I got a letter from Domain Registry of America today (droa.com) by snail mail.  Problem is they are not my register, as I own mine.  After all when you own as many domains as I do you want to try and get them as cheap as possible and $30 per domain per year is breaking the bank.   Last year my brother decided to do one of these renewals because he had forgotten what site his domain was registered with (which was the same as where I have my domains registered).   Last I checked he was still trying to transfer his domain away from this company.  I can some what understand customers forgetting who they got their domain through, but you would think family would be walking advertisements for a website with only 10 letters in it.  Especially when you give them free hosting.

Unfortuanly my scanner is not working so I could not get the best possible quality copies of the notice that Domains Registry of America sent me.  This will give you a rough idea of how small of print Registry of America used on their fine print on the back of the notice.

Here is what they sent me:

As a courtesy to the domain name holders, we are sending you this notfication of the domain name registers that are due to expire in the next few months.  When you switch to Domain Registry of America, you can take advantage of the best savings.  You will expire on January 5, 2011. Act today!

You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the web, and now is the time to transfer and renew your names from your current Register to the Domain Registry of America.  Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficultfor your customers and friends to locate you on the web.

Privatization of Domain Registrations and Renewals now allows the customer the choice of Registars when intially registering and also when renewing a domain name.  Domain name holders are not obligated to renew their domain with their current Register or with the the Domain Registry of America.  Review our prices and decided for your self.  You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated below, unless you accept this offer. This Notice is not a bill. it is rather an easy means of payment should you decided to switch your domain registration to Domain Registry of America.

Here is the problems with this “notice from Domain Registry of America:

1. Their offer is not going to be cheaper then most domain registers.
2. There is nothing convenient about a mail in payment form.
3. They are not clear about” not” being “your” register.
4. There is no valid arguement to “You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the web, and now is the time to transfer and renew your names from your current Register to the Domain Registry of America.”. Why should you renew your domain with a register that costs 2 – 3 times of other providers.
5. They use fear “Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficultfor your customers and friends to locate you on the web.”. I hope your friends can find you without a website, if you need a website for your friends to find you get a facebook.com account.

This notice is paper spam.

How did Domain Registry of America find me?

Most of the time I purchase Private Registration with all my domains, as I don’t really want people getting a hold of my contact details.    But I missed two domains and they found my contact in formation by trolling for whois info.  Next thing I know I get one of their postal mails that pretend to be my domain register.  The funny thing is with their over cost domain renewal they give you free private registration to prevent competitors from doing the same thing to them.

Is Domain Registry of America your domain registration company?

Chances are they are not your register, if you are I would suggest migrating.    Most companies charge less then $15.   Frankly I find that you can go below $10 on .com’s and get fairly good service.  But to be honest there is not a whole lot of service to ask for when it comes to a domain.  Private Registration is usually extra but still far below $30 for the domain and private registration.

How do you see if your domain is registered with Domain Registry of America?

Its pretty simple, often when my customer forgot who they registered their domain with I would go to http://centralops.net/co/DomainDossier.aspx enter the domain name and select “domain whois record”.  From there you can find your register.

As you can see I have private registration because their is no contact details and you can see this domain is registered with with GoDaddy(actually the only one that is).

How can you prevent companies that suck like Domain Registry of America from trying to take advantage of you?

Simple, get Private Registration on your domains.  Contact your domain register about getting this service some times free some times a couple bucks per year.   If your domain register does not offer Private Registration its time to move to a new register.

I can not stress it enough avoid Domain Registry of America

Its my opinion that Domain Registry of America is a scam,  it may be legal what they are doing because they have it listed some where in the really small fine print on the back of the billing notice they sent me.  But just because its legal does not make it ethical.   I suggest avoiding Domain Registry of America like the plague.