Selling Local Presence as Complementary Service to Domain Registration

In some countries the respective domain registries require that a customer supply certain local identity data, such as local tax ID, postal address, phone number and so on, to be able to register a domain name in particular geoTLDs or ccTLDs. To help businesses increase internationally, some registrars offer the local presence service to customers by supplying their own local identity data, which allows customers to register domains in such countries without actually registering a business there.

This feature allows the provider to offer the local presence service to customers to help them overcome these geographical limitations and register domains in any TLDs they need.

The local presence service is sold in Billing as a separate resource added to a service plan. The resource is present in the system by default and does not require further configuration. When a customer purchases the local presence service, Billing provisions the resource to the customer domain subscription and supplies the necessary local presence data provided by the registrar.

Limitations

1. The Local Presence feature is supported by UX1 for Customers.
2. The domain plugin used must support the local presence service.

Configuration

The Local Presence resource is available in CloudBlue Commerce out of the box. It is listed on the Products > Resources screen. To be able to sell this resource, provider must add it to a service plan and price it. See below.

Configuration Scenario A. Configuring CloudBlue Commerce to be able to sell the Local Presence service to new or existing customers

To sell Local Presence as a complementary service to domain registration to new customers:

1. Make sure, that system prior configuration for selling domain registration is completed. For details, see Managing Domain Processing.

2. Include the Local Presence resource into some resource category to make it visible in the purchasing wizards. For details, see Including Resource in Resource Category.

   Note: The Local Presence resource is already included in the Domain extra features sales category out of the box. However, a provider may choose to included it in another sales category.

3. Create a domain service template for the selected zone. During service template creation, add the Local Presence resource to the service template. For details, see Preparing Domain Service Template.
4. Create a service plan based on the domain service template created in the previous step. For details, see Managing Service Plans.
5. Configure the resource rate for Local Presence resource in the service plan in this way: Included Units=0 (to make it an additional resource, or '1' to include it by default), Max Units=1, Min Units=0. This will make Local Presence a complementary service sold as an add-on to the chosen domain service plan. Specify the fees. For details on resource rates configuration, see Adding Service Plan Resource Rates.
6. Enable the domain selling possibility in the UX1 Marketplace. For details, refer to the UX1 Marketplace guide.

Configuration Scenario B. (Recommended) Configuring the 'No refunds' policy for the Local Presence service

Important: This option applies to the service plan level and cannot be implemented for a single resource. If a service plan contains the WHOIS Privacy resource, for example, in addition to the Local Presence resource, the no refunds policy will also apply to the WHOIS Privacy resource.

To implement the 'no refunds for the local presence service' policy for a service plan:

1. In the Billing PCP, go to Products > Service Plans. Click the necessary service plan.
2. Go to the Subscription Periods tab. For each listed period, set the values as follows:
   • Full Refund Period (days): Set to '0'.
   • After Refund Period: Set to 'No Refund'.

Implications:

1. The customer will be able to cancel the Local Presence service but will receive no refund.

2. The provider may have to deal with the change order provisioning failure manually. Such provisioning failure may happen because the customer fails to supply the necessary substitute data required by the local laws to the registrar in the cancellation order.

   Note: CloudBlue Commerce does not currently have an API method that would allow to quickly request the possibility of stopping the local presence service from the registrar based on the currently available customer registration data.

Important: These scenarios are NOT recommended:
1. Configuration Scenario C. Removing the Local Presence service from active subscriptions.
Do NOT remove the Local Presence service from customers' subscriptions forcibly. If the local presence is removed from a service plan to which there are active subscriptions (that is, the Local Presence resource rate is removed from the service plan), CloudBlue Commerce will return errors during the renewal of these subscriptions.
2. Configuration Scenario D. Configuring refunds for local presence service cancellation.
1) According to the default order flow, refunds are made before the order is provisioned. Hence it is strongly recommended that the provider configure CloudBlue Commerce to 'no refunds' policy (Configuration Scenario B) to avoid potential problems related to the impossibility to cancel the local presence service after the customer has already been refunded for it.
2) Before configuring the refunds capability for the Local Presence service for a particular service plan, provider should learn about the Registrar's refunds policy. In some cases, the registrar may not allow refunds at all. In others, the registrar may allow refunds but will cancel the Local Presence service only if the customer supplies their own valid local registration data for substitution to comply with the applicable laws.
3) Provider may have to deal with the change order provisioning failure manually. Such provisioning failure may happen because the customer fails to supply the necessary substitute data required by the local laws to the registrar in the cancellation order.
4) Provider may lose the money for the refund because of the situation in the previous item or because the registrar may not allow Local Presence service cancellations.

Customer Scenarios

Customer Scenario A. Subscribing to the Local Presence service scenario

1. Customer enters UX1 for Customers, starts buying a domain, and chooses the Local presence resource. After that the customer places the sales order.
2. Once the order is provisioned, the Local presence resource receives the Enabled status in the Advanced Options in UX1 for Customers for the respective domain.

Customer Scenario B. Local Presence service cancellation

1. A customer places a change order to downgrade the Local Presence resource to zero (that is to cancel the Local Presence service). The order appears in one of these statuses in CloudBlue Commerce:
   • New, if the order total is non-zero.
   • Open, if the order total is zero.
2. (For order status New only) The service provider must verify the customer's own local identity data (see above) against the registrar's requirements for the TLD in which the domain was registered using the local presence service. If the available customer's data is sufficient (and, therefore, it is possible to cancel the local presence service), provider goes to Operations > Orders in PCP, clicks the order, and presses the Open button to move the order to automatic provisioning. The order changes its status to Open.

3. Once the order status changes to Open: The order moves through the order flow.

   Important: According to the default order flow, refunds are made before the order is provisioned. Hence it is strongly recommended that the provider configure CloudBlue Commerce to 'no refunds' policy to avoid potential problems related to the impossibility to cancel the local presence service (see below) after the customer has already been refunded for it.

   The customer either receives no refund or is refunded according to the system configurations by the provider.

4. The order goes to the provisioning step. If the order provisioning fails: provider will have to understand why it is impossible to cancel the local presence service and process the order manually:
   • Verify the customer's local identity data (see the previous step).

   • Make sure the registrar and the domain plugin allow cancellations.

     Important: If the registrar and the domain plugin DO NOT allow cancellations, it is advisable that the provider cancel the change order and explain the customer why it is impossible to cancel the local presence service.

   • Resolve the related technical reason, if any.
5. CloudBlue Commerce provisions the order and cancels the Local Presence.