We know domain name ownership problems happen.
Often, domain name ownership issues are caused by a previous web designer who registered the domain name in their own name instead of the name of the client or their clients company. This is a very common mistake that happens far too often. If you have a NZ domain name registered on your behalf or take over a domain name from someone else, the registration details should be listed as follows;
- The registrar is the company that is authorised by the NZ Domain Name Commission to register the domain name. A web designer will normally have an account with a registrar so that they can register the domain name for you.
- The registrant is the owner of the domain name. That should be you!
- The admin contact is normally where the bills get sent. Sometimes this will be you and sometimes it will be the web designer or host.
- The technical contact could be you, your web designer, your host or the registrar. This is who is meant to sort out any problems.
Note that domain name ownership details are often wrong for the admin and technical contacts as well. The registrar details should always be correct.
When domain registrars and website designers steal your domain.
The worst example of this is when a web designer registers a domain name for their customer in their own name.
We have had many issues involving web designers who registered client domains in their own names. Frequently ,we're contacted a few years ago by someone whose web designer had closed the business and left the country entirely. They were somewhere in China, not responding to phone calls or emails. I’ve also seen cases of where a web designer is in a dispute with a customer and uses their ownership of the domain name to close the website down in revenge.
We have had many occasions to take over a client from the Yellow Pages ( www.yellow.co.nz ) who received apalling service. Most have waited weeks or even months to have their domain returned to them, and had eventually given up and come to us.
Usually Yellow claim they owned the domain name (they don’t) and refused to return it to the legal owner. The technical contact for Yellow is offshore, and it can take up to 24 hours for them to process a domain UDAI code to enable the client to move away from them. We can generate a UDAI for our clients in under 5 minutes.
Check your domain name ownership. You can do this at the DNC website. Sorting out any issues now will prevent complications in future. If all else fails, you can Contact Us if your existing web designer isn’t helping, or the NZ Domain Name Commission for assistance if someone is holding on to your domain name due to a dispute or malpractice.