Domain Warfare!

First blog !

Domain Warfare!

Running a café, pottery painting studio and events business isn't quite as straightforward as it looks.

So many people tell me it's their dream job – sitting around painting all day. The reality is often very different!

For the last few weeks, I've been working on redesigning our website. We recently had a free business review, which was overwhelmingly positive. The main area identified for improvement was our website: it was too clunky to book through, too confusing for customers, and key systems weren't properly integrated.

Knowing very little about technology, I contacted Abbie at Little Lemon. Since Covid, Abbie has handled all of our social media marketing, posting daily content, promoting events, designing posters and supporting the community events that I help organise. She knows Eastbourne, she knows my business and, most importantly, she is reliable and has a great team behind her.

What started as a simple request to the company hosting and maintaining our website for the last five years – simply to redirect our domain to the new website – has ended in what I can only describe as domain warfare.

My email requesting the transfer was met with a surprisingly unprofessional response. I was told that she was upset that I hadn't used her for the redesign and that, with immediate effect, she would be cancelling the hosting, releasing the domain and terminating services.

Whoa.

I wasn't asking to leave entirely. I was simply asking for the domain to point to the new website and was more than happy to continue paying the hosting fees.

You might be wondering why I didn't use the existing company to redesign the site. Over the years, updates I've requested have often taken weeks to action, sometimes affecting the day-to-day running of the business. My impression was that freelancing had become more of a side project alongside a full-time role elsewhere, which may explain the delays. There's nothing wrong with that, but it was one of the reasons I decided to look elsewhere for this project.

Unfortunately, none of that changes the current situation.

As I write this, The Art House has no functioning website and no working email system.

Why is that such a problem?

Because customers can't book tables or pottery painting sessions online. Party enquiries, private hire bookings, orders and event requests aren't reaching us. It also puts extra pressure on our café team, who now have to spend more time answering phone calls instead of focusing on customers, preparing food and glazing pottery.

I've sent both an email and a WhatsApp message requesting the information that was promised yesterday, but we're still waiting.

So, the moral of the story: always use reputable businesses, ask for recommendations and make sure you understand exactly who owns and controls your domain name.

To be continued...