I have come to a very disturbing realization that many of the individuals in my industry are just plain crooks.  They hold the domain names of their “customers” hostage in an effort to extort additional monies out of them.  The thought of stealing a customer’s domain name or holding it hostage is so alien to the way I choose to do business, I am surprised to find that for others it is common practice.

Over the past few months I have been noticing a horrible trend of website providers refusing to allow their customer (used car dealerships) to transfer their domain name away from their current service provider to a new provider.  In my case, we have recently experienced a surge in customers abandoning their higher-cost system for our more affordable and capable system, AutoCorner.   This has presented a problem for some of our competitors that are beginning to feel the squeeze.  In an effort to delay the mass exodus away from their service, they are saying, “If we registered the domain name, we own it”. Basically, they are really saying, “If you don’t pay us money, you lose your domain name…screw you”.

Now, before I continue, I will concede there are a few cases in which I will not transfer a domain name away from my server.  

1. If the customer owes me money for services rendered (not stupid arbitrary fees, actual cost of services provided)
2. If I owned the domain prior to them using my service, and they were just leasing the domain from me

If it isn’t one of those two reasons and a customer chooses to leave, they are free to take their domain with them.  It doesn’t matter if we registered the domain name for them, or they had it prior to using our system.  As far as I am concerned, their domain name is their property, and they are entitled to take it with them when they leave.

Going beyond the potential legal ramifications of (and I am not a lawyer, so this is just my opinion) holding a domain name hostage, black-mail, extortion, tortuous loss of revenue and/or theft by conversion, I think of it from a strategic business standpoint.  If a customer leaves from me and, for whatever reason, they find that the “grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence”. I want them to remember me and my business in a positive light.  Can anyone honestly say that if you drag your feet and refuse to allow the domain to be transferred, the customer will ever come back to you?  Not to mention the bad word he will be saying about you on the street.

So, you are probably wondering how to protect yourself from having your domain name stolen.

1. Register your own domain name.  They are cheap under $10 a year with GoDaddy, and you are set.  While you are there, register it for 10 years. You’ll save money and protect yourself form forgetting to renew next year and losing the domain that way.
2. If you allow your web site provider to register, make sure they put in the contract that you are the rightful owner of the domain name and that it goes with you if you ever wish to leave.  We (AutoCorner) have it in our customer’s contract that we will register the domain on the behalf of the customer, but they own it and can take it with them if they leave—well, of course, you must pay your bill first :)

Tell me about your experiences. Has your hosting or web site provider ever done this to you?  How does it make you feel when they treat you like this?