If you’re interested, here’s the story:
Sunday 22nd May 06:39 – 1and1 domain registration for Northwiltsroadar.co.uk expires. 1and1 delete the domain from their database and de-tag it (a bit like taking the number off your house so nobody can find it any more).
Monday 23rd May 09:28 – log a call with the hosting company asking what’s wrong (no idea of the domain de-tagging at this stage)
10:24 – host advises domain is gone
10:24 – email the owner of the domain asking if he knows what’s up
further email exchanges over the next day establish we have no current credentials to log into the domain registrar website and check for ourselves.
Tuesday 24th May 19:45 – log support call with 1and1 (the registrar)
Wednesday 25th May 08:22 – answer from 1and1 – your domain has been deleted – immediately reply asking why we were not notified
11:30 – continue to pursue through the hosting company who are very helpful and contact Nominet on our behalf
Start the process of authenticating with Nominet to get the partial domain transfer we kicked off 2 years ago completed.
13:09 – send out initial email to members informing them of the outage
22:10 – reply from 1and1 – your domain has been cancelled – reply asking what next
22:40 – reply from 1and1 – you will have to contact Nominet – reply asking how to escalate
23:13 – reply from 1and1 asking for further details
Thursday 26th May 09:12 – email 1and1 with account details
19:13 – first indication that email to members didn’t get to all
19:21 – reply from 1and1 – package cancelled, contact billing dept – email billing dept. asking for info and advising I will call on Friday
20:00 to 21:00 – emailing members manually a few at a time to advise of the situation.
21:04 – reply from 1and1 (same person as before) – yes we can assist you, call this number – gaaaahhhhh!!!!
Friday 27th May a.m. – call number – tech support – ask to speak to billing – transferred to new person – can’t help, transferred to sales (in Philadelphia where it’s 4:30 am). Very helpful, sells me new package (new, unneeded domain, but only way to get new account), and advises me to call support to get old domain transferred .
Later – package active – call support (now in India). Advised to start transfer process but that then I will need to contact Nominet for re-tagging.
Call Nominet – very helpful but domain is registered to A.N.Other, who will have to authorise the transfer. Email A.N.O. with instructions – but he’s away for the weekend.
Tue 31st May a.m. – previous owner comes back from long weekend and immediately swings into action with the identification required. Hurrah!
15:59 - email from Nominet – access granted – call back and ask for assistance. Still v. helpful, we start domain transfer process. Several calls later it’s transferred. Now for re-tagging. Won’t allow re-tagging from existing account. Create new account.
16:48 – email from Nominet – transfer complete – yay!
Tue p.m. – return to 1and1 site and wait for tag to activate. Continue waiting ….
Wed a.m. – tag is active – woohoo! Update nameserver entries to point to web host. Wait for DNS entries to propagate.
Wed p.m. – DNS starts to filter through – website is alive again! Phew!
So the moral is, don’t let your domain expire!!
