Most likely, the Registrant did not authorize the purchase by following the instructions that Tucows sent to the admin contact email address. The admin contact has 10 days to authorize the service. If no authorization occurs, WHOIS Privacy is not enabled.

If you are transferring from DirectNic, here are some tips to help assure your transfer is successful

DirectNic has 2 security levels for your domain that you can set from their website.
url:https://secure.directnic.com/myaccount/

1. Normal Security – If this is selected, you can then simply transfer away after approving “our” confirmation email.
2. High Security – If this setting is chosen you will need to confirm an email sent by DirectNic to “AdminContactVariable”, or they will not allow the transfer.
3. If your security setting is “High” then you will have 72 hours to approve the email that DirectNic sends you.
4. For .biz, .info or .org domains you must contact DirectNic to obtain your “Authcode” for the domain (needed for transfer). url:http://www.directnic.com/about/contact.php

If you are transferring from Enom, here are some tips to help assure your transfer is successful.
1) All domains with Enom are locked and must be unlocked before starting a transfer. Contact Enom support regarding unlocking your domain: url:http://www.enom.com/help
2) After you approve our confirmation email you will also receive a confirmation email from Enom.
3) Enom will send their confirmation email to “AdminContactVariable”.
4) If you do NOT respond to Enom’s confirmation email the transfer will complete automatically after 72 hours (if the domain is unlocked). If you DO respond to their email and approve the transfer it will happen that much quicker.
5) For .biz, .info or .org domains you must contact Enom to obtain your “Authcode” for the domain (needed for transfer). url:http://enom.com/aboutus.asp

If you are transferring from GoDaddy.com, here are some tips to help assure your transfer is successful.
1) After you approve our confirmation email you will also receive a confirmation email from GoDaddy.com.
2) GoDaddy will send their confirmation email to “AdminContactVariable”.
3) You will have 72 hours to approve the email that GoDaddy sends you.
4) For .biz, .info or .org domains you must contact GoDaddy.com to obtain your “Authcode” for the domain (needed for transfer). https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/support.asp
Note:
45/60 Day Holds:
o If a domain is transferred to GoDaddy, they will put a transfer hold on the domain for 60 days.
o If there has been an ownership change, the domain cannot be transferred for 60 days.
o If domain was renewed after the expiry date, the domain cannot be transferred during the 45 day grace period after the expiry date.
Auth Codes: .biz, .info & .us domain names will be charged for the second year renewal if they are transferred away from GoDaddy in the first year

Assuming that the domain DNS and hosts are still in place, the domain will begin working within 48 hours of its renewal. We renew the domain immediately, the delay is caused by propagation.

The Redemption Period is a 30 day, Registry-imposed hold period for domains that occurs after OpenSRS has instructed the Registry that the domain should be dropped. Domains will have reached the REDEMPTION PERIOD state if they have been EXPIRED for at least 40 days, were NOT renewed by the owner or Reseller, and the drop domain process has run. Normally domains would be deleted at this point, but the REDEMPTION PERIOD provides the owner with one last chance to recover the domain before it’s dropped and potentially re-registered by a new owner. It is a new policy started by ICANN and the Registry Operator, Verisign:

http://www.icann.org/registrars/redemption-proposal-14feb02.htm

The Redemption process is costly, both in fees and in effort. Registrants should be discouraged from using the Redemption Period and encouraged to renew domains before expiry or during the grace period when a renewal can be conducted with the registry in real time and for no additional cost.

Domains are still deleted from our database at the 40-day mark, and if you are interested in getting this domain name back, here is what it will take:

- This is now handled by the “Domain redemption” link in the RWI.

- The domain can only be reverted back to the original Registrant (original whois information).

- It will take approximately 2-3 business days to complete the entire process.

Of course, there is always the option of waiting out the entire grace period, which would be approximately 40(Post Expiry Grace period) + 30(Redemption Period) + 6(Pending Delete period) = 75 days.