Transfer of ownership gone terribly wrong
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A couple fo months ago I tried to transfer the ownsership of a wordpress.com site to another registered user.
This all seemed to be going OK until it transpried that the registered user had not received any ownership emails.
We then received an email from someone totally random who had been sent the “Blog Transfer Compelted” email notification. They didn’t know anything about our blog/wesbite so were very confused.
We are now in the position where none of our users are the owner. This is going to cause problems when we get sent the next invoice.
I raised a ticket at the time but not had any response.How do I get to be the owner again?
James
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi James,
Yes, it sounds like you inadvertently transferred the site to another WordPress.com user who may have a very similar username to the account that you meant to transfer the site to. No worries, we can get this sorted.
First, what is the URL of that site that was wrongly transferred? Secondly, who was it supposed to be transferred to and who actually received the site?
Ideally, if you are in contact with the person who accidentally received the site, if they can post in this thread confirming the mixup, it will expedite the process.
Otherwise, if you can provide the information above, we can look into everything that happened and begin to fix this for you all.
Let us know, thanks!
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Hi, Thanks for getting back to me.
The worpdress adress is threehareswoodlanddotorg.wordpress.com but we use the address https://three-hares-woodland.org/
I was trying to transfer it to user jcat@jcat but it went to someone with the email address (email visible only to moderators and staff)
Part of the confusion is that there is another user account on our site with a similar name – Jcat@shamanicdrumsJcat@jcat is about to have a baby, so please just transfer the ownership back into my name. I will then transfer it when things
I’ve copied in an email from the husband of (email visible only to moderators and staff).
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On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 7:07 PM Matthew M. Roberts <(email visible only to moderators and staff)> wrote:To the owner of threehareswoodland.org:
My wife received the following notification today and we have no idea why. It went to her personal email account. As nice as your blog site is, we have no interest in owning it :)
If this was done by mistake (and I can’t imagine that it wasn’t), you should probably contact WordPress.com support to straighten it out. I do have a good bit of WordPress knowledge, and this email seems to be genuinely from WordPress.com
It is also possible that this is some sort of attempt to trick one of us into revealing some information that would let them take ownership of the blog, so I am forwarding it to you directly to handle.
Just to be clear, I have no affiliation with WordPress.com and have no knowedge of why the original email was sent. Please don’t feel obligated to reply, I just wanted to alert you that something was going on.
Matt
ORIGINAL EMAIL:
Subject: [ threehareswoodlanddotorg.wordpress.com ] Blog Transfer Completed
Howdy,
You are now the owner of the blog threehareswoodlanddotorg.wordpress.com and the domain three-hares-woodland.org.
Please make sure the contact information for the domain is up to date: https://wordpress.com/domains/manage/three-hares-woodland.org
See our support documentation for more details: https://wordpress.com/support/update-contact-information/Thanks for using WordPress.com!
https://wordpress.com/********
Hopefully this is enough info to transfer ownsership back to myself.
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Hello there,
Many thanks for this additional information, this is most useful.
I was trying to transfer it to user jcat@jcat but it went to someone with the email address (email visible only to moderators and staff)
Ok are you able to confirm the username/email address of the intended recipient please.
I’ve copied in an email from the husband of (email visible only to moderators and staff).
This is actually very kind of them to do this, and you should respond back.
The transfer would need to be reversed and these steps would need to be followed: https://wordpress.com/support/transferring-a-site-to-another-wordpress-com-account/
These instructions above would need to be passed on to the new current owner.
The current owner can also reach out for help via passwordhelp@wordpress.com if there is any confused or are unable to make the transfer – whereby we can assist with that.
We hope this helps.
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Sorry, usernam – auto coreected then.
It’s actually James Chapman@nonstuffuk
email (email visible only to moderators and staff)James
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As stated above, I was the original owner and would like to be the owner again.
Yes, we understand. The problem here is that you are not the current owner.
The only way it can be “reversed” is if the current owner requests it, either through following the steps to transfer everything back to you or by reaching out via
passwordhelp@wordpress.comand instructing us to transfer it back to you.Since they’ve been helpful, just pass along that information, have them get in touch with us directly, and request we reverse the transfer. Or, if they’re logged into WordPress.com, they can comment on this thread and make the request here.
Let us know if anything is unclear.
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Hi again
I’ve already tried your suggestion – I sent them an email asking if they could login and tranfer the website back to myself.
This was 3 weeks ago and I’ve had no response, in fact the husband’s email address he used to contact us bounced back as un-known.Seeing as I followed all your for transfer instructions correctly and the fault is 100% a technical fault at at your end, could you please transfer ownership back to myself?
I have run out of other options.
Best wishes
James
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Hi James,
I checked and saw that you are still the official registrant of the domain as your email address and contact info are still connected. Therefore, you are still technically the owner. I just sent an email to the address connected to the domain. If you can reply to that email, we can begin restoring the site back to your account.
Thank you!
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Hi
That’s good news, thanks.
I’ve just checked my inbox and no email from wordpress.Can I check you’re using (email visible only to moderators and staff)
If it’s (email visible only to moderators and staff), that email is no longer in use.Thanks again
James
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Hi James, while we can’t reveal the email address on file for the domain, we did send the email out; if you don’t have it it may well have gone to something you don’t use anymore.
That does leave us in a jam. We’ll check into what options are available and update you soon.
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Hi again
I received this notification below that I was getting invoiced on 26 August 2021 at 13.28 UK time.
It was sent to (email visible only to moderators and staff)If this is the email address you used, it hasn’t arrived so please resend it.
James
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Hello,The domain three-hares-woodland.org on the site “three-hares-woodland.org” will renew automatically in 30 days. You don’t have to do anything — this is just a reminder.
You will be charged £15 for this renewal on September 25, 2021. This price does not include any applicable taxes which will vary based on your billing address.
Manage your subscriptions
Happy WordPressing!
Thank you for using WordPress.com!
Maureen, Happiness EngineerNeed help? No problem!
Our Happiness Engineers are here to answer your questions & help you set up your site.
Contact Support | Manage Account -
Hi James,
Are you able to send us the transaction ID from when you made the purchase of the domain?
If you no longer have access to the email connected to the registrant email, we can use the transaction ID from your bank statement as confirmation of ownership. I’m going to send an email to your Gmail account and if you can provide that, we can work with our domain team to see if we can get the domain restored to you. Please post here once you have replied to the email.
Thank you!
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Hi James, actually the billing info may not help in this case because the rules for domains are really quite strict. Basically we’ve got to work with the domain owner. We have to hear from them directly, rather than through you.
There are two email addresses: the one on the domain contact, and the one on the account that currently owns the domain.
We tried reaching out to the email address listed on the domain contact, and you didn’t receive it, presumably because you don’t have access to that address anymore. If you want to work on regaining access, that could help, but we aren’t allowed to just go in and change the email address to something else.
We can also reach out directly via the account that currently owns the domain. They should have an email from us and if they’ll reply to that confirming the situation, we can go from there. I understand the situation is tricky as you mentioned. The ICANN rules are just very strict on this.
We’ll let you know if we hear back. Thanks for understanding!
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Also, so you know we’re working with the domains team to see if there are any other ways to work through this. We’ll update you if we find that, too. Thanks!
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Hi again
I can see it’s tricky, but from my end I followed all the correct procedures and there was a technical glitch at your end.
The fault is 100% with wordpress.com so please find a way to fix it.The renewal date is coming up so the invoice you generate will not be paid causing all sorts of problems for us.
Please carry on until you find a solution.
James
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Hello James,
We’ll continue to work with you via email with this issue, so please do keep an eye out for a reply.
I can see it’s tricky, but from my end I followed all the correct procedures and there was a technical glitch at your end.
The fault is 100% with wordpress.com so please find a way to fix it.To reassure you, there is no technical error here.
This is an instance whereby the site was transferred incorrectly. I hope this helps to clarify things and we’ll continue to work with you on a resolve.
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