easyspace iomart domain transfer con unfolds

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:25 am (18 years, 10 months ago)

Like others in the forum here, my domain managers easysapce.com were taken over last October by Iomart.com

No customers were notified of any changes at all, in May 2005. All customers were sent a letter saying the unlimited bandwidth was now over limit and all were expected to pay extortionate extra fees to have added bandwidth supplied.

The problem was all customers went mad as they were not Iomart customers and had unlimited bandwidth from easyspace, so this was generally thought to be a con, a swindle to steal easyspace custom as happens.

It was then only after making phone calls that Iomart informed individual complaining customers they had taken over easyspace.

They said a server would be best and offered one, unlimited bandwidth at less than £100 a month.

But the final quote was like £159 minimum a month with only a 40 gigabyte bandwidth limit.

They increased domain renewal fees and all sorts.

After finding a new domain manager they now say they want me to pay £49 for every domain name to be transferred. Having five in all that’s like £247.

I argued that because the company had changed hands and I was not notified, and also because I certainly would not have picked Iomart as my domain manager or web host that they had no right to ask for this. And I am right 100% in saying this to them.

I was not being heard by ignorant arrogant staff truly fed up of the endless complaints from easyspace customers, and requested a manager to ring me back.

Instead they then took my main domain (the most popular) and moved the whole thing up into a spoof directory (a folder they had added) and placed a redirect link page on to their own company.

The site is not able to be fixed by me myself, they think this is clever, it’s childish a criminal act and extremely hostile on their own parts.

So now my domain only reads as (example) http://www.domainnamehere.com/ALAN.www.domainnamehere.com

instead of http://www.domainnamehere.com

I aim to see someone in prison for this it’s criminal fraud and tantamount to hacking on their own part. It’s disgusting behaviour on the part of a filthy rich greedy childish company.

Endless people are now leaving Iomart and forums are popping up all over in this same issue.

What do you think, I am not the only one being conned and cheated by Iomarts clever ploy

(Note I never used my web sites domain name here in this post so I am not merely seeking visitors and traffic)

To help others I know that to transfer .co.uk domains in bulk via nominet is only £15, but they cannot do .com domains.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:58 pm (18 years, 10 months ago)

From my understanding of domain transfers (and from my own experience) the company which you registered your domain with might not be able to stop you from transferring it away. Unless the domain is locked (presumably by you), all you have to do is initiate a transfer at another company (e.g. RegisterFly) and the company you're leaving isn't involved in the process.

This was useful to me when I wanted to move from Easily.co.uk to RegisterFly, since Easily.co.uk require you to tell them in writing that you're transferring the domain away from them. That seemed like a lot of hassle, so I just went ahead and started the transfer at RegisterFly - after a few days it was done (admittedly Easily still thought I was one of their customers, but I paid by cheque instead of by credit card, so it wasn't a problem).

Now, about your specific case. I disagree that this is a "criminal" act (and I am certain that no one will ever go to prison over it), and they are of course within their rights to change their own prices (companies which provide services do this all the time, after all). Taking your site down might be crossing a line, assuming they had no good reason to do so. But again, they have the right to terminate your service if they wish to do so. If I were you I'd just cut my losses and move to a better company.