True Grit. Few people we all knew for years in this industry who helped us through rough and ignorant times are left. With the loss of Mike Robertson at Fabulous.com months ago and Victor Pitts at Moniker.com, I think there’s no other rep working for a domain corporation who will bend over backwards to make sure you’re treated fairly, and maybe give you a chance to recover from a mistake before it becomes devastating to your portfolio. The chance that it will become very profitable for the registrar holding your domain is a nebulous cloud.
Most large domain companies (no names need to be mentioned) have “switched it up” for us domainers, because everyone knows how soul-less corporations work. It’s “let’s get rid of all those employees who treat our clients well, but bend rules just a bit to make them happy, and although forming great bonds with those customers, large and small, they may not be making our company the extra dollar we would like based on possible penalties, mistakes, miscues, fines, additional fees, etc. that we can legally extract from those customers, and that will add profits to our shareholders bottom line..”
Most corporate financial analysts of the heartless kind (oops, that was redundant) know one thing: EXCISE ANY EMPLOYEE THAT HAS CODDLING FRIENDSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS WHO DON”T BRING IN REVENUE IN SIX FIGURES ANNUALLY. Warn them to keep kissing butt for those six-figure customers, but anyone less, they now have to toe the corporate line “because, that’s what the rules are, and the powers that be demand it.” Then the next sentences you start hearing regularly are “Sorry, I don’t have the power to change this because upper management is bearing down.” uh huh. (Translation: “I vaz only followink owrdaz”)
We all have our personal experiences in dealing with “new” employees who replaced those employees we became friends with and who bent over backwards to repair our stupidity and literally saved us tens of thousands of dollars or more in our relationships with the company even though yearly, we bring in thousands of dollars for them.
Things have changed across the board for most domain registrars and domain companies that provide multiple services, backed up with millions of dollars of venture capital and tens of thousands of expired domains they’ve captured from their customers who didn’t pull it together in time.
Ironically, we all make money from those domains that are put up for auction from this sad situation, but we still pay the companies who “nabbed” the deleted domains we buy from their own customers. The sad part is that the companies taking these domains from their customers is like telling your best friend that you are taking their $1500 stereo because that $100 they owe you hasn’t been paid, and you’ve given them enough warning. We’ll hear a “fake sorry”, but business is business.
Most Registrars and Multi-Purpose Domain companies have become:
1) Acquisition monsters
2) Removers of customer-favoring policy executives
3) Shifters or removers of “favorite customer service reps”
4) And with #1 above, very suspicious of any executive or customer representative who have built up a large list of customers who like working with the company thanks to that one representative working there.
(From what I’m told and what I have experienced, only Fabulous.com does NOT snatch up their customers’ domains when they expire).
But the new corporate dickwads running these domain companies don’t consider that, they only consider “bottom line” and the “stockholders” where each PENNY counts. Long gone are the friendly connections many of us domain pioneers built up over the years.
I can’t tell you how many times each major domain company I’ve worked with have eliminated the people I worked with who saved my ass when I needed it, who spent an inordinate amount of time on issues I needed fixed, who bent the rules that saved me big profits because I screwed up, or who were receptive of new suggestions and ideas to make their company’s business run better.
None of us can say that our business sense has been perfect, or that we’ve been on top of every detail of our game when it was imperative. That’s when our customer representative and upstairs executive came in and showed that real people still worked in this secretive, burgeoning industry.
For all that I know, and my experience in many businesses throughout my life, I would give the ultimate reward for best customer/client representation for their company to Mike Robertson, formerly of Fabulous.com, and now of DomainGuardians.com.
Mike Robertson has risen above any other customer service rep that I’ve worked with since 1999, and truthfully, 20 years before that. He has saved my portfolio many times, and from discussions with some of my high-powered domainer friends in this industry, there’s no denying this. They have had the same favorable experience with Mikey.
So, in my Viking Bonfire Awards, I give Mikey the “Giant Bollars” Award of the Century. (“Bollars” means “balls” in Swedish… yeah, I give it a Viking term because Vikings were MEN. and it’s the title of a MAN who is bigger than the company he works for.)
“With the loss of Mike Robertson at Fabulous.com months ago and Victor Pitts at Moniker.com, I think there’s no other rep working for a domain corporation who will bend over backwards to make sure you’re treated fairly,…”
I concur except I believe there is one such person remaining.
Although I’ve never had the direct opportunity
to be helped by her I know from constantly reading about her quick responsiveness and problem solving for others that she is a real gem.
I wish she had been my Premium Account Manager at Moniker.
That gem is: Bari Meyerson.
A couple of the handles she uses are around the forums and blogs are:
MonikerPrincess and jrzeygirl
I often wonder what the world would be like if it was filled with Mike Robertsons and Bari Meyersons.
–
“It’s “let’s get rid of all those employees who treat our clients well…”
I hope I didn’t just get Bari fired.
Trico, I wholeheartedly believe that Bari has every one of her client’s best interest’s at heart, and she is a top notch representative for Moniker. Thanks for adding her to this list. She’ll get a big kick out of it!
(Bari, you will prove me right, yes?)
Interesting rant, you touched on a few good points, several that have become painfully obvious after being in the domain biz for a period. It’s one thing to register a good domain, to sell it through a broker or domain house is quite another matter.
Unless you are of the magnitude of a large domain company, than seldom will you get adequate representation from a broker meaning loss of sales and not getting top dollar for your domains.
A good example might be Afternic, probably 80% to 90% of their sales are repeatedly a very small contingent of sellers. It also appears that as of late Moniker is giving preference in their auctions to a select few individuals affiliated with the company. I don’t know that much about Sedo’s dealings, but I would imagine to some degree it’s that way as well.
In other words, it does not matter (to some degree) how good your domain names are when the game is rigged or stacked in your disfavor. I encourage anyone that is new (or not new) to market your domains yourself, you have as much or better chance of making a sale yourself and you can cut out the middle man, meaning more profit. Sure it’s a pain in the ass and there are other obstacles you have to overcome, but ultimately it will pay off if you are consistent.
Hi Dean,
I can’t go with you on this comment, although I’ve seen this happen at smaller registrars, now defunct. Moniker is too big, and the stakes are too high for them to jack around with domains that total in the tens of thousands of $$$.
What I’ve learned in the last six months is that SnapMon and Oversee are working very hard to build back up the impeccable reputation they had before a few unfortunate greed-driven employee actions that have nothing to do with Oversee and their partner companies’ policies. Give them a big break. Remember too, I chose them to run my Future Trend Domain Auction™, and everyone knows I’m the most dangerous domainer to work with when dealing with fairness and transparency. Nobody is playing games with us on this one. Thanks for writing!
Moniker is one of the worst! Read the fine print before thinking you have any recourse against these tax collectors for the registry.
They have been given powers to take your domains before you’re given a chance to pay the tax if they think they can monetize it for themselves.
Caveat emptor!
Hi Ben,
I happen to know several very honorable and talented people at Moniker, Snapnames and Oversee. I can’t pick out anyone I know there who would intentionally try to help their company benefit financially on their clients’ mistakes. I think you can continue to use Moniker as a great registrar for domain registration, and Snapnames for selling domains you no longer want. Watch out tho… if you present a list of domains that are near expiration, someone with an agenda may label you as a possible ‘domain taster”. *cough*
[...] here to read the rest: “I CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU, SON.” The Sad Reality Of Domain … Posted in Domain – Tagged domain SHARE THIS Twitter Facebook Delicious StumbleUpon [...]
Totally agree about Mike Robertson – top notch customer service. He personally helped me close and salvage a few very important domain transactions that were having some trouble.
A BIG loss for Fabulous, but glad to see him striking out on his own venture. A real class act. I would trust him and his DomainGuardians.com associates with my domains any time!
Hi Bob,
Your impression of Mike Robertson is correct, and I would do as much as I can to promote his new company, and his personal attention to my account. Having someone with his old-style customer service mantra of “screw the rules if they don’t work out in the customer’s favor” approach has never been represented by any other domain expert in this industry.