Uggh,
unfortunately that title has a double-meaning right
now but I'm not sure how to get into the 2nd
meaning...
...so we'll go
with the first one!!!
Network Solutions.
These fuckin' guys. Sorry, that's crude, but seriously
- these fuckin' guys can blow me. What a
disaster.
So last month I go
to 4tvs.com and it's "parked" and "owned" by Network
Solutions. Checking my account I see that it
expired (after renewing it ten freaking years ago).
I checked my profile and email accounts and all
were up to date. I got no email, no message on their
site, nada. After having the domain with them for 14
years, they let it expire and then bought it
themselves.
(sigh)
Further digging
found that one of my 4 contact emails was indeed the
one from 1999: adam@qn.net. Quicknet (qn) has been out
of business for over a decade and I had no way of
changing that email without first RECEIVING an
email at that address, so now I know why
I didn't change it. Adam@4tvs.com forwarded to
the QN account but seriously, in 2001 I had to
move on (they had really spotty service, even for turn
of the century standards) and had no access to that
account since.
So I go to
see if I can re-instate it and of course
I can! I just have to pay them a whole lot of
fees as well as $40 a year since they now OWN it
(the going rate for renewals is like $7.99). So, as
I said above: "THESE FUCKING GUYS..." I
wrote to them immediately and rasied some shit. They
decided to give me a 30-day grace period which turned
my site back on, but all the "re-instatement" fees
were there as well as the ridiculous $40 a year (not
for hosting the site mind you, just for having the
name). I was uber-pissed.
I mean, this
is for all intents and purposes a scam. No one will
randomly remember when their expiration date is for a
10 year renewal, and within those ten years? It's
fairly certain that an email will change. But what
gets me?
I UPDATED IT EVERYWHERE I COULD.
That qn.net address? Wasn't even working when
I renewed it in 2003, so wtf already. Network
Solutions is supposed to be my business PARTNER. I am
their CLIENT. Sending an expiration email to all of
the contacts associated with the account (technical,
primary, profile) is not only assumed it's common
business etiquette. And, in fact, I have no way
of knowing they sent out an email to adam@qn.net. I
have a feeling they did fuck all so they could
"own" it and collect more fees.
I'll be honest,
I was reallllllllllllllly close to letting it go.
Every single one of my domains is now with godaddy.com
(I found them years before they even advertised on TV)
and 4tvs is long-gone. It is however my license plate
and it has a place in my heart. It's awesome to have a
4 character .com even if you can't say it verbally to
people without having to say "The number 4, T, V, S
like TVS.com" which kills the 4 character ease of it
(which is why I ended up getting "TheEgos.com").
So I went to GoDaddy and renewed it for 10 years with
THEM, and then went through the ridiculously painful
process of trying to transfer the domain.
We're talking
faxes people. Because I don't have access to an
email from 1999, I had to do all sorts of insane
things to prove I was me, including faxing THIS
goofy shit to them because, ironically, they can't
receive EMAILS of pdfs? WHAT?
And then answer a
series of security questions I hadn't thought of
in 10 years. "Who's your manager" Uhm, Charlotte! I
jumped through everything and after a weekl of
ridiculous back and forths and CONSTANT solicitation
from the operators to stay with them, I was able to
transfer. Now all of my freaking domain names are in
one place. Ugh.
What killed me
about the solicitations was they were willing to waive
all the fees and match the $7.99/yr godaddy.com had.
Really? Then why the fuck were you trying to rob my
ass for hundreds of dollars until I called?
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Network
Solutions used to be the only game in town in the 90s
and you'd think they'd realize they AREN'T. And even
with godaddy.com's bafflingly over-sexual commercials,
their site is easy to navigate and well organized. And
those sleazy commercials mean I get to pay less
than the other places. <shrugs> In the end,
that's all that counts.
And to give you an
idea of what life was like when I had the
Quicknet email address...
Ha. Sponsored by
Quicknet. Now that I think of it, they actually
gave me a discount to host 4tvs.com back then for
advertising. Crazy, now you can have your website
hosted 100% free. Oh and those were the little
commercials I put on the TVs during my breaks
when I played live in '99 and '00. Crazy, huh? I
dont' think I ever showed them in The Journey
before. And in HD, putting all of it on one screen is
kinda cool.
Unlike Network
Solutions which is kinda not.
Let's see what
happens in ten MORE years, shall
we?
