[BALUG-Admin] So, joker.com, then?

[Michael Paoli]

On Sat, Jun 1, 2024 at 7:01 PM Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
>
> I've just initiated transfer of both my domains to Gandi, and I'll tell
> you why:

And if the losing registrar is prompt and doesn't drag their feet,
and you watch your emails and take the appropriate actions
(e.g. like using a confirmation URL)
in a quite timely manner, then the transfer could be fully completed
in a few hours or less.  But alas, many registrars (e.g.
NetworkSolutions.com/Web.com) will drag their feet and take
the maximum time they can contractually get away with (which is
I think 72 hours?   I forget precisely how long.
May also vary somewhat by TLD).

So, e.g. having dealt with AWS and Google as losing registrars,
they also make it super fast and easy to transfer away - yet another
sign of a generally at least competent or better registrar - while many
others tend to drag their feet to the extent they can - typically apparently
hoping to manage to hold onto the registration or get the person or such
to change their mind - some will also hit one with lots of email(s) and/or
other offers to attempt to not lose the registration.  Heck, last I dealt with
NetworkSolutions.com/Web.com, every time as renewal time approached,
in order to get 'em from about 3x market rate to reasonably competitive
rate, would have to start to go through the transfer motions, then they'd
make sane offers on pricing, I'd accept those - but alas, those offers
would also require opting into their spam^W"marketing" emails.  And alas, while
opting into that was always a single click, opting out would always require
a phone call and 30 days to process.

And, somewhere at your losing registrar, at their higher levels of
customer service and/or technical support - if they exist 8-O -
they probably have some means of being able to extend domains,
by positive integral number of years (up to whatever the maximum
is, which may also vary by TLD) ... but alas, seems they quite lack the
competence to reasonably well and easily do that - even via support
request or the like (not a great sign).  Sounds rather like lower-level
folks (and they may lack the higher), "pushing buttons" - selecting
among probably the only menu options they've given to such folks -
in order to at least roughly/grossly (but not well at all) attempt to
implement what they think the customer wants.

And, does sound like other not (so) competent registrars, e.g. a
feature/capability that ought be easy for customers to do if they want,
really shouldn't even require support email(s) or calls, should be able
to do that easily enough from customer web interface ... yet seems they
probably entirely lack that ... and heck, probably don't even have that
capability available to their support/billing personnel.  So, like
Namecheap.com https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=system:registrars#namecheapcom
over a decade after customer(s) requesting it, still no capability on
customer web interface to add or update IPv6 glue records.
Whereas Gandi, that's dead simple, just type/paste in the
desired IPv4 and/or IPv6 IP addresses, click, and done.
It's not rocket science.  But some registrars can't handle that.
Or Joker.com
https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=system:registrars#jokercom
being grossly incapable of even updating a single IPv4 glue record.

Thinking of billing/renewals, also reminds me of fsckup with
NetworkSolutions.com/Web.com and billing and credit card(s).
A domain where I was not registrant nor at all in any way officially
connected to the domain's registration
(I was not any kind of contact at all with registrar for the domain)
was coming up on expiration, so ... I, using credit card, renewed it,
as, like most registrars and domains, for non-expired domains,
most will allow anyone to pay for a renewal prior to expiration,
so, I did so.  Anyway, did that on a single one-shot basis ...
and I think I did that by phone - in any case, never asked for my
card data to be added on to the (not my) account, etc. ... yet, alas,
they stuck it on there and enabled auto-renew on it.  Oh, and the
kicker ... they wouldn't let me take it off of there!  They'd only let
the registrant remove my credit card from the billing or automatic
renewal on the account!  Ugh!

Well, sounds like your losing registrar is another that I ought add on
https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=system:registrars
and noting (at least some of) the problems.

Oh, and thinking/speaking of renewing (well) before expiration ... so,
Gandi.net - I've got 5 domains there ... current expirations range from
2024-07-04 through 2025-07-02,
and all of them offer renew options - so can renew far in advance (though
only one is presently reminding me about that, as it's <~=30 days ...
and peeking at emails, they reminded me at 60 day's 'til expiration,
so that's probably when they also changed it in the web interface to make
the impending expiration much more visible.  And, I've got no credit
card nor the like stored on the account.  So, let's see, if I pick the
furthest one out there - expires 2025-07-02 ... with one click it'll let me
add to shopping cart to extend it by a year - I don't see an option for multiple
years though ... and ... no, it won't let me add that exact same item
multiple times
to the shopping cart ... ah, yes, ... click wee bit further on
shopping cart towards
checkout ... and can select integral number of years, so could extend that
one by anywhere from 1 to 8 years.  For the one expiring 2024-07-04
it will let me select 1 through 9 years ... just have to make it wee bit
further in the process for that to be optional selection to be readily visible.

So ... already sounding helluva lot easier than your losing registrar?  :-)
Though with the post-transfer lock period, not sure if you'll be able to
add additional years at that time, but after that should be no such
restrictions (other than of course whatever the per TLD maximum
number of years is).  So, maybe UI could be teensy bit better, but it's
pretty solid ... and I'd likely also find the info about how to add
additional years if I actually went and (re)read some more of their
excellent documentation.

Anyway, that also beats the hell out of many registrars where the
documentation is lacking and/or incorrect.