== Hardship protections for domain resellers during domain transfers ==

When a domain service provider (AKA a reseller) has hundreds or thousands of domains all with different registration dates, and the domain reseller's upstream registrar is absorbed by another registrar, or goes bankrupt or otherwise diluted, the transfer process for the domain reseller is time consuming and extremely expensive. They are faced with several unfavorable transfer options:

1) Transfer their entire portfolio to a registrar of their choice, thus incurring full price renewal/transfer fees for domains which they end-user/customer/domain owner has not yet paid for their renewal, and may never renew at all.

2) Setup some internal system to back-date customer domain renewal dates, break their internal automation systems for renewals at the registrar, and hope the customer agrees to renew before the domain transfer cutoff period happens. Once the customer pays, then the reseller must manually transfer each domain that renews on that particular day to their new selected registrar.

Both of these are expensive and less than ideal for resellers who need portability in their portfolios without gambling on customer renewals or the slew of potential disruptions in domain service for the customer, and additional overhead required by the domain service provider to facility such a portfolio migration.

Resellers should have full portability rights to migrate portfolios at large in at least some, if not all circumstances on demand, as needed. The domain renewal dates should be honored at the winning registrar, and then regular renewal fees should commence upon the previously scheduled/existing domain renewal date.

We've recently encountered this scenario and there are no favorable options for the domain reseller who requires a portfolio transfer.

To give you two simple example scenarios:

1) Reseller's upstream registrar is tightly integrated with resellers automated systems. Reseller has pricing guarantees with it's end-users for domain renewals, or customer's are used to lets say, $15 for a domain renewal. Resellers upstream registrar is absorbed by a new registrar who's wholesale prices is $20. domain reseller now must tell end-users "sorry, but domains are no longer $15 they now are $25. A massive increase in price = unhappy customers and finger pointing to upstream registrars and ICANN policy.

2) Upstream registrar goes out of business or is sued out of existence, international trade restrictions or other sanctions happen, reseller is forced to migrate portfolio. I realize in this case ICANN would likely intervein and hold the portfolio at auction, but the reseller has no input on which registrar the new winning registrar might be, and no price controls, similar to scenario #1.

Domain resellers need much better protections for portfolio transfers to eliminate financial and technical hardships or potential service interruptions for the domain owners themselves.

Thank you for your consideration on this matter..

Matt Lundstrom

Summary - Hardship protections for domain resellers during domain transfers

Domain resellers face significant challenges when transferring large portfolios due to an upstream registrar's acquisition, bankruptcy, sanctions or dissolution. The process is costly, time-consuming, and potentially disrupts customer's domain services, with limited options for resellers to maintain pricing or automation.

Key Points:

Costly Transfers: Transferring entire portfolios incurs full renewal/transfer fees, even for domains not yet renewed by customers.

Complex Workarounds: Resellers may need to manually adjust renewal dates "early" or transfer domains individually on a daily basis after customer payment, risking automation breakdowns especially in cases of multi-year domain renewals.

Customer Impact: Price increases due to new winning registrar policies lead to customer dissatisfaction.

Lack of Control: Registrar bankruptcy or other external factors force migrations without reseller input on the new registrar or pricing.

Proposed Solution: Resellers need full portfolio portability, with existing renewal dates honored first, then the winning registrars standard fees to be applied upon the next renewal date to avoid financial and technical hardships. This should be at no charge or a very minimal per-domain fee for the reseller, perhaps in the $0.25 to $1.00 range. If there is potential for abuse, a portfolio transfer should not be allowed more than "X times' per "y period," - assuming there is any potential risk of abuse in the first place.