Who else do you have good experience with? this is too much of a risk going on

That is just the tip of the iceberg. Their DNS has been flickering and failing for months.

This is causing all kinds of issues with email and your website caches. That is really the bigger problem. I would not be surprised if they lost 50% or more of their business once this is all said and done. It must be they made it as difficult as possible to move your shit so that they do not have a 90% mass exodus.

:2 cents:

moved a few the other day though they aren't showing in my namesilo account yet (transfers are apparently confirmed etc, just that it takes ~5 days to go through), have a couple from that first batch that it [moniker] won't let me unlock, no reply from support as yet for my request for them to unlock those.

Once those are done/completed I'll start on the next batch.

the best way to unlock domains at moniker is to check the box beside the domain and then select unlock from the drop down box near the top right of the page. this is the only thing that worked for me with certain domains as they often show the wrong locking status.

A Message from Moniker's CEO Bonnie Wittenburg
 

To all Moniker Customers,

My name is Bonnie Wittenburg, Moniker?s recently appointed CEO as of February 2014. This letter comes to you with transparency and the best intentions in mind as a result of recent events that have taken place at Moniker. As you know, Moniker recently transitioned to a completely new website design which features an all new user interface for both our website and customer dashboards. Our goal was and remains to increase the products and services we offer while at the same time maintaining the tools you have come to expect from us ? enabling you to effectively manage your Web properties in a single place as simply as possible.

Since becoming CEO of Moniker, through my own observation and carefully considering the opinions of our users, it was apparent we needed to change in a big way. With the launch of this new website, we would be able to improve how you interact with our services and provide a better platform to bring further innovations to market.

I am still confident a system upgrade and platform enhancement was the right decision, but some things went wrong with the migration of our data and customer information from our old database to our new systems. Although our systems were carefully tested to avoid any major issues, an unforeseen technical problem involving a script responsible for running the data transfer did not run optimally. The manifestation of this to our customers appeared in the form of missing domains, unintended auto-renewals, and erroneous charges to payment methods on file, among others.

I sincerely apologize on behalf of all Moniker employees that this took place. I want to reassure you that no security vulnerabilities resulted from the issues we experienced during the data migration; this includes no lost domain names, no unauthorized transfers of ownership, and no functionality lost as part of our Domain MaxLock and Portfolio MaxLock products. These issues have, however, resulted in a backlog of customer support inquiries and greatly increased call volume to our support staff. Our representatives are working their hardest to resolve each and every case while providing each customer with the attention they deserve. Many technical issues have been resolved, including restoring the missing domains from client accounts and reverting charges incurred as a result of invalid domain renewals.

We are not done correcting all of the issues, our technical staff is working around the clock to fix and improve remaining problems to allow Moniker to operate at full capacity. We are listening to you regarding what features are working and what needs improvement. We value your business, your patience, and understanding that we will make this right. You expected better from us and we failed to deliver. We are working to restore your faith in the operations of Moniker. I realize apologizing may simply not be enough and promise that we will work tirelessly to show you that we care.


Thank you,

Bonnie Wittenburg

thanks mate, just tried that, but didn't work for me ><

where are you checking the lock status? you need to check the whois somewhere rather than moniker's control panel. for me they wouldn't change to 'ok' status but 'clientdeleteprohbited'. you can still transfer them in this state.

Worst Domain Registrar....

They have been horrible for years.

Move your domains to a real registrar.

Your business relies on your domains.

I get

Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited

on whois. I'll see if that still goes through then I guess (namesilo apparently check every 15 minutes to see if it becomes transferable for 5 days) :)

Thanks, I didn't know that :thumbsup

I guess I'm going to find out soon, need to ask around for recommendations.

Well here is my general recommendation -
Namecheap.com if you dont mind the price (tho some extensions are even cheaper then on cheapest ones)
Name.com for best buy experience (my personal pick)
Internetbs.net and namesilo.com if you want cheapest

There is also other registrars which serve the purpose like faboulous , dynadot ,directi ,but these 4 above should do the trick.

unfortunately it won't work as long as clienttransferprohibited is there.

I'd forgotten that Moniker seem to temporarily extend the reg of "forgotten" domains even if you don't pay for them. I guess they renew the dom on the client's behalf, then after a couple of weeks cancel reg and get a refund?

Anyway, this means that I cannot currently tell any difference between-

a) a domain which hasn't been paid for and which will drop at some point in the near future, courtesy renewed by Moniker.

or

b) a domain which has been paid for and I want to keep.

:helpme

ok, that procedure didn't work then (also just got an email from namesilo that the 3 days (sorry, I thought it was 5) is up), they won't be trying any more until I know it's unlocked.

what a load of cunts they are... they fucked up 2 .xxx renewals for me before all this shit as well, charging me for one of them, which they then put back in my account for future use. Guess I'll deal with getting an actuyal refund whenever it is I get all my domains away from there :Oh crap

VeriSign WHOIS is the best place to check .com/.net.

It's not just Moniker. VeriSign automatically renews domains for 1 year at expiration and registrars submit delete requests during the renewal grace period.

After you renew your domain, check the "Updated Date" at VeriSign WHOIS. Note that "Updated Date" includes all changes including renewal, unlock, DNS changes, etc.

It may be tricky to tell if Moniker renewed your domains if you have them set to auto-renew.

Wow, I thought it was just me. Everything has changed including the emails from them. I'm actually worried about loosing domains now.

Thanks! I did some reserching and made my pick already, hope the transfer won't be as painful as I expect it to be.

Checked 3 domains, selected "Renew Immediately", clicked Submit, clicked Submit.

That should renew 3 domains. Pretty simple, right? Wrong. I've since received 4 emails:

- the first and second email inform me that registration for two of the domains has been extended for a year
- the third email informs me that registration (not just the renewal job!) for those same two domains has been cancelled
- the fourth email informs me that the third domain has been extended for a year

I had a similar thing happen a few weeks ago, but it was hard to figure out what was happening because I was trying multiple things with the new interface. This time I just did the one thing only.

How hard can it be for Moniker to renew 3 domains immediately? And why is this still not working a month later?

I'm trying to remember how I paid last time. I have an expired credit card on file - have deliberately NOT updated it so that their fuckups don't have to be reversed - but my cart is empty, and although there's an invoice showing for the third domain there doesn't seem to be any way to immediately pay it.

edit: Looks like Moniker may no longer offer an immediate CC payment with the option to NOT save details - instead card has to stay on file for them to bill at a later date? Going to try loading my account via Paypal with the amount for renewal the 3 domains, and see what happens.

If you select Paypal you can choose which invoices you want to pay immediately. Looks like it's finally done.

And looking at my recent emails it's apparent Moniker acts like a needy little bitch. All this just to bulk renew 3 domains.

http://thsrv.com/p/moniker20140704.png

I can't work out how to renew on Moniker either - LOL it's the most important biz function, obviously they have monkeys working in their IA/UX team.

Why deal with the incompetence? Transfer out, problem solved.

Moniker's inability to get basic problems resolved in over a month is a huge red flag. Why are you being so loyal when they obviously don't give a rat's ass about their customers?

I'm not trying to be loyal. Basically just dragging my heels because I don't want to have to go through the hassle of finding a new registrar... but I know it's absolutely necessary. I've pretty much lost all faith in this company. I don't think they'll survive anyway.

Why can't people make it easy! don't understand.

I like the way Moniker emails you to remind you to keep your WHOIS details correct for domain X... right on the very day it expires because I haven't renewed it. :1orglaugh

And you haven't renewed it because 1) they don't send out renewal notices anymore (probably in violation of ICANN rules) and 2) they make it difficult even if you want to renew. It seems apparent that Moniker is trying to sell off and profit from the valuable domains that domainers have entrusted to them.

They're certainly still sending out reminders. In fact it's like they never shut up. Here's all of the emails (that I could easily find) which refer to the domain I wanted to drop.

Subject: Invoice 20140015011 [xxxxxxx]
Subject: Payment Problems [xxxxxxx]
Subject: ICANN ERRP for the domain xxxx
Subject: ICANN WDRP for the domain xxxx
Subject: ICANN ERRP for the domain xxxx

Don't tell me I had some money in my account, it's almost empty and I can't check the last transactions, since there's obviously no transaction history, so I hope they haven't charged any non-sense charges to it, will need to check the overview of my orders that I got emailed from the old setup yet and compare.

What a pain, in the meantime I'm transferring out.

The only emails I've received from Moniker are

Subject: ICANN WDRP for the domain **********
Moniker.com | Your AuthCode Request [********]

Are Moniker's ERRP notices for domains that will expire or have already expired?

Both.

First ERRP email: "This message is a reminder regarding the upcoming expiration date of your domain name .... According to our records, the domain name is currently registered until ..."

Second EERP email: "This message is a reminder regarding the registration of your domain name ... According to our records, the domain name registration has passed its expiration date ..."

Anybody actually figured out how to get the transfer-out codes? all I can find is the push to another Moniker account.

EDIT: found it, hope it works out

Weird, I haven't received either.

In my account, Moniker's control panel shows domains under the Transferlock column as unlocked. This is misleading as it refers to Moniker's premium service that was previously called MaxLock. If you check WHOIS, your domains are probably clientTransferProhibited. Select the domains you want to transfer and choose "unlock" from the "Domain Lock" options in the drop down box at the top or your transfer out request will fail. After you finish, verify through WHOIS that your domains say "Status: pendingTransfer".

For anyone else trying to figure out how to get the EPP codes, click on the domain name and then on the details page, click "Advanced Settings" and "Request authcode via email".

Latest fuckup from Moniker:

http://thsrv.com/p/moniker20140812-a.png

1. Invoice "0" ?
2. I'm supposed to be renewing 7 domains, but that amount seems too low. Can't confirm since I cannot see invoice "0" in my list of invoices.

Let's submit and see what happens:

http://thsrv.com/p/moniker20140812-b.png

1. Whoah! The total changed just by submitting!
2. At least the amount now seems correct. :1orglaugh

Update: paid for 7 domains ($9.59 each), received emails confirming renewal for 6.

No idea what's happened to the 7th.

Fucking disaster. No emails about expiring domain, I am 1 day late actually. Why I don't see Pay Pal option? I still don't understand how to renew domain...

I couldn't figure it out until I realized they nuked my stored CC info and I put it back in. This new system is shit and I can't wait to move my domains, I can hardly figure anything out. The old system worked just fine.

Brad

Got email that they my cc on file.

Still have a lot of domains at moniker dating from back when they were the go-to place for domainers. Anyone can recommend a solid registrar? Namesilo?