Australian domain name resellers have reacted with anger to e-mails sent to their customers by ex-registry Melbourne IT.

The e-mail, sent yesterday, warns domain name holders that Melbourne IT had terminated its agreement with their reseller, and therefore the reseller would no longer be able to manage the maintenance and renewal of the domain using the reseller interface to Melbourne IT's domain name systems.

The e-mail then went on to say "there is no need to respond to this notice, but we would like to reassure you that your domain name is safe, and you do not need to worry."

Dave Hooper, director of Webarama, one of the domain name resellers whose customers received the e-mail, told ZDNet Australia   the company had received 20-30 e-mails since 10pm last night.

"We're a small Web-hosting company that does domain-name reselling, we have a small staff geared to operate optimally for our customers," said Hooper. "When something like this happens it really messes with our operation."

Josh Rowe, managing director of domain-name reseller Sanctum Internet, is submitting formal complaints concerning the letter. "I'll use the auDA formal complaints policy, and if I can't get any satisfactory response from Melbourne IT and auDA I'll consider legal action," said Rowe, claiming he has a written agreement from Melbourne IT saying it will not contact his customers.

Both resellers believe the e-mail is misleading over who terminated the agreement. "The essence of the e-mail is that they terminated us, when in fact we went to a different registrar," said Rowe. Melbourne IT disagrees.

"Actually Melbourne IT did "terminate" the agreement," said Bruce Tonkin, chief technology officer of Melbourne IT in response to the allegations. He said that when the new domain name industry structure was introduced on July 1, Melbourne IT sent a notice of termination to resellers, along with a new agreement to sign.

If a reseller failed to sign up to the new agreement, Melbourne IT proceeded with the termination process, which includes updating passwords and advising all affected registrants, according to Tonkin. He said the e-mails were part of a standard procedure that has been in place since July 1.

Whoever is wrong or right, domain-name registrants are becoming fed up with the constant barrage of communication that often needlessly confuses and worries them. Mathew Thompson, a director of product design and manufacturing company 3BT told ZDNet Australia   his company received the recent Melbourne IT mail-out, but wasn't confused by it due to a clarifying letter sent by their reseller and long experience with e-mails of this type.

However, while he was away recently one of his managers received a letter which tricked him into thinking the companies domain name may be lost, and spent a whole day trying to sort it out. "That's hundreds of dollars in wasted time," said Thompson.

"Since the whole deregulation I've received so many bullshit letters and I'm just fed up," he said. "This last one just added to the frustration."

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