I’ve heard from some worried ekmPowershop sellers over the past few days. It appears that ekm have decided that unless they host your domain name that you can no longer use their Name Server.
That might not mean a lot to you, so let me paint a picture. Retailers who use ekmPowershop often do so because they’re not the least bit technical but they want a website. ekmPowershop is a great relatively low cost popular solution.
You go and buy a URL using a service such as 123Reg or GoDaddy and ekmPowershop tell you all you need is to add their Name Server details to your new URL and they’ll sort out everything else for you. Your website will appear at your new URL and they’ll host your email for you.
All sounds great, until ekm email you saying that they now only allow you to use their Name Server if ekm also manage your domain. In other words they want you to transfer your domain from 123Reg, GoDaddy or wherever you purchased it and give it to ekm to manage.
Act within 7 days or lose your website
ekm have given users 7 days to either hand over management of their domain or to set up their own name server. If you do nothing, after the 7 days they’ll switch off their name server service and your website and email will simply disappear from the web. At this time of year many people are on holiday so it’s possible ekm will cut you off before you even read their email.
If you don’t hand over your domain then you’ll have to use alternative Name Servers, which generally isn’t an issue as 123Reg and similar services can do this for you. You’ll also have to set up your own email, but again this isn’t too difficult or costly.
However configuring Name Servers is where the problem arises. As I mentioned above most of the users of ekmPowershop are not technical wizards. It’s people like you and me that sold on eBay, got a website, bought a domain and if it’s not clicking a box we don’t really know what we’re doing with the technical side of the Web.
What are the Name Server settings for ekmPowershop?
ekm appear to have given little or no instructions on the settings that are needed to configure Name Servers. I’ve seen emails asking ekm for step by step instructions and the replies have been about as vague as “Change the A records for www and non www to point to a specific IP address and create a hosting record to point to a different IP address”.
Of course rather than configuring your own Name Servers you could simply capitulate and hand your URL over to ekm to manage. One user I spoke to said they definitely won’t do this saying “If they’re this unhelpful when I want to stay with them, how bad will they be if I ever want to leave?”.
I did try to telephone ekm on Friday to get more information and find out exactly what records ekmPowershop users would need to make on their Name Servers. Unfortunately ekm’s phone lines were out of order on Friday afternoon so it wasn’t possible to reach them for comment.
9 Responses
Their prices for domain hosting are ridiculous compared to what else is available out there. £25 just to park a domain name. :-O Then start paying for extras on top, all a bit of a racket on a captive audience, if you ask me. I don’t like the way they do business nowadays, in the beginning they were good, but I wouldn’t trust their antics again. One has to wonder how sound their business is pulling tricks like this on their customers?
Elm have done this to me, giving me 7 days notice by email. It’s peak holiday season and I might be on holiday and come back to no website or emails. I am not technical at all and am really struggling with what to do as they are not helpful at all with giving me any support or instructions on how to make any changes. I feel I am being held to ransom!
Is there anyone out these that knows what to do?
EKM customers can migrate to a new website platform like Bigcommerce, Magento or Shopify via StoreFeeder – If you are unhappy with the EKM news now may be a good time to change. There are lots of good website platforms out there so there is no need to feel trapped, if time is tight simply follow EKM’s instructions and plan a move to a new platform in your own good time…
EKM had a strop with another web provider earlier in the year and I got numerous aggressive and unprofessional emails from them trying to get me to switch over to them.
I have now managed to change my nameserver and emails with 123Reg and the results are much better. To top it off, EKM gave me an IP address that didnt even work! The emails I had with EKM were full of errors and sending problems. They appear to be blacklisted with BTinternet and AOL accounts so my emails would always fail to these accounts. They always fobbed me off that it was an update setting with the providers causing the problems but the problems kept getting worse with tonnes of spam mail coming through. Now my emails are with 123Reg it has been so smooth and no emails getting rejected. I guess all the agro with EKM making me change nameservers has been a blessing in disguise – it’s a shame thier customer support has been so poor, they’ve lost alot of trust from me.
I have just spoken to EKM and they say I don’t need to do anything. They say that this only relates to a small number of EKM site owners who are on “really old servers”.
I didn’t get the email so I suppose if you haven’t heard you may not need to do anything!