123REG Taking Liberties with your .uk domain registration rights

[wonder_lander]

[QUOTE="gregfindley, post: 581143, member: 2551"(@Admin can we get an eye roll smiley please).[/QUOTE]

There already is one

 

[Skinner]

I wonder if in 123-Reg word, NOT clicking you want it, counts as consent ? I mean you said you didn't want it, by not saying you wanted, so thanks much

 

[snoopy]

I see they have turned auto renew on all names even if you don’t cancel ?

If the names are never "activated" are they planning on renewing those names and charging someone credit card? e.g. what happens for the person who just ignores the email entirely?

 

[RobM]

That is what they are hoping. They autorenewed a domain in my account that I couldn't actually log in to turn off even though I had correspondence with them before hand explaining I couldn't log in. It was only a test domain to test their crappy ui (and it still is appallingly spammy and crappy). I couldn't do a chargeback at the cc company because autorenew was on They're hoping people are dead with an active account or won't be able to turn this 'feature' off. Terrible business practice for 'normal' guys but acceptable for big registrars who nominet love apparently.

 

[DaveBeasley]

Just tried to activate my .uk domains, got an error message alerting me to contact 123reg, I opened a ticket with them, and got this as a reply.
Support Agent
Vladut
19.12.2017. 14:21

Hi Dave,

Thank you for contacting us.

I can see that currently, you have moved all the .co.uk counterparts of the domains away from 123-reg.

If you want to keep the .uk domains, in order to be able to activate these you need to transfer the co.uk counterparts back to 123-reg.

Alternatively, if you want to surrender all the .uk domains, we can disable the Whois privacy so that these are visible in your Nominet account.

This way you should be able to surrender the domains from the Nominet account.

If you want to proceed this way, please confirm we can remove the privacy for all the .uk domains you see in the .uk domains section of your 123-reg Control Panel so that we can further assist.

Thank you for your patience an understanding while this is ongoing.


If there’s anything else at all I can do for you please let me know and I’ll be very happy to help.

Kind Regards,
Vladut
123-reg

Seems I'm not allowed to activate them as I transferred the corresponding .co.uk's away..... apparently I can surrender them all though!

Have just replied asking them to explain why i have to transfer the corresponding .co.uk's back again to enable activate/control over domains i now own

 

[timter51]

Holy shit.

 

[AlistairM]

Just out of interest, the 3 letter .co.uk's that have expired recently where 123reg have already registered the .uk version under their privacy service (for their customer), do they now just automatically belong to 123reg, or is the customer still able to take control of it until expiry do you think?

 

[Nigel]

Just tried to activate my .uk domains, got an error message alerting me to contact 123reg, I opened a ticket with them, and got this as a reply.
Support Agent
Vladut
19.12.2017. 14:21

Hi Dave,

Thank you for contacting us.

I can see that currently, you have moved all the .co.uk counterparts of the domains away from 123-reg.

If you want to keep the .uk domains, in order to be able to activate these you need to transfer the co.uk counterparts back to 123-reg.

Alternatively, if you want to surrender all the .uk domains, we can disable the Whois privacy so that these are visible in your Nominet account.

This way you should be able to surrender the domains from the Nominet account.

If you want to proceed this way, please confirm we can remove the privacy for all the .uk domains you see in the .uk domains section of your 123-reg Control Panel so that we can further assist.

Thank you for your patience an understanding while this is ongoing.


If there’s anything else at all I can do for you please let me know and I’ll be very happy to help.

Kind Regards,
Vladut
123-reg

Seems I'm not allowed to activate them as I transferred the corresponding .co.uk's away..... apparently I can surrender them all though!

Have just replied asking them to explain why i have to transfer the corresponding .co.uk's back again to enable activate/control over domains i now own

Those instructions are as clear as mud - seems they make it up as they go along. I'd be very careful and perhaps speak to nominet before taking the next step.

 

[Coolbreeze]

My .uk versions of my domains with 123-Reg were showing Identity Protect and when I spoke to their support they blamed Nominet, Spoke to Nominet they said not us mate, went back to 123 Reg they asked me to log onto my nominet online account and un-tick privacy settings, went back into Nominet account domains were not on my account, went back to 123 Reg this time with the threat of Legal action as I was looking to launch a business of a .uk version whois information had to be public so either update the domain details or pre action legal protocol letter will be posted imminently to your director 123 Reg updated the domain in minutes...

 

[TinkyWinky]

That's why you have to keep Nominet appraised.

It may almost be time to start sending letters/emails to Nominet copied in to Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the The Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP !

Up the ante a bit - the more hassle this bunch of clowns cause DCMS the better... !

 

[ANY-Web]

I have not been following this thread for a while.
Could someone bring me up to date, please?

Is the unauthorised exercising of .uk rights and keeping such names under privacy (thus depriving the domain owner of potential domain enquiries and sales, and perhaps also traffic revenues) limited to 123reg only?
Or are there other examples of well known registrars that have followed the same pattern of behaviour?

Thanks and Happy New Year

 

[Alien]

Logged into 123-Reg yesterday and also noticed this - real cheek!

 

[Coolbreeze]

I have not been following this thread for a while.
Could someone bring me up to date, please?

Is the unauthorised exercising of .uk rights and keeping such names under privacy (thus depriving the domain owner of potential domain enquiries and sales, and perhaps also traffic revenues) limited to 123reg only?
Or are there other examples of well known registrars that have followed the same pattern of behaviour?

Thanks and Happy New Year

123 Reg claims all .uk Versions should be in every Customer’s control panel now.
But it seems you may need to request 123 Reg to remove the privacy settings.

When my domains were under privacy they all had no name servers listed so 123 Reg I doubt is making any money from them.

In my discussions with Nominet they stated some registrars are doing the same BUT they did not name any so not sure on that front.

Anyway Happy New Year everyone.

 

[RobM]

They don't need to monetise them now and really be obvious - they are hoping a lot of people won't remove the autorenew. Will be interesting to see how many people call their credit card companies to try and initiate charge backs (which of course they won't get because they 'agreed' to the autorenewal). It's pathetic but what is really galling is 123reg think we are too stupid to realise exactly what they're up to. I hate people claiming they're 'doing us a favour' when we know full well the opposite is true - yes that means you as well nominet.

 

[Coolbreeze]

I raised issue with Nominet about how 123 Reg went on to register these names without prior permission from the ROR owners and Nominet just said “They have the right to act on your behalf read your terms and conditions” Read TS nothing to support their actions. But even if they did surely, they shouldn’t have the right to register the names and keep it essentially in a different account?
Plus there is a difference between acting on behalf of someone with consent and doing whatever you want only to inform the party you represent after the fact.
well according to Nominet they can do whatever they like it seems pretty disgraceful but I only foresee a lot of complaints in the future including this auto renewals which most customers will be totally unaware of.

25 mins to the new year get glasses in hand

 

[Whois-Search]

Is the unauthorised exercising of .uk rights and keeping such names under privacy (thus depriving the domain owner of potential domain enquiries and sales, and perhaps also traffic revenues) limited to 123reg only?
Or are there other examples of well known registrars that have followed the same pattern of behaviour?

The last time I checked.....

HostEurope / Godaddy did it on most of their brands not just 123-reg.

Even Godaddy has a current exclusive .uk promotion for 98p
https://in.godaddy.com/help/right-to-reserve-guidelines-for-uk-domains-20251

The companies who employ three Nominet non-executives were also at least registering the .uk on behalf of their customers:

Kelly - https://blog.names.co.uk/2017/09/rights-owners-can-claim-free-uk/

Dickie - http://blog.freeparking.com/blog/the-great-uk-domain-name-give-away/ (now deleted)

Volker - Key-Systems:


However I can’t find any registrar using Whois privacy in the way 123-reg is to exercise the right. The other companies above all made it the responsibility of the Registrant to exercise the right.

And the only large registrar not to do the promotion is 1&1 + Fasthosts which is where most of the remaining rights holders must be?

 

[Skinner]

123 hold a huge quantity of the family silver, by that I mean old time domains, domains people hold but may never use, I still think some moving and sliding the way .com's do may occur behind closed doors (i.e. privacy).