[Comment-Dnso] Re: Registry Pre-payment?

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Kent and all,

Kent Crispin wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 08, 1999 at 05:20:44PM +0100, Mark Goodge wrote:
> > At 08:02 08/06/99 -0700, Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
> > >
> > >Can we discuss this a bit? Because, I guess I stand corrected. What is
> > >wrong with paying for a domain name at the time of registration? By what
> > >possible reason is collecting the fees, at the time of placing an order,
> > >a wrong thing? As a businessman, I don't understand this concept.
> >
> > As an individual, purchasing a service, that's not really a problem. I pay
> > by credit card at Amazon or wherever, nd I don't have any problem with that.
> >
> > But when I buy something on behalf of my employer, I can't do that. My job
> > is technical; we have a separate department that handles the accounts. I
> > don't have a company credit card or any way to pay for domains online.
>
> No problem.  You contact your registrar; order the domain; he sends
> your employer a bill; when he receives payment from your employers
> accounts payable, the domain goes live.

  Not good enough!  Bad business!  But than again considering the source,
this sort of response should be expected.

>
>
> > In
> > any case, we register domains for our customers and don't charge them, the
> > billing details are set to the customer. If we were to be charged upfront
> > for every domain we register, then we would need to bill the customer
> > accordingly. That increases our costs, and hence those of our customers.
>
> No problem -- you simply proceed as always, and tell your customer
> that their domain will go live when they pay for it, and if they
> don't hurry and pay, someone else may get the domain.

  This is not proceeding as always.  With NSI I don't need to wait
until they receive payment before my domain goes live.

>
>
> > The business world doesn't work on prepayment. Thirty/sixty day invoices
> > and credit accounts are the normal procedure, and I don't see any reason
> > for domain registries to be different.
>
> On the contrary -- the business world frequently *does* run on
> prepayment, unless you have an established credit history.

  Yes at a discount gas station maybe.  but not on any kind of
normal basis in business that I am aware of in my 25 years
of doing business.

> If you
> have an established account with your registrar, they probably will
> credit -- it would be a value added for their good customers.  With
> the ad hoc individual off the street, though, they probably would
> demand prepayment.

  NSI doesn't and rightfully so.  Again such a statement is just another
indication of how little you know about how business really works.
Hell, I can buy a car in many places with NO credit history.  I have done
it myself twice.  And if I wanted to I could do it again today...

>
>
> > >> I have always stood where I stand now.  Prepayment presents more
> > >> problems than it solves.  The problems it purports to solve are not
> > >> significant enough to warrant the ones it would cause.
> > >
> > >It solves a large problem, it is called revenue stream, aka cash-flow.
> >
> > For the registrar, yes. For the customer, it's a pain. If prepayment for
> > individuals was in parallel with credit accounts for approved corporate
> > clients, then it would be OK. Realistically, if any registrar doesn't offer
> > credit accounts to corporate customers, then they will lose business to
> > those that do. That's their call, in the final analysis.
>
> Of course.  They have to trade off the cost of collecting from
> deadbeats with the cost of lost business because they don't extend
> credit, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER BUSINESS IN THE WORLD.  Prepayment at
> the registry level is simply not the big deal that people are making
> it out to be.

  I think that many of us have not provided ample evidence that is in
stark disagreement with this statement...

>
>
> --
> Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
> kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number:  972-447-1894
Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208