone knows of any other avenues to utilize in freeing my domain names, I would love to read about them.

Submitted by Lonnie on May 28, 2007 - 13:32

Did anyone ever get their

Did anyone ever get their money and / or domains back from the whole mess??

Submitted by bluehost on August 13, 2007 - 06:38

So many choices these days

You don't even hear about RegisterFly anymore...here's why...

NOTICE TO CONSUMERS.
THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS - THE NON FOR PROFIT ENTITY THAT ADMINISTERS THE INTERNET'S DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM, HAS ISSUED A NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF THIS COMPANY'S ACCREDITATION TO SERVE AS AN INTERNET DOMAIN NAME REGISTRAR.
PLEASE SEE WWW.ICANN.ORG FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

Jim
http://www.yourbankruptcyresource.com

Submitted by Anonymous on January 17, 2008 - 14:55

GoDaddy

I have always had good success, both transfering and registering domains, at GoDaddy.com - Transfers are never easy but GoDaddy has a pretty good system to get it done.

Justin

Submitted by Riverbed WAN on January 18, 2008 - 14:24

Moving Registries -- A Last Resort

I cannot believe the long list of horror stories. Right now I have one with Tucows. Anyone got any feedback on them?

Submitted by Furniture Fan on June 22, 2008 - 20:40

Regfly owes me money

I tried to renew a domain name that I’ve had with registerfly since 2002. They couldn’t renew it, and I eventually transferred it from Enom to a new registrar called Rebel.com. Regfly, in the trouble ticket, indicated that I would receive a refund “within 5-7 business days”. We all know what happened next - it’s now been seven months since that message, and no refund. Thankfully, it’s only $10.83, but I’m determined to pester them until I get it back. My account has been suspended now, but I’m still bugging them with trouble tickets. I’ve soliciting help opening trouble tickets on http://www.watersmartz.com. I’d like your help, opening trouble tickets on my behalf. Maybe a few thousand tickets a day will get the job done!

Submitted by Jack on July 27, 2008 - 11:32

Also ripped off

We paid for a domain and hosting and when we got automatic confirmations (which took a tad longer than they do for us when we use a different service), we noticed something a little sketchy--all these different emails from different URLs pointing to different service names. Three different ones, I believe. None of the links worked at all. Then we got a little nervous, did a search, found all of this stuff and other pages describing their evils...

Turns out they did not ever register the domain they confirmed as registered. We bought it through a different company, actually, shortly thereafter. We canceled our credit card, but they must've sent in the authorization pretty instantly (even though it wasn't showing up yet on the system), so now we have to pay the money most likely, but lesson learned: check on all internet companies before using them.

Submitted by Jeanne on August 25, 2008 - 19:55