PLEASE PLEASE help me!

We recently decided to start offering a domain name management service to our clients whereby we transfer all their domain names into our account with a particular registrar (I am thinking someone nice and cheap like 123-reg) and they then have a single point of contact going forward to ensure that the domains are renewed, and to come to when they want a new domain registered. We are also providing a watch service. We anticipate having several hundred domains for several large clients. We then deal with domain administration on their behalf and bill the cost on. This is because we noticed that most of our big clients have no particular domain policy and so domains are registered ad hoc and the admin contacts can be years out of date and then clients ask us to deal with renewal - many of these domains are not live sites. As we are trade mark attorneys there is also the obvious cross over for prosecution purposes. We are not offering any hosting services, however, but as we have a part of our website hosted by a different company than that which the domain is registered with and all I had to do was point the domain at the hosts nameservers, I thought "how hard can this be?".

BUT with my very first client I have run into a problem. The domain in question is administered by the host and designer of the site and he says that because the site contains live feeds this affects the DNS and if I try and transfer the domain away it will likely result in the whole site collapsing. Why would this be?! Am I being fed a line because he is worried he may lose the whole account?! Surely the domain can just be pointed at the host nameservers and he can reconfigure the DNS? I am in a TOTAL BLIND PANIC now - is this going to happen to me every time I try and transfer a domain name associated with a live site? I have told my bosses that this won't be a problem, and they are totally relying on me. They have told all our clients about the service and even promoted me. If this goes wrong I will lose my job. Have I made the biggest mistake of my life? It all seemed so simple - what am I missing?!

PLEASE PLEASE help me - it seems so straightforward! Will my idea work or have I totally screwed up?!

I think the host/designer is just giving you a line. It makes no difference whatsoever where the domain is registered, as long as the name servers are pointed in the right direction.

Hosts sometimes put themselves as the admin contact instead of the customer so that they can pull stunts like this. They may also do it so when the customer does not renew, they can turn around and sell the domain for more money.

Unfortunatly there really isn't anything you can do about this because as far as ICANN is concerned, the host is the true owner of the domain because they are the admin contacts. You're only option is to try and talk the host into changing the admin contact to you. That way you can transfer it anywhere.


On a side note, you may want to look at getting a reseller account for domain registrations through a company like DirectI or eNom. You'll get better pricing and it will be much easier to maintain a lot of domains.

Anacrusis, I love you! I may even get some sleep tonight now!

Thank you for your reply - I think I need to learn to have a bit more faith in myself. It felt like a line, but then I thought - "maybe you are wrong" and the panic set in...

I will certainly consider your advice about the reseller accounts, too - basically it's all about saving the client money and time (may sound odd coming from a firm of attorneys, but we really do care!) - some of these big registrars charge ridiculous amounts!

Thanks so much again!