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 COLUMN
Transfer disappearing act IF YOU DON'T LIKE the way a company is treating you, just take your business elsewhere -- unless the company is VeriSign, in which case you'll have to fill out a form confirming your desire to leave them, and then hope they acknowledge receiving it.
By the way, you will note that I've been referring to the domain-registration operation as VeriSign rather than Network Solutions. The final straw was the "Deactivation Notice" a number of readers have received about domains they had already successfully transferred to other registrars. Unlike the previous scare letters from Network Solutions we have already discussed (see "Is Network Solutions exploiting the rules or just aggressively marketing"), these went out on VeriSign letterhead. So fine, VeriSign it is. During the last year, customers looking to transfer existing domain names to other registrars have found it all too easy to run afoul of VeriSign's transfer procedures. Customers would be told it was too soon to transfer because the expiration was still weeks away, or they would be told it was too late to transfer because it was only weeks away. Minor discrepancies in the customer's Whois information that had long gone unquestioned would suddenly mandate terminating the transfer. Or, for no particular reason, the transfer request would "time out," and the only viable solutions offered would be to re-up with VeriSign or abandon the domain entirely. As if there weren't already enough that could go wrong in the transfer process, VeriSign is now sending customers an e-mail asking they confirm their request. "In order to protect you against unauthorized or fraudulent changes, we want to obtain your authorization before we act to change your registrar," the message typically reads. "If you don't respond within four calendar days, the request to Change Registrar will be denied." "I was surprised to see this, as I previously transferred other names we had registered with Network Solutions without any request for authorization," wrote one reader. "I was worried this might mean there was a problem with that particular account, so I was very careful to follow the procedure their message outlined, and had one of my staff double-check what I was doing. I am positive we did it right. Nevertheless, we shortly got back a message from Network Solutions claiming we failed to respond and therefore the transfer was rejected. Then they have the gall to say they appreciate my continued business." A number of other readers have reported similar problems with VeriSign's authorization form. "It's ridiculous -- VeriSign is denying transfers all the time for our clients," wrote an ISP that has been encouraging its customers to transfer their domain registrations to Tucows. "We often have to call VeriSign to get it straightened out, and even then half the time they reject the transfer again. [VeriSign's] behavior is anti-competitive and anti-consumer." A VeriSign spokeswoman says the company instituted the verification process because of an increasing number of unauthorized domain-name transfers. "We have a contractual agreement with our customers," said the spokeswoman. "Any change in this relationship is between us and our customer and cannot be broken by a third party. Out of concern for our customers and in support of our contractual relationship, we are doing several things to protect them from unauthorized transfers. Per the existing registrar agreements with the registry, we require the acquiring registrar to collect and maintain authorization and provide this to us upon request. We have implemented a registrar-to-registrar transfer process, an automated process to confirm the transfer request with our customer." In other words, there is already a procedure in place by which the acquiring registry authenticates the transfer, and it's the procedure VeriSign, as the dot-com registry, put there. Is there is a big problem with unauthorized domain-name transfers? Perhaps, but I find it strange I haven't heard from any of its victims. VeriSign may say it's trying to protect customers, but customers say VeriSign is just trying to protect itself from losing business. Old habits die hard. The pre-VeriSign Network Solutions enjoyed a number of years during which its monopoly meant customers had no alternatives. Those days are supposed to be gone, but it appears that the company hasn't quite gotten used to the idea of customers walking away without permission. Got a complaint about how a vendor is treating you? Contact InfoWorld's reader advocate, Ed Foster, at gripe@infoworld.com.  RELATED SUBJECTS  Web TechnologiesDiscuss this article in our online forums MORE > SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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