Complaint Review: DomainBroadcasting.com - DomainAnnounce.com - Berlin

We were taken by surprise by this report. Of the thousands of account holders who have registered with us in the past five years, this is the first time that we have been indicated as a fraudulent or dishonest company. When questions or problems arose, these were amicably settled. Our users, nearly all professionals themselves, stood by us during our growing pains, and as we experienced the inevitable downtime due to the need to install new servers, fix technical problems, or otherwise make improvements. Following is some information regarding our services, account plans, and statistics. In response to the report posted on this website, we also include statistics indicative of customer satisfaction, and information on our refunds policy. We hope that this information is useful for current and potential customers. Why Should I Book an Account at DomainAnnounce or DomainBroadcasting? Domain Name Reporting: No Guarantees of What Will Become Free Reporting Statistics The Difference Between DomainAnnounce And DomainBroadcasting Account Plans DomainBroadcasting DomainAnnounce Customer Satisfaction Renewed Subscriptions Refunds Policy Why Should I Book an Account at DomainAnnounce or DomainBroadcasting? There are countless numbers of services when it comes to domain names and moreover, there are numerous domains expiring daily. We do not report all domains and other services do not report all of our domains! The content and timing of the information published is unique to our respective services. The compilation of the released domains at DomainAnnounce is available exclusively through DomainAnnounce. The same holds true for DomainBroadcasting. Domain name reporting: No guarantees of what will become free We cannot guarantee a certain number of domains. For example, one day 300 domains may come through the system for .be domains followed by the possibility of absolutely no domains scanning on the tracker during the next week. Please see our statistics page for an actual snapshot of domains we report: http://www.domainbroadcasting.com/stats.php?lang=en http://www.domainannounce.com/stats.php The average number of deleted domains announced by DomainAnnounce in the last 30 days: 2535. Domains announced in the last 24 hours: 2191(Statistics from May 6, 2009) The average number of deleted domains announced by DomainBroadcasting in the last 30 days: 1644 (average value last 30 days). Broadcasted in the last 24 hours: 1346 (Statistics from May 6, 2009) The difference between DomainAnnounce and DomainBroadcasting DomainAnnounce and DomainBroadcasting are owned and operated by the same company. The services on the sites are different. DomainAnnounce is actually located in North America while results for DomainBroadcasting are coming from continental Europe, thus bringing faster access for European customers. In addition, the databases are different so results for each service are different. For instance, if there is a high profile domain reported on DomainBroadcasting, it will probably not be reported on DomainAnnounce. This is because minutes after the domain was published, it will have been re-registered by a customer. Thus, it will not be reported on the other site. Furthermore, there is no expired service at DomainBroadcasting but on the other hand there are more URLs offered compared to DomainAnnounce. And finally, prices are in Euros while DomainAnnounce services are offered in US-Dollars. Account plans offered by DomainBroadcasting and DomainAnnounce Both services offer tiered level accounts for users with different needs. Customers unfamiliar with our services are advised in our FAQ to first choose a lower level or basic account to test the service, and subsequently upgrade. DomainBroadcasting Account Plans: DomainBroadcasting offers three different account plans. The Premium account is geared towards professional users who wish to see results from all TLDs. The Professional account and Basic accounts are less expensive, offering results from fewer TLDs and fewer active word search requests and number of domains monitored. From the DomainBroadcasting FAQ: 2.5 Can I book the Premium Account for just one month? No. This Account is designed for active users who would like to use our service regularly and for longer. In order to offer attractive pricing, we must limit expenditure for extensions, payment tracking, activations, bookings, etc. The minimum validity period has therefore been set to 6 months and cannot be changed manually, even in individual cases. Customers who would like to test our service should first choose the Basic Account and subsequently upgrade. DomainAnnounce Account Plans: DomainAnnounce also offers three different account plans. The First Level account is geared towards professional users. The Second Level and Third Level accounts are less expensive, but offer fewer services. From the DomainAnnounce FAQ: 2.5 I am new and am interested in the 1st Level Account. Can I book it for just one month? No. This Account is designed for business users who would like to use our service regularly and for longer. In order to offer attractive pricing, we must limit expenditure for extensions, payment tracking, activations, bookings, etc. The minimum validity period has therefore been set to 6 months and cannot be changed manually, even in individual cases. Customers who would like to test our service should first choose the 3rd Level Account and subsequently upgrade. Customer Satisfaction Over half of our customers of DomainBroadcasting service are Premium Account holders (our top account valid for 6 months). About 66% of these customers have renewed their Premium Account service, or have upgraded to a Premium Account from Professional or Basic accounts. The majority of new DomainAnnounce customers choose the basic $19 Third Level account, valid for 2 months, or a mid-level $49 Second Level account valid for three months. Typically, our customers follow the advice in the FAQ and choose one of the lower level accounts and then later upgrade to a First Level account, which is valid for 6 months and costs $89. Currently, approximately half of our registered First Level account holders are returning customers. Refunds Policy: It is our policy to issue neither partial refunds nor full refunds for DomainAnnounce and DomainBroadcasting accounts once accounts are activated and utilized. This is to discourage users who order top level accounts and subsequently cancel and request a refund as soon as they encounter the information they seek. This policy was put in place in the interest of fairness to all customers. Accounts are not subscriptions, they are a complete service package and are not temporally divisible. Accounts are not automatically renewed. To remain competitive, we have given deep discounts on all of our accounts. This means that the more expensive accounts not only offer a higher level of services, but also in most cases cost less per month than lower level accounts. For example, a Basic Account at domainbroadcasting.com costs EUR 19.00 for a one month subscription. A Premium Account costs EUR 89.00 for an account with a six month validity. This breaks down to EUR 14.83 per month. Users are advised to order our lower level basic accounts if they would like to try our services, before ordering an account with a longer validity (and a higher level of services). All accounts are purchased at the customer's own risk.