Three days later, the saga continues. Yahoo seems unable to figure out how to release my corporate domain and allow it to transfer to my new registrar, GoDaddy: it is still languishing in a “Pending Current Registrar Approval” state.

Today, I spent a long time on the phone with Yahoo technical support trying to get some actual technical support. I explained that I had initiated the transfer from GoDaddy’s side, entered in all the necessary information including the authorization code from Yahoo (which, when they receive the request to release the domain, is supposed to be Yahoo’s clue that I actually initiated the transfer). Then, I explained that the domain appeared to be stuck waiting for Yahoo to approve the transfer and relinquish my domain to the new registrar.

First, the tech support guy went through the same claim as I had fallen for earlier in the week, that they’re just the hosting provider and have nothing to do with the domains. I said that I had contacted Melbourne IT and that Melbourne had assured me that Yahoo was in fact a reseller of domains, so is required to deal with technical support issues. He immediately dropped that one — they must be trained to say that first for anything to do with domains, but also to not push it since it’s not true.

Next, he told me that the only way to “cancel the domain” (which is not what I asked to do) is to cancel my hosting account with them, which would cause interruption to both my corporate website (bad) and email (disastrous). I pointed out that I didn’t want to cancel my domain, just get them to release it for transfer, and he insisted that I had to cancel my hosting account in order to do this.

I tried to explain the logic of why this wouldn’t work, and even quoted their own help pages on this subject back to him: you transfer the domain first, then switch the DNS servers to your new hosting provider, then wait 2-3 days for the DNS changes to propagate through the internet, then cancel the old hosting account. If you cancel the old hosting account first, then you’re fucked: your domain will be unreachable until you get the domain transferred and the DNS servers.

We went through various rounds and permutations of this, including one where he came back, walked me through the pages to find my authorization code, and told me that I need this for the transfer. Duh, no kidding, moron — I told you that I already did that at the beginning of the call, and at least once since then.

I then waited 10-15 minutes on hold for a supervisor to come on, who told me the same thing: you have to cancel the plan in order to release the domain. I made him go to their own help page and read parts of it to him, highlighting the bit about “If you’d like to transfer your domain away from Yahoo!, we strongly recommend transferring your domain before you cancel.”

After a total of 58 minutes on the phone, and after the supervisor told me several times that I needed to cancel my hosting plan in order to get the domain to transfer, he started blaming GoDaddy: obviously, they haven’t initiated the transfer, because Yahoo’s systems would have released it automatically. And, by the way, he told me, definitely don’t cancel your hosting plan until that domain is transferred, or you’ll have an interruption in service…