CertifiedOffer is a service of NetworkSolutions which sends offer of the buyer to the owner of taken domains. You choose the domain, NS gets $19 and then sends your offer to email which as NS support swears is different from WHOIS (assuming there is no privacy protect).

We at Reggi.Ru have been asked to support in purchasing a domain which was registered through NetworkSolutions (NS). In WHOIS database there was – and is – information that is absolutely outdated. If you try to send an email you will promptly get an error message. Of course, it is natural as given address is standard university student email created not long before domain registration year – 1996. Having this in mind, we made certified offer on May 8 through NetworkSolutions. Frankly saying, it is better to check whether everything is fine with your orders even you made it to the best of the best. Remebering frontrunning issue couple of month ago, we gave a call to NS support. The most important part in this conversation is :

» – No, Sir. Email in WHOIS and email we have on this account of domain owner are different. I cannot tell it to you, but it is just different.
- Are you sure? So, you mean data in WHOIS and what you have is not the same?
- Sure, Sir.
-So I can make an offer..mmm..certified offer, and you will send it to the email that you HAVE, right?
-Exactly, Sir….»

A week passed and we got the message from NS saying that domain owner did not respond to the offer, presumably, he/she refused. Maybe, it is fine when you know the company communicates with the owner through different channel, some special one that noone else but NS can use.

We have tried to check this assumption. On May 13 Jennifer, a member of support staff of NS was a bit shocked by my reaction as she informed that NS sent our offer to the same email as in WHOIS database. She kindly transfered my call to Jessica Barr (her supervisor with ID 019) and Ms Barr explained me that a) NS is not responsible for keeping WHOIS data actual b) yes, NS sent email to THAT address which more than 7 yrs does not exist. Jessica was also ’surprised’ at the issue when we had managed to explain her that NetworkSolutions could have sent emails either to Mars or Venera with the same result.

She promised me that CertifiedOffer team would call me next business day. Well, punctuality is not about NS. They did not call even the day after, and we again called NS. Cyrel (ID 001, another very polite but totally ineffective support team meber) once more explained that a) yes, NS sent email to address shown in WHOIS and b) nothing can be done as owner got the email (how?) and money will not be refunded.

I think NS is good at sending emails to nowhere. Or to Mars? Cannot say anything exactly. What is figured out that NS is very good at getting paid for nothing. Maybe I am wrong but NetworkSolutions is not in NASA program of connecting with aliens. Do you want to pay for this?