I think it’s fine for bosses to monitor employees. But it should be limited to checking if the work is getting done. That’s all. Anything else just reveals poor manager skills.

cc = country code (.us, .de, etc.)
g = generic (.com, .net, etc.)

So I suppose the agreement from the ccTLD you agree to when you register a domain could say it won’t do this kind of bullshit. But there are no rules about them “updating” the agreement to take out that protection. So it still amounts to them being able to change anything at any time.

Thank you so much for this! I hope it also applies to ccTLDs and not just gTLDs. I will be updating my support ticket with Gandi by sending them this link.

It’s a .mu domain.

You’re reminding me I did have a stray thought about seeing if there’s someone to complain to higher up than my registrar and the TLD operator. If there is, I doubt they’d give me the time of day unless I had the right lawyer, and that’s not going to happen. Especially not in less than ten days.

It’s seeming like incompetence. I’ve had more correspondence via my support ticket, but it’s been a lot of useless info from them before agreeing to do anything about it.

Currently, (after repeatedly asking) they’ve agreed to reach out to the TLD operator and see if I can get a grandfathered price. I’m not hopeful they’ll have an answer I like.

I keep realizing more and more ways the support response and the registrar was terrible. For example, the screenshot I included in the ticket shows just my domain name, but the link they sent said premium domains are labeled as premium. There’s no label in the screenshot. (And I’ll repeat again: the link was about registration—not renewal—of premium domains.).

And, I was not given a notification when this domain magically became premium. It was just mysteriously a new crazy price. A warning would have been even better, so I could at least do a ten-year registration at the old price. There was no communication at all about this change to my domain.

It’s probable neither Gandi nor the TLD operator give a fuck (which I suppose is extortion), and they just assume they’ll find someone willing to pay after I lose the domain, and that entity will be much more valuable than losing me as a customer.

I understand the curiosity, but I’d rather refrain from telling the domain name.

The support person from Gandi wrote:

Hello,

It’s a premium domain, the premium is based on the registry: https://news.gandi.net/en/2020/05/whats-a-premium-domain-name/

The linked page does not explain how/why it would change to premium with no warning. It is really about registering a premium domain, not renewing. It does not offer any help. It’s blaming the TLD operator.

On https://www.nic.mu/contact/ I see no way to click anything to actually contact them. It seems to be saying my registrar should help me with specific domain questions. I have replied to the ticket with Gandi to ask for help with launching an appeal for the price.