[Hidden-tech] Information on Gaia Host - Has anyone taken them to court?

[Anne Campbell]

Hi all,

I'm late to the party, but I do have a little more information to share on
the Gaia Host issue. I've had several clients who have recently wrestled
ownership of their domain names back from Gaia Host.

First - as far as I know, Gaia Host has never been a top-level domain name
registrar. They were a reseller for GoDaddy. I believe they had a
white-labeled GoDaddy reseller account, but then let the reseller account
lapse - so that's why some people have noticed that their domain registrar
has mysteriously changed from Gaia Host to Wild West Domains. Wild West is
simply an alias for GoDaddy's reseller division.

Two of my clients have managed to transfer their domain names to their own
registrar account in recent weeks. They both had success with the same
method: they called Charles Strader Sweethill at a phone number I dug up
from the depths of the Interwebs and told him they were considering legal
action. In both cases, Charles unlocked the domain names and sent them the
authorization code within a couple of days. (One of them actually got an
email within half an hour of leaving a voice message.)

I hesitate to share the phone number publicly because I don't feel
comfortable with doxxing - but perhaps you can do your own Googling or
write to me privately.

It's really sad and unfortunate that a formerly reliable local company has
disintegrated in a way that's left so many clients in a tight spot.

I don't say this to make anyone feel embarrassed, but - please, please
always register your domain names yourself, in your own name and with your
own contact information! If you rely on your Web designer, your
brother-in-law, or your dry cleaner to do it for you, they may drop the
ball at best, or at worst, purposely hold your domain name hostage. It's a
giant pain in the neck, and I've seen it happen to far too many clients.

-Anne

-- 
Anne Campbell (she/her)
info at annecampbelldesign.com
https://annecampbelldesign.com/
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