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Network Solutions is getting better
January 15th, 2008 by 
Jay Westerdal
After a horrible launch last week of reserving all domain names on Network Solutions before a customer even ordered them, Network Solution started making improvements to the forward reservation service. I privately offered 4 unsolicited suggestions to a few Vice Presidents at Network Solutions.
1) Don’t register Name Servers with the domain (Avoid leaking the ideas).
2) Ask the consumer IF they intend on register a domain and IF they can guarantee payment.
3) Allow them to Opt in before searching.
4) Allow the consumer the ability to delete the domain being held in the AGP.
The first concept is the most important. When leaking customer intent or an idea of a potential registration, Network Solution was broadcasting information that was more hurtful then helpful to their own customers. In less then a week, commercial services specifically targeted the leaking data had popped up to mine Network Solutions customers. To steal the ideas of their customers and trade their ideas like fruit at the Sunday Market. I am glad to report all leaks have stopped, a domain is now registered with the status of Client-Hold meaning that Verisign doesn’t report the domain in the zone file and broadcast the idea to the world.
The second concept was straight forward, only register domains for people that want to buy the domains. If a person was performing a whois request and the domain was available that was not enough evidence to secure the domain and reserve it. Network Solution directly stopped registering all domains on their whois page. They only register domains of their customers in the shopping cart process now.
The third concept seems the most obvious, allow customers to choose ahead of time if Network Solutions would register and hold a domain as a reservation. Network Solution has not enabled this yet however a spokesperson for Network Solution said, “we are working on developing an option for the customer to choose whether to have the searched domain reserved”.
My final suggestion was to allow people to escape the process and go register the domain at a registrar of their choice. Two people can be on the phone call talking about domain names and if one person is checking ideas at Network Solutions that would lock the guy with the wallet from purchasing the domain at another registrar. The customer should have the right to delete the reservation. I was told this had changed since last week. Last week, Customer Support told me the domain would be available again in 4 days and there was nothing they could do to help me clear the domain off their system, I would just have to wait it out if I wanted to register it somewhere else. This week when I called in I was told the domain could be deleted in 6-8 hours but the issue had to escalated. Instant deletion is a big deal, there is nothing more overwhelming then the feeling of being held hostage. If Network Solutions can register the domain in 5 milliseconds, then why can’t the support team delete the domain in under 5 minutes.
Overall, Network Solutions accomplished 2 1/2 of the 4 suggestions I gave them. I am hopefully that all 4 will be accomplished in the next few weeks. This reservation service reminded me of how Site Finder was launched. A huge change with no advanced polling on how people would react to the service. I believe Site Finder could have been launched and stayed a service had Verisign launched it correctly. The Network Solutions forward reservation system is a good idea but not when it broadcasts customer ideas to the world, has no opt-out, and gobbles every idea on the whois page. Customers deserve to opt-in to such a service and be made aware of it before hand.
I applaud Network Solutions on acting quickly and making changes.
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Posted in Network Solutions |
January 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Jay,
If Network Solutions reserves a Domain but it is never registered will Domain Tools WhoIs still show the Domain Status as “Never Registered Before”?
Mike
UPDATE BY JAY: We may or may not say “Never Registered Before”, it depends on if the domain is looked up before or after Network Solutions deletes it. If they delete it before we see it, then we will have never known it existed.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I still send a boo and hiss to NS. They knew what they were doing going into this - their intent was to force people who use their WHOIS search to do business with them.
As for their “change” to only register domain names in a shopping cart - are they only registering domain names that are in a shopping cart once checkout is completed, or are they registering them once the cart is opened? If the latter, this is still deception on their part.
NS has obviously lost touch with reality and are losing behind many other companies, thus they have to resort to tricks - yes, tricks - to get customers. I have advised everybody I know to avoid their Web site altogether.
mp/m
UPDATE BY JAY: They are still registering domains while the cart is open. Hopefully they will allow people to Opt-In to that ability rather then do it automatically and with little notification.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I reported them to The BBB and told them we had 15,000 people ready to do a class action suit and that they were in violation of state local and federal laws
January 15th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Your complaint has been submitted and has been assigned tracking number
09368-BC9F8-1142A-F91BD-44A0F-3EBA5-09
An email will arrive shortly confirming your complaint.
We suggest you print a copy of this page for your records
this is to rhe BBB
This was sent to the BBB 13 of Jan
January 15th, 2008 at 11:35 am
“Network Solutions is getting better”… really?… better at what!?
Network Solutions is still front-running … registering a domain name whether with or without nameservers (ie. “Client-Hold”) *still makes the domain unavailable* for others.
As far as “leaking” … not registering nameservers certainly helps in regards to privacy, but isn’t full-proof.
So again, what’s really changed? … not much it seems.
On a related topic, it would be poetic justice if VeriSign chose to implement a nominal deletion fee for excessive “tasting” much like PIR does - that would put a quick stop to all this front-running nonsense by NSI; they are no longer associated with VeriSign - they basically have no more power / influence than any other registrar.
Ron
January 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention. Here’s my 2 cents for your readers:
Like a lot of people I registered my first domain with NS and soon realized I over payed. I haven’t registered another name with them since. Domain registration is really a commodity service and so its hard for NS to justify the premium they charge for it.
They have no doubt witnessed increasing customer attrition rates. Their slice of the registration service market has been shrinking. What NS has done by auto registration is a sign of corporate weakness rather than strength though. It is a defensive strategy typical of lazy incumbents, think AOL service cancellation…
Like with AOL, forcing people to register with NS may temporarily slow customer attrition but is bad for business in the long run. It doesn’t give people a reason STAY with them and it will encourage people to AVOID NS once they understand the underhanded tactic at play here.
NS would be better off lowering their prices on basic registration while continuing to build out their value added services. If they don’t, they slowly die off.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Great post Jay. I hope you are getting paid as a consultant to the NSI marketing department! I also want to applaud NSI for participating in the debate which raged last week. Instead hiding in ivory towers, they were proactive in telling their side of the story (however feeble it may have been). Even better, they responded to the criticism and made some important changes. We posted recently on how they liiley resolved the most pressing legal issues raised by their reserve policy with the recent changes and notice provisions http://tcattorney.typepad.com/anticybersquatting_consum/2008/01/dnfr-allegation.html
Hopefully, they will continue to make improvements so that it becomes a real service with full notice to consumers about their options.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
The Wall Street Journal has a brief article on the back of today’s Marketplace (B) section about the fiasco.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
NetSol made changes only because public outcry was so loud; otherwise it would be business as usual.
If people continue to do business with them, they should do so with both eyes open.
Best,
Ms Domainer
January 15th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
NetSol made changes only because public outcry was so loud; otherwise it would be business as usual.
If people continue to do business with them, they should do so with both eyes open.
Best,
Ms Domainer
January 15th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Give me a break, Jay.
I worked at a large registrar for over 8 years and know exactly how these people think.
Do not kid yourself or your readers and pretend those are novel suggestions that NetSol didn’t already consider. No offense but anyone with some understanding of how the DNS and registry/registrar transactions function already knew those things.
They scaled back the idea because of the bad press, public outcry, and fear of a lawsuit or other similar problems.
By the way, if you monitor adds/drops within the AGP you will find some other registrars doing the same thing, although not as blatantly and not as egregiously as netsol.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
“NS would be better off lowering their prices on basic registration while continuing to build out their value added services. If they don’t, they slowly die off.”
A few of their PR releases can give a hint who they’re targetting. And they’re not exactly domainers.
I guess they must be doing something right. Otherwise how else would they have lasted this long ever since domain registration was deregulated?
On the side, their CEO was quoted in infoworld that they’ll stop this reservation practice if ICANN (or maybe VeriSign?) would come up with a specific solution to address the domain tasting and fronting problems.
David
January 16th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Today, Jan 16, 2008
GETTING BETTER?! It happened to me TODAY. I entered a domain name, and then it was taken over by Network Solutions. According to their Whois it is registered for a whole year. It was not a name that just anyone would want or need. I was just investigating getting it for my friend, who is severely handicapped. I am some what offended and will refuse to pay extortion. I will never do business with them.
Thomas
January 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Get rid of domain tasting altogether; it was good idea that had alturistic roots, but has gone all wrong.
Ms Domainer
January 18th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
SOLUTION FOUND UNTIL IT GETS BETTER:
I suggest the following to anyone who had this happen. It is a resolution if anything. I am a web designer and look up domains for my clients. Sometimes they want to register with them,sometimes they do not.
It happened to me two days ago with a domain. Today, I CALLED customer service and began (do not give them the specific domain right away)
to say, please let me talk to someone in customer service. The woman said she was with customer service, so I began by saying “I wanted to call and personally thank you for helping me lose three customers this week. I often do searches for my clients and have found that three domains I have searched for are being “held”.” She said they do this to hold it as a courtesy as there are third party people waiting to register it(didn’t really go into this one as it doesn’t make sense) She also said they are making changes to the site currently. She apologized for causing me problems and then offered to release the domain. I then asked her if when that happens will it be offered on a list to third party sniping companies and she said no. So, she took my email for documenting and then released the domain. I was then able to register the domain through another company.
So at least there is a work-around.
Hope that helps…
g
January 18th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Getting better huh?
Network Solutions is front running pure and simple.
Here is what happened to me. I have not searched for a domain name for months and have not been paying attention to the registrar status of Network Solutions. I had an old bookmark and remembered that I could search for available domains at Network Solutions.
I searched for dozens of URLs today. Most were not available. Some were available. I wrote down some that were available. I only used Network Solutions for checking availability. I did not put any URL into a checkout basket.
I went to my current host where I can buy domain names for under $10 and where I do not have to mess with transferring them.
To my surprise EVERY .COM DOMAIN THAT NETWORK SOLUTIONS SAID WAS AVAILABLE, WAS NOT AVAILABLE FROM MY CURRENT HOST. When I do back to Network Solutions all of these .com domains are still available for purchase from Network Solutions at the not so appealing price of $35 each.
I checked WhoIs and every one of these domains is now registered by Network Solutions with a status of “clientHold” for one year!!
Apparently, Network Solutions wants me as a client badly enough to pervert the domain registration process. The last I knew about the concept “client” was that the “client” has to agree to be a “client.”
I found this post through Google. Other links I have read about this situation use the term “front running.” This sure looks like it to me.
Perhaps I missed the disclosure, but nowhere on the Network Solutions domain search page did I seen a notice that every .com domain that I found to be available would be registered by Network Solutions automatically and that I would be forced to use them as a registrar, pay $35 a pop, and then have to do through all the transferring hassles to get the URL to my current host.
This is crap. This is wrong. Since I just stumbled onto this problem, I cannot image how much more terrible this situation used to be, if the current situation indicates that “Network Solutions is getting better!” What were they doing before?
Since I understand that domain registration is not supposed to be a single vendor monopoly, I suspect that a competent lawyer could quickly fill several yellow legal size pages on how these slimy business practices might be remedied legally.
I am displeased.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
This happened to me today. I’m an existing customer of Network Solutions for some domains I registered many many years ago on behalf of some customers. I haven’t looked at their prices in a while. I did a lookup of about 15 domains (.com, .net and .info each) and wanted to look at the various packages, prices, etc. When I was shocked at the $9.95 private registration and how much it cost to reserve the domain, and the lack of features on the hosting packages, I decided against reserving them.
I went to another hosting provider, and like everyone else here, found that they listed them all as “already reserved.” A whois lookup verified that the domains were put into “clientHold” status. That’s when I searched and found this entry.
I removed each of them from my shopping cart at Network Solutions and waited a few minutes. After about 10 minutes, all the .info and .net domains were released and I could reserve them elsewhere. The .com’s however were not released.
Taking the advice of ‘ginhut’ above, I called customer service, verified I was speaking with customer service, described the clienthold status problem and the representative (Chris, female with foreign accent) understood the problem, asked for the domain names and put me on hold for 3-4 minutes and when they came back, whois was cleaned up.
I was very impressed with their ability to solve my problem immediately, and this one phone call is the ONLY reason I might consider doing business with NS in the future. I’m still pretty upset about their actions and the time it wasted for me, but at least I wasn’t dragged through the coals like some people.
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 am
As of January 30th, seems like NSI is still front running
http://whois.domaintools.com/miamicustomsbrokers.com
February 20th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Unfortunately I fell victim to this crap just a few minutes ago. I was about to register a domain and also begin transferring several domains from network solutions. I looked up the domain, went to GoDaddy, and sure enough it was suddenly taken.
I’ve never been a fan of their sub-par interface and over-priced services but this is simply reprehensible. I am listening to their hold music as I write this now.
—continuing to hold—
14 minutes 39 seconds later…
I spoke with Amanda. The conversation went like this:
Amanda: Thank you for calling network solutions. Can I have your domain name please?
rwoodrum: Well I’m trying to register a domain but you guys placed a hold on it when I looked it up on your site.
Amanda: Let me take that off of there for you.
rwoodrum: [amazed she knew exactly what I was talking about and was doing exactly what I wanted]
Amanda: I assume you don’t want to register the domain with us?
rwoodrum: uhhh, no
Amanda: That should come off in the next few minutes but it could take up to 24 hours.
—2 minutes later—
Domain freed.
May 10th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Of course for every ‘customer’ calling and getting the domain released there are a hundred being just paying up to get the domain they want. NetworkStitchupolutions’ willingness to fall in line as soon as a call is made to their operators does not represent good practice on their part rather than simple trouble avoidance. I’m sure the upper echelons laugh when reports of such releases are interpreted by some people as good service. Unwarranted positive PR to offset the negativity.
I hate to say it but as a businessman it makes good business sense to keep the coffers coming in this way. They’ll stop this practise when it’s made illegal and people will soon forget any negativity associated with the NetSol name. Meanwhile of course these guys will be living off the interest from all the ransom money… legallystitcheduplikeakipper.com
May 10th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Damn…should read; ‘Of course for every ‘customer’ calling and getting the domain released there are a hundred just paying up…’
May 13th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Jay,
I think network solutions hasn’t changed a bit. Last week one of my client searched for 5 domains at network solutions. All 5 were available. Ten minutes letter when he tried to register it through my site, all 5 were blocked by network solutions. We had to wait for netsol to release the domains and then only we could register it.
Can you please re-check with network solutions??
July 11th, 2008 at 1:56 am
Network solutions is still holding domains hostage. They hijacked a domain when I used their search tool.
I ended up registering with them even though they have ridiculously high prices and sub-par service and offerings compared to another large registrars.
I’ll be transferring it out before the expiration period. I don’t trust these people.