Need urgent legal advice-Your help will be appreciated

Business
1

I bought a domain name from a web hosting company,i am also supposed to get hosting included in the package,they sent me all the activation details and proof that i own the domain and even i have access to the FTP details.

They have consistently billed me for about 4 months,i have however not had the time to upload the content.

Sometime last week,i decided to go to my website url,obviously i should get an error that this page cannot be displayed or their default message,i was surprised to see a message that "this domain is for sale for $150,000 if interested send an email to…

I did a whois look up and found out that someone else just bought the domain 10days ago,keep in mind i can still log into the web hosting account and i show that billing has been done for about 4 months even till now.

Now my question is this,first the company i bought the domain from is a very large and reputable company,can i sue them ?

And up to what amount can i sue them ?

Can i get the domain back ?

basically i like to know what legal recourse i can get and if i am entiled to not just my domain but also financial compensation.

Your responses will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

2

I would think your first step would be to write the web host in a non-confrontational manner and try to sort out the error.

3

I agree, sounds like it’s most likely an innocent mix up, especially if they are a well known brand - talking about ‘how much you can sue them for’ is jumping the gun somewhat.

Contact them and explain what has happened, let us know how it goes.

BTW, $150,000? That must be some domain name.

4

Thanks guys for the responses,how could they be billing for 4 months for a service they are not providing

5

Domain purchases are a yearly fee. The monthly fee would be for the hosting.

6

i clearly understand that…the question is how do i get the domain i paid for

7

This sounds like it could get messy if in fact they have sold the domain name to 2 different people as you say.

The other person might not be willing to give up the domain name if they too feel they bought it legitimately.

If you can’t sort it out with your registrar/hosting company in a week or two at the most, get yourself a good lawyer especially if the domain name is worth as much as you imply.

8

The first thing to check is whether you still have access to the control panel option for configuring the domain.

If you do then make the changes necessary to point it to your hosting and lock it so it can’t be transferred.

If you don’t have access then contact the provider and ask them why you don’t have access to configure the domain you paid for. What action you take from there would depend on their answer. There are lots of steps you can take before you need consider legal help.

One thing you will want to do is to keep a copy of any discussions you have with the provider as to what has happened.

9

thanks all for the advice,still waiting for more…

10

Follow what felgall said. Those steps will determine what you would have to do next.

11

Exactly what “proof” did they send to you? All of the above sounds like webhosting related items, not domain related ones.

12

If that domain name is really worth about 150 gorillas I’d be on the phone to my lawyer pretty quickly.

13

I dont think it is any where close to that amount,the point is that why would a company not register a domain and keep charging you for hosting when it is not a dedicated server

14

First of all dedicated servers are quite different from shared hosting plans. Many companies have several types of hosting plans and also do domain registration for their clients.

15

I think there is a lot of information that we do not know to really say what your legal footing is on this.

As others stated, it will depend on what the communication was between you and the hosting company. Registering a domain and setting up a hosting package are two completely different things. You can do one without the other.

If you are being billed monthly, that is only for the hosting. There would have been a separate charge for the domain if it was something you paid for. Also, there would be other confirmations stating that you are the owner of the new domain. You will want to check into that.

Also … as bad as it sounds, you may want to check the spelling of your domain you wanted and possibly the one you sent to have registered. If you typed out the domain you wanted to register but it had a typo in it, they would have registered exactly what you sent them. Also, the extension may be what you thought was available but it was actually a different one.

These are all just speculations as we really don’t have any information like emails or copies of what you communicated between you and the host. Without knowing that, we really can’t speak for what the problem is or if you have any legal action to take.

If they are a hosting company, they are going to charge you for the hosting you opted to sign up for whether you are using it or not, whether you have a domain set up on it or not. They are providing the hosting service (shared, dedicated or whatever) but it is your responsibility to use it. After they set it up, it’s out of their hands, thus why they continue to charge you for it.

So as others mentioned, we would need more information to really give you specific advice, but if you are looking for actual legal counsel, you will want to contact a lawyer with all of the communication between you and the host and see what they say.

16

Clearly you should be talking to the hosts first, not sure why you are still holding back on that? All this talk about lawyers is a bit premature until you get the hosting company to look into it and confirm their side of the story.

17

Why don’t you cut and paste the text that you says they sent you that shows that you own the domain so we can evaluate it.

I really think the problem may be on your end here, not the hosts.