If you tried to visit my website (outside of it popping up on Reader), you may have received a connection lost message over the last few weeks.  This is also why there was no blog post last Friday.  I have been doing battle and THIS is my tale!

The Villain

Sit awhile as I tell you a tale… a tale of broken hearts, blood vengeance, and deadly journeys full of snaklewomps and fuzzilurges!

LOL Okay, it’s not going to be THAT good.

I have had my domain name for years with a specific company (a company that used to be great but is now dog-poo).  Let’s call them X, they are the villain.

So my domain name actually expired in 2021 and when I tried to renew I couldn’t get any reply from X.  However, the domain name was still working.  I continued to try and contact them and raised support tickets but nothing happened.

As the website continued to work, I left sleeping snaklewomps lie.  Big mistake!

Then a few weeks ago, my website started showing error messages, that it wasn’t connecting.  I visited X and found a red notice saying they were having server issues.

Foolishly thinking that activity had once more returned to the heart of X, I tried to contact them again, asking for them to unlock the domain name so I could transfer it.  I was even happy to renew it first and THEN transfer.  Again… silence.

The Reviews

I scoured online, searching for all and sundry who may know what was happening and ended up on a review site that absolutely tore into this once noble company.

Everyone was saying the same thing, had been great then suddenly the guy who ran it just seemed to no longer bother and hadn’t kept up with his customers’ requests.

However, it seemed like some renewal requests had been sent out, been paid for only for the service to not materialise and refunds were scarce.

I’m glad I wasn’t one of those at least!

However, a good samaritan on the review site mentioned that they had gone to another company (let’s call the company Y), who was the actual registrar of their domain name and had managed to get their domain transferred.  I checked and Y was my registrar too!  Huzzah!

Now, my domain had expired and I couldn’t renew it because of villainous X.  But still, I hoped and so I reached out to Y anyway.

The First Hero

I jumped on chat, explained everything to Y and they kindly raised a ticket.  They would reach out to X (light the beacons of Gondor) and if they didn’t get a response they would pull back the domain.

So I had to wait a week while they gave X time to reply.  Again, no reply.  Now, Y just needed to confirm my ID and that I was the owner of the domain to transfer it.

Then we hit a snag.

Apparently, the ID listed against the domain didn’t match my current address.  Villainous X had not updated my details any time I had moved and updated my info with them.  Since I’ve lived in 4 different places and had 2 different emails since that time I had no idea what info they had against the domain.

Y couldn’t accept “old” documentation, even if it showed I lived at these different addresses.  So I was stuck, drifting along a river with torn sail and no oars…

Y suggested I reach out to Z and gave me a link to a long and arduous journey (process).  Now, Z is a domain name registry and the details they hold against my domain name don’t match what is true.

So, I picked up my thoroughly-worn out motivation and headed for Z

The Second Hero

I am all for following directions… mostly.  But when I looked at the journey (uncomfortably long and somewhat unhelpful process) I was meant to take, I thought, screw that! and instead went on a side-quest.

And I jumped on Chat!  (seriously, there has been so much peopling throughout this whole ordeal digitally done but still)

As per my normal method, I started to type out the harrowing journey I had been on thus far, regaling them with foes I have faced, hardships overcome…

Then my brain kicked in, I deleted all that without sending and simply asked a few questions.  I wanted to be clear WHO should have updated my details.

The answer – X

What could I do if that hadn’t happened and villainous X was secluded in a shadowy castle refusing to answer summons?

I could log in to Z and do it myself!  Brilliant!  Except I have no details of login for this company so I wasn’t connected to my registered domain (that I was aware of) and if I was, it was with an old unaccessible email address.

The shrewd chat guy was unfazed by the fact that my domain had expired, or that Y said my details were wrong – he said I could get access if I followed another journey (process).  But NOT the long and arduous one I first thought.

Was I truly ready to try a different journey? To walk a different path?

The Journey

Could it really be true?  Could a simpler process actually let me regain the lost domain name and save my website!  I’ll be honest, I was sceptical!

But I set out by filling in a simple form and then I waited.  Oh, the waiting.  THE WAITING!… actually it was only like 3 hours and I got a reply.

I had to send a letter with certain details including why my details might be different to what was registered.  With trembling fingers, I picked up my quill…. lol no, I typed it in Word, what is the 19th century?

I put everything I thought relevant into the letter, X’s villainous deeds, Y’s desperate attempts to help, the many places I had called home… you get the idea.  Threw in some ID (because they asked me to)

Then I waited.  OH, THE WAITIN… Nope, once again it was just a few hours and…

Huzzah!

Z returned with confirmation that I had been proven worthy (I was who I said I was), and I was given access to change my details to the correct ones.

I hurried back to Y victorious!  They had closed my ticket but I was undeterred and so… opened another and asked for my transfer to be completed and then the long wait bega…

Nope, within 1 hour they had come back, said it was all good and transferred my domain.

The Journey’s End

I renewed my domain, everything clicked into place and within a few minutes my website’s connection was fixed, thus once more directing curious travellers to the correct place should they click a hearty link or search the interweb for lost treasures and stumble across this site.

It is a tale as old as time… keep an eye on everything because you will be surprised how things can go a*s up if you aren’t paying attention.

~ ~ ~

In case you hadn’t realised, this was a big frustration for me (I was dealing with this while also suffering from flu which did not add to my mood) but now it’s fixed I am feeling extremely happy and giddy, hence the silly post I decided to share. 

In case you wondered why I went through 2 weeks of chasing, pushing and almost begging to get my domain back, renewed and connected rather than just buying a new, slightly different one.  My domain name is EVERYWHERE – it’s on social media, it’s on every title graphic I use on this website, on all my pins on Pinterest and on every podcast episode description as well as on blogs I’ve been interviewed on.

If I lost this domain and had to get a new one… I’d have had a ton of broken links.  And also, more importantly, I like this domain name and I wanted to keep it 🙂

Happy writing & stay safe

I write articles on writing, marketing, blogging, organising, social media, books and some random stuff.  I also create free printable resources.  If you find my content helpful, and entertaining and like what I do, consider supporting me on ko-fi (where you will also find extra content I post).  All tips go to keeping my website running and helping me move towards publishing my novels.

Source: Images courtesy of Pixabay and Canva