My former domain registrar of choice has been through a bit of a thing lately. By “bit of a thing”, I roughly mean “screw customers and become the company with the worst reputation on the Web.” I started using RegisterFly (no link intentionally, because they don’t deserve the Google Juice) a few years back after a suggestion from Kevin Rose (yes, the digg.com guy) on The Screen Savers. They were great for quite a while, but over the past few months I’ve had numerous problems and unresponsive support requests. Apparently, I’m not alone.
Luckily I managed to get the bulk of my domains away from them before the real fire started. The only one that’s left isn’t a huge deal, but it would be nice to keep it. If the Internet Overseers at ICANN step up to the plate, I have a pretty good chance of getting it – I still have quite a bit of time before it expires.
It underscores the importance of good customer service in order to make your company not appear incompetent. It also heightens awareness on how crucial domain registrars can be to companies and individuals. Picking the wrong one can have long-lasting effects.
For the record, I have 22 domains, but many of them are inactive. I managed to transfer the big three (justinrussell.com, semsym.com, and mainesites.net – the precursor to semsym.com) earlier this year. (Speaking of semsym.com, wouldn’t it be nice to see a resurgence of the Network? Hmm. My birthday’s coming soon. That seems like a milestone of some sort. Hmm. Naw, nothing could be happening. Couldn’t be.)