On 8 Jan 2007 at 22:13, Jon Lawrence wrote:

> >When is auDA going to set minimum service standards?
> 
> Are you seriously suggesting that the regulator should be telling
> registrars the level of service they have to provide?  Is it not the idea
> of having a free market that different providers will provide different
> levels of service at different price points?  
> 
> How many other registrars offer 24x7 support?  By no means all, I
> suspect...
> 
> jon

The problem is that all suppliers at the registrar level promise exemplary service to 
prospective customers  but do not actually fully state what they will or won't do. It is for all 
practical purposes impossible to compare the services provide by registrars. And human 
nature being what it is people tend to buy at the  cheapest possible price when it is 
impossible to determine true quality.

In the case of domains quality of service is only perceptable when something goes wrong. To 
be fair it doesn't go wrong most of the time but registrars should be required to post their turn 
around time for support requests, have an Australian phone number for contact or at least 
attend to support requests in Australian business hours and have an after hours contact 
service - even if there is a premium to pay for such a service.

There should also be minimum common standards such as a clear indication on the 
registrar's site as to where one should login to maintain a domain and common protocol to 
login to such an area such as a domain name and AuthInfo/Domain Name Password. 
Concommitant with this should be a requirement that all registrars permit the maintenance of 
a domain by the registrant. Some registrars have systems that permit maintenance of 
domains only by a reseller/account holder ie. if one logs in using details that may have been  
supplied by an unwary reseller you can see the details of all domains on a resellers account.

Another real issue is where the registrant has not got the AuthInfo/Domain Name Password 
and the registrant email is out of date. One registrar at least routinely ignores requests faxed 
or posted to their published address. Only when the registrant makes a telephone call to 
follow up the request will they do anything and then only after additional, quite onerous, 
requirements not indicated on their site or the password request form are fufilled.

auDA doesn't care about service or standards - witness the kid glove treatment applied to the 
registrar who was displaying renewal dates for .au domains on their whois months after this 
was supposedly prohibited.

cb