If you are in the business of website hosting and domains names, you’ll probably know that the struggle that is transferring domain names is very real.
Some registrars make the whole process as painless as possible. If they do the job right, they provide a nice user interface where you often have to unlock the domain wherein the option to transfer the domain is revealed or enabled. It can all be done without involving support and in the case of a .uk transfer (where you only have to update a identification name called a TAG), the whole process can be completed in a couple of hours. This is how it should be. And I find that the simple process is usually only found at the smaller registrars/companies.
So I wanted to transfer a .co.uk domain from GoDaddy. First I logged in to my account and unlocked the domain, as the option to transfer away was greyed out with the words – “disabled” next to it. I refreshed the page and the otion was still disabled, so reading on the GoDaddy KB, I thought that I should probably wait 24 hours, just in case it took this long for the link to become active.
I logged back on 24 hours later and the option was still greyed out, so I started a chat session with support, specifically selecting Domain from the drop-down list hoping to get someone who knew how to help. I initiated the chat request at 08:08am. It was only by 08:50am that I seemed to be getting somewhere. During those 40 minutes I was sent two articles on how to transfer a .uk domain away, even though I had already done everything listed in those articles, and even made reference to everything requested in those articles before being sent them. One of the artciles even specified, “To transfer a .uk domain name to another registrar, contact our support team to request the transfer..”
Eventually the support team member had to manually create the transfer, ending with ” your domain will be transferred….within in next 7-10 days.” I wait to see how long it actually takes. But I have transferred other .co.uk domains just this week and it took 2 hours from changing the TAG to having it at the new registrar.
What worries me is, what if I was in a hurry or what if I had 100s of .co.uk domains with GoDaddy, would I have to involve support in such a lengthy coversation for every .co.uk domain?
