My reseller cannot be located. My website is offline.

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Posted by cburtt, 10-09-2005, 08:21 PM
Hello, I am very new at all this. We've had a reseller manage our website for many years. Well the last few months he hasn't responded to my husband's emails. His one phone number is disconnected and his cell phone just rings and rings. Our website is offline. I was able to research things to find out the domain name expired a few days ago. This reseller has his name listed for all the contact info and he uses Enom. I'm afraid if I call Enom they won't talk to me because my name isn't listed. This is a business account. Our email is down. I'm very nervous about the whole thing. The reseller has locked the account and it's on hold, so it's not deleted yet. If I can get this domain back how do I get away from this guy. He's doing NOTHING to service our account and we send him $20.00 a month. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Cindy
Posted by portalplanet, 10-09-2005, 08:28 PM
Is it a local guy? If it is knock on his door.. Justin
Posted by Oceanworld, 10-09-2005, 08:38 PM
Provide Enom physical proof you bought the domain, that may help.
Posted by cburtt, 10-09-2005, 08:46 PM
Hi Thanks for your replies. We started with a local company who set up our website. They got it online and then they designed it. We worked together for years with this one fella. One day he sent my husband an email saying a "new" company was handling our business and we'd be sending the money to them. Because we had a relationship with this person, we figured it was ok. This new company turns out to be the web designers company. I saw their website, but they sell products (nothing to do with internet stuff). The phone number there has no voicemail and it rings and rings as well. I don't know where he lives, but I'm assuming it's about 90 minutes or so from me so I can't find him to knock on his door. The only proof I have that this is "my website" are the credit card statements showing I"m paying the monthly fees. My website is copyrighted so hopefully that "might" show Enom that we own the company and the name. I'd hate for our reseller to say HE owns the name and we are just renting it from him. Ugh, I have learned a valuable lesson. I'd MUCH rather own my own domain name than let somebody else have complete control over my website. I never thought about this happening. Thanks. Cindy
Posted by Oceanworld, 10-09-2005, 09:00 PM
When buying domains, it's CRUCIAL that the registrant and admin contact be set to yours. Work with enom, be patient and friendly and show them the proof and it should work out.
Posted by ScottJ, 10-09-2005, 09:22 PM
Im afraid that enom may not be able to help you. You need proof of ownership and I dont think that will be enough. Do you have a backup of your website? If all else fails you can order a new domain to get your site backup and then after 30 days your domain should be able to be registered again and you can buy it for yourself. If you want you can email me your resellers domain and I can look up some domain records to see if I cant find anymore information for you. My email is scott@sjrhosting.com I hate to see this happen to people.
Posted by Commit1 Anthony, 10-09-2005, 09:24 PM
Wow, this is no good. Where are you guys located? You need someone that will take care of you, and this guy obviously wasn't doing so :/ I hope you can get your domain back, and find a reliable host that has respect for your data. Good luck.
Posted by cburtt, 10-09-2005, 09:42 PM
Thank everybody. I will make a couple more calls tomorrow and see where I stand. Recreating the website isn't the worst part, it's losing the mail that will go into never, never land. WE have a LOT of email from potential clients and clients. I don't want them to get a bounced back email and think we are out of business. That would be horrible. Thanks again. Cindy
Posted by Commit1 Anthony, 10-09-2005, 10:42 PM
Definitely try calling Enom, explain the situation. I can tell the first step you would want to take is getting your original domain back. I'm sure they would help you. Keep us updated.
Posted by hafa, 10-10-2005, 07:18 AM
Now, unless I'm mistaken, ANYONE can pay for a domain name renewal, as long as none of the information related to the domain changes. You may be able to just pay for the renewal. As long as the name servers are pointing to a valid service, you could be up and running in just the time it takes to propagate.
Posted by premium20, 10-10-2005, 07:31 AM
If he does not have the login info to the domain control panel, it cannot be done. But if they have the domain control panel login, then it won't be a problem and they can renew the domain and manage it. Thanks,
Posted by cburtt, 10-10-2005, 08:47 AM
We have two websites. One is a .com and the other is a .info. On the .info website we can make our own changes, but the reseller let this one expire too. Ugh, I wish enom would open already. 10 more minutes!!! Thanks everyone. Cindy
Posted by bear, 10-10-2005, 08:51 AM
More like 60-75 days, actually, and the odds of being able to grab it before some link farm or speculator do are not very good, if the name is at all valuable from a traffic or type in point of view.
Posted by Oceanworld, 10-10-2005, 08:54 AM
You can still renew/transfer after expiry. They have grace and redemption periods for this. They don't delete expired domains immediately.
Posted by cburtt, 10-10-2005, 08:57 AM
Hi, I don't think we have a good name for a website at all. It's very long and we don't get a lot of traffic. My husband named it after his company, and it's long and has "f's" and "s's" which are hard to hear on the phone. The ONLY reason I really care is for the email address because we are linked up to so many automated emails that we need and it's already published in some trade journals and on our cards, letterhead, etc. All our customers have the email address too. It's just a pain. UGH.
Posted by ScottJ, 10-10-2005, 08:59 AM
Your reseller cant login to his enom account? If he lost his password all he needs to do is go through the steps to get a new one. He doesnt need the individual domain password, because him being a reseller can edit any of the domains he sold. I would get away from his business.
Posted by bear, 10-10-2005, 09:02 AM
Most registrars will allow you to renew a domain, even if you can't prove you own it. I just did this for a client on Network Solutions recently, and they didn't care who paid or why.. I'd highly recommend that if the name is important to you, that you work to renew and *then* worry about getting it under your control. If there's something I can do to help you with this issue, please let me know.
Posted by cburtt, 10-10-2005, 09:03 AM
Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you. My reseller cannot be contacted. I was saying my husband used to be able to access the .info page and make changes to our site but that expired too. We've tried to contact the reseller to help us get back online and running but he's no reachable. So now our .com and .info and email are all down I'm on hold with enom now. Hopefully I'll get some info/help soon. Thanks!! Cindy
Posted by ldcdc, 10-10-2005, 09:25 AM
If you have his true address you most certainly can. I guess it all depends on how important this domain is for you and how far you're willing to go to get it back.
Posted by cburtt, 10-10-2005, 10:39 AM
Wow-- I think i'm in trouble. Enom said that the reseller is the "owner" of our domain. She says I need to find some kind of proof we paid for the domain. We initially paid the company over $300 in 2001 and after that we paid a couple small checks. I'm not sure we have the receipts. I have to go way back to our archives and go through hundreds of slips of paper. Oh my-- this is terrible. My husband is not computer savvy-- he just wanted a web site and he paid what "used" to be a reputable company, but over the years I guess the company fell apart. Ugh. Cindy