Paul Roub : blahg

This is another sad story...my email to Nominet.uk this afternoon:

Hello, and help, if you can...
Below is my sad little tale regarding the hoops Network Solutions is making me jump through. I have just spoken to the 40th

person (ok, maybe not 40th...) at their "esteemed" company, and they now state that "they do not have the authority to

register .co.uk domains and never did, but will be able to next month"**. Well, they DID have my registry--up until today,

when the Verisign/Network Solutions people authorized AllDomains.com to take it over (at which point, AllDomains had to

send it back to Network Solutions, as N.S. has to handle these extensions...although N.S. is denying it's in their

queue...[along with all their other denials]). Now Network Solutions said I have to contact you...please, please, restore my

faith in humanity and help me determine how I can just re-register this domain name for our London office.

**cynical old toad that I am, is this just another lie dripping from their lips?

Thank You in advance,

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My email to the company president earlier in the day:
From: Helene Logan
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 2:26 PM
Subject: Network Solutions: where quality is job 3,486

Hi all,
Here is where we are with the xxxx.co.uk domain renewal. I wanted to write this out just so I can keep my ever-growing pile

of notes chronologically arranged, and I apologize for the novella-sized long-windedness of it all...

On October 12 I started contacting customer service at Verisign to renew our domain name. For the next few days, Verisign

moved me along to at least 4 different departments, as they "no longer registered 'co.uk' extensions". They, in turn, sent me

to Network Solutions, who, after sending me to at least 8 different departments, told me they didn't have our 'tag' and could

not do anything for us...and that they, too, "do not register 'co.uk' extensions". Back to Verisign, who, according to Network

Solutions, held our tag info.

History
When we purchased the domain extension, Verisign was our agent. It turns out that Verisign at one point owned Network

Solutions and moved all the .co.uk/uk extension accounts over to them. Then Network Solutions split off from Verisign and

moved all the .co.uk extensions back to Verisign, under the brand management division (DBMS).

Back to the fray...
I then spoke to 3 individuals at DBMS, all of whom insisted that they could not reregister our domain, that they "didn't have

the tags" or "it doesn't live on our servers" or or or...eventually, I was sent back to Network Solutions. I told them the name

of the servers it supposedly lived on (via whois search); they insisted that the servers weren't theirs, but eventually gave me

the phone# of the server farm that supposedly had our domain (probably out of desperation just to get rid of me).
So I spoke to the Server farm folks, who pointed me back to Network Solutions--because, lo and behold, the servers actually

DID belong to Network Solutions. When I mentioned that little fact, the Network Solutions rep-of-the-minute suggested I call

another registration company and get ready to transfer. Soooo, I spoke to a person at AllDomains.com, who sent me back to

Network Solutions because they have to supply an authorization code. (sigh...)

I spoke/emailed/argued with a number of different reps until I finally contacted a Support Rep who apparently hadn't yet

received his Network Solutions' required-for-employment lobotomy (or, more likely, hadn't had his job outsourced to

wherever).

Ta-da, today they finally moved the tag to AllDomains...and then AllDomains got back to me right away and told me that they

can't reregister our domain, that Network Solutions HAS to do it, that Network Solutions KNOWS THIS, that they would handle

this latest transfer for me...but then I have to deal with the brain trust at Network Solutions once again. (even bigger sigh)
Apparently, the coding for co.uk names is very klugey and no one wants to deal with it, so they try to ignore them and hope

they go away. All I want to do is give someone our money to register our name. It appears that Network Solutions has a

business model that doesn't include turning a profit (aren't those days over?). Hmmm.

I'll advise as soon as I can get this ridiculous thing resolved (I'm running out of time--we need to reregister by Friday, Nov.

12).

On a side note, If ever we have a client complain that they didn't get a call back in 3 minutes or less, may I suggest that they

try dealing with Network Solutions?
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I hate them. Hate hate hate.
If you have any suggestions, believe me, I'm open to them. Hate hate hate.