Do You Own Your URL

[DSLiverpool]

Talking to a large online seller today about them leaving their developer and was astonished that the dev registered their company URL`s themselves !!!! as such they are nervous about leaving the dev - I was speechless.

Is it common ?

[eliot]

i think it happens quite often. Supplier cant hold them to ransom over it though.

[Thank You For Calling]

Seen this happen a few times - in a couple of situations the original dev was difficult and attempted to charge additional fees to transfer away, in the majority of situations the dev arranged for the transfer and things went smoothly.

[Bikerjon]

Happens all the time in small businesses. Many are just not interested in managing domain renewals/hosting payments for themselves when a web dev will do it all for them. Surprised a larger business would operate this way though!

[jpringle819]

I do a lot of work in Education and most of the time the school domain name is registered to the third party web designer. Doesn't cause much of an issue if the designer is still developing/supporting the website. Have had two or three sites where I have struggled to purchase an SSL certificate as the contact details are for a non existent (failed) web design company.

[uber]

This is something we get dragged into all the time with old developers holding clients to ransom or just causing trouble because they are annoyed they have been binned. The worst case we had was a couple of years ago with a client who had a very basic Wordpress website and everything hosting / domains in his old developers name. Being very wealthy, company having a big turnover and not in his words wanting to "rock the boat" he paid £150k for outstanding development fees. He was getting ripped off for everything including paying 2k a month for a $12 a month shared hosting account.

NEVER allow anyone else to own your domains and always put the hosting contract in your name!

[Pot Bellied Fool]

DSLiverpool said:

Talking to a large online seller today about them leaving their developer and was astonished that the dev registered their company URL`s themselves !!!! as such they are nervous about leaving the dev - I was speechless.

Is it common ?

Yes, see this all the time.

Sometimes it's been done with the best intentions to expedite a project but I've seen so many occasions where it's blown up in someone's face years later. Some of the big marketing agencies that also used to do paper directories are beggars for this. They always relinquish them but it's an extra cost.

What annoys me though is when smaller outfits do it to gouge the client or to hold them to ransom. I took over some hosting for a client recently. The existing dev was helpful enough (he wanted rid of them as they wanted work doing...) and he conspiratorially mentioned to me on a phone call that he was charging them a couple of hundred a month for hosting. Could've even been as high as £600... If memory serves.

It's just normal bog standard hosting, nothing unusual needed. For which I charge £120/yr. by all means charge extra if the requirement is there but not in this case. Mind you, I've had a good few £k in fees since to fix various bits with more to come - that's what happens when you build relationships & don't gouge <soapbox>.

I've seen a few in the past where it was out & out ransom with silly prices to transfer. Seems to be dieing out these days thankfully. Main problem I come across is trying to transfer .com domains when it was registered using the email addresses of a long dead Web dev company and no-one has any form of Control Panel logins...

[RM]

Incredibly common in the noughties with small businesses and small developers. If it is a .uk domain then Nominet are a lot more helpful than in the past. Twice I have used their re-establish identity procedure to regain control of a domain from a long defunct web dev company. It was quick, painless and only cost £12.

[akirk]

As with the others above, we see this a lot, one of the first things we get changed when we take on new clients... not yet failed to have one transferred, but it can be a hassle... All domains we register for clients are registered in their name...

just to be pedantic, very few people actually own their own url it is usually rented...

[buggalugs]

uber said:

This is something we get dragged into all the time with old developers holding clients to ransom or just causing trouble because they are annoyed they have been binned. The worst case we had was a couple of years ago with a client who had a very basic Wordpress website and everything hosting / domains in his old developers name. Being very wealthy, company having a big turnover and not in his words wanting to "rock the boat" he paid £150k for outstanding development fees. He was getting ripped off for everything including paying 2k a month for a $12 a month shared hosting account.

NEVER allow anyone else to own your domains and always put the hosting contract in your name!

Ooof, I could do with a few clients like that

[Buffalo]

Happened to me when I had our first co. webpage designed. The guy asked me if I had an URL, i said not yet but I knew what I wanted was available, so as he was logged on to his company systems at the time, he bagged it straightaway so he could get on with the page design using it. It was only later that I realised the co. should own it. I have since transferred it with no issue, but I did think it was a bit of a schoolboy error at the time.

[muppetdave]

Yup a client of mine were held for ransom by their previous IT/web guy for circa £20K all told. He'd actually done this, and been taken to court previously by one of the air ambulance charities.

Not that I am full bore web-developer, but I often secure domains for clients; I complete it using their details etc. but usually make the payment myself to recharge (for ease), and then leave them to their renewals (I usually leave myself on as a secondary administrator so we can see when renewals are due).

[ecs]

I hold domain names for customers and re-bill them an renewal. It's really quite annoying actually, but for every customer you get who registers their own domain name there are several of the "can't someone else do it" types who refuse to sign up to a domain name website and buy the thing themselves. These are generally the types who wont spend <£5 a month for a proper email service but claim that their business is entirely dependant on it (and will probably have £50/month phone contract).

Business owners, do yourselves a favour and buy your own domain names!

[akirk]

there is a difference between:
- a business having their domain name registered to them (whoever registers it) - essential
- a business having to register the name themselves - not essential

we register a lot of domains for clients... we always register it in their name so they own it, but we manage them through our own system / hosting / servers... ultimately it is a service we offer them (and for which we charge), considering the prevelance of systems such as Office365 and the need to set up spf records and txt validation records, all mean that knowledge to correctly set up DNS is becoming more important, so we do it on behalf of our clients...

but the domains belong to them