NetNation / DomainPeople - upset with service

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on March 2, 2002:

From: jeff abugel [Email User]

NetNation / DomainPeople - upset with service

Thank you for offering me at least one place to voice a complaint about what I believe to be some underhanded, inappropriate insider actions on the part of NetNation and its division, DomainPeople, a company that registers domain names for a fee.

The following is a copy of a letter I constructed through Planet Feedback but was unable to send electronically because they did not know the names of the execs there. February 28, 2002 TO:

DomainPeople Inc.

Suite 1440, Harbour Center

555 West Hastings St.

Vancouver, BC V6B-4N6 FROM:

Jeffrey Abugel

Des Moines, IA 50312

Email User To Whom It May Concern: For several days now I have been receiving phone calls from NetNation, encouraging me to renew the ownerships of various web domain names. (NetNation is apparently the parent company of DomainPeople, and this lies at the heart of this complaint). Unfortunately, no one from either of these companies ever called me about the SINGLE domain on which I had established a working website. In retrospect, this whole incident is very fishy. In January I received an email from DomainPeople (I company i did not remember ever hearing about), encouraging me to renew my domain name, www.depersonalization.com. I did not pay much attention because I receive many mails like this from many unknown sources in my daily diet of SPAM.

And i remembered going to SWHOIS to find NeTNation, though which i registered my domain names. Frankly i had never heard of any DomainPeople and I just throught they were in some why trying to get new business. In time, however, I realized with a little research, that NetNation and DomainPeople were one and the same. I had receieved the email below in January, which clearly indicates that the domain would expire on 3/1/02: Dear Valued NetNation Customer, Your domain name depersonalization.com expires on 03/01/2002 (dd/mm/yyyy). For a limited time, you can renew your domain for only $19.95 USD per year at: http://www.domainpeople.com/renew So on 2/18 (weeks before the expiration date) I emailed DomainPeople at 8a.m. PST and renewed my registration of depersonalization.com, for $70 charged to my credit card, for two years. The reference number on this was 1014048333751. The very next day, however, i received another email telling me that

the name had already been taken, the very same day I had ordered my renewal.

Investigating further, i found that the company which bought my name (apparently even earlier than 8a.m.) was CDR Ventures Inc. W.R.P.O., Box 75149 White Rock, BC V4B 5L3 CA.

So amazingly, right at the crack of dawn when I was renewing my domain name, some other entity in British Columbia, with a domain administrator in the same postal code V4B 5L3, was up bright and early for the express purpose of buying up MY domain name. (Their full address is Domain, Administrator Email User, PTI Networks Inc.W.R.P.O. Box 75149 White Rock, BC V4B 5L3.) I have tried to contact all of these parties, with no success.

Now, I have strong suspicions about this whole transaction. Perhaps DomainPeople is connected to or affilated with "web squatters" who buy up names in the hopes that they can resell them. Certainly, because of the timing, and the location of the buyer the looks of some "insider" transaction.

It's probably legal, but the actions of all involved have left me completely digusted. then again, maybe it's not so legal since domainpeople told me in writing that my renewal was not due until March 1! When I mention these occurances to the people at DomainPeople/NetNation, they have nothing to say at all. But I find it very odd that they never called me about the SINGLE domain for which I had established a website, yet are now calling me non-stop about the domains I don't care to renew. I will go on with my new website name and watch to see what happens with depersonalization.com. This was a non-profit psychology-related site with no commercial value whatever. So CDR Ventures has spent a little money for nothing, but caused me and the people who had come to rely on my website for help, considerable annoyance and distress. Email User or Email User