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They never had a real "no bullshit" policy. When I had my domains with them, I had been asked to verify my identity 34 times in 12 months. 34 separate fucking t

by Operyl 7y ago

They never had a real "no bullshit" policy. When I had my domains with them, I had been asked to verify my identity 34 times in 12 months. 34 separate fucking times. Because "ICANN says so" or some stupid shit (their words, not mine). It stopped the moment I moved to Google Domains, where they asked once and never again. EDIT: And, to make things worse, each time I was threatened with the "confiscation" of my domain, and the round trip on the tickets was so high that each instance took 2-3 days to resolve. Frustrating as hell.

capableweb 7y ago
Since you're giving a anecdote, let me do the same. I have about 30-40 domains with Gandi, and have been using it for about ten years. I don't remember ever verifying my identity, but guess I most have done it at least once. I have not been asked to verify anything for at least the last five years of using it. Disclaimer: I don't work there or have any relationship, except I'm a happy customer
- Operyl 7y ago
  It was a matter of them refusing to keep my identity on file, and the threatening tone of each ticket. It grew tiresome quickly.
  - capableweb 7y ago
    Sounds more like a bug than anything. Why would they want to not make it easier for you if they can? Seems you missed my point though. Both of our anecdotes doesn't really say anything, in terms of if Gandi is good or bad.
    - smnrchrds 7y ago
      His anecdote does say something though. It suggests that Gandi has a "if we have a bug, it's your problem not ours, sucks to be you" policy, which is exactly what has happened with this data loss issue as well. Actions speak louder than words. Google famously has a "we don't have bugs, you just don't know how to use it, talk to the hand" policy for example. It is better to learn about the policies due to minor issues rather than major. OP learned of it early on and moved away with little trouble. Others did not learn until now and stayed, and now they are SOL.
      - Operyl 7y ago
        I’m a gal, but exactly. I really wanted to support a company at the time who was supporting the community (they were a freenode sponsor), but I just hated dealing with the stress and potential that my domains could just disappear over night.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
- benhurmarcel 7y ago
  Same, I've been using Gandi for DNS and email for 9 years, without any issue or request on their side.
dorfsmay 7y ago
On the other hand, i've started using them more for DNS because the one time I forgot my password (typo in password manager I think) they made it very difficult for me to reset it, asked for pieces of ID, phone number registered in my name etc... This is at the time of the stories of other registrars giving customer second and third chances to guess their PIN, or credit card or whatever mechanism they had, and resulting in domain hijacking.
- ryanlol 7y ago
  > asked for pieces of ID This is annoying for everyone but the adversary who can just spend $50 to buy a set of fake ids with your info. Especially since Gandi doesn’t store your old IDs, they aren’t even going to check if the info on the fakes matches the ones you provided previously. > phone number registered in my name I can’t imagine this working very well, just give them a number from a country where they can’t verify who owns the number.
gruez 7y ago
>They never had a real "no bullshit" policy. When I had my domains with them, I had been asked to verify my identity 34 times in 12 months. 34 separate fucking times. Because "ICANN says so" or some stupid shit (their words, not mine). Can you elaborate what the "verification" entails? There is an ICANN requirement[1] to validate whois information, although I've only been asked to validate email (at another registar, not ghandi). [1] https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en#whois-accuracy https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-20...
- Operyl 7y ago
  Wanted photos of passports, but they would always reject the first one for an unknown reason. The second one would always go through, but I do not understand why they wouldn’t just keep it on file. It was more than twice a months usually, and that was absurd.
ljm 7y ago
Jeez. Like most experiences I suppose, it's hit and miss. They've promptly resolved every problem I've had and I've bought plenty of domains through them. They're still my go-to provider.
ryanlol 7y ago
Gandi was deploying the ID verification as a bullying tactic long before anything like that was mandated by ICANN. (Not that ID verification is even mandated now)

by Operyl 7y ago

capableweb 7y ago

Since you're giving a anecdote, let me do the same. I have about 30-40 domains with Gandi, and have been using it for about ten years. I don't remember ever verifying my identity, but guess I most have done it at least once. I have not been asked to verify anything for at least the last five years of using it. Disclaimer: I don't work there or have any relationship, except I'm a happy customer

Operyl 7y ago
It was a matter of them refusing to keep my identity on file, and the threatening tone of each ticket. It grew tiresome quickly.
- capableweb 7y ago
  Sounds more like a bug than anything. Why would they want to not make it easier for you if they can? Seems you missed my point though. Both of our anecdotes doesn't really say anything, in terms of if Gandi is good or bad.
  - smnrchrds 7y ago
    His anecdote does say something though. It suggests that Gandi has a "if we have a bug, it's your problem not ours, sucks to be you" policy, which is exactly what has happened with this data loss issue as well. Actions speak louder than words. Google famously has a "we don't have bugs, you just don't know how to use it, talk to the hand" policy for example. It is better to learn about the policies due to minor issues rather than major. OP learned of it early on and moved away with little trouble. Others did not learn until now and stayed, and now they are SOL.
    - Operyl 7y ago
      I’m a gal, but exactly. I really wanted to support a company at the time who was supporting the community (they were a freenode sponsor), but I just hated dealing with the stress and potential that my domains could just disappear over night.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
benhurmarcel 7y ago
Same, I've been using Gandi for DNS and email for 9 years, without any issue or request on their side.

dorfsmay 7y ago

On the other hand, i've started using them more for DNS because the one time I forgot my password (typo in password manager I think) they made it very difficult for me to reset it, asked for pieces of ID, phone number registered in my name etc... This is at the time of the stories of other registrars giving customer second and third chances to guess their PIN, or credit card or whatever mechanism they had, and resulting in domain hijacking.

ryanlol 7y ago
> asked for pieces of ID This is annoying for everyone but the adversary who can just spend $50 to buy a set of fake ids with your info. Especially since Gandi doesn’t store your old IDs, they aren’t even going to check if the info on the fakes matches the ones you provided previously. > phone number registered in my name I can’t imagine this working very well, just give them a number from a country where they can’t verify who owns the number.

gruez 7y ago

>They never had a real "no bullshit" policy. When I had my domains with them, I had been asked to verify my identity 34 times in 12 months. 34 separate fucking times. Because "ICANN says so" or some stupid shit (their words, not mine). Can you elaborate what the "verification" entails? There is an ICANN requirement[1] to validate whois information, although I've only been asked to validate email (at another registar, not ghandi). [1] https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-2013-09-17-en#whois-accuracy https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-specs-20...

Operyl 7y ago
Wanted photos of passports, but they would always reject the first one for an unknown reason. The second one would always go through, but I do not understand why they wouldn’t just keep it on file. It was more than twice a months usually, and that was absurd.

ljm 7y ago

Jeez. Like most experiences I suppose, it's hit and miss. They've promptly resolved every problem I've had and I've bought plenty of domains through them. They're still my go-to provider.

ryanlol 7y ago

Gandi was deploying the ID verification as a bullying tactic long before anything like that was mandated by ICANN. (Not that ID verification is even mandated now)