Ok, big warning – do you really own your domain name?
This week i’ve had 3 new customer enquiries from people who have had a website developed for THEIR business by a company in Swansea that is meant to help businesses start up.
Situation is they are being charged for updates and there is no customer service – so they have asked me to quote on a new website for them – one of the problems is the legal owner is the web company not the actual business.
If you’ve built a brand up and people know your website, your not going to want to loose the name, what can you do – not much – i’ve had a chat with John Cherry from eCrime Wales, top guy by the way, the answer was, their buggered (in short). Go to them and play hell – shout and scream because they being naughty and they shouldn’t have done that – your domain name is important to your company.
Check it yourself, go to http://whois.domaintools.com/yourdomain.co.uk where yourdomain.co.uk is your website like http://whois.domaintools.com/bbc.co.uk
What you’ll see is something like:
Domain name:
bbc.co.uk
Registrant:
British Broadcasting Corporation
Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 000057)
Registrant’s address:
Research & Development
Kingswood Warren
Tadworth
Surrey
KT20 6NP
United Kingdom
The domain owner could be an individual, a sole trader or a limited company. The registrar doesn’t matter so much, nor does the admin contacts etc, it the REGISTRANT details, they should say YOUR name or YOUR companies name – no one elses.
If i can help – please do ask – advice is always free!
Ben Wheeler
Beach Software,
Web Design in Swansea, South Wales