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Thursday, 08 March 2007

If we've learned one thing at RegisterFly, it's that the actions of a few can affect a great many people. It's no secret that we've been experiencing significant problems here at RegisterFly, and how these problems have affected our customers.

First, we want to take this opportunity to apologize to you for the significant impact these problems have had on you. We are well aware that you all have been greatly affected by the events at RegisterFly. Whether your loss has been financial, personal, or otherwise, our single deepest regret is that our corporate woes have made it to your door. While the repercussions for RegisterFly are not insignificant, they pale in comparison to the devastating effect they have had on our customers.

While the underlying causes of these issues are varied and complex, we understand that you're likely far less concerned about why they happened than about how we intend to address the issues they've caused. However, we do wish to assure you that we are taking every necessary measure to address the problem at its source, and that steps are being taken to correct the vulnerabilities that allowed them to happen in the first place.

The RegisterFly website and systems are now under the full control of Unified Names. In the process of fixing the control, the servers were also optimized, and are now running far faster than before. It is important to note that the official RegisterFly is located at www.RegisterFly.com and not at www.RegisterFly.net. While you may have heard differently, this information is inaccurate(emphasis ours. -ed.)

All RegisterFly-related activity must be performed through the official RegisterFly web site at www.RegisterFly.com. (emphasis ours. -ed.)

We have brought in a team of independent systems and security analysts to review our current procedures and identify any shortcomings that need to be addressed. While a key focal point will be the weaknesses that precipitated the recent events here, we are also taking a more general approach to ensure that our systems and procedures, as a whole, are up to date. In this way, we can address not only the current problems, but ensure that any other potential vulnerabilities are remediated.

One of our key priorities is ensuring that our customers either receive the services they've paid for. Critical to this is ensuring that our site works properly, and that accounts are properly funded. We are also working with ICANN and the registries to recover any lost domains as quickly as possible.

Additionally, we have been working around the clock to restore full access to our staff, enabling them to serve you efficiently and effectively. We understand that one of your key concerns has been our staff's inability to access crucial systems, rendering us unable to adequately meet your needs. It is for this reason that restored access has been our main priority over the last few weeks. We have a highly qualified team of technicians working around the clock to bring our systems back to full speed. Due to their tireless efforts, our support staff is now able to access the information and data that they need in order to address your requests. We've also hired additional staff in order to improve response times to your queries. Effective immediately, we've closed down all operations in Miami, and have expanded our New Jersey-based team to handle all sales, billing and support issues. If you require any assistance, please call 973-404-8430.

While this progress is significant, we're still dedicating every ounce of effort towards continued improvement in resolving your issues and ensuring that situations like this do not occur again.

These events have also brought other issues to the fore, and we're taking this opportunity to address those as well. Key among these is our "One and done" philosophy. You've explained to us your frustration in being passed from one representative to another in trying to resolve an issue. For this reason, we've implemented a process that enables our staff to address your tickets from start to finish, without having to pass you along to various departments for different portions of your issue. Another concern you've expressed is the delays introduced when staff members have to consult senior staff for decisions on certain issues. To remedy this, we are empowering our staff to be able to make many of these decisions on their own, and providing them with the training to ensure that these decisions are made fairly and in your best interests.

We are also working to correct the problems that you've been experiencing with situations such as lost domains and registration issues. We realize how significantly even brief downtimes can affect a website, and how devastating the effects can be on our customers. To address these problems, we have employed a highly-skilled consulting firm to fully identify, address and resolve these problems. We have developed a detailed process for resolving the problems that affect your sites, and have already launched a comprehensive initiative that will allow us to fix them effectively.

Some of the key progress we've achieved over the past few weeks:

  • Restored access to our systems and website
  • Updated the DNS
  • Optimized the servers to run faster
  • Fixed majority of errors within the web site

Work that is in progress includes:

  • Rectifying payment issues
  • Responding to and resolving all outstanding customer tickets
  • Ensuring domain accounts are properly funded
  • Recovering lost domains

One of the keys to growth is learning from adversity, and at RegisterFly, we are committed to doing exactly that. While the current situation at RegisterFly was triggered by the actions of a few, we fully acknowledge that we could have handled the situation more effectively. We have reviewed our response to these situations, and our approach in notifying you, and identified the areas where we should have done better. We are listening intently to what you are saying, and taking it to heart. While we know that nothing can completely alleviate the losses and damages you've experienced, we are confident that we at RegisterFly will emerge from these times a stronger company, and will have a deeper understanding at how seemingly "background" issues can affect our customers. While we can completely understand lingering reluctance to place your trust in RegisterFly again, we hope that you will join us in our future growth in becoming a better and stronger company.

Sincerely,

John Naruszewicz
President/CEO
Unified Names, Inc.

This announcement can be found at Registerfly.com
Comments
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WildSnake - Act!!! Registered | 2007-03-08 08:45:20
Could it be that one will just return back to his job and make all possible things to refund my money and renew my domains instead of writting such stupid letters?

As soon as this would be done I'll stop the collaboration with your company and you will be very welcome to do what ever you want with it.
dcap3 Registered | 2007-03-08 08:51:52
FALSE PROMISES AGAIN!

What a nice letter. Too bad most of it is BS! The site doesn't work; my names are still being held hostage and expiring.
MNLNI - still no progress on trouble t Registered | 2007-03-08 08:52:14
John;
48 hours crossed and u deleted all my old requestsfor auth codes aand you could not corrected domain whois still showing admin email as support@registerfly.com and address as your office.
"Domain not found" errors when updating emails or whois contact info.

Where did you corrected your errors?

48 hours without resolving tickets is your service?

or you are saying some thing and buying some more time?

How do i believe Jhon and team?
double - it's a start Registered | 2007-03-08 08:54:15
John -

This is a good start. But you have a long, long ways yet to go...

I am one of the thousands of customers who have spent sleepless nights and literally hours on the phone with the RF help(less) desk either on the phone or with waste-of-time trouble tickets. I've lost hundreds of dollars to eNom who shamelessly "helped" me renew names (at $160 a pop) that expired because the RF system wouldn't let me. Can I send in a reimbursement to you for those expenditures and the hours and hours of time I have wasted trying to hunt someone down to fix these issues for weeks and months?

Later this morning I will be logging on, changing my password and trying -- again -- to move the remaining 100+ domains I have languishing in your system to another registrar. I don't have a lot of faith that it will work. But there is always hope...

I appreciate you having the courage to come to this forum and address us personally and hope you'll respond to concerns frequently. I hope you will also have the decency to try and restore, beyond merely the double and triple renewal charges that were obvious, some of the lost monies (to eNom and others) that many have us have lost due to this fiasco.
eljefegrande - Optimized Servers!! OHHH HELLL Registered | 2007-03-08 09:24:07
You know, the crazy thing here is I was just sitting here thinking to myself... this whole RegisterFly nightmare would be soo much better if those gosh darned servers were optimized.

Fan-fu**ing-tastic!

In other news... how about unlocking our accounts and refunding our money for services you never provided.
Lokai Registered | 2007-03-08 09:26:04
Great. So what are you going to do about the 70,000+ domains that expired and were lost when bought up by domain drop buyers?
indyweb - Bullshirt Registered | 2007-03-08 10:15:08
Funny,

I just called tech support and was told to "give them more time" and that "they dont have access to their systems"

wtf.
zakofrax - Yeah Registered | 2007-03-08 10:21:45
I know this is bull as a domain that I have at Enom that you should not be able to touch has just had it's whois information changed from the NJ office with an admin contact etc.. to registerfly but is now listed as Regsiterfly owned but the email all goes to a Unified Names email address now and the funny thing (which from what you say does not exist) is that the address is listed as below -

[b]Registerfly.com
Responsible Party (support@unifiednames-inc.com)
+1.3056740165
Fax: +1.3056740144
960 41St Street
Suite 402
Miami Beach, FL 33139
US[/b]-
I thought you were no longer in Miami
bad enough changing information for a domain you don't own a second time but now it seems that the Miami office still exists. So what is it a lie or have you put down false information in the whois, Breaking another Icann rule!
and stealing the domain which is breaking a lot of rules.
Racemagoo4747 - Tried Tech Support - No Auth c Registered | 2007-03-08 10:22:21
This morning I twice called the number John wrote in the letter and got the overseas tech support who said, as they have been for a month, that the system was down and I should try back in a day. (One guy said it will be back up in a year, I said "a year you mean a day", he said no "a year") So much for John's letter about tech support. It is still non-existent.
endemixllc - What a crock of Registerfly S* Registered | 2007-03-08 10:27:14
Dear John Naruszewicz;

Your pitiful attempt at reconcilliation is too little and too late. You had a lovers falling out with John Medina and because of that, all your customers have suffered. I had over 400 domains with Registerfly and had NO CLUE over just how inept your organization is until I found that many have dissapeared or expired despite my having made payments. You and your ex lover have taken a personal gay spat and created a monster from which many of us will NEVER recover! I was lucky enough to have moved many to NSI but I still have 190 with you and find that many have Registerfly in the WHOIS and no AUTH codes and no way to change the contact info. Attempts to renew have failed. You are in court today in NJ and I am looking forward to reading the BS further. I have the Fed documents if anyone wants a copies.
nicola - AUTH CODES Registered | 2007-03-08 10:37:23
ok, i know a lot of people are asking when they login where are the auth codes so here you go...

login, click on My Account, Click on 'Manage Domains', Click on one of domain names in the list, click the '+' sign next to 'Domain Contact Management', click on 'Configure' button, scroll down the modify contact info to bottom of contact fields and you should see a little text note says 'Auth Code'. Some of mine on the list have it and some don't. (it's not a field, just a tect note in bold black)

Also one other tip on changing contact information it fails to update on a single domain update but if you do a mass update by selecting all the domains in your list at the bottom of this sae page it goes through succesfully or at least it did for me (i wanted to update my phone numbers on it)

Hope this info has helped..
jax1492 - enom Registered | 2007-03-08 11:03:47
I moved my domain to enom.com because of all of this, but i went into my RF account to see what things were going on and my help tickets had been deleted and my auto renew was turned back on??? shame on you RF
MNLNI - Nothing new Registered | 2007-03-08 11:11:33
I just hook the phone with customer support. They said their backend systems are down and they cannot any with our whois info etc.
vockla Registered | 2007-03-08 11:49:45
For nicola, I see a bold text saying "Auth Code" but I do not see any code there. I just want to get the hell out of RF.

As for the CEO letter, I used to love Registerfly. It was an incredible company some years ago. I will only believe again the day I have my expired domains back or at least when the trouble tickets are answered. Actions, no words!
zgarner Registered | 2007-03-08 12:04:01
vockla,
I agree regarding the trouble tickets. If I were running that company I would be focusing pretty heavily on them. I've had tickets up for ages that haven't even been incompetently addressed.

Personally, I'd love to see them pull themselves up out of this mess and make good. I liked the company. I transfered *our* company over to them (from register.com). The last year has been rocky and *this* situation is pretty challenging. I think how they handle this can pretty much show how they'll handle business in general.

I'll give them a little longer and cross my fingers. Then if I feel I have to, I'll start transferring domains to a new registrar.
cyberws - My Arms Are Tired Registered | 2007-03-08 12:25:06
I have to say dammit! My arms are tired of shoving all this s**t! I will say they finally put a message on their site. "Wow"... moving at the speed of well... Congress.

You know John communication is always important when there are problems and you guys couldn't have done a worse job at it, so forget the long winded broken promise letters and fix the issues!

I do wonder who are these "commando" tech guns you have brought in? I don't see much happening. As a commercial said a long time ago, "Where's the beef?"

A picture is worth a 1,000's words and an action worth a 1,000 pictures. So how about replacing those current call center morons with people that can actually do something and show some damn compassion. If problems aren't bad enough its wonderful to talk to some asshole with an attitude.

We need our accounts unlocked, authorization codes issued and these never ending problems resolved!
MikeInMass - They just don't get it! Registered | 2007-03-08 12:33:22
Here he states:

"we at RegisterFly will emerge from these times a stronger company, and will have a deeper understanding at how seemingly "background" issues can affect our customers."

A BACKGROUND ISSUE.....You really don't get it do you?

Goodbye and good riddance!
WildSnake - Why you fool your customers? Registered | 2007-03-08 12:35:48
I'm with cyberws on this - Put the message on front page of your site: "We are in asshole. We do our best to get out from there..."

Could be not work too well for your posing to survive business but at least would be fair for amount of peoples you got involved into this BS...

Be fair!!!
zgarner Registered | 2007-03-08 13:06:06
What I'm really not hearing addressed (and maybe someone can point me if I've missed it) is the customers who are stuck with RF expired domains for accounts that were registered as eNom accounts.

*Can* RF reclaim these accounts? I've paid twice to renew one domain and the last time to recover, but I've done all this through RF (yep, they've got my money).

But I have no idea if they can even do anything. From what I've heard eNom is pulling a little extortion on their end ($160 charges?) so I don't *really* know who to turn to.

Of course support tickets don't seem to be being updated so I'm kind of just sitting here waiting for someone/something to shed a little light (while my domain is parked on one of eNom's ad servers, which was really considerate...). /:

Edit:

"If we've learned one thing at RegisterFly, it's that the actions of a few can affect a great many people."

What would be *really* nice is if he or some reasonably high-level employee learned how to create an account and maybe give a little more information or, I don't know, respond to some of their customers here at least.

There is nothing worse then being in a situation like this and information starved.
niclas - No help from eNom neither Registered | 2007-03-08 13:14:07
Nice writing, and finally on the frontpage. Now fix those authcodes, can't be so difficult for the new experts you hired.

I have a domain with eNom under RF but, eNom is not willing to help since RF has forced its whois on the domain and I'm unable to update it. Screenshots and other documentation is not enough and the eNom person that was praised in these comments earlier isn't even responding.

So this is not only goodbye to RF, it's also goodbye to eNom as soon as I have collected enough money to move my 100 domains I have with eNom.
a101 Registered | 2007-03-08 13:33:16
Just called risk management (#4) and recording said "you are caller number 2 with estimated wait time of 2 minutes" ...

It repeated this once per minute until the third minute and then the call wait time INCREASED by one minute for every minute I was one hold ...

Getting frustrated I was about to hang up and on minute 12 it changed to "your call is now first in-line and will be answered by the next available representative" ...

Figured what the hell ... I'll wait.

Minute 23 - still waiting ...

Minute 31 - recording said "the person at extension 782 is unavailable, please leave a message after the tone"

WHAT A SHIT!!!

Ridiculous!

GREAT JOB JOHN!!!

.
zelph Registered | 2007-03-08 13:21:11
Called their billing department.

I got "you are 5th in line, wait time is 20 mins". Went to 4, 3, 2, 1 all within about 10 mins. Then hold for another 20 minutes.

"Sorry we are not able to take your call, please leave a message and we will call you back"

prepare to leave message

"mailbox full"... click

Yup... they are really up and running well!!

But at least they are improving some... last time I waited over an hour for this same scenerio.
danob Registered | 2007-03-08 13:17:10
REGISTERFLY: Please call back in some time and our systems will be up and I will be able to help you with your issue.

ME: What exactly is "some time" because you have been telling me that for 2 weeks.

REGISTERFLY: Please call back tomorrow.

ME: You tell me that every time as well, you don't even know anything do you??

CLICK HUNG UP ON ME
WildSnake Registered | 2007-03-08 13:20:00
Yeah. F..kers finally placed the notice on their home page. Not too much help for me but at least could warn amount of another good peoples around...
a101 - re: No help from eNom neither Registered | 2007-03-08 13:21:42
niclas wrote:
Nice writing, and finally on the frontpage.

What's on the frontpage???

Just checked and registerfly.com is unchanged and the same as always ...

.
PC Medic Registered | 2007-03-08 16:56:49
There is a LARGE boldred linklink on the front page just below the horizontal menu stating 'Important notice to all RegisterFly customers'. If you click this you will see the 'Official' statement.
longben - Important notice... Registered | 2007-03-09 01:17:13
Nothing to see here!!!
zgarner Registered | 2007-03-08 13:28:28
It's hard to know what to take seriously and what not to. I *want* to believe RF is trying and will succeed in fixing these issues.

Wait time for me has been a pat 30 minutes and generally takes me about 5 or less to get through.

Today I asked specifically about the eNom issue with expired domains (just now in fact). The support tech told me that RF had a 'plan' worked out with eNom to fix the issue, but he was fairly hard to understand and I'm not sure he knew much about the plan (or if there really was one).

He originally went into the call back tomorrow our systems are inaccessible but I told him I'd read the CEO's update regarding there systems which at least kept him on the phone long enough to tell me of this...mystery plan?

Anyway, net result of the call was still: check back tomorrow.
a101 Registered | 2007-03-08 13:32:37
Just called back to "customer service" (#2) ... Wait about 3 minutes ... Same old wait til tomorrow SHIT!

USELESS!!!

.
JeffK Registered | 2007-03-08 13:55:18
I've said it before on this forum. It's all to late for me. Perhaps rf can compensate me $1250 so that I can buy back the domain they failed to renew for me when I paid them to do so over 12 months ago. Now that Glenn is really in charge perhaps he can apologize for the runaround I got from him and his staff on that occassion.

As much as I hate to say it as it will further impact innocent customers, there is only one place for registerfly to go as a company, and that is straight to fraud court!!!
fjensen - FCK YOU Registered | 2007-03-08 13:59:15
This is all I have to say to you. You don't care about the customers all you care about is control of the company called registerfly and for what reason. You might get control but who whats to get control over titanic. Congrats you big fool.
sjwitz - re: re: No help from eNom neit Registered | 2007-03-08 14:04:10
a101 wrote:
niclas wrote:
Nice writing, and finally on the frontpage.

What's on the frontpage???

Just checked and registerfly.com is unchanged and the same as always ...


You kinda have to look for it...Look for "Important Notice," located directly above "The Single Source for all of your Internet Presence Needs"...if you still don't see it, you may have to refresh the browser.

When you click on it, the statement is a verbatim of what was initially posted here. --SJR
fjensen - NO THANKS Registered | 2007-03-08 14:06:27
we hope that you will join us in our future growth in becoming a better and stronger company.

NO THANKS AND NO THANKS - There is a saying "Only a fool makes the same mistake twice"

I have learned my lesson in this life. FCK YOU - I wish you to hell.
Nexious Registered | 2007-03-08 14:08:12
Nice, another long and rambling letter that means nothing to me. It's been like three weeks now since I filled out the support form, and the only support I've received so far was on 02/21 to let me know that they received my inquiry.
a101 - re: re: re: No help from eNom Registered | 2007-03-08 14:12:41
sjwitz wrote:
a101 wrote:
niclas wrote:
Nice writing, and finally on the frontpage.
What's on the frontpage???

Just checked and registerfly.com is unchanged and the same as always ...
You kinda have to look for it...Look for "Important Notice," located directly above "The Single Source for all of your Internet Presence Needs"...if you still don't see it, you may have to refresh the browser.

When you click on it, the statement is a verbatim of what was initially posted here. --SJR
O yeah ... OKAY!

Now I see it!

It's so PROMIDENT you can't MISS IT!!! (NOT)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
.
fjensen - Moron Registered | 2007-03-08 14:19:05
You are a fcking moron - talk talk talk talk and no action. Everybody is leaving when ICANN take over the business. You might think ICANN only read you "nice" fraud letter. Think again - don't you think the also read all the comments??? Otherwise your are the biggest fool worldwide.
dljones - Tech NO support Registered | 2007-03-08 14:24:37
I have had the same experience. I have called 3 different times this week and had the same answer, twice from the same support tech - Lillian.


They keep saying only 24 hours and we will have control over the machines so we can issue a new auth code.

Mine all say RRP for auth code which is obviously invalid.

I only have one left that I can't get out and am just getting really tired of all this garbage.
sam_okba - Email to John at Registerfly Registered | 2007-03-08 14:34:21
Copy of email sent to John at registerfly. Just waiting to see what his response is.

"[i]Dear John

No matter what excuses you have ready to give out to the thousands of customers who want nothing more to do with you, I officially request you to give me the authorisation codes for all my domains with you as it is impossible to access them myself.

You give out big speeches in registerflies.com, but there is no evidence of any of the huge promises that you made.

I would like to inform you that all partners of registerfly are equally legally responsible for any loss or damage that has been caused by the ridiculous and illegal actions that have been taken by whoever was running the company for the last year at least.

The FBI should arrest all partners and hold them responsible for international internet registry crime as there are many people from outside the US who used you and have been burned. An official body should be appointed to resolve the problems by renewing all domain names including the expired ones and the ones in redemption, plus compensating us for loss and damages.

Legal action should be taken against all partners and ICANN. New rules should be introduced where customers have full control of all their domain names so nothing like this can ever happen in the future.

I suggest that these new rules should be introduced and new rules whereby customers can have the control of the domain in a registry body that belongs to ICANN, so all registrars can only be used for registering names and serving them.

I want you to immediately send me the authorisation codes for all my domains with you without any delay or excuses. It is not my business and I do not care whether you have control of the website or not. My concern is my business and my domains for which I have worked years.

I will be sending a copy of this to ICANN and I demand immediate action including compensation as well as the introduction of a registry body where all domains are registered and customers can have access with a special code or pin number to detag them from one registrar to another as required. The registrars will be kept only for services, so they can charge less at the same time. $2 a name per year for servicing without full control is more than enough.[/i]"
zgarner Registered | 2007-03-08 14:36:34
Sam,
When you phrase an email like that I don't think legally (at least not prudently) he *can* respond. You are treating legal action (which is fine) but that means *if* he was even interested in responding he'd have to go through legal and let them handle it.

Happy or not, they are still a business.

If you want to try to get a response questions rather then threats are your best hope (and from what I've seen about as unlikely to get a response, which is too bad).

Anyway, I feel your frustration. I'm having to do damage control along with everyone else. Just figured I'd point out that because of the nature of the email, while understandable, it would be grossly negligent of Mr. Naruszewicz to respond.

That's business. (:
sam_okba - John, you are not a victim!! Registered | 2007-03-08 14:50:55
Having read your comments, I felt disgusted by the fact that you see yourself as a victim.

Where were you when Kevin was supposedly the "Dictator" running the firm.

Are you telling me that you knew nothing? Are we supposed to cheer because you battled together and you've won control again?

Is this some cinema epic that's being played before us? When all we want is to get to the finale.

I don't care whether you have hold of the domains or not. All I know is that I have no more control now than I did when Kevin ruled the roost.

All the partners should be picked up by the FBI and an independent administrator should sort this mess out.

Compensation and damages should be paid out to all those customers of yours who have suffered, lost sleep and agonized every day since this Bollywood movie of yours started.

Your company has cared little about customers for years. It was a matter of us surviving, paying blackmail money to get control of our accounts from your risk department. Not being able to transfer domains out of registerfly for the last couple of years.

Your local attorney general should take action now and arrest both of you and it is up to you to prove to him your innocence or lack of.

The best action you can take if you truly mean all the words that you spouted is to release all the domains and leave it to the judgment of your customers whether they want to stay with you or not.

Keeping them "hostage" makes you no better than Kevin.
SyncMaster Registered | 2007-03-08 14:56:17
Sorry but in my opinion...

This

Posted image

In the future if you are going to be calling up RF on the telephone. I strongly recommend you print out and wear one of these.

Posted image

As I am lead to believe that this device will filter out any bullshit you are surely to come across. Plus it comes with a money back guarantee.

Just try it for yourself and be amazed at how well it works.
flytrap - Need Help? TRY HERE: Registered | 2007-03-08 15:17:48
http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/

Features

- Provides a central point for Internet crime victims to report and to alert an appropriate agency on-line at www.ic3.gov

- Collects, reviews, and refers Internet crime complaints to law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction to aid in preventive and investigative efforts

- Identifies current crime trends over the Internet,

Benefits

- Provides an analytical repository for Internet crime complaints

- Analyzes and refers all fraudulent activity identified on the Internet to the appropriate local, state, or federal law enforcement authority

- Aids in the development of law enforcement training to address identified Internet crime problems

- Serves as the catalyst that allows law enforcement and regulatory agencies to network and share data

- Potentially reduces the amount of economic loss by Internet crime throughout the United States

(From http://www.ic3.gov/media/IC3-flyer.pdf)

My two cents:

IC3 intervention will attract the media and even force ICANN to give satisfactory solutions.
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