Getting an expired domain back

[HelenLF]

I don't know if this is the correct forum for this question but here goes...
I have a client with a .com domain which has expired.
She uses it to redirect to her .co.uk domain - mainly to protect her brand but also for the email address.

The company the domain was registered with went out of business moved all their domains to Extendnet. When the domain was due for renewal, the emails reminders from Extendnet went into her spam folder and were deleted before she saw them. The domain expired and when she noticed two weeks later she logged into her control panel only to find the domain renewal button was disabled. She has tried contacting Extendnet 5 times with no success and the worry is that they will sell the domain on. Is there anything else she can do?
Would it help for her to pre-order the domain from another company or is there a governing body that could sort this out?

[rch1231]

Normaly the domain names become availaable around 2 weeks after they expire. I would try going to their site and getting the account re-establshed but they say on their terms site that they keep the names for 2 weeks.

[HelenLF]

We've tried going to their site but they have disabled all the links that let you renew and they are not answering their support tickets. We've even emailed and still no joy. Nominet gave me a tel number and this just tells you that they don't take calls. What a bunch! I've had clients who let their domains expire before and the providers have always been really helpful.

[msagilliam1]

Hi HelenF,

From what I understand there is an initial 30 to 45 day grace period during which the owner of a recently expired domain can renew without much penalty or hassle. However, since all attempts to contact the registrar have not yielded any success, your client will likely not regain control of said domain during this period. After this 45 days has expired, there exists another period called RGP (Redemption Grace Period) which lasts for another 30 days. This is sort of a post-expiration / pre-deletion period where the the name will be scrubbed (the WHOIS info will eventually be deleted and the domain will remain inactive). The domain can still technically be renewed by the registrant during this period but it will be at a substantial cost compared to the intial registration fee. (I'm not sure what governing body would need to be contacted to obtain the name during this period...it may or may not be the original registrar.) After this scrubbing period ends, the WHOIS information will eventually say "pending delete". When you see this, the domain name will be deleted from the registry in exactly 5 days and it become available for your client to register again.

If your client doesn't want to chance this 75 - 80 day waiting game, consider using a dropcatcher service who will backorder the domain name or try to purchase it on behalf of your client at auction if there are others competing for it.

I hope this helps!