Something happened to remind me of a story from a few years ago…

Back when the internet was new, we bought a domain name for use by the business.  We developed a website and built traffic to the point where it became a significant selling tool and source of information to our customers.

Back when we bought the name, it wasn’t as easy as it is today.  GoDaddy wasn’t around and it was helpful to have the help of someone with some experience.

I employed a local web developer who had previously done a great job managing our network.

After the site was developed, I lost touch with him when I hired someone internally to further develop our websites.

Years went by and I discovered that we needed to renew our domain name (we must have paid for 5 years initially). If not renewed by a certain date we would lose it.

The registrar would not renew directly with me (even tough my name was on the ownership of the site) and said only the original registering person could handle the renewal.

For weeks I tried to find our guy without luck.  Then one day I learned some sad news… he had died.

I called the registrar back and they instructed me to send a notarized letter - which I did.

Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, several certified letters and a couple of fedex’s went by without luck.

Finally, the day before our registration was due to become available to others, I got the highest level manager on the phone and he said he would help me if I could answer one question… what is the name of your dog?

Turns out that was the question our guy had used for password recovery.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know and my guy was in no position to tell me.

The registrar showed no mercy, I lost the domain and someone else instantly bought it before I could buy it back.

The moral of the story is… for anything related to your business or personal life, have the keys, codes and passwords.  Don’t ever rely on anyone else because there is a chance they won’t be there when you need them.

Marc Bluestone