Hi Jim,

Drop me an email off the DNS list with the clients domain name, and  
I'll investigate what may have occurred for you.  For the record, the  
DNS List is for the au domain, TLD's are typically out of scope.

Without knowing all the information, a possible explanation is:
The domain was in Redemption at the time the renewal request was made  
through Bottle Domains.  As a result the renewal would have failed, and  
the customer would have been contacted by phone advising of the process  
to redeem a domain.

If you attempted to transfer the domain in any of its stages after  
expiry; well, typically these transfer out requests are declined by the  
current Registrar, and you must renew through their connection.  The  
gaining Registrar should advise you that they will be unsuccessful  
obtaining the domain in this circumstance, in particular if it is in  
Redemption period, as there is no possible way to redeem a domain other  
than with its current Registrar.

Bottle Domains is a TLD reseller of Planet Domain.  The renewal &  
delete cycle of our TLD's are as follows:
- Email renewal notices sent 90, 60, 30, 15, 3, 1 days prior to expiry.
- The domain expires
- For 14 days after expiry, the domain remains in our 'grace period'  
where the name is still active in the DNS, and may be renewed.  During  
this time we generally make attempts to contact the customer by means  
other than email.
- The next 14 days the domain is placed on Registrar-Hold, where the  
DNS is removed from the domain, however it may still be renewed.
- After these 28 days a delete request is sent to the Registry and the  
domain drops into the native 'Redemption Period', where the domain can  
be redeemed and renewed for around AUD$100.  This lasts for around 30  
days.
- Finally, if not redeemed the domain goes into a random drop after  
redemption which can last up to 5 days.
- The trend in the domain industry at the moment, is once a TLD, that  
had web traffic whilst it operated, drops from the registry, it is very  
quickly snapped up by traffic accumulators.  Companies register  
thousands of domains simply for the traffic they generate.  It looks  
like this has occurred with your clients domain.

If the client needs this domain, and cannot settle for an alternate, I  
suggest you contact the current Registrant and propose to purchase the  
domain back.  Given that the domain has already been off air for 45+  
days, it may be more cost effective for the client to register an  
alternate domain and move on.

Bests,


Nicholas Bolton
Managing Director

www.bottledomains.com.au
50 Fitzroy Street
St Kilda, VIC, 3182

p. 1300 88 74 74
d. +61.386867711
f. +61.380801623
e. nick§bottledomains.com.au

On Mar 19, 2005, at 1:15 PM, Jim Stewart wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> A client of mine had a domain expire that was registered with bottle
> domains.
> According to my client they had no notification from the registrar that
> it was about to expire. This may have been an old email address issue
> attached to the domain. When my client contacted bottle he was told  
> that
> several voicemail messages had been left warning him about expiry. My
> client does not have voicemail - so he found this odd. He then tried to
> renew the registration via the website but was unsure if payment went
> through or not. I did a whois on it and it was still showing the old
> expiry date. So I told him if payment had gone through it had certainly
> not been updated.
>
> My client was getting very concerned as his website was off the air. He
> was unhappy with the service at Bottle so I told him he could transfer
> his domain to another registrar if he wanted to. As price was a driving
> motivator for him I recommended aplus.net. He registered with them but
> as the domain's status had gone into redemption it went into 'pending
> transfer' status at aplus.net. I explained to him that, depending on  
> the
> registrar it could take up to 60 days for the transfer to go through.
>
> The 60 days were up lastweek. Today I did a whois lookup.
> whois xxxxxxxxxxx.com
> [Querying whois.internic.net]
> [Redirected to whois.hostlane.com]
> [Querying whois.hostlane.com]
> [whois.hostlane.com: Name or service not known]
> [Unable to connect to remote host]
>
> Firstly I rang aplus.net . They said that there is an error with the
> transfer and suggested I contact hostlane. My client has never heard of
> hostlane and they are not affiliated with aplus (according to aplus).
>
> I contacted hostlane via their chat service.
>
> You are now chatting with 'Eugene'
> Eugene: Hello, you have reached the Web Hosting CHAT Technical Support
> Center. Please wait one moment while I verify your customer  
> information.
> Eugene: According to the information I have Hostlane is your registrar
> company.
> Jim: We have never registered with you
> Eugene: For more information I would recommend you to contact our
> customer service department by phone: 360-449-5948 or email:
> jons§dotster.com
> Jim: Do you have  XXXXXX XXXXXX registered as the contact for that
> domain?
> Jim: He is my client
> Eugene: One moment please.
> Eugene: I was not able to find this domain in our database.
> Jim: So - why did you tell me " Hostlane is your registrar company."
> Jim: When I do a whois lookup
> Jim: it throws an error from whois.hostlane.com
> Eugene: Just a moment please I will check it once more
> Eugene: We use several whois systems and using one of them I was able  
> to
> replicate this error but according to the other one I get the following
> results:
> Eugene: Domain Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.COM
> Eugene: Registrar: HOSTLANE INC.
> Eugene: Whois Server: whois.hostlane.com
> Eugene: Referral URL: http://www.hostlane.com
> Eugene: Name Server: No nameserver
> Eugene: Status: ACTIVE
> Eugene: Updated Date: 16-mar-2005
> Eugene: Creation Date: 16-mar-2005
> Eugene: Expiration Date: 16-mar-2006
> Jim: wow
> Jim: this is not good
> Jim: Do you have an affilliation with Planet Domains or Bottle Domains
> or iPrimus in Australia?
> Jim: or Aplus.net?
> Jim: I can't work out how the domain ended up with hostlane
> Eugene: Please hold on a moment while I will figure it out for you.
> Jim: thanks
> Eugene: Thank you for holding. I am still researching your issue.  
> Please
> wait a moment and I will return momentarily.
> Jim: ok no worries
> Jim: thanks mate
> Eugene: Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately I was not able to figure out
> if we have affiliations with these companies. In order to get more
> information on this issue I would recommend you to contact our customer
> service department(customercare§custhelp.com) I suppose they will be
> able to provide you with more information. Sorry again.
> Jim: I think I may have to contact ICANN
> Jim: this is very weird indeed
> Jim: So basically are you telling me there is nothing we can do with  
> the
> domain from your perspective?
> Eugene: Ok
> Jim: Does your system even have an owner connected to the domain?
> Eugene: At least technical support department is not able to help you
> with this issue. That is why I recommended you to contact customer
> service.
> Jim: Ok
> Jim: do you think I would have more luck if I phoned rather than
> emailed?
> Jim: This is very urgent you see.
> Jim: My clients site has been down for a month now
> Eugene: I understand. But unfortunately they are not available 24\7. It
> is 8:30 pm here. Please try to contact them during busyness hours.
> Eugene: They are available from Monday to Friday 9 am - 6 pm. I
> apologize for any inconveniences this may cause.
>
> I have left a message with bottle but I have not heard back from them
> yet. Please understand I have no knowledge of the bottle domains  
> service
> and therefore I am not critiquing them in anyway nor do I hold any
> opinion of their service. My client just needs his domain live NOW.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this issue?
>
> Thanks
>
> Jim Stewart
> Director
> Stew Art Media P/L
> IM: jimbooter§HOTMAIL.COM
> SKYPE: JIMBOOT
> ICQ: 7886979
> AIM: jimb00t
> Yahoo: j_a_stewart
> http://stewartmedia.biz
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ----
> List policy, unsubscribing and archives => http://dotau.org/
> Please do not retransmit articles on this list without permission of  
> the
> author, further information at the above URL.
>


Bests,


Nicholas Bolton
Managing Director

Australian Style Pty Ltd
www.bottledomains.com.au
50 Fitzroy Street
St Kilda, VIC, 3182

p. 1300 88 74 74
d. +61.386867711
f. +61.380801623
e. nick§australianstyle.com.au