Oversee is a great company. Snapnames is a one of the best catchers on the planet and a great platform, but once I get a name there the first thing I usually do is plan to move it out depending who gets the catch. The key to the success of Snap is the use of multiple registrars to snap up names that drop. The result is a Russian Roulette of registrars that hit on the pickup. Here is a little sample the registrars that some recent names of mine have been placed.
Zone Casting, Inc.
Moniker(R)
Domaintimemachine.com
Directi(R)
BurnsideDomains.com
Dotster(R)
Moniker.com
Domaintimemachine.com
Moniker.com
Dotster(R)
Dotster(R)
Name.com(R)
EnCirca
MelbourneIT(R)
Directi(R)
Snappyregistrar.com
MelbourneIT(R)
DirectNIC(R)
Tech Tyrants, Inc.
DropWeek, Inc.
Moniker(R)
1 Host Israel, Inc.
Web Business, LLC
Frequent buyers at Snapnames must have to hire staff just to keep track of their names. Answerable (now known as BigRock.com) does manage many of the registrars which makes it somewhat easier but doesn’t make it easy. You know it’s difficult when you open an email congratulating you on a purchase and you pray that the name will be at Moniker. Moniker is one of my favorite registrars and is a piece of cake to manage. I can’t say the same about many of the others.
I have let domains expire because the price to renew and the difficulty of getting the name out. I’ve had an easier time getting grease out of white T-shirt than moving names out of some of these random registrars. I’m not sure much can be done to reduce the number of registrars due to the way the catch works but I do think there needs to be an improvement in technology and customer service in many of the registrars in their hive. I am sure I am not the only one that has these issues.
Yep, true Shane. I like Snapnames as well, but I’ve had similar difficulties. Snapnames could make a deal with all their affiliate registrars to have all dropped domains go automatically to Moniker. I’ve been tempted to buy at a few auctions at Snapnames until i found out where the domain is housed. Then i decided not to. One time it took me one hour to find the push area at a little, fairly unknown registrar. i am fairly computer literate so this was a bit of an annoyance.
Basically i think it is up to Snapnames to improve that for its customers. Their system is pretty automated so i don’t think it would be beyond the call of duty to provide that service.
Hi Shane,
you highlighted exactly that point why I never would use them because there are investors who didn´t get their domain names out of the company´s subregistrars for months. But as long as there is competition in the field you are free to choose others or simply staying away from them like I do. There are a lot of free expired domain name lists and thanks to them I always registered some of my best domain names, I am a frecuent user of expireddomain.net
Happy easter!
Edit: Link removed.
Timely post.
No matter how much I want a name I will NEVER use Snapnames again… or Bigrock. Do they really think that by holding your name hostage they are going to get your business?
I currently have a name @ Bigrock after getting it via Snapnames. I am getting awfully frustrated trying to move the name. My go to registrar gets the “ineligible domain status” and the transfer fails.
It has been over 60 days and locking is disabled. No reason that I know of why the transfer should not take place. Support is absolutely useless.
What the hell do I have to do to get my name transferred out? Honestly, it’s not that great of a name. But to let them just hold it hostage… well, I can’t let that happen. What a bunch of bullshit!
Anyone have any ideas?
We are aware of your frustrations and are working on improving this situation. We constantly review our partner network and work directly with those that do not respond in an acceptable manner with our customers to ensure they improve their service.
You can assist by letting us know when you have an unacceptable experience with registrars in our partner network. Please contact our support team (https://www.snapnames.com/contact.jsp) and let them know, or provide direct feedback here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3GNPCQX
Thank you
– Craig Calder
Director of Product Management, SnapNames.
Craig,
First of all, I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to come here and comment. I love your company but do think your response is part of the problem. Your comment looks like it was taken from the company manual. It appears canned and scripted. Great customer service is personal. Despite the fact you may have tens of thousand of customer and hundreds of employees you want each customer to feel like the customer service person really cares about you. As if they want your experience to be perfect. Even your response comes across as impersonal and uncaring. I’m sure you do care but put a little personality into your responses to your customers. Let them know you are a real person and you really care. Direct feedback on survey monkey? Not exactly direct. Again, not picking on you but trying to help. I get paid a lot of money to consult but I’ll give you this for free 🙂
@Craig – Let me also suggest that Snapnames tighten up (consolidate) their customer account log-ins. There is no email link to customer support (there should be). One has to “log-in” to access it.
I discovered that my Snapnames account log-in does not work for logging into customer support in order to submit a ticket. This is an aggravation one does not expect.
Thanks. Also the Moniker account interface is just horrible. The most counter-intuitive ever. So that bears a redo as well.
I agree that’s very messy and inconvenient. Unless i have to backorder a name with Snapnames, I prefer to do it with namejet for expl, because I know my domains will be in the same spot: either enom or NS.
I had bad experience with all those Snapnames partners, some of them are even hard to get in touch with..or even remember their names.. so I think Snapnames are missing out a big chunk of the market because of that. I’m sure it’s not that hard to work on the situation by simply transferring the domains to one corner: Moniker for expl.
One last comment about Snapname policy. I still use them and will continue to because I like their platform, but there is a practice i am not very fond of. Recently, I backordered a few pre-release/dropping domains. I believe one was y1p.com. Of course this is worth a few hundred dollars. But when the domain dropped and Snapnames caught it, instead of getting an email or even getting an email confirming my entrance into the auction, I got an email stating that the domain starting price was $12000! This has happened a few times recently and personally I don’t think it is the best of practices. Getting people to take the time to backorder pre-release or pending delete domains and then sticking an exhorbitant price tag on them is hardly customer friendly. Basically, if I want in the auction now, the starting price is $12000. I have examples of 15 other domains (worth in the mid $xxx) where they have done this. I don’t begrudge them of making more money, but that is just not the way to do it. That has the wild west of the 15-year-ago internet written all over it.
Sorry that this may have been a bit off topic, but it was relevant to the “Snapnames improvement” theme. Thanks.