I’m currently working for a small business who are building their first web presence, a simple piece of brochure-ware, so nothing fancy, quite a small job.

As anyone familiar with this will know, buying your own domain is usually a pain free, inexpensive experience, but I have just discovered how badly one firm is behaving and I am really annoyed for the client’s sake.

Firstly, when I got the information about the domain from the client (he had already bought it) he told me that he only had a certificate of ownership and no username or password to make changes. Originally I thought he must have mislaid it, but after checking the registrar out via Nominet, I found they don’t operate a web based control panel, they only have an 0870 number. I emailed them but had no response, so called today and told them I was acting on behalf of a client. With no security or confirmation of my client’s name (just the name of the domain) they changed the nameservers across to mine.

I was intrigued by this lack of security, and asked how much they charged for hosting/domain purchase. The guy told me that they don’t offer any hosting service at the moment, but to register a .co.uk name for two years (as my client had done) costs £88.33. I repeated it back to them, “So, £18.33 for two years then, yes?” and the reply came back, “No, £88.33 for two years.”

It turns out they had cold called my client and sold him the name he wanted.

Cowboys or what?

(Pending project completion I will name the offending company.)