<–!Rant starts here–>
I can complete the above title in a lot of ways:
- They…..suck
- …are unprofessional
- …are useless
- …are a waste of time
- …are a big bunch of scammers! Really.
I usually use rediff to check the availability of domains since I found that they are pretty much professional in the fact that they do not keep logs of searches and then register all the good ones we search for. But my recent experience with them totally proved me wrong and proved them to be that biggest bunch of unprofessional dumb asses in the domain business that I ever came across.
I recently wanted to buy a domain with my name on it. After a quick search, I found that anands.in was available and decided to register it with rediff itself since they have this promo running where you can get a domain for just Rs. 199/- about 5$. That was on the 14th of this month. I paid with my internet account with ICICI Bank and they immediately debited my account. I then received a email saying that the confirmation will take about 48hrs to complete and I will get the domain information later on.
Two things bugged me about this:
- They did not ask anything about myself for the whois, just my email and password.
- 48 hrs to register a domain? WTF!
I decided to wait since we Indians know nothing about time and its importance. 😉 Two days later I get a email saying that the domain registration has been successful and my “business account” is active to manage the domain. I tried logging in, but I could not find the domain management section anywhere and ended up contacting their customer support on the 16th. I immediatly got an auto responder saying that they will revert in two working days (whats with this #2???) again. They promptly sent a response:
Thanks for writing to us.
Kindly note that user control panel details for the domain anands.in are:
User name [email protected]
Password ######
Kindly visit http://hosting.rediff.com for managing your domain name.You can change whois , DNS changes from here.
They actually checked and sent my password manually! Thats superb privacy guys, right there. I immediately logged in and checked again. I sent them a email again about it. And they respond after 5 fricking days:
We thank you for your time to communicate to us.
Kindly note that the domain anands.in is already booked by a different user and therefore the domain is not listing under your username.
We request you to confirm us for the refund of the order 4403051.
WHAT THE HOLY HELL! WTF!?! Didn’t they just tell me to login and manage my domain? I did a quick whois check and found that the domain was indeed registered. Whois Information:
Domain Name:ANANDS.IN
Created On:15-Feb-2008 10:58:41 UTC
Expiration Date:15-Feb-2010 10:58:41 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Rediff.com India Limited (R37-AFIN)
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:RD-17862932263
Registrant Name:Puneet Anand
Registrant Organization:anands.in
Registrant Street1:Sanspareils GreenlandsSports Goods Complex, Delhi Road
Registrant City:MEERUT
Registrant State/Province:Uttar Pradesh
Registrant Postal Code:250002
Registrant Country:IN
Registrant Phone:+91.24449144
Registrant Phone Ext.:221
Registrant FAX:+91.24449144
Registrant FAX Ext.:361
Someone from the rediff registers the domain on the exact same date and tell me its already taken after you collect the payment?? That nails it right there, you got sexy customer support, great business ethics and excellent way of dealing with people. I can get a better deal with those small time domain providers at DigitalPoint! Big bunch of SCAMMERS!
I emailed them a piece of my mind and told them that I will to the best of my capacity as a blogger and marketer, make sure all the people know how badly they stink. Please consider stumbling, digging or voting it in your favorite social media and let everyone know. Please. Rediff, you know what? YOU SUCK! SERIOUSLY YOU DO.
<–! Rant does not end here–>
Update 18th March ’08 : Minal Joshi from Rediff called me up today and we have been talking on a few things and it seems Rediff wants to make up on their lapse and stuff. Hold on while this is worked out. They might not be that bad as we thought after all. 🙂
Update 31st March ’08 : After the above update, a Melvin from Rediff called me up and told me its not possible to get that domain for me, but promised a free domain for me which I politely declined. The reason for this was explained to me as a parallel booking that happened with a credit card.
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