You pay for domain name, Dreamhost register it for itself
I had 5 web hosting packages with Dreamhost, all of it including a free registration of a domain name. But they do not say the person that will be the registrant, and this way you will see later that it is not you the registrant, but Dreamhost, and they can whatever they want with those domain names.
See, for ex., the domain names that I registered with them:
Registrant Name:Nicolae Sfetcu
Created On:23-Nov-2004 20:42:50 UTC
Last Updated On:15-Nov-2007 14:31:02 UTC
Expiration Date:23-Nov-2008 20:42:50 UTC
adreviews.net (for this domain name, for ex., all the 16 subdomains, as well as the domain, were in top in Yahoo SERP, most of it #1 and the other within the first 5 positions, for there main keywords, and it were very searched keywords):
Registrant Contact: Nicolae Sfetcu
Record created on 2004-11-17 13:40:13.
Record expires on 2008-11-17 13:40:13.
Registrant Contact: Nicolae Sfetcu
Record created on 2006-07-05 11:54:21.
Record expires on 2008-07-05 11:54:21.
Registrant Name:musicsonglyrics.org Private Registrant
Registrant Email: musicsonglyrics.org@proxy.dreamhost.com
Created On:29-Jun-2006 17:55:50 UTC
Last Updated On:25-May-2007 08:20:08 UTC
Expiration Date:29-Jun-2008 17:55:50 UTC
Registrant Contact: Nicolae Sfetcu
Record created on 2006-07-01 14:35:53.
Record expires on 2008-07-01 14:35:53.
As you can see from the above info, it is possible that, depending on criterions known by Dreamhost only, to have the domain names that you paid for, registered not with you as registrant, but with Dreamhost as registrant. More than this, the registrant email is one of the Dreamhost emails, so it is impossible for you to ask for the authorization code if you want to transfer it, because you have no access to the registrant email.
After more complaint about this situation to the authorities that have to help me in such a dispute, I lost my trust that I will get back my domain names. But I will follow it in the future, just to see to whom will give it Dreamhost.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:39 am
Not very good, most places will register in their own name if you are going to pay later, but if you pay up front, then the details should be correctly put into your name from the start.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:43 am
The payment was made before acquiring the domain name, it was included in the payment of the web hosting package, and the free registration of the domain name was requested much later.
Anyway, even if the payment is made later, when the registrar receive the payment it is forced to change the registrant for that domain name with the real registrant.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Dreamhost actually doesn’t own your domains. You do.
The reason the records looks like you depict above is to save you from having your name displayed in the WHOIS info.
If you had checked with DH I’m sure they would acknowledge that.
Also, as a customer there you can transfer your domains at any time from DH to some other domain registrar.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Hi Randy,
There are almost three months since I tried for the first time to transfer the domain names. For some domains still I’m trying, but no answer from DH.
So, it’s not so easy with Dreamhost.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:54 am
I don’t understand why hiding your private information is bad. Go Daddy will SELL this feature to you for 7USD/year. Dreamhost does it for free. If you ask them for it, they will probably change that information to make your address public.