Speedy Domain Registration And Protecting Your Domain Names

Several of my domains were registered through SpeedyDomainRegistration.com, a reseller. As two were about to expire, I renewed them and paid through PayPal. I subsequently received notice from DotRegistrar.com that the domains were being canceled because of nonpayment.

When I provided the PayPal receipt to DotRegistrar, they explained that Speedy had been doing this for months, collecting fees, not passing on funds to DotRegistrar, and that DotRegistrar was unable to contact Speedy. A scam?
As you can see at this link, it is apparently a common problem for those who used Speedy for domain registrations.
Here’s what I did.

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1. Attempted to e-mail Speedy. All e-mail bounced back as undeliverable. Left a voice mail message at the contact number. No response.

2. Faxed the info for all my domains registered through Speedy to DotRegistrar together with a copy of my ID to prove ownership.

3. Renewed the domains directly through DotRegistrar at www.MyDomain.com.

4. Disputed the PayPal payment to Speedy based on fraud.

According to WHOIS, Speedy’s domain is registered to:

Tom Sonsuwan
269 N Slate St
Gilbert, AZ 85234

Tel: 866.515.8191

Fortunately, most of my domains were registered elsewhere and DotRegistar was helpful in fixing the problem.

If you’re in a similar situation consider following the steps that I did.

If you’re considering using Speedy for domain registration, at least you know the risks.

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Filed Under: Domain Names, Scams Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Samsung – Word-of-Mouth Marketing and Consumer Protection

I purchased a Samsung television several months ago that was defective because the menu screen popped on randomly and repeatedly unless the TV was turned off unplugged, and plugged back in again.You would think that Samsung would be embarrassed by having such a defect in one of its products. Nope.

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The warranty provided for the TV to get in-home service “where available.” Translation: Not available in the metro area where I live that has a population of 5 million. Hmmm. Just a hint of deceptive trade practices…and then it got worse.

Filling out the paperwork, scanning in the receipt and uploading it, packing the TV, and hauling it to UPS to ship (at my expense) for repairs was just the beginning.

Samsung received the TV ten days ago (per UPS tracking) but only acknowledged receipt after two lengthy phone calls that involved Press #5, Press #1 etc., being placed on hold repeatedly, and speaking to room temperature IQ drones who had memorized scripts but lacked either the authority or incentive to actually provide customer service.

Now here’s where it gets even better. Samsung provided an option where one could receive a refurbished model if it would take more than 3 business days to repair the defective TV. I chose that option.

However, the last customer service drone denied the existence of the option and said that I could expect to wait another 14-21 business days calculated based on their erroneous decision to claim receipt of the TV yesterday instead of 10 days ago when they actually got it. He’s probably still trying to anatomically do to himself what I recommended in response.

What’s the important lesson in this?

Word-of-mouth marketing is a double-edged sword. While I frequently refer clients and friends to goods and services that are excellent, when a company like Samsung displays this level of arrogance/incompetence/disdain for the customer, I’ll be happy to let others know of my experience too.

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As for Samsung, the company is about to get an expensive lesson in both word-of-mouth marketing and consumer protection laws…one that is more entertaining than a television show. I suspect they’ll try to shoot the messenger instead of fixing their internal problems.

There are important consumer protection laws at the federal and state level that may protect you in a similar situation. And if you own a business, you should be concerned about a consumer who makes a claim under those laws. Of course, in either case, consult your attorney to discuss your specific situation. This post isn’t legal advice.

For a related overview of consumer protection and word-of-mouth marketing, please watch the following video or listen to the podcast.

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…And stay tuned.

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Filed Under: Hall of Shame, Marketing, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Music Piracy – Even the Experts Get it Wrong

Andy Greenberg has an article in Forbes that cites intellectual property (IP) experts whining about the peer-to-peer (p2p) piracy of Radiohead’s latest album. Because Radiohead let fans name their own price, but pirates still downloaded the music on bittorrent instead, the mistaken assumption is that the piracy hurt the distribution model used by Radiohead.

You really have to wonder if some of these experts are tied to RIAA and the MPAA because the argument falls flat on its face when examined on the merits.

In the article, Big Champagne’s CEO Eric Garland hints at the truth: “In the big picture, if people want something, some will pay, and others will find a way to take it for free.”

But that’s even just part of the story.

Radiohead’s model was successful despite the piracy because of the buzz that it created for the album. As noted in a comment to my prior post on the Radiohead album, the band’s downloadable mp3s were produced at a low quality bitrate as an encouragement for fans to pay for the higher quality CD. Although a bad marketing ploy because the quality disclosure wasn’t made up front prior to the customer’s decision on how much, if anything to pay, the concept has merit.

Imagine a distribution model where albums are intentionally released with full disclosure on the Internet at a lower quality. The model lets customers choose the amount they want to pay. Now follow up with the same music flooded onto P2P sites intentionally but laced with ads in between songs…woven into the intro and outro parts of each song so that it is impossible to crop the ads without destroy the music in the process.

The music industry needs to move away from cramming high priced CDs down the throats of the consumer that simply aren’t wanted…CDs that have one or two songs that someone wants to listen to and the rest are garbage that the customer has to subsidize in order to get the quality stuff.

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And let’s not forget the music piracy hypocrites that run the industry. Don’t feel sorry for any of their copyright infringement losses until they prosecute their own executives and families who illegally download songs.

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Free! Get Internet legal and marketing updates plus 3 chapters of the #1 Internet legal protection book for business website owners. Over 40 pages packed with strategies you can use to protect yourself without a lawyer.