Domain Issues/Website hijack

[Toddxxx]

Hello all,

Some of you may recall when I launched my new Strider website (which is very nice thank you very much). I was unable to obtain my domain from my old hosting company.

This was bad enough but now they won't take down the site and today I get an order from my old site and the hosting company gives me their own credit card details (usually I get the customers) and says deduct a 26% commission. And then their credit card is declined. This is my business name and my hard work to get to the top of Google and they want a commission. FYI my WS, Interflora, only takes %20 and we get a LOT
of orders from them. I have another website under a different name (a registered trading name of mine) and they take $6 an order. So it is clear that this %26 commission is just to punish me for not wanting to be their client anymore.

The worse thing is they won't even talk to me - countless emails and phone messages have been ignored. This is really getting to me, I am so stressed, all I wanted was a nice shiney new website but all I get is grief. Seems to me this guy is miffed that I wanted out and is now trying to make me pay in any way he can. How is the little guy supposed to make it in the world when people like this are out to get us?

I could get mean, there is an Australian florists forum, small as it is, I could name and shame but I don't really have that sort of nastiness in me. Of course I will be telling my Interflora rep and all my sales reps about this (nothing but the facts) in any case.

Anyway, if anyone has had any experience with this sort of thing and/or has any advice, please comment. I will give my lawyer a call on Monday and see where that gets me.

Thanks for listening.

Todd.

 

[BOSS]

Todd, who originally registered the URL... you or the hosting company?

 

[Toddxxx]

Todd, who originally registered the URL... you or the hosting company?

It was the hosting company. Which is why I don't like my chances. I guess the lawyer will say something along the lines of they paid for it, it's theirs.

 

[BOSS]

What's the other URL? (I forget)...

Might be worth an ad in a local publication, or on a store sign... I guess I'd decline the orders from the hosting company and let them be stuck...

 

[Toddxxx]

What's the other URL? (I forget)...

Might be worth an ad in a local publication, or on a store sign... I guess I'd decline the orders from the hosting company and let them be stuck...

It's just www.hangingbasketflorist.com. No .au

I had a whinge on Twitter and a local high school kid put me onto a website (http://www.auda.org.au/) which has a focus on .AU's. And I thought all the local kids were drop kicks! He says he hates seeing people treated unfairly when it comes to domain names. I shall think twice before judging "The Youth" in future.

I have found out who the actual registration company is and will contact them. Who knows, I might have some luck - particularly as now I am THINKING instead of FEELING.

As to ignoring these orders - I think it may be the only course of action, although it is MY customers I will be ignoring. The order that came today, I called the customer, caused confusion. If it wasn't for the fact that the lady was impressed with the 5 star treatment I'd given her in store last week it wouldn't have gone down so well. And the real kicker - the lady called me earlier in the day saying she tried to order on the old website and got an error so I directed her to the .com BUT she still ended up at the old site. I blame this on stupid windows/stupid IE autofill type stuff. Told her I would send out the flowers but please could she try to cancel the order or dispute the transaction with her credit card company. It was a difficult situation and I probably shouldn't have called her. Sent her an email to clarify & apologise and gave her a $10 off coupon code for the new site. It was local business and a company order.

 

[Toddxxx]

Thinking...

Continuing with my thoughts and not my feelings...

I know it is only a matter of time before the new website takes off - it looks better, the items are better and there are none of the unexplained errors many customers were getting on the old site (yeah, who knows how many customers I lost because of that. The hosting company (who from now on shall be referred to as The Evil One), when they could be bothered to reply to my queries, gave the excuse for these errors as being the fault of old computers or the people being in the wromg country. Yeah and now he's miffed that I've given him the boot. It was such a nice "see ya later' email to. I even thanked for the years of service, I didn't @@@@@ that his service was non-existant!

o noes - I'm starting to feel those feelings again. (calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean, calm blue...)

 

[Palms]

Todd i am really sorry that i have no advice to offer but just wanted to say I am sorry that you are having to deal with this crap. I think you should commission a voo doo doll from Chezbloom, they usually do the trick...

Does Ryan not know what could be done??

Are you orders from your old website normally from the local area or national. If they were local it may be worth contacting the local paper and see if they would run an editorial or perhaps place an advert.. ??

 

[Bigted]

I would send out an email and/or letter and say that someone else is using our old website and trying to trick our customers. Our REAL website is xxxxx.

Don't give too many details--just get them in the right direction.

You could do some nasty things to the hosting company but it probably wouldn't be worth it.

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

yes, do get in touch with your customers ASAP. Offer an incentive for them to call you while your new site is in the works - free delivery, upgrade, whatever it takes for them to call you instead of sending the order to the hosting company.

And I would be naming names about that company, most especially to other florists who are their customers. Nothing defamatory, just helpful info about being sure all their ducks are in a row before making a move like you did.

Shame it couldn't have been avoided & hope it is rectified soon!

 

[goldfish]

I just checked the whois record of your old domain. The registrar was 'Melbourne IT' (http://www.melbourneit.com.au/).

Domain Name hangingbasketflorist.com.au
Last Modified 07-Aug-2008 21:01:40 UTC
Registrar ID Melbourne IT
Registrar Name Melbourne IT
Status ok
Registrant Hanging Basket Florist Pty Ltd

You are the Registrant, so you have all the rights to change the registration records.

I think all you have to do is to contact Melbourne IT and change the NS of old domain to the striders' and you are done.

 

[goldfish]

Sorry, what I mean is...

This is your current NS config.

Name Server wic001n.server-dns.com.au
Name Server IP 203.147.142.1
Name Server bne001n.server-dns.com
Name Server sjc001n.server-dns-us.com

This should be changed to the Striders' NS.

Then when someone typed in your old domain, it would go to your new strider site.

 

[Toddxxx]

I just checked the whois record of your old domain. The registrar was 'Melbourne IT' (http://www.melbourneit.com.au/).




You are the Registrant, so you have all the rights to change the registration records.

I think all you have to do is to contact Melbourne IT and change the NS of old domain to the striders' and you are done.

Thanks Goldfish, I did some more research and thought this may be the case. I got all stressed about it and wasn't thinking clearly.

OK Just called them and they said it is actually through another company - http://www.webcentral.com.au/ - and they tell me they can only send the details to the registered email, so me being the registrant hasn't helped.

 

[geebf]

Breathe, Todd, Breathe. Wanna borrow from my stash of brown paper bags?

Cause I'm pretty brainless on this subject I can't give you any advice apart from perhaps giving " The evil one" a smack in the teeth. Yea yea, I know violence isn't the answer - Would be satisfying thou.........

Hopefully what Goldy has pointed out works in your favour.

 

[goldfish]

Thanks Goldfish, I did some more research and thought this may be the case. I got all stressed about it and wasn't thinking clearly.

OK Just called them and they said it is actually through another company - http://www.webcentral.com.au/ - and they tell me they can only send the details to the registered email, so me being the registrant hasn't helped.

I did the .au whois search for your old domain using: http://whois.ausregistry.com.au

And here's the result:

Domain Name hangingbasketflorist.com.au
Last Modified 07-Aug-2008 21:01:40 UTC
Registrar ID Melbourne IT
Registrar Name Melbourne IT
Status ok
Registrant Hanging Basket Florist Pty Ltd
Registrant ID ABN 97104881852
Eligibility Type Company
Registrant Contact ID W113966702614592
Registrant Contact Name Hanging Basket Florist Pty Ltd
Registrant Contact Email [email protected]
Tech Contact ID Y113975287465993
Tech Contact Name Domain Administration
Tech Contact Email [email protected]
Name Server wic001n.server-dns.com.au
Name Server IP 203.147.142.1
Name Server bne001n.server-dns.com
Name Server sjc001n.server-dns-us.com

First, note the 'Registrar' (Do not confuse this with 'Registrant' which is you).

Registrar is the company that holds the registration record of this domain. It doesn't matter which company you did the registration with. They are just the registration agent, not 'Registrar'. Melbourne IT is the 'Registrar' and the one that keeps the registration record.

The most important record is DNS ('Name Server' above). You need to modify this record to the Strider's NS. You are the 'Registrant' (do not confuse this with 'Registrar'), which means you are the owner of this domain; you have a right to modify DNS record and any other records.

However...

Please take a look at 'Registrant Contact Email'. It says '[email protected]'. Is this your email address?

If not, you have a problem.

Here's what I suggest. Contact Melbourne IT and explain the situation.

Basically you tell them you originally used a certain company to register this domain name and this company was hosting your web site.

You now want to host your site with another company. You want to change the DNS record. But the previous company is resisting it. Unfortunately, you don't have a direct access to the DNS record, because the registered email address is not yours.

They understand the situation, because the same problem is happening all the time.

Then ask them how you can prove you are the Registrant. They should be able to tell you what kind of documents you need to show to them.

Once you comply with their request, they should be able to change the 'Contact email address' and all other contact info to your email addresses. Then you should be able to modify DNS.

Once DNS was changed to the new Strider NS, all the traffic going to your old domain will be directed to the new Strider site. Well, actually you need to modify something on the Strider side, but Strider should be able to handle that.

 

[goldfish]

For further info, see http://www.keytlaw.com/urls/whocontrols.htm

 

[Toddxxx]

Thanks Goldfish.

I will try again with Melbourne IT.

 

[Toddxxx]

I have just sent them a fax - I pretty much cut and paste half of Goldfish's post. I just don't have the confidence to try to deal with it over the phone, I only half understand half of it.

Thanks for the support.