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I’ve used Domaincheck, aka Zebra Electronics Limited (company number 03033478) for many years. They’ve hosted my various domains, e-mails and websites, along with those of my clients when I was in business. I continued to use them after I retired in 2013.
Nick Collins set it all up over twenty years ago and I got to know the team quite well; note that Nick Collins hasn’t been involved with the business for many years now. They were originally based in Adamson House, 65 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SG. After the ownership of the company changed, they moved to 1st Floor, Adelaide Court, Belmont Business Park, Durham, DH1 1TW. It turns out that they moved out of there in February 2023…but never updated the address on their website. Their phone number was 0191 261 2252 and apart from the support e-mails, they could be contacted at [email protected]. Their website is of course at https://www.domaincheck.co.uk.
All the people I knew have left, one very recently. It seems that the few staff that remained were working from home offices.
Around the middle of May 2023 I realised there might be a problem. I’d e-mailed my usual contact and had no response. I’d sent a support ticket in on their control panel…this also went unanswered. I tried my contact again, a week later, only to get a reply saying ‘this mailbox is no longer in use’. I tried telephoning them, only to get a constant engaged tone day and night.
Their systems all seemed to be up and running until a week or so ago; when attempting to log in to my portal on their control panel, I got ‘Critical Error – unable to connect to database’ which has persisted and is terminal…I can’t change, control or check anything. Today, May the 30th 2023, I began the process of moving all my domains, e-mails and website to another provider; Heart Internet as recommended by my brother Paul at Castle IT. Luckily, I didn’t lose anything.
Just out of curiosity, I tried Domaincheck’s telephone number again today…the message was ‘the number you have called has not been recognised’. This is also indicative of end times.
Zebra Electronics Limited registered address is T1, 103 Traynor Way, Whitehouse Business Park, Peterlee, England, SR8 2RU. There is an ‘active proposal to strike off’ showing against the company at Companies House; you can see it here.
The only remaining director is Egon Neil Dennis whose correspondence address is: 16 Sylvan Mews, Wynyard, Billingham, England, TS22 5BF. I’ve written to him and unsurprisingly, have had no response. Update as of 11th June 2023: the letter I wrote has been returned by the Post Office, with a note on it saying Egon no longer lives there and could they stop delivering any mail addressed to him.
If you have had trouble contacting Domaincheck, I suspect, based on the information I have collected, that they are going out of business. The servers are probably running until the money runs out or a serious fault develops.
What a shame the Egon Neil Dennis didn’t at least have the courtesy to tell his loyal clients, whose businesses depend on their websites, that Domaincheck was closing down. Hopefully this message will reach some of them so they can get their sites backed up and moved before everything is lost. Karma will surely catch up with Mr Dennis.
I’ve moved my important stuff now and the rest will follow this week. Might it be prudent for you to ask your IT people to do the same for you?
If your website isn’t backed up…you will lose everything!
Update as of 2nd June 2023: I’ve now moved all my services to Heart Internet and have had calls from other Domaincheck clients. Get in touch with Paul at Castle IT if you need help…but do it NOW before the Domaincheck services go offline.