In February 2005, the "IN" TLD was opened to registrations. In the weeks
preceding the opening, a number of registrars were accepting pre-orders
for .IN domains, the idea being that they would submit the requests once
the registry was opened. I wanted to register oryx.in, and I chose to
use Net4India as registrar.
I submitted the pre-order and tried to pay the required INR4500 (500 for
processing fees and 4000 for two years' registration charges) by credit
card, but the transaction failed; and instead, I paid in person at their
office by cash. I got a receipt, and was told that my registration would
be processed.
A few days after the opening, I noticed that the domain had not yet been
registered. I received no response to my mail asking why not. I tried to
register the domain using another registrar (Key Systems), and was able
to do so, thus proving that my registration had not even been processed.
I received no response to followup inquiries either. An ex-employee of
Net4India gave me the email address of a director, to whom I addressed a
complaint. He forwarded it to someone in the customer support department
who asked me for the details of the case, but did not get in touch with
me again, or respond to my mail over the next few months.
I sought legal advice, but lacked the time, money, and energy to follow
the suggested course of serving notice and attending the consumer court.
By early 2006, I had given up hope of ever recovering my money, and was
reminded of the incident only by the occasional spam that was sent to
the throwaway address that I'd used to communicate with the company.
In early 2009, by some monumental coincidence, someone from the company
posted to a mailing list I'm on, asking for some help. I replied to the
effect that I'd be happy to help if he could help me get a refund, and
to my amazement, he did so within a week. (I got only INR4000, because
the processing fee was non-refundable. Given that they hadn't actually
done any processing… but after three years, I didn't want to quibble.)
I am extremely grateful for the prompt and courteous assistance I
received.
But I'm afraid I cannot recommend Net4India as a domain registrar.