An update on Moniker
I’ve transferred many of my domain names out. I’m working on the rest.
It’s been 7 weeks since domain name registrar Moniker switched to a fresh platform. 7 weeks since Moniker broke.
The firm has fixed a lot of the problems, even if confirmation messages were clearly written by a coder. But as I’ve written ahead of, I’ve lost confidence in the registrar. I’m transferring my domain names out.
I just completed my second batch of domain names and have now transferred out a number of hundred. It has taken hours of my time to figure out which domain names I plan to keep, unlock the domains (which you can now do in bulk), set up forwarding again at the fresh registrar, etc. I also have to reset my sales listings for these domains at Afternic. Not to mention thousands of dollars in early renewal fees I’ve paid.
Moniker clients have a reason to be mad. This isn’t a simple case of “oh, client service went downhill. I’ll use another firm.”
It’s like a bank suddenly noted the wrong balances in your bank account and left you to figure out where the errors were.
The most frustrating domains for me are the ones expire in the next 6 months. I’m not sure if I’ll renew them or not. But I don’t want to keep them at Moniker any longer, so I go ahead and pay to transfer them anyway.
This past week I received two renewal invoices totaling regarding $100 for domain names I was transferring out. (The “renew at expiration” option in the drop down box actually means “renew 10 days ahead of expiration.”)
Yet when I looked up the domains in whois, they hadn’t actually been renewed. Nor where they showing up as renewed in my account.
I called support and they stated they can’t renew domain names that are “pending transfer”, so I’ll get refunds on them.
Add these renewals to the list of things still broken at Moniker.
The good news is that phone support picked up in under 10 minutes and was actually able to help me rather than just submitting a ticket.
More surprising are the domain names that were apparently renewed for a year despite expiring under the old Moniker system. I wasn’t charged for them, but Moniker had to pay for the renewals.
What a mess.
