On Mastodon, I'm @unixmercenary@infosec.exchange.
As such, I just tooted this (https://infosec.exchange/@unixmercenary/112534258603738688 ):
may be seeking a new #DNSregistrar. Once upon a time, there was a highly clueful one named ideegeo Group, Ltd. d/b/a IWantMyName.com in Wellington, NZ, technically a retail reseller for large German registrar 1API.
Early on, their staff efficiently and quickly fixed an odd problem, where my two domains were suddenly private WHOIS against my wishes: The tech found that 1API had unilaterally toggled everyone private to quickly comply with GDPR rollout -- and intervened to revert that on my domains.
Roll forward to 2019. British multinational CentralNic Group PLC acquired ideegeo Group Ltd., and shut down the NZ operation.
Uh-oh.
About a year later, I saw that my domains were suddenly private WHOIS again, saw still nothing in the customer WebUI to adjust that, and opened another ticket, referencing the first one, speculating 1API might have done it again, and asking the same fix.
A tech from the new lot immediately closed the ticket with the explanation that the operator of the .com and .net TLDs had imposed private WHOIS on all domains, and therefore IWantMyName was powerless to help me.
I almost accepted this pile of bullhockey, but then thought to cross-check, among others, domains 1API.net and IWantMyName.com -- whose public WHOIS data immediately disproved the nonsense claim. I reopened the ticket, pointing out their claim is provably wrong, and reiterating my request.
The tech closed the ticket again with the comment that he'd repeated what the technical staff told him -- not commenting on the fact that it was provably false.
I escalated this matter to corporate staff in London, saying that gaslighting customers is uncool, that I could easily take business elsewhere, and that I'd be deciding that in a couple of days. A senior tech in London reopened the case, told me he' fix things, did so, explained that first-level techs had relied on bad information, and observed (justly) that few customers wished to eschew private WHOIS. As resolution occurred before my deadline, I stayed.
Yesterday, after verifying that IWantMyName.com's customer WebUI still doesn't permit early renewal, I opened a new ticket saying "Please manually extend by two years each of my domains linuxmafia.com and unixmercenary.net, please charge my credit card of record number NNNN for the US $95.26 entailed, and please do that now."
I got back a response saying:
"We currently only register and renew domains automatically for one year at a time.
We've found that longer registration periods lead to a higher chance of customers losing or forgetting their account details or missing notifications and ultimately letting their domains expire due to outdated contact information for expired credit card details.
The annual notifications serve as a reminder of sorts to keep everything up to date. Or, if something unexpected happens and the domain is no longer needed, it can be cancelled with no time/money lost.
If you have any other questions, just let us know."
I waited a day, then wrote back saying I'd seen no action on my request. The tech referred me to the above statement.
I wrote back:
"That was not even anywhere near an answer to my request.
I didn't ask about automatic renewal policy. I requested manual processing of two-year extension, now, for each of my two domains, charging the appropriate fees totalling US $95.26 to my credit card of record.
Please do that now.
I will continue to escalate this matter, if it is not addressed."
This is in "You had one job" territory, nicht wahr? Any fellow Ops people with clueful-registrar suggestions? Needing to escalate routine requests has gotten old.
For the record, for good and compelling reasons, I keep domains a long way from expiration, run a weekly cron job executing d-check (http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/network/) to watch whois for upcoming renewal dates, and renew well in advance of need.
Likewise, I insist on public WHOIS so it can fulfil its design role of permitting contact, by anyone observing a problem or other matter needing attention, to the Administrative, Technical, and Registrant contacts as appropriate.
"You'll be doxed", someone says says? Funny, that: Maybe they might use the real street address, real telephone number, real e-mail address, and "ICBM address" (latitude, longitude, and altitude of my favourite chair) on my personal Web page, instead.