Seems that in this case my anger was misplaced - should have been directed at the dumb client who's responsibility it was to renew the domain name... so I'm shouting at easyspace for something that's not their fault 'cos the client is insisting that it's mine ... I'm a fool and I should've checked... and these guy's here should keep proper fookin records of what's what aswell - which is now my job of course :/