Microsoft Forgets To Renew Domain… Again

Miscellaneous

from the becoming-quite-a-habit dept

You would think folks at Microsoft would be a little more on top of things. Back in 1999 there was a big story when Microsoft forgot to renew their passport.com domain name, meaning that many people couldn’t access their Hotmail accounts. A guy who wanted to access his Hotmail account went to Network Solutions and paid the $35 to renew the domain and gave it to Microsoft. Once Microsoft realized what happened they sent him a $500 check (which eventually made its way to a charity). It appears a similar situation has happened. Microsoft apparently forgot to renew the hotmail.co.uk domain, and some random user bought the domain. He’s been trying to contact Microsoft and they’ve been ignoring him. They apparently only realized something had happened when a reporter from The Register called them to check up on the story. Nominet, who runs the co.uk domain registry, says that this should be a lesson for folks who don’t pay attention to their domain renewal notices. Microsoft still hasn’t made an official comment on the matter.