EV1's ResellOne.net Brand Problem!

The Problem

The problem is that ResellOne.net (which is the brand / business name and the website address) is currently not just reseller facing, it's end-user (registrant) visible too...

The WHOIS:

Registrar: EVERYONES INTERNET, LTD. DBA RESELLONE.NET
Whois Server: whois.resellone.net
Referral URL: http://www.resellone.net

The Agreement..
The registrant agreement that our customers must agree to includes the name 'ResellOne.net'.. not just once as a definition (to give special meaning to "we", "us", "our", ["company"] etc.) it's included throughout!

So our customers are exposed to the ResellOne.net name and link (which is not good as it contains the word 'Resell'). But what's worse is if they visit the ResellOne.net site, what do they see on the home page?.. Reseller pricing!! THEY SEE WHAT WE PAY!
And they see that for $99 or $100 setup (depending where you look) they can get that pricing!

This needs to be fixed.

The Solutions

1. The best solution would be to introduce a new end-user/consumer -facing name and website.. something generic sounding. (e.g. Tucows have OpenSRS; Directi have Public Domain Registry [PDR])
   This name and domain should be used for everything visible to public/end-users (inc. whois server).
   ResellOne.net would continue to be used as the reseller brand.
   
2. Alternatively, ResellOne.net could be replaced by an end-user/consumer-friendly name and an end-user orientated site (selling direct but at high prices) with a reseller section.. like eNom.
   
3. An alternative partial (happy medium) solution would be to use the real company name (Everyone's Internet, Inc./ EV1) for as much end-user/registrant visible stuff as possible. This would be trivial to implement in the Registration Agreement(s). Not sure about the whois server name or the listed registrar in the root/registry whois.

I'm not entirely sure I would quote it as a brand problem... I do think that ResellOne has a bit of an identity crisis, particularly dealing with some of the ways the system can and cannot be branded and anonymized (when compared to OpenSRS, which is roughly running the same code base) and whether they're serving an end-user or a reseller. Laurie and Brooke can both attest that I've grilled them several times on branding issues - some they've been able to resolve fairly quickly, some they've had to send to the black hole that is development. So, while I agree with you in principle, I do think some of your points are a bit unreasonable (given the way the industry works).

The Whois server and other end-user things can't really be anonymous because of the way that ICANN has their rules written... regardless of how it's branded, ResellOne is the registrar. Period. End of story. The legal contract is between the registrant and ResellOne, with you acting as an agent. The only way to change that is to become ICANN accredited, which takes a few more dollars than most of us have.

As far as public pricing... if you look at the rest of the competition, getting pricing isn't that difficult. OpenSRS has it posted right there in the contract (which I got to in two clicks from www.opensrs.net). Enom has it posted right on their site. That being said, I do think ResellOne's site goes out of its way to make it too easy to get at the pricing. Brooke herself made this statement here back in November:
Unfortunately, I don't really see any evidence that anything has been done to alleviate the transparency concern. I know there's been talk that EV1 is going to resume offering retail registrations (on the web), probably at a higher price than ResellOne so as not to compete. Maybe when/if that happens, some of this will go away a bit. But until that happens, I think ResellOne is going to continue to struggle with this, walking the fence between serving end-users and serving resellers.

Agreed. Which is one of the only reasons we have stuck it out with our existing registrar for so long. At the very least, all our customer domains say "Registered through OurCompany.com" on a WHOIS which counts a lot of points.

If RS1 could get this sorted out, we would switch is a flash.

You're telling me that your domains show the registrar as YourCompany? Or you're on there as the registration service provider (similar to how Tucows does it)? If it's the latter, that's a known bug that ResellOne has said they will have fixed by the end of June (2nd Quarter).

If it's the former, I'd really be interested in knowing which registrar you're talking about, because they're violating ICANN rules.

It might not be a brand problem per se. The reason I refer to it as such is because of the scope of the ResellOne.net brand.

The name 'ResellOne' implies reselling. If it was just used to market EV1's reseller services it would be ok.. But it's used as the name (and domain) for their entire domain name registration service.

You refer to ResellOne[.net] as an entity. This is not the case. ResellOne (technically: Everyone's Internet, Inc. dba ResellOne.net) is just a brand/trading/DBA/fictitious/assumed name (an alias).
There is no legal distinction between EV1, ResellOne[.net] & EV1Servers[.net] – they are all trading names of Everyone's Internet, Inc. Therefore writing ResellOne in an agreement is essentially the same as writing Everyone's Internet, Inc. (or another assumed name)

"How it's branded" is the problem - EV1 have branded it with their reseller services brand.

Depending on which TLD registry you look at.. Everyone's Internet, LLC / Everyone's Internet, Ltd. / Everyone's Internet, Inc. is the registrar. (For some TLDs 'DBA ResellOne.net' is included after the registrar company name.)


Yeah, this is one of those things where a balance has to be struck between making reseller pricing accessible to potential resellers and waving it in the faces of end-users.

EV1 should've have made the ICANN registrar and other services anonymous.