WordPress - Where's my Domain?

I used to blog at PetesView.net as well, since Nov 23, 2006. I can’t any more because my domain is in no-mans land.

Wordpress says some one else owns it, I can’t understand how that can happen as I renewed with them well in advance.

I first bought the domain through Wordpress.com on Nov 23, 2006 and renew it annually.

This year I renewed on Nov 17 using Wordpress.com’s PayPal link. PayPal transferred the funds to them on Nov 18 and Visa billed me on Nov. 19th.

That’s 4 days to renew my domain – an eternity for the automated systems that actually do the registration.

Through the rest of November and December things looked ok. In early Jan I went to post and PetesView was off line so I wrote Wordpress support. Here’s what they said:

You purchased the credits on 2008-11-18 but the upgrades were not renewed. This happens if the PayPal transaction doesn't clear right away. I'm sorry but someone else registered the domain and there is nothing we can do. You'd need to lookup the domain and contact the current owner of the domain if you want to attempt to buy it back from them.

Or as I read it: “It's PayPal fault. You’re on your own”.

That doesn’t make sense given the financial tracking through both PayPal and Visa shows they had their money no later than Nov 19. And it doesn’t explain why a search of WhoIS shows that the domain is valid until Nov 23, 2009 - which would have happened if my Nov 18, 2008 renewal through Wordpress occurred as ordered. And if it’s someone else’s why does it displays what appears to be an RSS feed of my content.

WordPress’s answer - refund my registration fee and wash their hands of it.

That’s not satisfactory for several years building a brand and domain. Surely 4 days is sufficient to register a domain. Surely a company focused on blogging recognises the value of both the content and the links associated with a domain.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with WordPress.com domain registration?
Can anyone speculate what might be the cause?
Is the refunding the registration fee acceptable?
How can I get WordPress to correct this?

Looking forward to your thoughts?

Guilty until Proven Innocent

That's the title of an emai I recieved with a great suggestion of how to deal with erroneous automated collections calling.

To quote form the email:

"I decided not to waste any time/energy on dealing with them directly and instead lodged a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They were extremely efficient (indeed you can do it all online) and the agency was informed of their error through the BBB's review of my case. The harassing calls stopped immediately, and I got a written apology from the ombudsman."

Sounds so much better that waiting on the line and having to convience some agent there's an(other) error in their system.

Will probably work until the Better Business Bureau decides that it too shouldn't be paying it's staff to fix what the agency should in the first place - if it simply compared the name sought to the name registered to the number.

If you try this let me know how it works.

Calling (the wrong) Cell Phones

In the past few months I’ve noticed an increase in the number of people telling me that they are receiving calls to their cell phones from agencies trying to reach people the numbers owner doesn’t know. (see comments to last post for example)

Cell phones, unlike landlines, are often billed per minute on both incoming and out going calls. This means that erroneous calls have both a financial and irritation effect – especially if the agency calls day after day – filling limited mailboxes and racking up bills for an unintended user.

In my mind its fundamentally wrong – especially as it can be so easily avoided. All that’s required is a simple look-up comparing the registered owner to the debtor sought – simple for companies that can program automated dialers hundreds or thousands of people across the country, each subject to different government calling regulations.

Like the erroneous calling of landlines – Isn’t it time the government stepped up and required checks before automated calling, mandated calling by an individual in cases where there wasn’t an exact match between the numbers registered owner and the debtor sought. Or is this another case where the civil action (and possibly jurisprudence) leads to responsible civil policy.

I am One Voice - Add Yours

It’s been months since I’ve posted yet I continue to be contacted by people having problems because of calls received by collection agencies.

The people who’ve contacted me fall into two broad groups – those who have no actionable debt and are called because agencies due diligence processes appear weak or non-existent. The other group is people with actionable debts who called and treated in ways they think they shouldn’t be.

I my limited experience suggest that both types of calling have a common root in regulatory oversight and limited investigation of complaints.

It is only through political action and engaging the press that this will change.

Called in error
If you’re called, call your MPP – repeatedly if necessary – until they intervene for you. In Canada agencies are regulated – generally at the provincial level – so don’t let them put you off. If lack of regulation is why you believe you’re called tell them that changing regulation is a political responsibility – so you’ll keep calling until there is regulation – because you don’t believe you should have to call a company just because they call you.

But be nice. Always be nice! – But also talk and talk – tell your story to anyone who will listen and ask lots of questions. Write down what you’ve asked and follow up. Turn every call you receive into a make work project for the MLA’s office. This helps get their attention – and out of that work you’ll learn lots of interesting and useful things.

Send emails to anyone in government that you think should know about your plight. And don’t forget the press. The local consumer help people are good – as are the investigative journalism sites.

Set up a blog or comment on this one.

Consider each call a reminder to take an action to bring about a change in the law and regulation – ending unwarranted calls for everyone. You may learn what I did – that political activity is fun and the skills learned doing this can be applied to other things you care about.

Called because of a legitimate debt
First I can’t make specific recommendations, as individual circumstance is important – as is local law. Also I believe that if you can pay (by either the states or your definition) you should. Sometime circumstances change and you're still called. I can suggest that:

Always be nice – no matter how frustrated and angry you are.

Keep clear records – of call times, issues raised etc

If you’ve been threatened with legal action get a legal opinion. Legal Aid, and legal clinics can be helpful if you can’t afford one directly. As I understand it courts will not make you do without basic necessities – though each province has slightly different rules about what those are. Learn your rights.

Learn how to tape your conversations with the agency – for quality and agreement purposes of course. Don’t hide the fact that you’re taping though – begin every conversation with a simple statement such as “I’m recording this conversation for quality and to ensure I’m clear about what we’ve agreed” Let them decide if they want to talk under such circumstances – if not they can use mail. You may need to check the regulation in your area – but it’s likely that if call centers can record with upfront notice and no beeps you can as well – as long as there is notice and legitimate purpose in recording – like ensuring you’re clear about agreements.

Broken Windows - A Call to Action

Have you ever heard of the ‘broken windows’ approach?

It’s a method of stopping undesirable behaviors that says if you ignore a small incident, like a broken window’ the perpetrator accepts that as ok and escalates. Left unchecked broken windows turn into social behaviors that undermine society.

What does this have to do with automated outbound calling? To me this is a ‘broken window’ for personal privacy and freedom of choice. If we let companies like Canadian Bonded Credit force owners of a phone number to call them because that number somehow was linked to a debtor – we have all lost a little bit of freedom.

It’s like throwing rocks. Kids do it all the time, and have for as long as history. That’s not the problem. The problem starts when responsibility for action gets divorced from its effects.

It’s a choice to choose a window. It’s also a choice to either not check who the number is registered to, or worse to check, know it’s not registered to the debtor, and call repeatedly anyway.

‘Broken windows’ says that forcing responsibility for ones actions is how you change behavior. Treat it as an aberration – a childish mistake or error, as I believe the regulator does, and it’ll grow and morph potentially into something much worse.

What are you going to do when about the broken window?

Why the collections industry needs new regulation

I want to thank Collector Joe for so eloquently expressing why the industry needs regulation. "the vast majority of these debtors are deadbeat scumbags, We have to run our business with a little edge." ( Collector Joe - to see the whole comment click comments under "Response to Joe Collectors comments" two items below).

Collector Joe seems to think that if agencies are constrained in any way from treating every citizen like 'scumbags' deserving of a 'little edge' our economic system will collapse. I don't believe that. I believe that:

• When people who are not debtors are bothered, distressed and harassed by agencies, we need new regulation
• When people who are not debtors are treated like 'scumbags' through repeat calling, we need new regulation
• When people who are not debtors are forced to call an agency they owe nothing to, we need new regulation
• When people who are not debtors have to give up their time to supply readily available information, we need new regulation
• When a 'little edge' means notices returned as incorrectly addressed are ignored, we need new regulation
• When a 'little edge' means using the most invasive methods without simple tests to make sure the number or address currently belongs to a debtors, we need new regulation
• When a 'little edge' means a 170+ calls to a number that's never been used by a debtor, we need new regulation
• When a 'little edge' means continuing to call after being informed the number does not belong to a debtor we need new regulation
  

I believe that agencies owe society a duty of care to make sure they contact only legitimate debtors, and then to only use the most invasive techniques on those that are truly deadbeats. If they won't do that without regulation then we need to change it - because treating every citizen as a 'scumbag' and allowing agencies to take away the freedom of choice and association for people who are not debtors, under the guise of 'a little edge', diminishes society and freedom for everyone.

Read below to learn how to change regulation and stop agencies from treating you as a 'scumbag'.

How we change regulation – Effective Complaints

This site has been indexed by the search engines and I’m starting to get more requests than I can deal with individually so I’m posting these ideas.

Please keep sending your stories though (irresponsiblecalling at gmail dot com), as it’s important to know the extent and type of problems. I’d also like to be able to get in touch to coordinate action as this moves into the public agenda. If we work together we will change regulation, to do that we need to keep the issue in front of the politicians and in the media. Here’s how.

First you need to make a personal decision – is it more important to stop calls to you or is it more important to make sure that you and no-one else gets called repeatedly just because they got a new number, moved or some debtor or data base lists your address as the debtors. If you believe the former phone the agency and request they stop calling you. If you believe the latter (that the company owes you, and society, a duty of care before they call repeatedly), or if the agency calls after you’ve asked them to stop here some steps you can take:

• Focus your effort on government and regulation and phone, email and write them, not the agency. Use each call you receive from the agency as a reminder to do something to stop the practice of calling citizens in ‘error’ and putting the onus on them to fix the mistake.
• Try to complain to the ministry of government services. The web site is http://www.cbs.gov.on.ca/mcbs/english/2452_3fe.htm and the phone number is 416-326-8800 or 1-800-889-9768
• If you’re not satisfied with the ministries service, and/or if you don’t believe the ministry should insist on taking your personal information and giving it an agency, when all that’s needed is the name of the sought person – call your MPP’s constituency office (CO) and get them involved. A link with all MPP’s contact information is here http://olaap.ontla.on.ca/mpp/daCurRdg.do?locale=en&ord=RDG_NAME
  

You’re talking to your MPP now what do you say and do?

• I found in dealing with the ministry that they wanted proof that I’d been called repeatedly. Solution – from that point on I called the constituency office every time the agency called me. I asked what the CO was going to do to stop the calls and insisted that I wasn’t responsible – it was a lack of regulation and process and they’re responsible for that.
• If you do this be pleasant, be nice but be insistent. If you call every time the agency calls everyone quickly gets the message about how distressing repeated calling is, and because CO’s want to help they learn where the roadblocks are. That’s going to be useful later on.
• Remind them that repeated phoning is a criminal offense under Section 372(2) of Canada’s criminal code - unless there is a “lawful purpose”. If you believe, as I do, that even if collections is a lawful purpose is not a blank cheque. Agencies and collection regulation should regognise a duty of care to not harm the uninvolved through 'erronous' repeat calling.

What else can you do:

• Keep me informed. I’d like to track which MPPs are supportive and which are not. As this moves into the public agenda we’ll need to know this.
• Watch for media stories and tell yours when you see one. Call or email but remember to reference the original story so your instance can be put in context.
• Talk to your friends and neighbors – they might be getting or have had calls and being able to demonstrate the extent of the problem increases the pressure
• Write letters to the editor and the local media consumer watchdogs.

This will take time because the government moves slowly – but if we work together we will get regulation that offers more protection and easier resolution than is in place now.