Buyer beware. It's an old story, but certainly not an uncommon one. And while I am fully aware of the loathsome tactics sometimes employed by companies in order to turn a profit, I can assuredly tell you that I am furiously appalled, nay, downright sick-to-my-stomach over the way M6.net "attempts" to provide customer service. I say "attempts" because it was truly; a shameful display.

Here's what happened.

A good friend of mine has a website, which we will refer to as "genericdomain.net". His registrar (M6.net) had informed him that both his domain and hosting package was up for annual renewal. Ok, no biggie, we can easily transfer the domain and hosting right? ...WRONG!

After nearly 2 weeks of wrestling with their terrible customer service, filing at least 10 support tickets with as many replies in broken English, trying to get the domain unlocked, retrieving the EEP Key (authorization key), pushing the account information to their domain registration control panel, and 2 failed transfer attempts.

I opened yet another ticket to see WHAT THE HELL was going on in M6-land.

Well, as it turns out, they openly stated that they trying to force my friend to pay the annual domain registration fee before they will offer any further support! ...He has over a week left before his domain registration expires.

Talk about a horribly run business, and a business model designed to fail.

If any company treats their customers that way -- they are going to fail; it's simply just a matter of time.

Not to mention the downtime, lack of technical capabilities of their "support," and the slew of other terribly poor ratings and testaments given to M6 throughout the Internet.

The bottom line is: I strongly suggest to avoid M6.net at all costs.

Pay a few more dollars, and get better service.

Also, for your reading pleasure, I have appended the last ticket and response below.

I wrote:
We are transferring genericdomain.net to another registrar. We have unlocked the domain, had the information pushed to a domreg-m6.net account (accountname), got the EEP key, and initiated a transfer at the other registrar... however, it seems that the domain transfer is still being stopped.

Please advise.

M6.net Response #1:

Hello,

Thanks for contacting M6.Net. I am transferring this ticket across to our Sales and Billing Team. You should hear from them soon. Thank you very much for hosting with M6.Net. Please let me know if you need any further information or assistance.

Please post a review at http://tinyurl.com/yzockt2 so that we could come to know how we did ?

Regards,
******
M6.Net

M6.net Response #2:
Dear Chris,

Thank you for contacting M6.Net Sales and Billing department. There is one outstanding invoice in your billing record for the domain name regarding which you want to get transfer permission. Please login your billing system in order to make the payment so that we could proceed your request further.

If you have more questions please do not hesitate to ask.

NOTE: In order to make sure we get your query, please do not reply to this ticket via email, but rather login at https://accounts.m6.net/support with the email address used to create this ticket.


Regards,
*******
M6.Net

There was an email going around again this year, that was claimed to be written by Ben Stein. And while a good portion of it was in fact legitimate, there were some edits and additions made -- which were not original. I found it necessary to post the original text, for future reference. So without further ado, Ben Stein's thoughts on Christmas (12/18/2005):

"Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was  Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. 

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. 

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to."

Personally, I think Ben really hits the nail on the head with this truth-hammer.