Ask HN: How to get back my domains with Porkbun after fraudulent dispute
Hi, I have been using Porkbun domains for almost a year, and have been really happy. Until, recently, I ran into an issue. My friend paid for a domain for me using his credit card. At the time, I didn't think twice. But, alas, someone made unauthorized charges on his card, and my friend disputed a bunch of charges. Unfortunately, that included charges for three domains that I bought from Porkbun.

I didn't know about all this until a bit later when I got an email from porkbun saying my account was in queue for suspension unless I quickly tried contacting them but they couldn't help over the phone, and said I must email them. I did.

Without anything getting resolved within 24 hours, all my sites went down. Not just the ones that were disputed, all of them on the account. "Okay, hopefully this will be resolved soon. I will try to stay calm." So I emailed them and explained the situation, asking them to allow me to pay back using my own credit card. They weren't interested, and told me I must get the disputes resolved in their favor. No problem, my friend had already called up the bank for that, and told me that the bank said "Sure, it should show up within 72 hours, sometimes longer."

I continued emailing porkbun and the said they saw no update about the dispute on their end of things. They recommended I show a document from the bank that says it was resolved in Porkbun's favor. After asking if there is any other way to quickly get stuff up and running, they sent me, a link to verify my identity using government identification. After successfully identifying with them, they gave me back access to my account, just without buying and transferring priveleges. Thank you Porkbun, I really appreciate it. Now, my site is up and running, and will hopefully continue that way until I need to renew my domain.

After me calling my friend and convincing him to call his bank many times, I finally got a document from the bank, but it only had the two charges listed on it. I sent it to Porkbun and told them I will work on getting the third one.

Also, within our conversations, so far going on for a few months, I have offered multiple times to pay up to $150 (domains were ~$10 each) to get this fully resolved. They weren't interested, and said I should resolve it with my bank. They are hard to communicate with, and often send extremely vague responses, if any at all. Like this one:
"""
.. those documents are still only referring to two of the transactions. Since there has been no update with our payment processor, I'd recommend continuing to work with your bank to have them decide the dispute review in our favor.
"""

What does that mean? If I get a document for the third transaction, I will be good? Or, does it mean that the first two documents don't help either?

This is where I am at now. I can't reach them through the phone (no phone support for fraud cases), the email communication is very vague and slow. I still have ~9 months until I need to renew the domain I care about. However, I am concerned about getting my account suspended again, and I don't really see an end in sight.

To be clear, I don't blame Porkbun for this. They are a great registrar and I would recommend them anyone looking for a domain. Just, don't dispute the charge, simple :). But now I feel stuck, because I am in a situation I have very little control over, especially because I don't have access to my friend's bank. And he isn't either easy to reach, because he is in school and has very little internet connection. It's a mess. I run a small ecommerce site, and I'm concerned about keeping the domain. I learned lessons from this, including to pay for things with my own money.

I was hoping they'd simply accept another payment, but that doesn't seem to be a solution to them. So my question is, does anyone have a suggestion to fully resolve this besides for just continuing doing what I am already doing? Is there another way to approach this?