Farewell To Philex
A couple weeks ago I posted an entry titled Farewell To Hermon in which I talked about how my software website hosting was going to be moving from the Hermon School District to another hosting service. It was a sad farewell.Today I have another farewell, which isn't nearly so sad.
I'm saying farewell to Philex Enterprises.When I first started my software website, a friend recommended that I get Philex to handle my domain name registration. Turned out to not be the best advice I'd ever received. My association with Philex has been filled with unhelpful tech correspondence and mismanaged service.
When I first had the domain name registered, I asked if it was possible to set up the renewal as an automatic credit card withdrawal. I didn't want the domain to expire because I forgot to renew it.
No, we can't do that.
Not a big deal. So can you send me an email a couple months before it comes due?
Sure, we can do that.
Okay. So on we go, on our merry way. At some point during the next few years I had a question about the domain, so I emailed them, and got a reply back that same day, with the following (excerpted from their email):
Quote:
Also to let you know this domain is expiring tonight. Unless the domain is paid for by tonight it will put in queue to be deleted from the systems here at 6:00 pm tonight Pacific Time. So whatever you do, please note once a domain is deleted it becomes publicly available and we can not stop a competitor from registering your domain. |
Imagine my sense of panic. I was almost certain my domain wasn't due to expire for several more months. But when your domain you're doing business on could potentially disappear and be snatched up by someone else, you can't help but panic a little bit.
So I called them, said "What in the world is going on here?"
Oh. Our bad. Sorry. Your domain isn't expiring.
Well, this got me thinking, "I'm not really sure I want these guys handling my domain registration...I need to figure out something different to do." So I emailed them a little bit later on, asking them what is involved in transferring the management of that domain name to another firm.
Big mistake. Never ask a company for advice that will result in them losing business.
Their reply (which I was ignorant enough to believe at the time) was: "The only way to do that is to let the domain name expire, and then try to re-purchase it before someone else snatches it up." I should have asked someone else.
Anyway, the next bit of excitement came when the domain name really did come due, and they forgot to send me my email (I was watching things pretty closely anyway, because I didn't trust them to remember) until about two weeks before the registration came due. When I got the email, it was immediately followed by a second email thanking me for my payment.
HUH? What's going on here?
So I called them. "What's up with this payment?" I asked.
Oh. We had your credit card number on file, so we decided to make the payment.
So now, while I'm in the process of transferring my hosting, I'm also in the process of transferring my domain name registration. And the whole time I've been holding my breath in fear that these guys would find a way to mess up that transfer process.
It's official. They're no longer handling my domain.
*does a happy happy dance of joy*
Next week (probably Monday afternoon) I'm going to flip the nameservers on my domain to point at my new site - then, after a little bit of testing and debugging, I should be finished with this whole transfer process.
Posted On May 12, 2005 at 4:07 AM
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