How do I get a domain name back from a domain prospector who grabbed it up when it expired?
One of my clients had his primary business domain name (ultimateairshows.com) bought out from under him. Originally it was registered by one of his friends, but that friend didn't renew it when it came due. There is a parking space on the domain now by GoDaddy, but the WHOIS registry isn't showing the new owner as they must have paid to not have it there. Additionally I have tried GoDaddy's "Domain Buy" service for them to negotiate a buy of the domain back, but they said that they can't do it right now because of the "redemption grace period." Is there any other way of 1) finding the current owner of the domain, and 2) attempt to buy it back? Because of this mess-up, no one is getting emails and customers are not able to contact them.
Good Answers (3)
Mark M
Senior Technical Support Lead and Online Services Consultant
Best Answers in: Web Development (3), Blogging (2), Small Business (1), Software Development (1)
Oooo...that hurts.
But there is hope. Domain Redemption Period means that a domain name has gone past its normal expiration but has not yet been released for public sale. You WILL want to retrieve it before it gets there though.
All you need to do is have the original registrar (your clients friend) contact GoDaddy and pay for the domain name and the Redemption fee. There will be an additional cost to that. (Checking around the office here it should be $80 with GoDaddy.)
I strongly suggest paying the $80 plus the cost of the domain name for a few years. Yeah, it may seem like a slight price, but if a real "Domainer" gets their hands on it, they'll charge you a few thousand dollars and possibly never release the domain name to you.
Just a note, ICANN allows you to have a domain registered for up to 10 years, I'd strongly suggest paying that cost now, especially if you plan on having the business for awhile. It'll pay for itself in the long run.
Good Luck
Mark
Ryan:
Sorry to hear this (I've been in your friend's position, too, a long time ago).
I believe you would have to wait through the 'redemption grace period' that GoDaddy is referring to.
Re: Identifying the previous owner - if that owner selected the privacy setting (as you indicated) there is no way to ID him/her (to my recollection, save for a court order to GoDaddy, which is, of course, very expensive and has to be done on some sort of legal copyright infringement grounds).
If the domain name is snapped up by someone before you, you might be able to negotiate a purchase from that person (provided that the new owner is reasonable and trustworthy).
Hard-working small business owners do get their domain names snatched up by a cybersquatter every now and then for the very same reason as your friend's. Because the legal process to get that domain back is quite expensive (these days, it's several thousand dollars and up), the alternative is to get an unpurchased URL (i.e. JimsUltimateAirShows.com), and chalk it up to a lesson learned.
Good luck,
Jordan B. Malik
So extremely frustrating. I've had (not too long ago) the same thing happen to me. Unfortunately, it was not by a service that might allow me to buy back the name, but instead by some domain squatter located out of Jamaica. They have thoroughly ignored every attempt I've made to negotiate my site back. Melbourne ignored my complaints that they gave up my site before the 90 days was up. Too bad so sad, was their reaction.
Problem is it was the domain for a non-profit - and I lost the .org. The organization is incorporated so it wasn't really an option to change the name entirely. I ended up settling for destinationchristianservices.net and it was a tedious pain in the butt transfer of all documentation, web sites and links. I also keep watching and trying to get the old one back. A hard lesson learned that's for sure.
Clarification added March 14, 2008:
p.s. I wish I'd known about paying the Redemption Fee - Melbourne told me to wait and buy it back. I called the morning of the day he told me to... and well, you know the rest of the story...
