> WebCentral ???

WebCentral is a Melbourne IT reseller.  If they're hosting your domain name
(and they host a lot!) they renew your domain name for you  and invoice you
as part of their normal invoice process for hosting your domain name.

This raises a whole series of complicated questions about a Reseller's
obligations (or the obligations of a hosting service that isn't a reseller,
but manages domain names for Registrants) at time of domain name renewal.
Should they advise the Registrant that the domain name could be renewed a
helluva lot cheaper via someone like Namescout?



My favourite is Connect.com, who at the end of June sent a letter to all
net.au domain name holders that included the following:

"To assist our .net.au customers during this transition period, Connect is
please to announce we have reached an agreement with Melbourne IT, a trusted
domain name registrar.  Melbourne IT has been chosen due to their wealth of
experience managing .com.au, plus their high quality and secure domain name
systems.  Connect will become a reseller of Melbourne IT for net.au names,
and other domains already offered by Connect.  We strongly recommend that
you choose Melbourne IT as your registrar."


Now, there's gotta be someone really on the ball at Melbourne IT to have got
Connect to do this - my hat's off to whoever it was conned Connect into
making a decision BEFORE 1 July 2002 on which Registrar to recommend to all
the net.au domain name holders.

A sensible strategy would have been for Connect to hold off until 1 July
2002, see which Registrars were actually operational and WHAT WAS THE BEST
PRICE CONNECT COULD GET FROM EACH AS A RESELLER, and then make the decision.


It appears that a number of Resellers haven't thought thru their strategy
real well.  If Connect, or WebCentral, or any other Reseller renews a domain
name at the old price of $140, and then the Registrant finds out later that
it could have been renewed at $60 thru Namescout, guess who's gonna lose the
business?

Not the Registrar - 'cause the name has just been renewed, and the
Registrant won't want to pay more money to move it to a new Registrar.  But
the Registrant is likely to give the Reseller the flick if they find the
Reseller's price higher than the Registrant can get themselves.

The Registrar has no downside - its all with the Reseller.  If the
Registrant kisses off the Reseller, they're still stuck with the Registrar,
unless the registrant wants to outlay more money for a transfer.

So any Reseller who can spell 'strategy' ought to be going to each
accredited Registrar, negotiating their best wholesale price, and then
passing some or MOST of that reduction on the Registrant, and highlighting
to the Registrant that they've saved them some bucks.

I mean, what on earth is WebCentral going to tell me?  "Oh, hi, we've
invoiced you $140 for renewing your com.au domain name".  Yeah, and what do
you reckon I'm going to say back to them, eh, since I know I can do it thru
Namescout for $60????


Regards, Mark

Mark Hughes
Effective Business Applications Pty Ltd
effectivebusiness§pplications.com.au
www.pplications.com.au
+61 4 1374 3959


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ginger FISH [mailto:cyrille.lefevre§scifi-art.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, 17 July 2002 13:45
> To: dns§lists.auda.org.au
> Subject: RE: [DNS] Domain registration through Enetica
>
>

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wilkie, Jayne (SAHT) [mailto:Wilkie.Jayne§saugov.sa.gov.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 1:33 PM
> To: 'dns§lists.auda.org.au'
> Subject: RE: [DNS] Domain registration through Enetica
>
>
> Hi David.
>
> I am new to Internet Management and have taken over the role with little
> handover.  The accounts were something that were never mentioned
> to me and I
> am cautiously looking at the accounts coming in until I get a hang of what
> is real and what are misleading accounts.
>
> Do you know anything about InternetRegistry and WebCentral sending out
> renewals for domain names?  Do you know of anywhere that I can
> check out the
> authenticity of such documents
>
> Regards,
> Jayne
>
>
> Jayne Wilkie
> Acting Web Administrator
> South Australian Housing Trust
>
> H   Department Of Human Services
> *  mailto://wilkie.jayne§saugov.sa.gov.au
> )   Level 2 South, Riverside Centre,
>         North Terrace,  Adelaide   5000
>
> &    (+61-8-)  820 70205
> *  (+61-8-)  8207 0202
>
> Visit our website at: www.housingtrust.sa.gov.au
>
> This e-mail may contain confidential information, which may be legally
> privileged. Only the intended recipient(s) may access, use, distribute
> or copy this e-mail. If this e-mail is received in error, please inform
> the sender by return e-mail and delete the original. If there are doubts
> about the validity of this message, please contact the sender by
> telephone. It is the recipient's responsibility to check the e-mail and
> any attached files for viruses.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David James - The Pagesmith [mailto:david.james§pagesmith.com.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, 17 July 2002 12:53
> To: dns§lists.auda.org.au
> Subject: [DNS] Domain registration through Enetica
>
>
> I have just registered a .org.au domain through Enetica. In the past you
> would not move me from MelbourneIT, but Enetica's service took under 5
> minutes. I'm very impressed.
> David James
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
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