Avoid this registration "service" at all costs!
Written: Apr 26 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Absolutely none.
Cons: The company.
The Bottom Line: Avoid this company at all costs! Their practices border on fraudulent, and their incompetence defies description.
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| ThirdParty's Full Review: Network Solutions.com |
If you are considering registering a domain name, then save yourself a great deal of trouble and avoid Network Solutions at all costs. Their practices border on fraudulent, and their incompetence defies description. If possible, a 0-star rating would have been given.
REGISTRATION
In my initial contact with Network Solutions, I attempted to register two domain names using their online registration tool. I say "attempted" because, two to three days later, one of the domain names was still listed as "available". Upon calling the company, I was told by a phone representative that only one of the names had actually been registered. I was told that "this happens a lot", and that I would need to re-submit the registration. I asked if I should do so online, but was told that she could register it over the phone. After spelling out the domain name three times and having her repeat it twice, I hung up, expecting the situation to be taken care of.
After a few more days, the domain name was still listed as "available". Since I now actually had access to my Network Solutions account, I checked on my domain names. Instead of {domain name}.com, the representative had registered {domain name}com.com. I called Network Solutions yet again, told them what had happened, and demanded a refund for the mistaken registration. I was told that they would "look into it", and that I should attempt to register the domain name online, as I had offered to do during the previous call. For the third time, I attempted to register the domain name, and this time it finally worked. After waiting several days without hearing from NSI, I called them and finally received verification that I would be credited the mistaken registration amount. After waiting several weeks without seeing the credit, I called NSI many times, finally learning that the credit procedure usually takes 45 days to process. Eventually, the credit did come through. In addition to this, I recieved confirmation notices in the mail for the first correct domain name and the mistaken domain name almost immediately, but confirmation for the second correct domain name did not show up for six months.
SERVICE
A little relevant information... when registering the domain names, I was presented with two options: "Register", which required an outside domain name hosting service, for $79 USD, or "Reserve", which allowed the domain names to be hosted on Network Solutions' servers, for $119 USD. Since I did not have the resources to sign up with a domain name hosting service, I elected to "Reserve" the name. Included as an "extra" was a new service, NSI's "dot com biz card", a template-based one-page site for a business. Since I did not want to set up a "biz card", I left both domains pointing to NSI's multi-lingual "Under Construction" page.
Flash forward a year and a half. Upon checking on my domain names, I noticed that Network Solutions had added a banner advertisement to their Under Construction page. I wasn't thrilled about NSI running advertisements on space I had paid an extra $40/name for, but I let it go, as most of the ads were for NSI services. Days later, when I returned to the domain names, the page had been thoroughly revised, incorporating NSI and third-party banner ads, as well as other NSI services, including a prominent "find out if this name is for sale" advertisement.
This was not acceptable, and I called to find out if the old page could be brought back. After a very long wait, I finally reached a phone representative, who said that the page was universally delivered, and could not be changed. They recommended using the "dot com biz card" or "dot com forwarding" (a service I was not even aware I had) to replace the "Under Construction" page. Not being ready to launch the site, I did neither.
Only a few days later, I stumbled onto a separate site that had the old Under Construction page, something that had been stated as an impossibility two days before. I called NSI yet again, waited a long time. Upon reaching a rep, I recounted the history and pointed out the domain name with the old Under Construction page. The representative said that, since it was displayed on the other site, they would switch the servers to cause my domain names to link to that page. The usual wait time was 24-48 hours.
Two days later, I checked on my domain names again. This time, they pointed to... NOTHING. No DNS entry. No page. I called NSI yet again, held for a long time, and asked what was going on. The representative said that some kind of request had not been processed, and that they would fix it within 24-48 hours.
Two days later, I checked. One domain name was pointing to the NEW "banner ad" Under Construction page again, and the other was still not linked to anything. I called back and, after a surprisingly short wait, asked the phone representative what was going on. She didn't know, and suggested that I use the biz card or forwarding service. I declined, then asked, very slowly and very clearly, if they could put it all back the way it was before. She said yes, they could. I asked if she was sure. She said yes, she was, and it would be 24-48 hours. I told her that, if it was not fixed in 48 hours, I would be calling back and looking for money.
Two days later, I checked back, and... NOTHING HAD CHANGED. Nothing. I called yet again, waited the usual long time, and finally spoke with a phone rep. I recounted the history and demanded $80 USD back, $40 per domain name, as NSI was not only running ads on my $40/name space, but they were unable to fix their own mistakes. The representative refused, saying that I had paid the $40 FOR THE DOT COM BIZ CARD AND DOT COM FORWARDING SERVICES, which I had not used! I told her this was incorrect, and told her about the "Register" and "Reserve" options from when I had signed up. She put me on hold and, after a very long wait, came back and said that someone else "who remembered the site from then" had corroborated her story, and she would not refund my money.
Having been blatantly lied to, I told her to just link the blank domain name to the "banner ad" Under Construction page, and I would use the biz card. She then put me on hold again, and came back saying that they could, in fact, switch my domains to the servers with the old Under Construction page, the one I wanted. I almost agreed, but thought for a moment and asked if this would nullify my $80 worth of "free" services. After yet another hold, I was told that, in fact, it would. Having been blatantly lied to and nearly misled, I told her, very clearly, to link the blank domain name to the new page, and I would use the biz card. She said she would process the request, but refused to give a time estimate.
A few weeks later, I checked the domain names again, and the linked page was now pointing to a new multi-lingual Under Construction page, and the other was... STILL POINTING TO NOTHING. Call, wait a long time, speak to rep. Said they would fix it. 24-48 hours.
Two days later, no change. Call back. Long hold. This time, I ended up speaking with an engineer, who said that my account was due payment, even though I had received no notice, written, e-mail or phone, to this effect. He said that he would try to fix the technical problem, but couldn't do anything about the account status. He also blamed the previous problems on the status, although this only accounted for a small portion of the time spent on this issue. I asked to speak to the highest-level person possible and, after yet another hold, he told me that his supervisor was unavailable, but he would have him/her give me a call. I left a number, but never received a phone call.
End result: between 2-6 hours on hold, 5-10 phone calls (fortunately all 800 numbers), and NO RESOLUTION. To this day, the blank domain name is still blank, and I have not gotten any refunds or compensation from the company.
CONCLUSION
This company is beyond incompetent. They are devious and dishonest, and have failed to do anything correctly. If an analogy was to be drawn, it could be said that this company is the "shady used car lot" of registration service. There are other registration services out there, and I would most certainly recommend trying them before trying Network Solutions, Inc.
Save yourself a great deal of grief and aggravation, and avoid NSI at all costs.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
ThirdParty
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 1 member
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