FC: Verisign deviltry? Its reply to a customer who wants to leave

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: "Thomas Leavitt" <thomasleavitt () hotmail com>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Fwd: [NIC-020704.4568] Your Registrar Transfer Request
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 2002 18:44:13 -0700

Declan,

I thought you might be interested in seeing how Verisign responds to a 
registrar change request... you get what appears to be a junk mail that, if 
you don't read the fine print on, and just delete, will result in a denial 
of the transfer request. I almost did this myself.

The actual instructions on how to confirm the transfer request are buried 
in the "signature" portion of the email... pretty scuzzy in my opinion - 
this is an email they're obligated to send, I think, therefore, the actual 
functional part of the email should be a lot more visible and clear.

When you go to the "stayoffer.com" URL, you get redirected to

https://www.netsol.com/en_US/promotions/offers/renewals/renewal-7.jhtml?siteid=100&channelid=P47C100S169N0B10A8D157V1&clickid=1000000000 
... where Verisign drops its pants and offers to let you renew your domain 
for just $15/year with a two year renewal term... significantly less than 
the $35/year list price.

Of course, by that point, I'd already paid the 12 euro non-refundable fee 
to have gandi.net host it, and I'm happy with them, so it wasn't any use to 
me. But it might be of use to those folk who need to renew their domains 
and want to stay with Verisign. :)

Regards,
Thomas Leavitt


> From: outbound-response () networksolutions com
> To: thomasleavitt () HOTMAIL COM
> Subject: [NIC-020704.4568] Your Registrar Transfer Request
> Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 02:04:41 -0400 (EDT)
>
>
> Dear Valued VeriSign(r) Customer:
>
> We've received a request to Change the Registrar of your
> domain name registration SPACE.ORG to another registrar.
> You're a valued customer, and we want you to remain with
> VeriSign. We hope you'll reconsider and renew your domain
> name registration with VeriSign at our special valued
> customer promotional price, available at:
> http://www.stayoffer.com
>
> Don't miss out on the benefits VeriSign is committed to
> providing you, including:
>
> 24-HOUR CUSTOMER SUPPORT
> FREE access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
> Get help when you need it. Customer Support is available
> by phone, e-mail, and through our Web site.
>
> ONLINE MANAGEMENT TOOLS
> Manage all your services with our easy-to-use, Web-based
> interface. Set up a Web site, add additional e-mail
> boxes, modify your contact information...it's all in
> one place.
>
> To renew SPACE.ORG with VeriSign at our special
> promotional price, click here: http://www.stayoffer.com
>
>
> **************************************************************
> We take every effort to protect you against unauthorized or
> fraudulent registrar changes. To keep your domain name
> registration with VeriSign, no action on your part is necessary.
> To confirm your desire to change your registrar, copy and paste
> the line below into the subject line of your return email:
> [NIC-020704.4568]:SPACE.ORG:580325:TRANSFER=YES
>
> If you don't respond within 72 hours from the time stamp of
> this e-mail, the request to Change Registrar will be denied.
> The timestamp of this e-mail and the time to respond are
> based on Eastern Time. If you have any questions, please
> e-mail us at: registrar () networksolutions com.
>
> At VeriSign, we've been building online identities since the
> Internet was introduced. We will continue to put this
> experience and reliability to work for you. Thank you for
> being a VeriSign customer.
>
>
> (c) 2002 VeriSign, Inc. All rights reserved.




--
Thomas Leavitt -- thomasleavitt () hotmail com, Sr. Systems Admin For Hire

Wired since 1981. Internet-enabled since 1990. Web-enabled since 1993. 
Older, wiser, and poorer, post-crash. :)

Personal Home Page and Resume:
http://www.internetmanifesto.org/resume/




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