Dear roamreview, I take great attention to your message, as we usually have positive comments about our services, especially about the support service. I'll try to answer here each question about the service level, as you wanted to discuss this on this forum. On another hand, I will immediately answer your question that is still awaiting for an answer on our email support (posted 1 day and 2 hours ago).
1. when you transfer a domain name to them, you can't define DNS entries before the domain move is complete. This means that your domain name is unavailable for some time between the transfer, the account at Gandi allowing you to input the DNS and the availability of Gandi's DNS for your domain to the world.
A domain name transfer does not change the NS list, this is a rule set forth by most of the registries, to avoid any technical problem during a transfer. This rule is the same for all the accredited registrars, in most of TLDs, this is *technically forbidden for registrars to change the DNS* during a transfer process. Consequently, if your servers were working fine before the transfer, they are still working fine during, and after the transfer. However, several customers have requested to use Gandi's NS before a transfer process (including zone management). This is good idea, and we will implement this option in the future.
2. to enable a reseller account you have to have first at least one domain at their place.
What makes you think that? *You can create a Gandi handle for free*, without obligation to purchase anything. This is also thrue for a reseller account, which is a Gandi handle. This has always been possible on our interface, please feel free to try: https://www.gandi.net/login/new
I manage domain names for several companies. None of them want anything to do with having to manage an account or anything, but at Gandi, they do.
Our reseller system is precisely designed to *permit resellers to manage their customers' domain names for their customers*. So that the registrant does not have to manage anything if he does not want to, but he still has the ownership of his domain names.
You can not have a different contact or owner at Gandi unless that contact has a Gandi handle. A Gandi handle is nothing else then an account. At Gandi, you have to have an account for each and every client. You can not define a different owner of a domain from your reseller account, you have to create an individual account for each owner. Imagine how much time you'll need to log in and log out of different accounts to get anything changed!
Collecting the registrants and *contacts data is an obligation for all registrars*. It is used mainly for the whois database, that is an ICANN and registries contractual requirement. At the registries level, each person's data is associated to a handle. Thus we have to create handles dor each customer, for the whois requirements, even if these handles are not all used to manage domain names. The fact that we create a Gandi handle with your customers' contact data should not be a problem, you/*they do not have to use them if you manage the domain names through your reseller account*.
3. their interface for contacts is unintelligible. You need a Gandi handle for every different contact. A gandi handle is the same as a gandi account, with its username and password. You have to squad through several forms that don't really tell you what it does or doesn't. I ended up having the wrong owner details on a domain by following their forms, which according to their terms would mean the account being deactivated!!
As per ICANN requirements, the registries requirements, and French laws, *we have to collect the contact data of each of our customers*. If you want to register a domain name for someone else, you have to tell us the exact contact data of the registrant. This data is particularly useful to manage legal cases: the registrant has rights on the domain name, as owner of the domain, *we have to know who he is so that we can protect the ownership of his domain name*.
4. when you submit a ticket, it takes them at least a day to reply. I now have an issue open for 2 days and I'm still waiting!
According to my data, we have received 4 emails from you. 2 of them were answered in 2 hours. One was answered after 1 day. We have received the last one 1 day and 2 hours ago, and we will answer it in a fews minutes. I hope that this answer helps to understand how domain names work, and how our interface works. I am at your disposal should you need any further information. Best regards,
Françoise GANDI SAS http://www.gandi.net/