Help! I'm about to lose a domain name, registered with Namecheap

[Donald]

I own a .com.au domain that expires in a couple of days. I've just gone to renew it but Namecheap advised me that .com.au domains must be renewed at least 12 days prior to the actual expiration date.

Namecheap say I need to pay a US$122 fee to "attempt" to renew the domain. They said they can't guarantee the domain renewal will even work. They are blaming their upstream provider, and suggested I let the domain fall back into the public pool and then re-register it. This seems crazy.

 

[Donald]

Namecheap support have said I would be able to transfer the domain to VentraIP without paying the $122 fee. Would this be a good idea, or am I likely to encounter a problem?

They said, "We do have the limitation of restoring of a domain name with a fee by a demand of our upstream provider, the transfer process can still be made up to the exact expiration date without limitation, the renewal price and the condition would depend on VentraIP provider."

 

[snoopy]

Probably the first thing is to find out where it is actually registered, (I doubt name cheap would be the actual registrar)

http://whois.auda.ltd

 

[Cheyne]

Hi Donald,

If the domain name is not expired yet, contact our sales team and they can assist you. As long as you have the EPP we can get it out and renew it for you.