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Epik.com - Paid For Domain Name Renewal Days Ago - Domains Not Being Renewed.
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Epik.com - Paid For Domain Name Renewal Days Ago - Domains Not Being Renewed.

I had a few domains that were needing renewed and I went ahead and followed the typical renewal process...add years...watch hard earned money leave account... everything is good for another year.

This year, however, was different. Started the process....added the years..watched the money leave the account and UH OH! The domains didn't get renewed. Um...ok, maybe some slow payment processing today...

Another day passes... still not renewed.

Sent an email on over to their support and received this back

"Nicole Li (Epik Support)

Mar 26, 2023, 16:22 PDT

Hello xxxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting Epik support.

We're currently experiencing an issue that affects renewals, registrations, and transfer-ins for .COM domains, our Techs were already notified and are already looking into the issue.

We will notify you via email once the domain is in your account.

We're sorry for any trouble this may have caused."

Ok, stuff happens, I get it. So I went ahead an sent an email back asking for any sort of ETA - nothing back.

I've been buying/renewing domains for over 22 years and I've never had a problem buying/renewing.

Anyone know what the deal is? I'm looking at the WHOIS on the domains in question and they're all showing that they're expired (or in the process of expiring this week), my money is out there and nobody seems to be saying anything elsewhere.

Comments

  • kaitkait Member

    They had the same with .NL, no idea whats going on exactly.

  • MannDudeMannDude Host Rep, Veteran
    edited March 2023

    This isn't news, it's just not being talked about much here.

    https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-fund-cant-be-withdrawal-from-epik-com-via-masterbucks-wallet.1284050/

    Literally people out there owed tens of thousands of dollars, some even six figures. That thread is really really long, but the issues seem to be current an ongoing.

    Thanked by 1Don_Keedic
  • Don_KeedicDon_Keedic Member
    edited March 2023

    @kait - That extension too?? Weird. I had a couple .ME domains I renewed in the same order and those went through without a hitch knock on wood

    @MannDude

    Thanks for the link though! Coincidentally enough, I was actually on that same site on a different thread about more shady stuff that was going down. The fact there was another thread with recent replies isn't inspiring either.

    Regardless of the what's going on, lack of communication and transparency is a instant deal-breaker for me. Probably going to try and get some sort of ICANN complaint here - https://www.icann.org/compliance/complaint - and try and get some resolution before it's out of their hands completely.

  • I moved all my domains out of Epik after their many recent issues. I personally don't trust them any more. This is just more of the same to me, glad I left them.

  • @jlet88 said:
    I moved all my domains out of Epik after their many recent issues. I personally don't trust them any more. This is just more of the same to me, glad I left them.

    I'm with you on that now. Sent another email over this morning (I always like to give people I haven't had personal issues with the benefit of the doubt until they give me a reason to doubt them) but the longer it drags on, the liklihood of you getting those moved out when you did was a great move.

  • @Don_Keedic said:

    @jlet88 said:
    I moved all my domains out of Epik after their many recent issues. I personally don't trust them any more. This is just more of the same to me, glad I left them.

    I'm with you on that now. Sent another email over this morning (I always like to give people I haven't had personal issues with the benefit of the doubt until they give me a reason to doubt them) but the longer it drags on, the liklihood of you getting those moved out when you did was a great move.

    When it comes to stuff like this, over the years I've refined my tolerance to "issues" and "concerns" so that there are only so many signs of problems that I allow myself to tolerate, before I realize it's not worth the risk for my projects or clients any more, and I will migrate out sooner rather than later. No matter how "nice" the company or people are, or how good of a price I'm getting, etc.

    When it comes to something as important as your entire brand identity, such as a domain name, there's no chance I'm going to risk it with all the smoke circling above Epik. Maybe they'll get it all sorted out, and I really hope they do, but the number of issues passed my personal threshold a while back, and I was OUTTA there.

    It's just risk management. And I have dodged a few bullets in recent years, thankfully. You win some, you lose some. Wish the best of luck for Epik though.

    Thanked by 1emgh
  • @jlet88 said:

    @Don_Keedic said:

    @jlet88 said:
    I moved all my domains out of Epik after their many recent issues. I personally don't trust them any more. This is just more of the same to me, glad I left them.

    I'm with you on that now. Sent another email over this morning (I always like to give people I haven't had personal issues with the benefit of the doubt until they give me a reason to doubt them) but the longer it drags on, the liklihood of you getting those moved out when you did was a great move.

    When it comes to stuff like this, over the years I've refined my tolerance to "issues" and "concerns" so that there are only so many signs of problems that I allow myself to tolerate, before I realize it's not worth the risk for my projects or clients any more, and I will migrate out sooner rather than later. No matter how "nice" the company or people are, or how good of a price I'm getting, etc.

    When it comes to something as important as your entire brand identity, such as a domain name, there's no chance I'm going to risk it with all the smoke circling above Epik. Maybe they'll get it all sorted out, and I really hope they do, but the number of issues passed my personal threshold a while back, and I was OUTTA there.

    It's just risk management. And I have dodged a few bullets in recent years, thankfully. You win some, you lose some. Wish the best of luck for Epik though.

    Seems like that's what you have to do in order to make it.

    I've had my fair share of close calls of getting in bed with the wrong companies but the only one I was completely burned on was Lavabit email. Everything else I've had to deal with may have been a total pain in the ass to deal with, but in the ended up manageable. Lavabit email was the only one where there was zero warning and it was gone before anyone knew what happened. Given the nature of the service, that was always a possibility but who would have thought it would have went down that way and as fast as it did?

  • Re: Lavabit, who could blame Ladar Levison for what happened, given the situation? He did as well as he could have in that very tough scenario. And anyone who used his services should have known there was an inherent risk factor. And I mean that respectfully, with the benefit of hindsight. In any case, it was a very unusual situation, with few comparables at the time.

    But I know what you mean, there were no smoke clouds and it came as a big surprise to all the users. This is a very different scenario compared to Epik, which has had smoke clouds circling for a while. And some vultures too. Maybe they'll put the fire out, maybe they won't. I hope they do. But my domains were too important to leave to chance.

  • What he did was a principled move and I'd hope anyone providing services that tout security and privacy would go the same way.

    I lost my personal stuff and it wasn't a big deal but I had a client who specifically asked for "The most hardcore email security possible" for their business and I got them set up with Lavabit. They didn't know the name of the company until that day

    "Hey...you see that dude everyone is looking for? That one that went to Russia on the news?"

    "Yeah"

    "So... funny story... he had an email account where your business email was hosted"

    "No shit huh? That's crazy man. Small world huh? So what's the funny part?"

    "Funny part is, there is no funny part. The dude ditched the keys to the email server and your email is a total loss"

    He started laughing, so I started laughing and we probably laughed for a good 45 seconds and he just hung up. I had no idea what to do because it was a startup and they were about 2-3 weeks off from opening up shop and all of their pre-onboarding emails were going to Lavabit.

    That was a total and unexpected loss but luckily their products were security/privacy focused and their clients were completely sympathetic that their personal information was secure and they had a little piece of that happening in history.

  • every registrar like Epik has to deposit/reserve certain amount of $$$$ with every registry, like .com, .store, .xyz, etc. in order to register, renew, transfer domains.

    From the past Epik related news on various forums it is clear that Epik may not have an deposit with their upstream registry. So even if Epik's customer renews/registers the domain, Epik fails to renew it or register it instantly. They may renew/register when they deposit funds with their registry.

    In short, Epik.com is nearly out of business now. Check namepros form for more info, OP.
    and avoid Epik. simple.

  • @JasonM said:
    every registrar like Epik has to deposit/reserve certain amount of $$$$ with every registry, like .com, .store, .xyz, etc. in order to register, renew, transfer domains.

    From the past Epik related news on various forums it is clear that Epik may not have an deposit with their upstream registry. So even if Epik's customer renews/registers the domain, Epik fails to renew it or register it instantly. They may renew/register when they deposit funds with their registry.

    In short, Epik.com is nearly out of business now. Check namepros form for more info, OP.
    and avoid Epik. simple.

    The ol' robbing Peter to pay Paul technique. Hopefully those Epik pimps get their hoes in line this week because daddy needs his domains ASAP.

    If possible, I'm going to have to make a bulk migration soon.

    Any recommendations @JasonM? I'd be perfectly fine with the cheapest, most bare bones registrar. I don't care if it looks like a 5th grader made it as long as it's secure and I use custom nameservers.

  • JasonMJasonM Member
    edited March 2023

    @Don_Keedic said: I'd be perfectly fine with the cheapest, most bare bones registrar

    that would be Cosmotown for .com's or Connectreseller/Ownregistrar for .com and other TLDs as they sell for $8 or $9. cheapest with wholesale prices could be Cloudflare (but you've to use their DNS), else for other ccTLDs/TLDs you can find cheapest promos at tld-list.com though these promo are mainly one-time use. Generally for .com stick with registrar which charges between $10 to $13 a year. That's generally industry-standard price as of 2023.

    Thanked by 1bamboo4409
  • @JasonM said:

    @Don_Keedic said: I'd be perfectly fine with the cheapest, most bare bones registrar

    that would be Cosmotown for .com's or Connectreseller/Ownregistrar for .com and other TLDs as they sell for $8 or $9. cheapest with wholesale prices could be Cloudflare (but you've to use their DNS), else for other ccTLDs/TLDs you can find cheapest promos at tld-list.com though these promo are mainly one-time use. Generally for .com stick with registrar which charges between $10 to $13 a year. That's generally industry-standard price as of 2023.

    That tld-list.com is gold. Definitely going in the bookmarks.

    Thanks Jason!!

    Thanked by 1JasonM
  • AdvinAdvin Member, Patron Provider

    @JasonM said:

    @Don_Keedic said: I'd be perfectly fine with the cheapest, most bare bones registrar

    that would be Cosmotown for .com's or Connectreseller/Ownregistrar for .com and other TLDs as they sell for $8 or $9. cheapest with wholesale prices could be Cloudflare (but you've to use their DNS), else for other ccTLDs/TLDs you can find cheapest promos at tld-list.com though these promo are mainly one-time use. Generally for .com stick with registrar which charges between $10 to $13 a year. That's generally industry-standard price as of 2023.

    Sav also does .com at basically wholesale prices. If you're big into domains, OpenProvider has a membership and gives wholesale for a lot of TLD's.

    Thanked by 1JasonM
  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy

    @Don_Keedic said: That tld-list.com is gold. Definitely going in the bookmarks.

    Might as well add these too.

    Thanked by 2emgh JasonM
  • emghemgh Member

    @DP said:

    @Don_Keedic said: That tld-list.com is gold. Definitely going in the bookmarks.

    Might as well add these too.

    First one is good but second one don't really seem to contain anything very relevant compared to the other two, no?

  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy

    @emgh said:

    @DP said:

    @Don_Keedic said: That tld-list.com is gold. Definitely going in the bookmarks.

    Might as well add these too.

    First one is good but second one don't really seem to contain anything very relevant compared to the other two, no?

    Just another comparison site.

    tldes and tld-list are usually the go-to ones.

    Thanked by 1emgh
  • tomletomle Member, LIR

    And for the record:
    The wholesale price for .com domain names is $8.97 from September 1, 2022 to Aug 31, 2023. With ICANN’s 18-cent fee, the actual price to registrars is $9.15.

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