Re: What is in a name ? And who should it be registered for ?

by "Chuck McGee, Jr." <cmj(at)airmail.net>

 Date:  Fri, 26 Jun 1998 13:19:52 -0500
 To:  hwg-theory(at)hwg.org
 In-Reply-To:  gov
  todo: View Thread, Original
As a person that has registered a number of domains in the name of the
client, my point of view would be ...

At 04:00 PM 6/26/98 +0000, Nic Carter-Jones wrote:
>
>I recently had a client who was about to sign a contract for web work and
they kept putting off the signing for one reason or another this involved
several trips too and fro by our sales people.
>
IMO, this is the cost of new business.  Very rarely can you expect to get
paid for *everything* you do to try and land the business.  (ie.. travel,
meetings, cost of materials to produce the proposal/bid, entertainment ...
etc.)

>I then had a phone call from them saying that they wanted to go ahead and
we could sign at the end of the week but in the meantime could we please
make sure their name did not get taken by registering it on their behalf,
place it on a pseudo server and get some pages with keywords up to index
the pages.
>
This is a common request from my clients ... actually, I usually do it from
the very beginning and then transfer at the end of development.

>This we dutifully did and had 20 pages on a pseudo server under their name
within 1 day.  Because they had not signed the contract I registered the
name IN OUR NAME AS THE BILL PAYER AND ADMINISTRATOR.
>
This is a bit too much.  What I would do in this situation is to register
the domain in their name (what can I do with it) listing myself as the
ADMIN, TECH and BILLING.  But to work up 20 pages is quite excessive and I
would consider it a loss.  All you would have needed to do is stick up a
temporary (15 minute) page with some predefined keywords and description
and be done with it.

You do this in good faith ... but don't go to great lengths to put up 20
pages ... I'm sorry, but everyone learns from mistakes ... this one is
worth noting for future use.

>Low and behold the day after that one of my competitors rang me and said
he was sorry [sure !] but he had taken over the web contract and as I had
not done much work could they pay me what it cost to register the name.
When I told them that we wanted all of our costs back including time wasted
preparing the pages, our sales peoples time etc.  We were told they would
give us 100 UK pounds for the name register and charges - this equates to
about 140 dollars [I think].
>
You bid on a project and lost.  That happens.  Take what they are willing
to give you and let it be ... if you only just recently registered the
domain, then transfer it over to them and let them be responsible for the
payment.  As far as the 20 pages, well ... that's a loss (chalk it up as
experience).  The time for sales would have to be absorbed as the cost of
doing business.

>What I need to know is:
>
>1. HOW WRONG DO YOU FEEL IT IS TO REGISTER A CLIENTS NAME WITH YOU
REGISTERED AS 'REGISTERED FOR' - BEARING IN MIND YOU HAVE BEEN ASKED TO
TOTALLY ADMINISTRATE THE NAME.
>
I don't feel wrong in the least.  How much of your time does it take to
register a domain .... 5 minutes.  How long does it take to make a change
or transfer ... same amount.  I've never billed, outright, the registering
of a domain ... if I were to win the contract, I would absorb the cost of
those five minutes in development costs.

However, I would not turn over any of the content.  You were asked to
facilitate the registration and to provide temporary content as a
placeholder ... next time ... don't develop 20 pages without contractual
arrangements.

That's my opinion,

cmj


------------Web Site Development & Consulting-----------
Chuck McGee, Jr.	http://web2.airmail.net/cmj/
---------------Member of HTML Writers Guild----------------
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