DIY.com.au

A while back I wrote this article entitled “Fair Means Or Foul”.

I can now reveal that the domain that inspired me to write this was DIY.com.au.

This domain is “dropping today”, and whilst it will no doubt be hotly contested on Domain Shield and Drop, it’s not going to be available to bid on at Netfleet. Whilst the domain features on their homepage as you can see, it is not on their auction page.

Why? Because someone placed a backorder on this domain at Netfleet long ago. I might be wrong, but I believe this person was aware that the eligibility details were incorrect (it’s an old South Australian Business Name Registration as you can see below) – and made a complaint to auDA.

auDA Is Not The Ogre In This

In fact, if anything, they bent over backwards to try and assist the registrant to keep this valuable domain. The domain has been in and out of “Policy Delete” status a few times over the past couple of months. For those not in the know, with a “Policy Delete”, the registrant still has 14 days to resurrect the situation.

auDA was totally within their rights to delete the domain after the first 14 days, but thanks to representations from Anthony Peake at Domain Shield (the registrant was a past client of his), they gave him two further opportunities to rectify (and told him what he had to do). Big hat tip to Anthony for doing this – it’s great when a registrar actually goes over and above to try and help.

But the registrant didn’t do what he had to do, so policy is now going to be followed.

All I can say is that if it was my domain, and my old Business Registration, I would have done anything and everything required to get my “eligibility” sorted out.

My Opinion

As I wrote previously, there is nothing wrong with legitimate backorders where you may know that a domain is going to expire because of other circumstances. I’ve seen some excellent acquisitions made by people who have good intel!

However, I think people who try and score good domains by filing anonymous or confidential complaints (like the above) and doing backorders deserve criticism.

I also believe that it would be in everyone’s interests if Netfleet didn’t allow backorders on “Policy Deleted” names. If a domain does have to be deleted because of policy, put it up for auction. Don’t encourage those that seek to look for other people’s mistakes or misfortune.

In fact, if anyone else is the loser today (apart from the old registrant) it is Netfleet. The best they can get out of today is $200 – and if they don’t “catch it” and it goes for $10k on another platform, then that will surely make them think twice!

What do you think?