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RegisterFly crumbles under relationship problems of its two co-owners

This week marked a big week for two major domain registrars, GoDaddy.com and RegisterFly. With the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) approval, GoDaddy.com this week obtained all 850,000 generic top-level domain (gTLD) names previously held by RegisterFly. Existing RegisterFly customers will be able to access and manage their domain names from GoDaddy's website.

Over the last year, much has occurred at RegisterFly; and the result was unhappy customers, phone calls unanswered and a barrage of mismanagement. In March of this year, ICANN terminated RegisterFly's status as an ICANN-accredited registrar due to allegations of corporate fraud. It was noted in a lawsuit that co-owner Kevin Medina used corporate funds for personal use. In fact, co-owner John Naruszewicz filed a suit claiming that Medina had spent $27,000 on escort services, $6,000 on liposuction and $10,000 per month on a penthouse in Miami. Medina then countersued by claiming that Naruszewicz spent $60,000 on Moroccan furniture and payments on a home.

RegisterFly owners Kevin Medina and John Naruszewicz were in a downfall situation of their own. The two were reportedly boyfriends for several years but the relationship broke down at the time of ICANN's demands. The result was an attempt for a business takeover by Naruszewicz but due to complications, RegisterFly continued to have compounding problems.

Because of top level management issues, RegisterFly's customer service was negatively impacted. This resulted in disgruntled customers and a large number of complaints to ICANN. On March 16 of this year, a class action lawsuit was filed, claiming that RegisterFly knowingly defrauded customers.

According to the press release:

RegisterFly customers have been affected by recent problems and the impending loss of RegisterFly’s accreditation as a domain name registrar. GoDaddy.com will notify RegisterFly customers of the switch and automatically move their domains for them. Those who still go to the RegisterFly Web site will be directed to Go Daddy.com for managing and renewing their domain names. However, some RegisterFly customers had chosen to move their domain names to GoDaddy.com even before this deal.

"The RegisterFly situation has been extremely difficult -- first and foremast for registrants, as well as for the entire registry and registrar community," said GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons.

RegisterFly is currently under legal scrutiny for failure to oblige to several court orders. Medina is the primary blame for the trouble at the company and he failed to show up in court several times in the past.

ICANN pursued a solution to RegisterFly's problems and on May 29 of this year, GoDaddy.com purchased RegisterFly's customer database for an undisclosed amount. ICANN said it will ensure that RegisterFly customers will be well taken care of and indicated that it was excited to see GoDaddy.com willingly lend a hand.

"I want to commend the organizations that have come to the table to ensure people's domain names were protected to the extent possible," ICANN CEO Dr. Paul Twomey said.

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excited by the hand
By Anosh on 6/1/2007 12:07:37 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
ICANN said it will ensure that RegisterFly customers will be well taken care of and indicated that it was excited to see GoDaddy.com willingly lend a hand.


Willingly lend a hand?
Excuse me but doesn't GoDaddy.com recieve the fees that these customers used to pay to RegisterFly?!

That would mean 850 000 new customers! I'm sure ICANN aren't the only ones who are excited.

Besides I never imagined webhosting generated so much revenue.




By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 6/1/2007 12:11:03 PM , Rating: 2
I am a former RegisterFly customer. The whole debacle was a nightmare -- I had about 50 domains with them.

One day I just got an email saying Enom was a registrar for half my domains. No warning, no confirmation requests ... eNom and RegisterFly wouldn't even tell me which domains they took over.

Good riddance imo.


RE: excited by the hand
By Oregonian2 on 6/1/2007 1:56:40 PM , Rating: 2
I doubt Godaddy.com is getting any money at all for administering these 850,000 domains unless RegisterFly was cash rich and turned money over (I doubt it). Only money godaddy.com might get would be for renewals when the current domains expire (I presume they are maintaining the expiration dates), and that might be years off, and even then folk could move their domains before that happens and they get nothing at all even long term. So it's just a bet on their part that in the long term they'll be getting renewal business because it's easy for customers to just go with the flow (and because they charge very little and their service is good -- excepting for their user interfaces which are packed full of ads for additional services one can get from them). My domains aren't with them but I have them as a web hosting company and they've been pretty good as well as very cheap. Just a matter of navigating around all those ads and ignoring them. I'll probably move my domain registration there when it gets close to expiration in a few years (still at spendy Networksolutions I think, from back in the days they were the only one around).


RE: excited by the hand
By Oregonian2 on 6/4/2007 3:00:22 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, I signed up for a .COM Domain (for my wife) over the weekend (used a coupon). Costing $6.25/year at Godaddy.com for five years. Includes a single email POP3 account (25MB space) and a semi-dummy single web page (currently just holding... hosting coming later when my wife figures out her content).


RE: excited by the hand
By Casper42 on 6/1/2007 8:38:55 PM , Rating: 3
RE: Webhosting generating revenue.

The funny thing is its not even Web Hosting, its Domain Name Registration. All a Registrar is technically supposed to give you for your money is a place to say that mydomain.com will be managed by DNS Servers over at dns1.mywebhost.com.

Then dns1.mywebhost.com simply says that mydomain.com is hosted at 69.70.71.72 (the IP of your HOST)

Then the Host gets their own money for actualling serving up the content.

Now of course most Registrars offer more features than that to remain competitive, but they dont have to.

As a former RF Customer and an RF Fanboy for quite a while, I am glad to see SOMETHING is being done and that a big name like GoDaddy will be keeping my Domains in line.

The change last year from eNom to RF for me produced countless problems, lengthy phone calls with no solutions other than "wait a few days and see if the changes we're making fix it" and ultimately caused me to stop using the bonus features ar RF and just have them set all my domains to point to a 3rd party host who is now taking care of my DNS and eMail forwarding needs.
The sad part is I went through all that hell and I only have 7 domains registered with them and none of them are for anything other than personal use. I can imagine I would have been fuming if my business was relying on them during that nightmare.

PS: I would like to request that GoDaddy sent over one of those hotties in the tight T-Shirts to help me transition my domains more smoothly.


Commercials
By James Holden on 6/1/2007 4:45:51 PM , Rating: 2
Man I used to love those commmericals. Mmmmm

More serious note - how did the transfer go for everyone? I can't imagine it was a smooth process.




Still open for biz.
By cessation on 6/1/2007 6:45:50 PM , Rating: 2
I don't understand how registerfly.com is still up and taking peoples money. They are stealing thousands of dollars every day by pretending to offer services which they never give you.

Why the hell hasn't the FBI broke into their office and thrown medina or whoever in jail? Last I heard registerfly is bringing in 5k to 15k a day.




I work for Godaddy.com
By helmo on 6/8/2007 7:32:26 PM , Rating: 2
I gotta say, after hearing all the horror stories of Registerfly customers time and time again it was a relief to hear that they were at least being taken care of, it didn't hurt that they happened to come to my company as well.

Any domains that registerfly didn't renew...idk why *cough hookers cough* are actually given until the 28th this month to renew, and customers domains are automaticlly being moved over for them, they just recieve a password reset email and that's it. Smoothest. Transition. Ever.


Disclaimer:Anything written here is my own though, and it does not reflect the thoughts of Godaddy.com...blahblahblah, you get the picture.




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