An epic thread over at NamePros about an expired domain at Epik has all the ingredients of a soap opera: backorders kicking in at 15 days past expiry, accusations of clickbait and thuggery, and a domain auctioned off with half of the proceeds to go towards orphans in Pakistan.
This incredible exchange is now 4 pages long and involves the title “This Is How I lost my Domain Name at Epik.com.”
In a nutshell: A domain registrant assumed that they had approximately 35 days to renew a .CO domain past expiration. Apparently, just two weeks into expiration that domain disappeared from the registrant’s account; once they inquired about the loss, Epik responded thus:
The domain expired on December 11, 2021 and the grace renewal period is 15 days which means that the last day that you have to renew your domain was on December 26, 2021. Since renewal did not take place, and someone had a backorder on your domain, the backorder was fulfilled.
It’s indeed news to us and possibly many registrants at Epik, but apparently the expiry clock stops at 15 days if a domain is backordered. Anyone can step in and claim via backorder a domain that is expired and it’s theirs past that 15 day window.
Typically, that happens at 30+ days at a registrar such as GoDaddy.
Epik CEO, Rob Monster, chipped in his two cents, adding a few more for good measure:
Our policies are published and reasonable. We do have the ability to provide extended grace periods for most TLDs — as much as 35 days. Usually the people who need that much grace period have larger issues which is why this is handled on a consultative basis.
And:
Unfortunately, in light of the inflammatory tone of this NamePros thread, restoring the domain is not going to be an option as we don’t bow down to thuggery. That said, we do routinely provide a hand up, and even a hand out, to people in distress and who engage with humility rather than entitlement.
Rob Monster’s comment references a prior title for the thread that alleged the domain was “stolen by Epik.”
Dejected, Mr. Monster included references to “larger issues” and “thuggery” along with a shocking resolution of the issue: Auction off the domain without the registrant’s consent and split the proceeds between the registrant and an orphanage in Pakistan.
Like a modern King Solomon, Mr. Monster declared his decision to “knife” the domain in half, including a mini promotion of his incubator project at Orphans.com.
Revealing the domain at issue, Cashout.co, wasn’t the less classy part of the story. It wasn’t even the shoving down of a Biblical quote, Romans 8:28, about how things supposedly work out well for those who love god.
The juice is that the domain wasn’t backordered by anyone; essentially an instance of warehousing an expired domain “that was marked to not drop.”
Domain investor Brad Mugford noted:
So in summary it turns out the domain was never actually backordered. It was just warehoused by Epik, in contrary to what their support and Rob said. That is clearly misleading at best, and a direct lie at worst.
Rob has the ability to give the domain back to the OP, but decided not to because he offended him. What happened to godly qualities like forgiving, and being kind?
Instead, he decides to pretend to claw the domain back, when it reality it was just warehoused then essentially offer to sell it back to the OP while also virtue signaling about donating to charity.
Read the full four page exchange at NamePros.
