[donatj]

Probably ten years ago with name.com I had a .at domain expire.

I caught it like a day or two later, and successfully renewed it through their site but it did not take.

There was somehow already someone up squatting my domain. I contacted support and they told me there's apparently no renewal window for .at but they could recover it for $140 - oof .. sure. It was nothing super important but would be annoying to lose.

Then it took like a week for them to get back to me, but after that week I got my domain back. I have no idea what gymnastics happened on their side.

[dpark]

That sounds like name.com was squatting on your expired domain and extorted $140 from you to get it back.

[libraryatnight]

Often there's a redemption period (depending on tld i think) where the domain can be recovered. Registrars will generally charge a redemption fee during this period.

[dpark]

Some fee for this is reasonable. $140 seems something less than reasonable for most TLDs.

I would think this fee should be, at most, the cost of 1 year of registration.

[libraryatnight]

You're absolutely right, and they often blame the registry for the fee, but support for one of my domains once gave me the impression they inflate on top of the fee for extra profit.