I received a rather unexpected call this morning from a nice guy from 123-reg/WebFusion; which took me a little by surprise and it seems they came across my blog and my previous post – Hi guys! – where I ranted discussed how they were less than helpful with regards to my .eu domains and refused to update the .eu technical contact details as requested.

It seems they wanted to explain themselves, so for sake of fairness I naturally felt should share the explanation, and my thoughts on it.

The reason: Apparently they couldn’t update the details was because -wait for it – they didn’t know they could. They claim the .eu tld was fairly new to them and they didn’t know that it was possible to update the technical contact company, hence why I was fobbed off and told it couldn’t be done.

Well, not really. While yes I can appreciate with any new product you do take a little while to fully understand what can and can’t be done and there may be a couple of small misunderstanding which should quickly be learnt and overcome to ensure you can offer the best service to clients.

But – and this is a big but – we also have to consider that 123-reg (child company of WebFusion Ltd) is a multi-million pound company with no doubt hundreds of staff and plenty of experience in this industry and should be competent at launching new tlds, how they work, what can and can’t be done and if you can update the technical contact details. I also have to question how new .eu was to them when I brought my .eu domains, as I don’t remember it being a brand spanking new tld for them and I’d think this is something they should have resolved within a few days, not months.

I also think it is something which should have been looked into promptly once I (and presumably others) began to question it. It took me merely a few days and a handful of emails to get confirmation that its possible and even after requesting direct access to OpenSRS via 123-reg I was ignored or given canned responses.

So if it took me a few days, it should have taken them minutes – being as they are in a lucrative reselling position with Tucows could not confirm this simple fact before launching the domain?… or even during the numerous tickets, some of which I stated that I knew it was possible didn’t prompt someone to look into it further, make the changes and issue an apology back in April/May.

While I really appreciate the phone call and apology – all be it 6 months late – but being syndical I have to be dubious of the intentions as its probably because they have seen how well my previous post is ranking for the terms “123 reg eu” (3rd – 5th result) and how many potential customers are probably reading it.

A phone call and a nice apology and promise that should any more problems arise I can contact them directly via email is great, it is mostly too little too late. Sorry guys.

123-reg was the first company I dealt with with domains, and is where I started with “dansgalaxy.co.uk” – ah memories! Back when I had to use my mums credit card – and no doubt will end up buying a few more cheap domains from them in future, and hey who knows I might even apply to blog for them if the opportunity arises (assuming they don’t hold these posts against me of course!) I just hope they have resolved this and all staff are now aware how to process the change requests quickly and efficiently (as they still don’t seem to allow it via the interface) and in future they learn from this mistake and will improve the support (as in, actually reply to tickets and not use canned responses) and next time I do business with them my view of their support department can be proved wrong and I will be a happy satisfied customer of 123-reg / WebFusion.

I finally brought Dansgalaxy.com today!

It was brought a while ago by a holding company, and it was finally not renewed and i decided to add it to my growing catelogue of domains

Also stops other people nicking my name

Just got to wait for them to sell xdnet.com now

Peace

Okay so i unfortunately missed a day i have been doing a lot and yet didn’t have much to talk about.

Saturday i had a bit of a lazy day, i woke up at 11… and got out of bed at 5pm! One of the reasons i love my laptop. I didn’t waste the day In that time i signed up a friend as a reseller, setup his domain, gave him a demo etc as well as looking into alternative sources for shoutcast for my clients.

Of course i eventually had to get up for dinner, and then shot off to the radio station to co-host the Johnny Robinson Show with Rich and of course Johnny.

Poor guy having it tough at the moment with some problems, nothing i can really do so keeping my nose out, just wish i could help :-/…

Today i have been refreshed of my pure contempt of 1and1, they truly are crap. I set 3 domains to transfer for a client, it SHOULD be almost instant… still waiting… and waiting… and you get the picture. I find it unbelievable that this company is still going, the poor quality of service and support is disgusting. It sounds silly but i really wish i had a vast amount of money to buy them out and save their poor clients from sub par service!

I have to admit, it is one of my biggest pet hates big companies which can easily afford to provide good service, but seem to choose not to.

I feel awful at the moment also as have a terrible cold, so i’m rather groggy, as have a nose which is running faster than Kelly Holmes, headache, backache and feverish :p YAY flu!

Also waiting for a server to finish setting up and installing everything so i can see if it would be suitable for my shoutcast clients, which i hope it is.

This will enable me to have a HUGE amount of control over the accounts on offer, and should mean i can go a good deal for current customers, and i hope even cut their price

(ain’t i a nice host – go me!)

Also rediscovered the spice girls today, someone i was chatting to was listening to it and i ended up looking up some of their tracks, and listening to an old now (thats what i call music) album on my pc, forgot some of the good tracks from the 90′s lol.

I also feel old. I remember a time before DVD… there’s a whole generation of kids who dont have that :/…

Okay this is one of my all time BIGGEST pet hates!

It really bugs me when i go to a website and see something like send me an email to MyWebsite@hotmail.com or another free email service, using your domain as an email address makes your site look a lot more professional, and can increase user trust.

It isnt hard, and you dont have to change you email there are a few different options you can do, forwarders, email accounts and using email accounts and forwarders combined with your free email provider.

Forwarders:

Forwarders are very easy to set up, all you have to do is login to your cPanel, select forwarders enter a current email address and all mails is passed on (forwarded) to that account. EASY!

For a more detailed look at setting up email forwarders take a look at this article from the XDnet knowledge base: Setting Up Email Forwarders

Email Account:

This is simple, just create an email account and use it!

Nice and easy set up an email account find some email software you like and get going.

Learn more on how to create and email account

Learn more on configuring your software with your email account

Now many providers also enable you to both send email from hotmail which appears to come from forwarder, so when you set up a forwarder email, which directs mail to mywebsite@hotmail.com, you can recieve it but then also reply from you@mywebsite.com making you look all the more professional.

And for those of you would prefer your free email providers email interface, most will let you use your XDnet email account so you can send and receieve email from that.

Note: I will be writing a handful of tutorials on how to use XDnet services with your favourite free email providers and much much more, so check out the knowledge base!

It couldnt be easier! So please people. If you own a domain, USE IT, LOVE IT.

Thats right, i have finally found myself a reasonable domain reseller, so i can proudly say XDnet is now in the domains business, providing cheap domains.

XDnet can now provide no fewer than 40 differenent TLD’s!

Prices starting from just £9, however discounts and hosting/domain packages will be on the site soon, so look out!

I have also spent a while moding up the Domain Avaliblity Checker which now has added features, like select all, and loading notifications!

Also been moding and styling the XDnet Client Area so things are only getting better!