I thought "pendingDelete" showed up six days before something was released back into the zone. But here's a domain which lists an "update" date of January 4th and the status as pendingDelete. From what I've understaood it will be deleted and available Jan. 10th... but it says it doesn't expire until late May of this year... Huh? Here's the info: Domain Name: JUSTADOMAIN.COM Registrar: DOTSTER, INC. Whois Server: whois.dotster.com Referral URL: http://www.dotster.com Name Server: NS1.PUREDNS.COM Name Server: NS2.PUREDNS.COM Status: pendingDelete Updated Date: 04-jan-2007 Creation Date: 28-may-2006 Expiration Date: 28-may-2007
If the .com domain is regged for over 1 month, the whole deletion grace period is 35 days, which include 5 days of grace period and 30 days of redemption period. In this particular case, it may be some financial issue involved, e.g., creditcard dispute.
Hmm, the domain name was deleted "early", that's for sure. What for, only the last sponsoring registrar can say. Billing disputes, civil suit, registration agreement violation, somebody pressed the delete button by accident, who knows? By the time I post this, the domain name's either available or taken.