domainwatch.org

Even though an Australian Federal Court found Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd (Chesley Rafferty) guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct, the company is still causing problems for domain name buyers.

from: http://dotau.org/archive/2005-03/0031.html

—–Original Message—–
From: Ron Stark
Sent: Tuesday, 15 March 2005 3:54 PM
To: dns [at] dotau.org
Subject: [DNS] Still at it, eh Chesley?

Well, I’ve just had a call from an outraged client.

They originally got caught by one of Chesley’s look-alike dot-com domain scams in August 2004. In December that same year my client received a $187 renewal notice, which their accounts department recently paid in ignorance.

Let’s look at what Chesley’s done, and is still up to, through Domain Names Australia …

1. The original registration was as a result of a deceptive and misleading mailer, and was in fact unwanted;
2. The mailer promised a 2-year registration period, among other “services”. On investigation whois reports that the original registration was for only a 1-year period, despite 2 having been paid for;
3. The “renewal notice” was sent out less than 4 months after the original unwanted domain name was registered by Domain Names Australia (with enom);
4. The services that were promised on both the original mailer and the renewal notice have never been provided;
5. Some of the registrant information is false, in that registrant contact details are actually those of Domain Names Australia;

I’ve tried to get some response from enom on previous occasions, and it’s a complete waste of time. If, for example, there is a domain name that Chesley has registered, that the registrant actually wants (yes - there are some!), the only password that is available is Chesley’s master reseller password, so transfers to another registrar are not possible. This is particularly frustrated by the fact that registrant contact details refer back to Domain Names Australia, even the phone and fax numbers.

Ron Stark
Snapsite Pty Ltd