The Setup:
I'm working for a client who had their domain registered with a popular domain registrar. The Nameservers for the domain were clearly the registrar's own Nameservers.
Yet, their DNS was being managed by another platform (because they had legacy business email through this other company), which had their zone file accessible so I could make DNS changes, but the Nameservers were hidden (as in, nowhere to be found in the account or domain settings). Clearly the company didn't want to empower the customer to change their Nameservers.
My client wanted to change from the legacy email to Google Workspace, so they asked me to help them change email providers and manage the DNS/Nameserver updates.
The client also has a Shopify store.
What I Did:
I made sure the DNS settings matched up in both the legacy email platform as well as their domain registrar platform (including all Google Workspace verification, MX etc, so it could go live once the Nameservers changed).
I got in touch with their legacy email platform and asked them to delete the account entirely and to free up the domain so it could revert back to the original domain registrar.
What Happened:
The legacy email platform deleted the account. Now when I lookup the DNS for the domain it shows no Nameservers at all instead of the legacy platform's Nameservers.
Due to the slow propagation time, now the legacy email is down, the Shopify site is down, and Google Workspace isn't up either.
I asked the original domain registrar what could be done, they did a domain reset which they said should bring the domain back under their control and using their Nameservers.
I believe I will have to wait now for 24-48 hours for the new Nameservers to propagate/resolve. So my client will be without a webstore or business email for at least a day or two.
What Could I Have Done Better?
Is there anything I could have done better? Should I have asked the legacy email platform to change their Nameservers to the original registrar's Nameservers? Would they have even, considering they didn't make it accessible to the customer? I feel this could have been smoother, I just don't know how.
Is there some way I could have kept at least a static or maintenance mode version of their Shopify site up?