A Reader's Bad Experience with Domain Registrar IntuitiveISP.com

Reader Mike Swope wrote,

I know that many of your readers are web designers or developers, or themselves own one or several domains through assorted registrars. I feel it important to make them aware of at least one registrar's activities and retaliation.

I have upwards of 30 domains registered with IntuitiveISP.com. On or about February 3, one of my past clients, to whom I had sent several notices about his domain expiring, contacted IntuitiveISP.com and managed to talk them into providing him with my username/password combination, granting him full access to all my domain registrations (mix of my own and my clients's domains). At no point was the client told to contact me about his domain, or did IntuitiveISP contact me regarding my past client's request. On February 7, I needed to access my profile account on IntuitiveISP, when I discovered that I could not access my profile. A subsequent phone call and several hours later, IntuitiveISP admitted that they had given my username and password out to an unknown, unverified, unconfirmed individual. That individual had since changed the password to the account. Which is why I could not access my account. Subsequently, IntuitiveISP then sent the new access information to my email address still in the profile. Thankfully, I was able to reset my password again, and the past client had only managed to transfer his domain, for which I had been reminding him to transfer the domain for nearly a year. So no real harm had been done.

I did ask of IntuitiveISP, however, to renew all my domain registrations for one year due to the breach in security and my privacy, and subsequently my client's security and privacy. IntuitiveISP responded that they would only renew 7 domains. I finally agreed that I would accept just 7 domains to be renewed at no charge.

However, I had already determined that I would be transferring my domains to a new registrar. Since I had one customer's domains expiring in just a couple of days, I proceeded to transfer those domains. In the meantime, IntuitiveISP was to have been renewing the 7 domains I had specified the day before, as they had agreed to do.

Now, however, after another day, and a request for confirmation that the 7 domains had been renewed, IntuitiveISP responds that they will not be renewing those 7 domains as they had agreed, because I had transferred domains to another registrar.

I feel that your readers should know about this event, and believe that IntuitiveISP is in serious breach of agreements to be a registrar. I will be following up with this promptly, as well as researching potential legal ramifications of the security and privacy breach.