Had a client who was getting ripped off for his domain name registration. To the tune of over $100. Ouch!
He had a quite a few domains registered and we’d rebuilt some of his websites and well, I was getting confused because they were registered with different companies.
I suggested he get them all in one spot so it was easier to manage. As a part of that conversation I found out that one domain was up renewal at $140 for 2 years!
I can’t say which company it was but I’ll give you a hint – they’re in Melbourne and they’re an IT company – you work it out.
What? – 140 bucks, that is absolutely ridiculous! I pay $38 for 2 years, and there is probably cheaper.
Even if there is cheaper around I still use the one registrar – http://www.cheapdomains.com.au – I don’t want domains registered all over the place, too damn hard to keep a track of otherwise. Plus the support I get from these guys is great, people actually answer the phone and really help if there’s an issue.
Anyway, I registered another domain last week and it only cost me $16.00 for the 2 years. On the website it still says $38 but I was only charged $16?
I actually have no idea what that is about. I did hear something a while back about the ICANN Registrar (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers) protocol changing and gossip about the idea of free domains.o
Does anyone know something I don’t, make a comment if you do or if you don’t.
Good idea on the rationalisation & conversion Peter. Interested to hear people’s experiences with ‘off shore’ domain rego companies. And…what to do when someone tries to ‘overide’ your domain using a different county’s extension (eg http://www.foodforme.com.hk as an overide or confusing competition to http://www.foodforme.com.au)
Cheers
Andrew
Good topic. I agree, I also get all my domain names from one company which makes it convenient for support purposes – I have been using Netregistry for over threee years now. They offer similar low pricing and great phone support (located in Australia).
Ok, hands up! The client in question was me!
Thanks heaps Pete for saving me more money again.
Just a tip for other readers – you can transfer your registration at any time, so you don’t need to wait for renewal time. In fact, it’s a lot less stressful, as I had a bit of a run around with that ‘not to be mentioned Melbourne company’.
Let’s just say they didn’t want me to leave, so they made it a tad more difficult than it should have been, in the hope that I would just take the easier option and stay with them. They even ‘switched off’ my site for about an hour, while telling me that one of their consultants would call me!
Don’t fall for their little tricks – it’s your site, your money and your right to choose!
Thanks again Pete for going the extra mile.