.info aaaq.com and .info domains

[armstrong]

Hello all,

I registered a .info domain with aaaq.com during the land rush two years ago. The domain expires this month, and aaaq (an ICANN-accredited registrar) has not sent me any renewal notices. My email contact info has not changed, and is still up-to-date. I sent them several emails starting more than a month ago, and got no response. Their site seems empty of options except "contact us". Their online whois doesn't work.

Does anyone know if they are still in business?

Afilias, the authority for .info, says that any domain changes, including transfers, have to be done through the current registrar. But if aaaq does nothing, what can I do?

A lot of .info domains must be due to expire this month, and if the registrars just sit on their *ss, then we could lose our domains. Or pay exorbitant amounts to get back our domains.

Anyone else have this problem?

Regards,

Apollo

 

[RJ]

I'm not familiar with AAAQ.COM. Have you been able to renew your names yet? That is a scary situation because you wouldn't even be able to transfer to another registrar without getting an auth code from them. :o

 

[FruitFish]

Tehy started 2 years ago when a whole bunch of great domains were available, and they went with aaaq.com?

 

[armstrong]

aaaq.com had expensive rates, so they had fewer domains to go after, hence a better chance of getting the domain you wanted.

I was finally able to transfer my domain. Apparently, hostway bought aaaq.com, so it was hostway I should have contacted. But it took several emails and calls before I got it done.

Also, about a week or so before the expiration of my domain, hostway/aaaq emailed me about it seeking renewal. Not enough of a lead time, in my opinion.

This episode (plus the Duke's dnjournal article) was what led me to search for generic german-word .info's. I reasoned that if I had this kind of trouble with my .info renewal, then I can imagine the trouble non-English speakers would have. Of course, most Germans speak passable English, but some won't.

So far, I've registered the following recently-expired .info's:

diebibel.info the bible
einkaufskorb.info shopping basket
einkaufsparadies.info buy paradise (buyer's paradise, or maybe shopping paradise?)
electronik.info electronics
farbkopien.info color copies
scheck.info cheque
schluepfer.info panties
spieleforum.info game forum
tippspiele.info game tips
unterhaltungsmusik.info light music (easy listening)
wissenswerte.info trivia