Second time an error on my register's part, caused one of my domains to get snatched up by a ghoul under my nose without my knowledge. I had over 2 years left on registration still.
I don't know how it happens , but its quite annoying, going to update my website just to find out someone else mysteriously owns my name now, and is trying to extort an outrageous fee for a name virtually no one else could possibly want.

I was shocked when it happened the first time..but now a second? wtf is up with this, does anyone else have these problems? is it common? did I just get hit by a meteorite twice?

I tried (unsucessfully) to pursue legal maters before on darusgrey.com, so I know once the domain is "legally" registered by another party, I'm jacked, but gosh is this ever annoying. Mostly just ranting I guess, something needs to be done about these companies, it should be illegal.

It's a common thing. At least the legal system is trying to actually look at, and handle it anymore.

A few years ago, I worked for cooper tire. Someone else had grabbed the domain name for the simple purpose of trying to sell it back for big $$. The lawyers decided to take the clown to court and the judge awarded in cooper's favor.

I heard a similar thing about McDonalds a while back. They had mcd.com, but someone else had mcdonalds.com. There was some deal where they got the name and, in return, provided some T1s for some schools.

Well I know the reselling/extortion part is common, I meant if others have had problems with domains just randomly expiring, I've had it happen with two different registars now(register.com and godaddy.com).

Best I've gotten is just a refund of my registration fee =/, least they were just guild website/hobby sites, I'd go apeshit if this happened to my business.

I've had a large number of domains hosted at NetSol, GoDaddy, and various hosting companies. Never had anything like that happen, other than if you let it expire and it gets locked in that $200 to renew before it goes on the open market state for a few months.

Are you sure someone isn't impersonating you and screwing with your domains? It takes relatively little information to do that.

Honestly not sure, in register.com's case...it was just an "unexplainable error" on thier part, but once they lost control of it, I was screwed.
Havn't talked to a rep on the phone at godaddy yet, guess it wouldn't hurt to ask for very specifics and see if anyone called in or altered the status, it just happened today.

PITA anyway ya slice it still.

Edited in: On a completly unrelated note, last week the site stop working with Blazer on PalmOS, just get "let the WYSISWTG editor fully load" but it never does. Not exactly a priority issue..lol...just thought you'd like to know, my Treo was my main comp for awhile =/

I recently moved to Godaddy to save cash on the recommendation of several friends and I'm happy so far (only a matter of weeks, though).

If you had registration time remaining, you can't force the registrar to fix the problem for you?

Interestingly enough, I'm getting ready to steal a domain - the current owner came to odds with his registrar and it expires next month.

Well goodluck with that Palimax, called godaddy, they don't have a clue what happened.

To mirdorr: No, because once the registar removes it from thier DB, they no longer have any control over it.

To use a lame analogy...its like pawning a watch...your asking the man to hold it for you, but if he accidently sells it, its out of his control unless the person who bought it is willing to cooperate.

Sadly in this case they're only willing to cooperate for $900...

Well, your analogy missed the point that you were renting space from the pawnshop. And you paid in advance.

Man, I'd be freaking killing people there.