I've decided to do away with multiple blogs and just try to keep one generic blog - Wagonfly.

Seeing as how Registerfly has been done in, I don't think there will be too much to write on the topic, though. Will be mostly about Linux, open source software, science, philosophy, politics, etc.

I found out recently that more of my domains registered with Registerfly have expired. There were no email notices save for warning regarding one domain - which is strange because I've always gotten them before. I would think that's a logical thing for a domain registrar to do.

I hesitate to renew them though, as all I may accomplish is lose money and/or give them my credit card info without any service rendered. I don't think it's unreasonable given their history.

A lot has gone on since last I posted. There is a Wikipedia entry on Registerfly that gives very good brief on what went down and also what has been behind Registerfly's problems.

So 10-year business partners, Frank Medina and John Naruszewicz, part ways bitterly. Each accused the other of misappropriating company funds. This is important since one of the problems Registerfly had was that 75,000 domain names were lost because Registerfly did not have funds for a registration fee.

Anyway, they fight to control the company. Frank Medina deletes passwords needed to refund customers and generally sabotages the business. By March 2007 Jogn Naruszewicz runs Registerfly.com Frank Medina runs Registerfly.net. Court gives Frank Medina control of Registerfly on March 8th.

All through this ICANN did not acted on customer complaints and accusations of fraud.

Registerfly lost ICANN accredition on March 31st. Or so it seemed. Frank Medina has invoked arbitration clause in the accredition agreement.

So at the moment Frank Medina is in control of Registerfly and Registerfly is still an accredited registrar. There is a class action lawsuit against Registerfly, ICANN and eNom.

Following are some links I ran into today.

The RegisterFly Debacle ... has another Registerfly horror story with many comments recounting bad experiences.

RegisterFly Is A Scam ... seems like a story similar to mine. They tried to renew their domain and kept failing until they contacted Registerfly's billing department. Go figure.


HowTo Fly Away… or how to escape from the RegisterFly nightmare ... has a step-by-step instruction on how to transfer a domain registered back when Registerfly was a eNom reseller.

Registerfly has responded to my last support ticket:

Response:
Dear client,

Please be advised , this domain appears to be in redemption.
This occurs when a domain has surpassed the 29 day grace period,offered for renewing an expired domain name.
Redemption can be anywhere from 60 days to 9 months.
To remove a domain out of redemption, you have the option of placing a fee of 209.00 into your account, submitting a support ticket , requesting that the domain be released from redemption status.
As this domain appears to be held by one our previous backend providers enom. you may also contact enom.com to see what other options are availble for this domain.
The amount of the renewal attempt has been issued to your quick checkout account.

This, after telling me to keep trying to renew and it should work out. Some people have accused Registerfly of holding domains hostage to extort its customers. I'm starting to think they are right.

I've send yet another support request, this time letting them know that I would rather communicate with them in writing over fax. I might have to talk to an attorney about this.

Gave renewing through Registerfly one more try a few days ago. I didn't get a renewal failure email yet. But I don't yet see it in my Registerfly account. I am waiting for the account to be credited for this latest renewal attempt that did not go through.

I also sent a support request for my domain to be "manually renewed" yesterday. The domain now shows up as one of my domains, except with past expiration date.