Hang on. You imply that Plusnet are giving you the authorisation code. You enter that on the new host�s order form.

Importantly, as I asked earlier, what is this domain for? A website? It just occurred to me to wonder where that is hosted. Domain hosting and site hosting are different/separate things.

The problem is now it's expired and is in the grace period some hosts/domain providers won't allow a transfer. If you can get it transferred you can then get the new registrar to update the handle emails.

It doesn't expire until tomorrow.

I've just rang up and paid almost £100 to have the domain renewed so I won't lose it. I was hoping that the transfer out would take less than 2 weeks, but it doesn't seem like Plusnet can work that fast. I started the transfer out on the 12th. When I've previously transferred domains from Plusnet, the changes occurred same day, usually because the person on the end of the phone was able to make the changes themselves. I guess BT have stripped that ability away from the staff answering calls.

My reason for moving was I don't want to pay the ludicrous amount that Plusnet are charging for the renewal. It looks like they've effectively held my domain to ransom. They'll probably make the changes now I've paid.

Edited by deleted (Sat 24-Mar-18 17:19:24)

It's a domain I use for my entire family's email. It's my surname, and probably worth quite a bit out on the open market. It's hosted by Plusnet, and the email is handled by Gsuite. There is no website, tho if I visit the site I can see directory that Plusnet provide and it's contents.

The issue is that at some point, Plusnet have abandoned the old Force9 email addresses. The whois is showing that the email address for the contact details is [email protected]. 18 years ago when I registered the domain, this would have worked as Force9 provided the alias on my POP3 mailbox. However, now if I log into the web portal, my email address is [email protected]. At some point in the last 17 years, Plusnet have switched the domains associated with webmail from Force9 to Plusnet and abandoned the alias.

2 weeks ago I started the domain transfer process, only nothing happened. A week later I figured out what it was when I spoke to 123-reg. They have to send an email to the address on the whois, with a unique CentralNic link which I have to follow and enter the authorisation code to agree to the transfer. The emails that are being sent are simply going into the void. I then last Tuesday spoke to Plusnet, and had to explain what was going wrong, and the guy agreed that the emails couldn't be delivered and that he would have to raise it with networks to either restore the old email address, or change the record with my current email address. This so far has not occurred. I called back on Friday, but the new chap on the phone did not understand the issue and it looks like he closed the original ticket. Eventually after some more explaining he started a new ticket again asking networks to make the change. It's at this point he then said that networks "might" make the change, which I then took to mean he still didn't understand what I needed. I called back later and was told that there is nothing more that can be done, because it's been raised to networks.

This morning I've received a text message questionnaire to my phone asking if I'm satisfied with the experience I've received from customer services. Nothing has still been done, so I gave the lowest marks available.

Edited by deleted (Sat 24-Mar-18 17:55:42)

I think one of the lessons here (and I am not trying to defend Plusnet's handling of this) might be not to attempt to transfer a domain away that close to its expiry.

At least you aren't going to lose it . I saw that as the immediate thing to do ensure, given that the people you need in Plusnet are simply not there at weekends.

As has been suggested, you might get a rep on the Community forums this coming week who can do something. If that fails then contacting the CEO Marc Allera seems the best next step.

I think the best shot would be the EE email address on this page. (He is now CEO of BTConsumer and Plusnet as well as EE). I expect that address is still active. Make it clear in the email Subject that it is about Plusnet though.

Do try the Community forums first, and if you have any Tickets/Questions on file about it they might be useful.

Once you get it moved I suggest you should be looking for at least £80 refund on that ridiculous £100. If not the full amount due to their failure. A .uk domain, with email, costs nothing like that. As you will know from 1 & 1.

£100! Most of the core CentralNic domains (.uk.com, .eu.com, .uk.net) are around £16 wholesale per yer, so even with margins I'd expect it to be half that price for 2 years.

As Robertos suggested your best bet is to post on the community forums. It looks like Plusnet have made a policy decision not to monitor or respond to posts on these forums as they are very rarely seen on here.

When you post on community include @Bobpullen and @chris in your post. Those are the two people in Plusnet most likely to sort it out for you.

In reply to a post by Jaowon:

I've been trying to transfer a domain away from Plusnet since the 12th but I'm getting nowhere. Part of the problem is that the domain was registered 17 years ago by Force9, and all the email addresses associated on the DNS servers do not exist anymore (they are force9 email addresses). CentralNic will only send the domain transfer authorisation email to those addresses on the DNS. Not a problem, simply change the DNS entries to working addresses on a domain that hasn't been abandoned. This seems to be something outside the capability of Plusnet. Each time I speak to someone on the phone I have to explain this over and over. It's not enough to give me an authorisation code to transfer. I or they need to have a working email address that can receive the transfer email authorisation from CentralNic.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, and to top it off, on Sunday the domain expires (hence I have been trying to move it away since the 12th).

Are there any staff members on here with the authority to spend the 30 seconds it will take to change the email addresses on the DNS servers? Ticket numbers are 170279336 and 171056704

For you or others in future - for non .uk ending domain names...

E-Mail addresses are not stored on DNS servers, so that's not an accurate representation of what is required.

Plusnet as the current holder of the domain can request an update to the administrative contact (and registrant, technical and/or organisational) and it doesn't involve DNS, but does require Plusnet to do it, so for the avoidance of confusion, when you do a WHOIS that information does NOT come from DNS, although it typically shows the DNS Nameservers assigned for the domain, that's neither here nor there. It's worth bearing in mind that Plusnet should be able to do this regardless of the current e-mail addresses showing on WHOIS as they're billing you so they already know you're associated with the domain name.

If the domain is expiring/expired, and it's still within the period it is retained, you will need to pay Plusnet as the current holder to renew it, this may cost more (generally speaking my advice is never wait until close to renewal date to move a domain name to avoid complexity, and if it is close, it's often better to buy a 1 year renewal first to ensure you don't get into a mess if there is a problem). It might cost more to renew if expired and/or in retention/redemption period.

I do not advise waiting for a domain to expire entirely and then try and repurchase it as domains can be taken by anyone - and sometimes this is a drop service that constantly monitors for domains that are expired/released and then automatically purchases in the hope people will want to pay inflated prices either to get them back, or to acquire them, and even seemingly unlikely domain names can be grabbed by these services.

For a domain name that is ending in .uk (normal types. not the special types like .ac.uk etc), you can if you've not got any idea who the contact e-mails are, and if you don't have any contact with the current registrar for the domain, contact Nominet directly and they have a process to help you get reunited with your domain name, although in the majority of cases the current registrar should help (and in many cases they're obliged to under the agreement with Nominet)