I had problems with gettin my domain renewed as a friend who was running it for me didnt renew it when i asked him to and told me he had so anyway yesterday it went back up for sale and i was going to buy it back but someone else got there before me, ive done a little research and the person/company seems to be buying loads of domains no idea for what purpose. Has anyone been in this situation before? Would this type of person normally sell it back for a dearer price or what? (bearing in mind there's only me who operates under the name of this domain)

Natz

Usually this is done to cash in and sell it to you at a profit, so I'd advise contacting them to work out what their intended price is.

If they've brought it properly and above board then you may have no option other than to pay it or change your company name.

loob will have an angle on this but "cyber squatting" as medusa alludes to isn't always an intention.

If your site has decent traffic, "domain tasting" means that the person who has bought it will try to piggy back the traffic to their own site.

Also, are you sure it has dropped ? - domains go into a redemption period where they stop working but only the owner can renew it (42 days I think). Hosting companies will make a few quid by putting a sponsored page in this period

PM me the url - I may be able to advise further as I use a couple of domain tools quite often.

pm-d you :) thanks

i have the .com domain my new web designer bought it not long back so all is not lost i can still keep the name it's just that i have alot of online advertising i'd have to change (already started doing most) and need to change my business cards, printed hoodie ect now so it's just a bit of a pain if theres no way i can buy it back at a reasonable price

I have replied. He hasn't changed the nameservers over so he will probably be contacting you in the not too distant... If your "brand" is out there - keep an eye on where he diverts it to

Moral of the story - don't let domains drop...

your site doesnt appear to have been updated for months! in my experience advertising money is wasted if the content on the site isnt fresh before you go spending a fortune..

it hasnt been updated since june as that's when the domain expired and i was taking a break while preparing a business plan (we're currently a voluntary organisation) and waiting for the domain to go back up for sale we're now using the old html for the new url hence why it's still old news. It will be updated with a new design very shortly though :thumbsup:

If your friend didn't do it on time (and im presuming you knew the consequences) why didn't you just go ahead and do it yourself? They don't put it back up for sale for quite some time after expiry for a .co.uk.

I didnt have the login it was registered to my friend as origionally we set up as a joint organisation, he told me it had been sorted but the new hosting company he had changed to was taking their time registering it. i don't know if this was true or not i asked him to transfer it to me but he failed to do so. So that's why i'm in this situation

Sounds like they just didnt do it then. Some friend eh! Never ever have domain names registered in anyone else's name but your own (for anyomne reading this thread) even if it's your family or friends. For the 5 minutes it takes to register, in all its simplicity, it really is not worth it. And then you also get the reminders.