Verio offers domain-name registration for about $10, so when a couple of my domains came up for renewal I decided to ditch the hated Network Solutions and renew with Verio. After filling out the on-line forms and completing the "transaction", I received confirmation messages from Verio stating that everything had been successful and welcoming me to Verio.
A month or so later, I discovered that Verio had never renewed the registrations. They had both lapsed, and the most valuable of the two had already been seized by someone else.
Verio's strategy in all of this is to deny that I signed up for domain registration and claim that I signed up for a product called "D.N.R. Site Saver." However, this is a fictional product, which does not appear anywhere on their Web site or in the "confirmation" E-mails they sent me.
I filed a complaint with the Colorado Better Business Bureau, which followed up with Verio. I submitted a detailed report with screen shots of every step in Verio's so-called registration process, complete with Verio Web pages entitled "Domain Name Registration."
The BBB followed up with Verio, which got its lawyer involved. Verio attempted to undermine my case by temporarily taking down the fraudulent Web pages, but they didn't count on my having captured them already. Verio also went so far as to create fake documents and send them to the BBB, showing a supposed order form with their fictional product name on it. But if you look at the document, their supposed order form is clearly a screen shot of an internal Windows app and not even a Web page. Thus, it couldn't have been my Web-submitted order.
Verio has compounded its offense by restoring the fraudulent Web pages after their unsuccessful attempt to blunt my complaint to the BBB.
Avoid Verio, because they have adopted the increasingly popular business principle of "whatever we can get away with."
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