Watch Out For Domain Resellers On Automatic!
More than a month ago there was a change in the price of dot com and dot net domain extensions
. Verisign, the company that administers these two extensions raised the price by several percentage points. The major registrars passed the price rise on to their resellers. Some of these resellers are still advertising the domains at a lower price than they can actually sell them. The only reason this is happening is because the reseller owner has walked away and left his store on automatic.To those of you who are unfamiliar with domain resellers, these businesses stand in relation to the registrars in much the same way as franchisees do to a franchiser. Like a digital Mac Donald's, these businesses owe their existence to a larger organization that provides them with their systems and product line, and dictates much of how they will operate the systems that the organization provides them with. A minimum domain extension pricing level is often one of those dictates. Unlike MacDonalds, you can't tell the name of the larger organization by the name of the franchisee.
Also unlike MacDonalds where a franchise costs a considerable fortune, a domain reseller business can be picked up for nearly nothing. Actually for nothing in some cases. Needless to say some owners don't spend much time watching them after the newness has worn off; they put up an ad on Google or whatever and forget about the store until it comes time to renew the business.
At worst a reseller is little more than a robotic replica of the larger registrar; beneath the clever text and graphics lurks a personality about as unique as an ATM. At best a reseller is an actual small businessman or woman interested in more than your credit card.
The consumer buys from a reseller hoping he might mean more to that small businessperson than to the reseller's registrar, usually a big corporation. With the one he can be an individual and with the other he is a number and a small one at that. Buyers from resellers often have the best of both worlds: by regulation their domains have the protection of the reseller's huge registrar, while they themselves are working with another human being. Unfortunately, that hope is dashed by those resellers who leave their stores to run completely without them.
How can the domain name consumer tell the difference? The consumer should watch what he is doing when he buys (this might seem obvious, but domains are cheap and it's easy to overlook a buck or two). If the price of the domain is appreciably higher at the shopping cart than what he was told to expect by the reseller's ad or landing page, then he is probably dealing with a complete automaton. The ad will say one thing but the shopping cart will say something entirely different because the cart is usually a function controlled by the reseller's registrar and has been set to the correct price--which of course is higher!
At that point the consumer should immediately contact the resellers support line and complain. He might not get the domain at the advertised price, but he will probably get his money back. He or she might then consider doing business with another reseller.
Watch Out For Domain Resellers On Automatic!
By: Mike Nardine