This is a domain registrar review of Answerable.com based on my personal horror experience with them. They suck as a domain registrar for losing my domain and not getting it back for me. No, the domain did not expire — it disappeared from my Answerable.com account and ended up with another domain registrar. Read on.
I had a domain name registered with Answerable.com and, for the past six months, I was able to manage and point it to different nameservers from my Answerable.com account. I had a WordPress blog running on that domain name with quite a number of posts.
In January, I decided to switch to a different Web host, so I had to migrate my blogs from the old host to the new one. I logged into my Answerable.com account to point the domain to the new Web host, but I couldn’t find my domain in my Answerable account. I was sure it was there before and that I was able to manage it from my Answerable.com account. Here’s a chronology of what happened next.
- January 28th: I created a support ticket via the Answerable.com support page and I requested them to look into why my domain was missing from my account. I received a reply within the hour and I was told that they’re checking with product management. I waited.
- February 6th: A week after the created the ticket, I hadn’t received an update from them. So I send them another message via the support ticket.
- February 9th: I received a reply and I was informed that they need some more time to figure out the issue. They closed the message with “Have a nice day!”.
- February 12th: I received an update from them, telling me that the original registrar surrendered their accreditation so my domain was now under the control of another domain registrar. Doh! I thought they were the registrar — I was managing the domain name from my Answerable.com account. They said they’re trying to get in touch with the proper authorities and that they’ll update me when more information is available to them. They closed the message with “Have a pleasant day.”
- February 13th: I replied to their message and requested them to fix the issue ASAP because it was impacting my online business. I was developing that blog as one of my first niche sites and I had already invested time and money on that blog.
- February 15th: They replied with the same canned response — “we need more time” and “we’re still checking with the proper authorities”. And, of course, they ended their message with “Have a wonderful day!”.
- February 22nd: I sent them another message and asked if they actually know what’s happening to my domain and when the issue will be fixed.
- February 23rd: They replied that the situation is still the same. And that I should “Have a pleasant day.”
- March 7th: I wrote, “Two weeks later… Any update on this?”
- March 10th: They wrote “still the same”.
- March 11th: Surprise! They wrote me back without my bugging them. They said that my domain name is now with a new registrar. Dude, we knew that 30 days ago. And that I should contact the new registrar to be able to manage my domain name. Ugh! That’s your job, dude. You lost my domain name – you should get it back for me. As usual, “Have a nice day!” Yes, I am — especially with the excellent service that I am getting from the worst domain registrar I have encountered.
Answerable.com was my domain registrar and, technically, it still is since I did not authorize the domain transfer and the domain registration period for which I paid Answerable.com has not yet expired.
So what do I do now, besides this critical domain registrar review of Answerable.com? What else but beg the new domain registrar to give me access to my domain name, which Answerable.com lost.
Update (April 12th 2010): I got my domain name back! Not because Answerable.com got it back for me, but because I pestered the new registrar to give me access to my domain name. The blog has lost its PageRank and its search ranking. I’ll have to spend months again working on getting those back, all because my domain name registrar couldn’t do its job.
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