MANAGING AN OLD (2006) BT DOMAIN

[marshallcolman]

Can anyone advise on the management of an old BT domain?

I bought a domain from BT in 2006 but BT has since changed the way it manages domains of that vintage and it is difficult to get any help from them. I want to change my web host and to get my address marshallcolman.com to point to marshall-colman-ceramics.myshopify.com, which I believe requires changes in the nameserver/DNS/IP address. I’m not entirely clear about this as I’m not an IT/web/telephony specialist, but I understand is that I must ask the domain owner/registrar to do it for me. But how?

A WHOIS search reveals that, although I still renew my domain with BT, they do not own it any longer and have sold it to REGISTER.COM, but they still retain control over it. Register.com have advised me that hence they are not able to make any changes to the domain and that only BT can do it. It is extremely difficult find out who I contact BT about this. I can get to the old BT Domains page at https://www.btdomainsaccount.com/search.aspx?=1

but it is no longer fully operational. It’s possible to LOGIN, CONTACT and to renew the domain from this page, but other tabs lead to dead links. For example, the DOMAINS HOME tab yields: “www.btbroadbandoffice.com took too long to respond.” I had the same problem when I changed my webhost in 2014. Then I was advised to contact support@btdomains.account.com. But when I tried that today, my email bounced and seems that this address is no longer operational.

This is totally unsatisfactory. BT has sold the domain, retains control of it and the customer cannot managing it. It seems that I can’t even transfer the domain to a more helpful business because, as the the WHOIS? lookup tells me, “Client transfer prohibited”. What should I do? Any advice gratefully received.

Marshall Colman

[Bobby]

Hey marshallcolman,

All BT domains will shows as 'register.com' on WHOIS as that's the supplier, but they still have ownership. So long as you can validate security details, the DNS team will be able to update any records for you. Just click the link below to get in touch with them.

Contact Us | BT Business Contact Numbers | BT Business

Thank you, Bobby

[marshallcolman]

Hi Bobby

Thanks for your helpful suggestion. I followed that link but could not progress further because in order to do so I had to give my BT account number, but I am not a BT customer any more and have not been one for years.  What should I do?

Regards

Marshall

[Bobby · Accepted solution]

Hey marshallcolman,

If you're not sure of the account number, I'd speak with the team over livechat on that same page as they should be able to confirm the answer to the security question in order to proceed.

Thanks, Bobby

[jtanna]

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@marshallcolman wrote:

Hi Bobby

Thanks for your helpful suggestion. I followed that link but could not progress further because in order to do so I had to give my BT account number, but I am not a BT customer any more and have not been one for years.  What should I do?

Regards

Marshall

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The BT Account Number is the main problem using BT Websites.  They should change that field to optional.  

I have got the same problem.  I can't manage my domain because the BT Account that was forced on me (btconnect.com) has now been suspended and so my login eMail has also been suspended.  In  fact everything on BT is now suspended.  I can't even transfer my domain to another registrar because they require EPP code (or Transfer Key) and this is only available by eMail which you need to login to your account and request.  If I can't login and if the the Registred eMail is suspended, how can this be resolved.  The chat line people don't have much authority to do anything.  They can only help if the case is straight forward.  My case is not straight-forward because of suspended account.

this suspension is because I don't have any chargeable Service with BT.  I only have a Domain but my webhost and eMail host for the domain is somebody else.  I use Hotmail for these forums and BTConnect.com for managing Domains.

Catch 22 situation.

[marshallcolman]

Hi jtnaa

I'm pleased to hear from someone else who has the same problem.

It's unacceptable for BT to sell a domain and then make it impossible to manage. I too thought of transferring my domain, but I see from your reply that it's not possible to do that either. What makes this eve more annoying is that I have just renewed the domain name for two years. If I realised that this was going to happen, I would have let it lapse and then bought it from another, better run company. You will notice that BT still allow you to renew your domain and take your money, but don't allow you to manage it.

I believe the problem comes from the fact that BT is a huge, unwieldy organisation which no-one is in charge of and in which one department works against another. You only have to see the confusion of BT business websites. I have tried a range of sites and email addresses that I've collected over the years, many of which have been discontinued without any arrangements to forward to a current address.

The domain in question, a .com name, is for my business. I am beginning to think I will have to abandon it and buy a .co.uk address for by website.

It's disgraceful.

Marshall

www.marshallcolman.com

[marshallcolman]

Hi Jtanna

I've found that you can progress on the link which asks for your BT account number if you make up a number in the proper format. Your message then goes through and you get an automatic ackowledgement. I am still waiting for a proper reply and help, though.

Marshall

[jtanna]

I have found another way to get/retrieve the Account number.  These are the steps:

1) Go to Business Hub <https://secure.business.bt.com/Hub>

2) On that page there is a link to Register for a new Account.  Click on it.

3) Try create a new account but use your btconnect.com eMail address.

4) This will open your old account with your account number pre-filled.  It wants you to merge it with any other account you might have but in our case we don't have any so we just cancel the whole process after we have copied the BT Account number.

5) i just did it and used this account number to send them an eMail for the problem I am having.

Hopefully this will help some people but I don't know if this is the real account number but it does work so I'm happy.

[marshallcolman]

It has just got more complicated. I managed to contact BT Connect, who told me they weren't able to help because my domain was not with them but with bt.com/domains, whom I have to contact on btdomainssupport@register.com. Why BT doesn't manage all its domains from the same office I can't understand. Seems like a complete mess to me.

Marshall

[jtanna]

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@marshallcolman wrote:

It has just got more complicated. I managed to contact BT Connect, who told me they weren't able to help because my domain was not with them but with bt.com/domains, whom I have to contact on btdomainssupport@register.com. Why BT doesn't manage all its domains from the same office I can't understand. Seems like a complete mess to me.

Marshall

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I have just sent them an eMail to ask what steps do I have to take so that I can manage my domain.

In my case, my eMail now works by going to: <https://login.microsoftonline.com> and I can enter the full eMail like: somebody@btconnect.com and related password.

However, I still can't access the Business Hub and I sent them an eMail about two days ago but nobody has come back with a solution yet.  So I just assume that they couldn't care less about me being too small for them.  Why they bother to diable accounts is beyond me because it costs them absolutely nothing to have it on their database.  Microsoft gives you about 900MB of eMail diskspace so why is BT wasting their time and our time for such things.

Mid boggles.

Kind regards,