Network Solutions Gets kicked in the butt!

Yeah, I have been waiting for this and was hoping it’d happen soon!

Network Solutions has been sued for its holier-than-though policy of reserving domain names a potential buyer searched for on its website, practically disabling the poor guy to register it anywhere else but with Network Solutions at a price higher than other registrars.

Being a victim myself, I was hoping that it would happen real soon. Had I been a US resident, I’d have done it myself! The bozos thought that they had a good little scam running that nobody would blow the whistle on. Now, as I rub my hands with glee… I wish I could see the guys squirming in their seats with a potential PR nightmare at hands… something not even a seasoned public relations professional would be able to get them out of!

For those who came in late, please read the heads-up on the practice of Network Solutions at DomainTools.com

Here’s the excerpt.

I am confirming that Network Solutions steals domain ideas when people check domain availability on the Network Solutions website. They seem to have started the practice of stealing domain ideas on December 16th 2007 according to our Domain History database but I was just made aware of this practice today. I am appalled at the concept of taking people’s domain ideas and registering it before the consumer has the ability to manually register the domain.It is a deplorable action that Network Solution would announce potential domain names to the entire world. If a customer chooses not to register the domain name with Network Solution they are forced to wait 4 days for Network Solutions to delete the domain name in the Free Add Grace period. After the four day hostage period the consumer is free from the hostage situation and can register the domain somewhere else. However Network Solutions has now exposed those domains to Domain Tasters that will snipe those domain up milliseconds after Network Solutions deletes them. By registering the domain Network Solutions is exposing the domain in the DNS and every computer in the world now knows about the domain. These domains are now easy fodder for scammers and it is mind blowing that Network Solutions would expose their customers queries to the world in this manner.

- DomainTools

Their strategy was as good as those of the lowly domain tasters and try to profit from people’s ideas and that too on an automated basis. What a bunch of creeps!