Pool.com is pulling off some Internet plugs.
An email was just sent out to Pool.com customers; apparently, Pool is closing down certain affiliate registrars it has used in the past to secure domains that dropped.
Domains held at those particular registrars are affected and your attention is needed!
The impending launch of new gTLDs has led Pool.com to refocus its business away from an emphasis on the secondary market and to a broader range of on-going services. As a result, we will be shutting down a number of our registrar threads effective January 10, 2013. This will have an effect on some of your domains acquired through Pool.com (a list of names is included below).
The names that Pool.com caught for you in the Drop using the registrars we are shutting down are managed through your account at Namescout.com. Pool.com had asked ICANN that we be allowed to transfer these domains to Namescout.com at no cost to you in order to preserve the ability for your management of those names through the single Namescout.com interface.
ICANN has so far denied our request. As a result, you have the following two options with regards to your domains provided they are older than 60 days:
1. Login to your Namescout.com account and submit a “Renew Now” order for each of the names listed below. Namescout.com is offering 1 year renewals at a significant discount which will be applied automatically upon checkout. (com, org, info are $9.50, net $7.85 and mobi $15.00) This renewal will also transfer your domain to Namescout.com as the Registrar of record such that you will be able to continue to manage them through the current interface without any changes.
2. Submit a routine transfer through your preferred registrar.
If you choose neither of these options in the next few days, ICANN will take steps to allocate the domains in inventory to another registrar through a public bid process. We cannot predict which registrar they will choose; if all your names will end up in a single registrar; or, whether there will be an interruption in your ability to manage your names while ICANN conducts this process.
Pool.com and Namescout.com are committed to working with you to ensure smooth, orderly and uninterrupted operation of your domains. Contact service@pool.com if you have additional questions.
Yours truly,
Richard Schreier
CEO, Pool.com
This post is 100% true!
If domains are not older than 60 days, what will happen? How can we transfers them? They are not saying anything about that.
Ben – Good point, I emailed them and they have yet to respond. Have two domains registered less than 30 days ago with one of the registrars to be deleted.
To clarify what happens to any domains that are less than 60 days old at the time of the closure, these names will be transferred to NamesBeyond (the gaining registrar selected by ICANN). Namesbeyond will reach out to all registrants and provide new account credentials on their platform which will allow you to manage your names right away.
Subsequent transfers shoudl happen nromally however I am led to believe that NamesBeyond may apply an additional 60 day lock on transfers at their discretion per ICANN policy. My experience however is that NamesBeyond has been very responsive to any requests. If anyone is having issues they can contact me and I will do what I can.
Richard Schreier CEO Pool.com (richard@pool.com)