We are keeping a close eye on the developments of the ongoing “Pool.com scandal“; the sudden announcement by Pool.com that they are shutting down an unspecified number of proxy registrars, effective January 10th.
Pool.com is thus forcing ICANN to allocate a registrar via a bidding process, for all domains that cannot be transferred out on time.
A lot of domains caught by those registrars operated by Pool.com are still in the 60-day window, during which they cannot be transferred out. These domains will be in limbo, unmanageable – until ICANN completes the adoption process.
This could take months!
The shocking fact: Pool.com operates 85 ICANN-accredited registrars, all based in Canada!
While they aren’t specifying how many they are shutting down, we are probably looking into thousands of domain names under management; some are for .CA domains as well.
Was that truly a corporate decision, made by the Pool.com CEO, Richard Schreier, or is there more to this story that’s not being publicly shared? At which point will the communications between ICANN and Pool.com be made available to the public?
Here is a list of all the registrars that Pool.com operates.
2003300 Ontario Inc. dba GetDomainsIWant.ca Internet Services Corp.
3349608 Canada Inc. dba GetYourDotInfo.com Inc.
3597245 Canada Inc. dba Nic-Name Internet Service Corp.
3684458 Canada Inc. dba Quark.ca Internet Services Corporation
6230644 Canada Inc. dba Megabyte.ca Internet Services
Abdomainations.ca Inc.
AdoptADomain.net Inc.
AvailableDomains.ca Inc.
Backup.ca Corporation
BeMyDomain.net, Inc.
BigNamesDomain.com Inc
ClassDomainNames.com Inc.
Condomainium.com Inc.
Coolhosting.ca Inc.
DomainAuthority.ca Inc.
DomainBuzz.ca Inc.
DomainCentral.ca Inc.
Domainestic.com Inc.
Domainfighter.ca Inc.
Domaingrabber.ca Inc.
DomainHeadz.ca Inc.
Domainiac.ca Inc.
DomainIdeas.ca Inc.
Domainlink.ca Inc.
DomainLuminary.ca Inc.
DomainMall.ca Inc.
DomainMarketPlace.ca Inc.
Domainos.ca Inc.
DomainParadise.ca Inc.
DomainPlaza.ca Inc.
Domainreign.ca Inc.
Domains2be.com Inc.
Domains2Go.ca Inc.
Domains4u.ca Inc.
Domainscape.ca Inc.
Domainscostless.com Inc.
DomainsFirst.ca Inc.
DomainStreet.ca Inc.
DomainVentures.ca Internet Services Corporation
Dontaskwhy.ca Inc.
EntertheDomain.com, Inc.
ExtremeDomains.ca Inc.
FabDomains.ca Inc.
GoNames.ca Inc.
GotNames.ca Inc.
Grabton.ca Inc.
Hipsearch.com Inc.
Hostmaster.ca Inc.
InvisibleDomains.com Inc.
Jaz Domain Names Ltd.
LuckyDomains.ca Inc.
Maindomain.ca Inc.
Matchnames.ca Inc.
MyNameOnline.ca Inc.
NameTorrent.ca Inc.
Notablenames.ca Inc.
PopularDomains.ca Inc.
PriceDomain.ca Internet Services Corporation
PrimeDomain.ca Inc.
PrimeRegistrar.ca Inc.
Redomainder Internet Services Corporation
RegisterMyDomains.ca Inc.
Registerone.ca Inc.
Regnow.ca Inc.
Romel Corporation
ScoopDomain.ca Inc.
SearchName.ca Inc.
Securadomain.ca Inc.
SecureDomain.ca Internet Services Corporation
Submit.ca Inc.
Super Registry Inc.
Tarton Domain Names Ltd
The Black Cow Corp.
TheDomainNameStore.ca Inc.
TheDomainShop.ca Inc.
TheGreatDomain.ca Inc.
UsefulDomains.net Inc.
WeRegisterIt.ca Inc.
WhatsYourName.ca Inc.
Whoistoolbar Corp.
Wisdomain.ca Inc.
WorldNames.ca Inc.
YourDomainCo.com Inc.
Zidodomain.ca Inc.
ZippyDomains.ca Inc.
This post is 100% true!
So you are in a Pool of s*hit
LMAO
BullS – The situation is very reminiscent of a cesspool. Don’t you think? It stinks. Those that have domains in those registrars that can’t be moved out, are at the mercy of ICANN’s bureaucracy. Pool should be stripped of any and all accreditation for pulling this off.
Most of their domains are .ca domains, I have one domain that is on a 60 day lock, reputation is everything in this business, and pool is a write off with me now…
DG….one word-
SUE
Ron – It appears to me that the waves haven’t crashed the pool waters yet. With 85 ICANN accredited registrars, surely there are thousands of domains under management. Would a CEO truly believe there would be no backlash from such a decision? Is Pool really in denial, or have they forgotten the SnapNames scandal and its huge effect on their competitor?
Okay but if you renew the name at namescout quickly, or transfer out of namescout all will be well? I went to renew about 10 names at namescout and only three renewed successfully.
Alan – You can renew, if you want. And yes, you are highly advised to transfer now, before January 10th, per the Pool.com letter. However, if those domains were registered (dropped and caught) less than 60 days ago, they cannot be transferred out per ICANN rules. To those domain owners, Pool is turning their back.
@ Domain Gang
I thought that if you renew them before the deadline at namescout, that has the effect of meaning the name was safe, even if it was less than 60 days old? Are you saying these names are lost?
Alan – The domains are safe, but will be without a registrar, hence unmanageable. Also, why pay $9.75 at NameScout? That’s thousands of dollars across a large number of domains.
I just thought I would pipe in with some facts. First, there was never any danger that anyone would either lose their domain or lose the ability to manage a domain. The bulk transfer process simply placed the domains of the terminated registrars into a single company, in this case NamesBeyond. As a result, what previously might have been a portfolio spread across multiple registrars is now held by one single registrar. Second, all the characteristics of the domain registration including expiry, dns, whois etc are preserved through this process. And finally, thankfully, NamesBeyond (the registrar selected by ICANN) has been veryu responsive form what I have seen. If anyone that had domains in a Pool terminated registrar is having ANY difficulty getting access to their names, please contact me directly.
richard@pool.com