One of Gisol’s tactics is to make sure that your domain is not renewed. You usually don’t know anything about it until your website disappears.

When this happens, it will be in the redemption period, and they will probably get you to sign up for a new contract, quote you a small renewal fee, then charge as much as they can to your card. Gisol will usually be the registrant of the domain, not you.

You can check what status your domain name is in by searching at DomainTools.

• The grace period should start immediately after your domain expires. It lasts for 30 days. You have access to your website and emails during this time. During this period, if you are the domain registrant, you can pay the normal renewal fee to the registrar.

• The redemption period is a 30 day period, starting after the grace period. During this time, you have not got access to your website or emails. You can get it back by paying your registrar an ICANN fee of $99.95 plus your normal renewal fee. Again, this is if you are the registrant. Gisol may want to charge a lot more than this.

• PendingDelete is usually 5 days long and starts after the redemption period. In these 5 days, nobody has access to the domain, not even the registrar, and there is no way of stopping it being deleted.

• Usually, you will be able to re-register your domain name in the normal way on the 65th day after it expired. (Don’t register it through Gisol! Like you was going to. LOL)

You can check with the registrar of your domain as to when it will enter PendingDelete status. Allindomains (now www.dotster.com) was the registrar of my domain that Gisol registered in their name. I gave them a call, and after I explained the situation they gave me the info - they were fine with me. They apparently don’t like Gisol and have refused to do business with them. (What a surprise!) The lady on the phone said it was something to do with the amount of unhappy Gisol customers they had phoning them. (Another surprise!)

• When the pending delete period is over (ie it has been deleted), your domain becomes available for anyone to buy. Unfortunately, there a lot of people/companies (domainers or cybersquatters) out there that register domains as soon as they are deleted. They either hold it for advertising, or if it is a valuable name they will try to sell on for a profit.

• Here’s your problem…. You may lose out to one of these companies.

Fortunately, there are things you can do.

• You can register your interest in a “backorder” service before deletion. They try to snap up the domain as soon as it is available, on your behalf. Beware though, as some just send them straight to auction. Prices range from $50 to $100. If it goes to auction, usually you can enter a maximum bid. (Like ebay)

• GoDaddy’s backorder service is useful, although it isn’t quite so good at snapping up the domain immediately after delete. If an advertiser (cybersquatter) gets it, they may get rid of it after a few days (domain tasting) if it doesn’t get any traffic. GoDaddy will keep trying to get it and may do after a few days. This service costs $18.99, but you have to pay upfront. You can use it again if they don’t get your name. They are not as good at getting it straight after deletion, but they do keep trying.

You can contact me for further details of recommended backorder services by using my Contact page, or leaving a detailed comment below.

Good Luck!