Comodo rejected two PositiveSSL Certificates for "Brand Validation"

Digital Certificates SSL Certificate
#1

I want to say that the way Comodo has handled this has been absolutely appalling.

Background:

I own the domain name bingnetwork.io (My name is Claude Bing, and I use this domain to provide DNS addresses for my servers, mail, etc.), and I have previously purchased nine certificates from Comodo that work very well. I have absolutely no complaints about those services, only the two that were rejected for seemingly no reason. My name is listed as the owner and as all contacts for the domain bingnetwork.io, and my last name has been my family’s name for at least the past 200 years…my family and I were around long before “Bing.com” or any other usage. I find it absolutely detestable that I cannot order certificates for a domain that I undeniably and legally own, especially when I already have five certificates for the same domain. My current certificates for this domain are:

basil.atl.ga.us.bingnetwork.io db.basil.atl.ga.us.bingnetwork.io mint.atl.ga.us.bingnetwork.io mail.bingnetwork.io alt1.mail.bingnetwork.io

Sunday, January 18, 2015:

I purchased two Comodo PositiveSSL certificates for the following subdomains through the third party Namecheap: cloud.bingnetwork.io and alt2.mail.bingnetwork.io.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015:

I have not heard anything from either Namecheap or Comodo, and ask Namecheap for the status of those orders. They finally relay to me that the orders were rejected. No details were provided, and I proceeded to talk to Comodo support via live chat. They asked me to re-order the certificates and send an explanation e-mail to docs[at]comodo.com, which I did.

Thursday, January 22, 2015:

I received a reply to my e-mail message, and this was the entire response.

“Thank you for your kind response
We regret to inform you that your order has been rejected due to the brand name “Bing”. For further queries Please contact your Webhost.”

I’m not sure what “contact your webhost” means, but to me it means “We don’t want to answer anything else because we really don’t have a great reason to reject your request.” I want this situation to be resolved, I want my certificates, and I want to know why something like this even got to this point even after talking to so many people about the issue? Before Wednesday, I would have recommended Comodo to anyone who asked for a SSL Certificate Provider, but unless this gets resolved, I can no longer do that.

I am willing to provide any proof of my identity, proof that I own the domain (a simple whois will tell you the same information), and all chat transcripts regarding the situation. I am including the e-mail that I sent below, in hopes that it will be read by someone who can give it the attention it deserves.

Comodo,

I recently purchased two PositiveSSL certificates from a third party reseller (Namecheap), and both were rejected due to Brand Validation. Over the past three months I have purchased five other certificates from you, and I believe this is the first time I have had any issues. The root domain in question is bingnetwork.io, and I hold all rights and am the owner of said domain. Currently, I have certificates issued for the following subdomains of bingnetwork.io:

mail.bingnetwork.io
alt1.mail.bingnetwork.io
db.basil.atl.ga.us.bingnetwork.io
basil.atl.ga.us.bingnetwork.io
mint.atl.ga.us.bingnetwork.io

The two certificates that were rejected were:

cloud.bingnetwork.io
alt2.mail.bingnetwork.io

Some background on the domain bingnetwork.io:

My first and last name is Claude Bing, and this has been my family name for generations. The name “bingnetwork” refers to the network of servers that I own. There is nothing wrong with my choice of domain name.

I would like to request the speedy resolution of this matter. Given my ownership of the domain in question, there is no reason to reject the generic subdomains that I have requested to have SSL certificates issued for. I currently spend $110 a year with Comodo, and I am generally pleased with your services. However, I would like to be able to freely purchase SSL certificates for my own domain without silly restrictions. If this were a new order for a domain you have not issued certificates for before, I would understand. But with there being a prior working relationship with myself and your company, I find this outcome unacceptable.

Attached are chat transcripts outlining the support provided thus far and my domain registration details. If you have any questions or require further information, do not hesitate to contact me. I will reply as quickly as possible.

Please advise of the course of action you wish to pursue. I thank you for your help in this matter, and look forward to working with you in the future.

Regards,

Claude Bing
BingNetwork.io Administrator

#2

Mr. Bing,
We are very sorry for the bad experience you have had regarding these two certificate requests. When these kinds of things come along generally our first reaction, especially when we enter the URL of the certificate into the browser and can’t see a web page to give us an idea what kind of activity is taking place on the domain, as in this case, is to err on the side of caution and reject the request.

I have reviewed the history for your domain, and I agree with you that in this case, rejection was not the right course of action. I am getting the rejection reversed and will get your certificates issued to you shortly.

In regards to the responses you received from our validation department, I suspect the second response is due to the fact that Namecheap has not re-submitted the requests for these certificates, so when you emailed in, all we saw were the original requests and the rejection note attached to them. I’ll have this all sorted for you shortly.

Once again, my apologies for the inconvenience.

#3

I appreciate your help in this matter. I’m at work right now, but I will reorder the certificates as soon as I can.

I’m very happy someone was able to understand my situation, and that it was resolved quickly! I hope all of you have a great day!

#4

I just reordered the certificates. The Comodo order ID’s are 15885450 and 15885444, and the subdomains are cloud.bingnetwork.io and alt2.mail.bingnetwork.io

Thanks again for all of your help!