Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

I’ve been using NameJet for the past 3 years; I don’t want to even think of the exact amount of money I’ve spent on old NetSol/Register.com domains auctioned there, but it’s in the mid-five figure range.

Another registrar that “tosses” its domains onto NameJet is eNom; a domain that was in pre-release status was with eNom at the time that I backordered it.

Three days later, the domain was secured with a single bidder, me.

I was expecting the domain to be awarded but no charge took place. Several days later I contacted the NameJet support.

Was my $69 bid not good enough? NameJet had an interesting response, which was articulated through the exchange of several messages.

Namejet first responded thus:

In reviewing the domain, it appears this was a pre-release domain. Keep in mind, pre-release domains are those that have expired and are typically still in the renewal grace period at the sponsoring registrar.

That’d be cool, if it weren’t for the fact that the domain was still parked with eNom’s “backpack girl” page *and* a link to backorder that domain on NameJet at the bottom of the page!

NameJet responded to my observation:

Unfortunately, eNom, Inc. can choose to remove the domain from a Pre-Release auction at anytime, if they wish. As they are the registrar it is their choice if they choose to list the name. I’m showing that this domain was not auctioned and we did not receive a payment for the domain name. We did receive your backorder bid and should it come up for auction again in the future you will be notified. However, at this time, I do not know if eNom is planning to release the name as they have chosen at this time to not list the domain name.

At first I thought I had not understood the response, as it’s been obvious to me – perhaps by means of naivete – that when a domain is marked on NameJet as being in pre-release it’s actually going to be awarded; either to a single backordering individual or auctioned among several bidders.

I guess I was wrong to assume the obvious!

NameJet support did not address the fact that eNom was *already* pointing the domain back to NameJet with a link to backorder! The follow-up response came as such:

It is common for our partner registrars to encourage backordering for domains that they are considering to release for auction. It does not mean that it will be available for auction at that time; everyone has an opportunity to place a backorder on a domain name at anytime, regardless of the domain. In the case of, [ domain ], the registrar eNom.com, has not released the name for auction, hence the current Wish List status.

In a nutshell, eNom – or any other partner registrars at NameJet – can play a carrot and stick game with bidders, perhaps sampling participation in the domain backorders and thus cherry-picking the ones most suitable for their parking pages (as in the case with this domain).

I must say, that after today’s conclusion I’d be very skeptical when placing bids at NameJet; in fact, I think that I will give NameJet less of my money from now on - by choice.

Using eNom as a registrar these days is a leftover from around 2002; that’s when I acquired a reseller account and managed to keep my domain renewal costs low.

An incident that occurred on Sunday made me change my strategy with regards to eNom; instead of keeping my remaining domains there – mostly TLDs that Fabulous.com won’t handle – I am moving them all out immediately.

Why the sudden change of heart?

Earlier yesterday my email stopped working and my web site at Acroplex.com displayed the notorious eNom chick page instead.

Initially I thought it’s an issue with my account but since my domain is with Fabulous I soon realized that the issue was related to the domain used by my web host to manage DNS.

Just 8 hours past its expiration date, the domain was already being pointed by eNom to their notorious “backpack chick” – that’s the phrase they used when I called support to inquire how this could be fixed in a manner matching the status of a self-professed leader in domain registrations.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to renew the domain of my host – even though I’ve displayed similar generosity in the past – and the eNom support would not switch the DNS back temporarily for – say – 24 hours until my host renewed their domain. They were very pedantic, of course, teaching me a “lesson” about how people or businesses should be careful with their domain renewals and how contact email should not be on a domain that can be allowed to lapse.

The bottom line: my host responded to my ticket in less than an hour, they renewed the domain apologizing profusely; in fact, I never have had any problems with them in several years. It was one of those human errors that can happen to everyone.

I definitely didn’t like eNom’s lack of flexibility, particularly to an old customer. I am packing all my stuff inside the eNom chick’s backpack and moving the remaining domains to Name.com

A little over a year ago I started consolidating my domain names at a single registrar. At that time, I decided to use Fabulous.com for a number of obvious reasons: low pricing, extensive backend to manage the domains, great tech support.

As time passed by, I still have domains in a handful of other registrars, but the big exodus from eNom is in its final stages. Despite the equally great backend manager, eNom lacks in a couple of fields that I’ve found Fabulous.com to win hands down.

Mass-acquisition of EPP codes is not available via eNom’s interface, thus making the mass transfer of domains a pain in the butt. Fabulous offers that and in general such mass-handling features are where you expect them to be, including renewals via the Expiry Control section.

Secondly, when it comes down to billing notifications, Fabulous.com is second to none. You get emails for every activity, including very well-thought invoices with detailed break down of the charges involved. The mere fact that PDF files are attached, makes my life so much easier around this time of the year.

Tax time is around the corner and if you can’t manage the volume of your transactions anymore, consider hiring a CPA for the job. Stay away from the H&R Block guys.

Fabulous.com retains detailed records of all your charges and expenses – and revenue, if you park domains with them. It’s just a matter of printing out the monthly PDF files for the entire year. Meanwhile, at eNom you have to run a report, which is generated in the background. Although eNom has improved in the past year and can now generate reports older than 6 months, there are errors that frustrate the heck out of me, e.g. no renewal dates are included in the CVS files.

For the remaining domains of my eNom portfolio, I have to do a lot of manual labor in order to produce the documents I need for tax purposes. Not so with Fabulous.com which I thoroughly recommend as a registrar for domainers.

Want more? Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/acroplex