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holycow
19th January 2006, 11:56 PM
I just tried to order 3 domains from domainsite.com. When I checked, all three domains appeared 'available'. However, in the confirmation email from domainsite, it says "Order Failed" for 2 of the sites. The explanation is below. Both sites I tried to order are 2 letter words.

Is this common?


ADDITIONAL IDN INFO
--------------------
If you checked an IDN that was available at the time of purchase and the order failed for that domain, chances are the IDN you attempted to register was a variant of an IDN already registered. This usually means that the domain name contains native characters in one language that can be mapped to those of another. The Verisign registry currently blocks the registration of these IDN domain names but does not return a false check. For more info on variants you can visit http://www.verisign.com/nds/naming/idn/learn/variants/

Edwin
20th January 2006, 12:18 AM
Yes, that's fairly common (or it is if you use DomainSite, I don't know about other registrars).

bwhhisc
20th January 2006, 05:05 AM
Welcome Holycow- It is absolutely common... I have had at least 100 kicked back in the last month alone.

Domainsite (or your preferred registrar) will always try to register it for you, but if they can't get it to go thru, you will be refunded. I have called them on this, but there is nothing they can do. (some error messages indicate to contact them, but save your time they can do nothing to help)

On city names for Japan, Russia and China my experience is if you don't get them to reg on the first try they are not going to go thru at all. Most of these .nets and .coms are gone anyway. Sometimes you can get IDN's to register if you try the next day. I just had one that I tried for 3 days in a row and finally got it to go.

If you want a bit of a technical explanation, DWrixon was kind enought to explain this to me when I was getting going...and can fill you in on the conflicts between languages and scripts that causes this.

touchring
20th January 2006, 05:13 AM
I have had at least 100 kicked back in the last month alone.

These kickbacks are a good way for DS to earn extra cash. From my experience, not every failed registration is refunded - i've to email them to request for the refund.

bwhhisc
20th January 2006, 03:43 PM
These kickbacks are a good way for DS to earn extra cash. From my experience, not every failed registration is refunded - i've to email them to request for the refund.

Thanks Touchring- that is really good to know! I haven't been checking this at all, just trusting that they are honest to do business with.

Rubber Duck
20th January 2006, 05:01 PM
These kickbacks are a good way for DS to earn extra cash. From my experience, not every failed registration is refunded - i've to email them to request for the refund.

I have had similar problems. It would appear that sometimes you get blank invoices except for the amount charged, but the names actually go into the account. I think Domainsite are pretty genuine but the systems aren't always fool proof.

You may note they too have now also joined this Snapname Scam.

Best Regards
Dave Wrixon

daem0n
24th January 2006, 12:45 AM
A lot of times the domains are also "reserved" and can't be registered no matter who you go through. Who knows the reasons behind reserved domains but they're a lost cause.

gammascalper
24th January 2006, 06:10 PM
A lot of times the domains are also "reserved" and can't be registered no matter who you go through. Who knows the reasons behind reserved domains but they're a lost cause.

Isn't this is the same issue that Holycow described above?

It happens when:

Chinese: traditional form is already registered and you try to register the simplified form (which will show as 'available') or vice versa.

Japanese: you try to register the Kanji (which will show as 'available') when the Chinese equivalent has already been registered.

daem0n
25th January 2006, 05:24 AM
Yes, I was further describing his problem but what you said clarified everything and it makes sense, so thanks :) -Joe

alex
7th February 2006, 02:48 PM
Does any registrar offer a "Variant Exists" check before going through the checkout process?

I decided to take the plunge with a few Japanese names and more than half of the "Available" names that I ordered failed. It's really not acceptable to be charged, then have to go through the hassle of making sure your refund comes back on every single purchase.

If a registrar can do a whois and punycode coversion, isn't it possible to automatically cross-check for Chinese/Japanese variants before marking the domains as available? If it can be done after the checkout, surely the information should be made available before the checkout.

If the registrars aren't going to do it, maybe the IDN Forums Conversion Tool can be updated to allow a manual variant search. ;)