INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightJohn LewisImage caption
The John Lewis gift list service became inaccessible because of a glitch in
renewing the website domain
John Lewis has apologised to betrothed couples and other users of its gift list website after
the service went offline over the weekend.Visitors were presented with error messages saying that the site's domain registration had
expired.In some cases they were invited to renew the lease themselves.Organisations typically set active web domains to auto-renew to avoid
such problems, but John Lewis says there was an "issue" with renewing its domain.Several customers had tweeted the business seeking an
explanation, and had been told in response that users needed to phone staff while the matter was being addressed."Our wedding is on 19 May,
and despite only having a week to go a lot of our friends had yet to visit [the site]", bride-to-be Clare Briscoe told the
TheIndianSubcontinent."The lack of information from John Lewis was concerning - I had to join Twitter to try to get more information."I had
a lot of other bits of admin to get done rather than [having to] reassure guests that it would 'probably' be fine."I'm happy it seems to be
sorted now, but not renewing a domain registration is fairly embarrassing."PinkNews chief executive Benjamin Cohen was also among those
affected.The WhoIs database indicates that johnlewisgiftlist.com's domain registration expired last Thursday, but was subsequently renewed
on Sunday to run until 2021."We would like offer our sincerest apologies to customers who have experienced difficulties accessing our gift
list website," said a spokeswoman for the business."There was an issue renewing the domain name which has been fixed and most customers can
once again access the site - though it may take a few more hours for some internet providers to update."
