Back In December 2013, I placed some paid pre-orders for some .Horse domain names and wrote a blog post about it.
At the time we noted that what MindsandMachines.com says about these domain name registrations which are live on their site:
“This is Not an “Expression of Interest” but a real reservation.
The master list of reservations is kept by the registry, the authoritative source.
A registrar can only hold your place in “their” line — and they have to compete with other registrars to see who will get the name.
But any registrar connected to our Priority Reservation system — for instance, Minds + Machines — is connecting straight to the master list.
If you get a Priority Reservation your name is automatically marked as “taken” and won’t be available to anyone who doesn’t own an exact-match trademark on the name.”
However since I put in a paid pre-order in other than getting the receipt for the pre-order, I haven’t heard a thing about the registrations, until today
I just received this email from Minds +Machines and it will apply to anyone who placed a paid pre-order on MindsandMachines.com for a .Horse, .Casa or .Cooking new gTLD domain name.
Bottom line any paid pre-orders are being submitted as a Landrush application which means that the domain will be awarded to the one who placed the pre-order unless someone else places a Landrush application for the same domain, in which case the domain will go to auction.
So basically no advantage to those who submitted a paid pre-order early.
Here is the notice:
“”Dear Registrant,
If you are receiving this email, you reserved a domain name in .casa, .horse, or .cooking during our Priority Reservation Phase.
For technical reasons ICANN, which regulates the domain name space, disallowed the Priority Reservation program after you made your reservation. But for the vast majority of you, there won’t be any disruption. We agreed with them to put your name(s) into our Landrush phase instead. There is no additional charge and you do not need to do anything. But there’s a chance that someone might apply for the same name as you and, if that happens, there will be some additional steps.
What is Landrush and what happens during this phase?
Landrush is the time during which domain names are available for registration before the top-level domain is open to general, first-come first-served registration. Your Priority Reservation names will be entered into the Landrush phase. If your Landrush application is the only one for the requested domain, then you will be notified at the end of the Landrush phase that your Landrush application is now a registration, and no further action or payment on your part will be required. In the case of duplicate applications, you will be invited to an online auction (we’ll send you all the details if that happens). If you do not receive the domain for any reason (for instance, if you don’t want to go to an auction, or if you do go to auction and lose), Minds + Machines Registrar will issue you refund. If for any reason you want a refund immediately, just ask us and we will be happy to refund you (see below for details).
What does this mean for you?
Your domain name has been changed from a Priority Reservation to a Landrush application. If someone else has applied for the same domain name as you, then you may either ask for refund or enter into an auction. If no one else has applied for the same name as you, then your Landrush application will turn into a registration during the allocation time period, in August, and will then go live in September.
We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and welcome any questions or concerns you may have. Please feel free to email them to support@mindsandmachines.com.””
At least they have offered you an immediate refund.
Is this even legal? Consider that a buyer, intending to bundle a group of URLs for a business model, registered a number of fixed price gTLDs. Now, eight months later, that buyer will be forced to bid to protect a model for which he, acting in good faith, believed he had fully paid. Suddenly he is forced into an auction, one where he finds that he has already made opening bids. Even though he never agreed to participate in any auction, he can’t withdraw these bids. Unless Mind and Machine offers immediate cancellation and refunds doesn’t this characterize ‘bait and switch’?
It’s hidden away a little bit, but it does say:
“If for any reason you want a refund immediately, just ask us and we will be happy to refund you”
1) Isn’t that an offer of immediate cancellation and refund?
2) They made a great big mistake by the sound of things. Do you think they should offer compensation to people too?
Obviously what was represented at the time was untrue.
I’m sure someone could make a case of it but I’m not going to spend $25K or more to sue a company based in the UK over ridea.horse
Refunds? Not now. Only for those names that receive higher bids. Unless you continue to bid to protect your entire model you could lose the pivotal core addresses on which you built your business model. You’d and be left with a bunch URLs that you never would have bought that have been rendered as useless as a football team without a quarterback.
Here’s the wording in the Minds and Machines letter:
If someone else has applied for the same domain name as you, then you may either ask for refund or enter into an auction.
The letter also says this:
” If for any reason you want a refund immediately, just ask us and we will be happy to refund you (see below for details)”
The reason I believe this shows they accept they must provide immediate refunds upon request is because the preceding sentence covers the eventualities of you not wanting to go to the auction or losing the auction.
I think they know exactly that they are legally obliged to give you a refund – they are just being cheeky as to where they have covered off that requirement in the letter to try and prevent you realising that you have that right.
One of the drawbacks of setting up over here in our emerald isle is that, whilst it might provide a number of tax breaks, we also like to look after consumers. That means that these boys need to tread a wee bit more carefully than if they were plying their trade over at the other glorious side of this pond of ours.
So far as I can see, they have a number of issues to contend with:
1) The aren’t honouring their initial price
2) They aren’t honouring their initial contract
3) Their refund offers aren’t clear
3) Their problem child, the Priority Programme, was announced to the city and could be brought into play in by anybody who fancies a bit of fun.
Their starting point should be to clearly offer refunds to everybody involved. It’s a massive change they want to make to the agreed contract. Whether anybody would then want to persue it further (and I think the poster above has a very interesting case to make about a portfolio), would be up to the individuals in question.
Well ideally they should honor the policy at the time the money is paid and the transaction is concludes
Offering a refund 8 months later after they promised that a domain would be awarded is not that great of an outcome
I agree Michael; but the clear offer of a refund should certainly be the starting point rather than a set of words that seems to suggest everybody is obligated to put their domains at risk of going into an auction, which I don’t believe they can be obliged to do.
In a world where there was more demand for these new domains (and it is probably still the case now although to a lesser extent), good counsel would have a field day with any price changes that have happened before this change too. For example, if you paid $100 for a domain 8 months ago and it is now up for grabs as a part of this process for $50, what price will you be paying? If it’s the first price, the shit will be hitting the fan for sure, as you can’t get somebody to pay a higher price for a contracted commitment you couldn’t honour. And I’d be willing to bet my hat that the admin involved wouldnt have them coming out proactively offering partical refunds if they can’t even get this first bit right!
In my opinion, they need to make sure every customer has a clear offer of a refund. There is the potential for significant repercussions for them if they do not at least try to establish a clean slate. They should also be offering goodwill gestures out like candy at a time when .london offers them a unique opportunity to build a positive profile in a competitive market. Unhappy people make a lot of hay.
Michael, does one sue in England or just file a complaint against their Santa Monica Ca office? I can’t – I didn’t apply for any .Horse, .Casa or .Cooking gTLDS. But, looking ahead, .best will be coming up and I have paid for a unified group to augment my Missionlines business model. Though I think ‘best’ is pretty ineffective without .com, these were carefully curated to become viable sub-domains — but only if they all work together.
you can check them here aldis http://whois.nic.best/whoismtld/whois/
Mike, now you know what ICANN considers “enhancing competition and consumer choice” —
New gTLD Program: “The program’s goals include enhancing competition and consumer choice” – http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/about/program
Hmmmmm. You might want to check their RA with ICANN – is it the standard agreement? Have their been change requests? How did they intended to implement it – wouldn’t work by accepting the standard agreement. There must be a change request logged.
And why “technical reasons”? Isn’t that rather a policy problem?
The program created revenue and brand awareness – that was good BEFORE they signed the contract. Now it’s of course a liability – as it potentially prevents auctions. So why not get rid of it? (Just playing devils advocate)?