OT: Burned by domain name registrar for $150, suggestions?

[Paul Mackinney <pmackinney@speakeasy.net>]

My domain name registrar, Names4Ever.com, burned me be invoicing me at a
stale email address, failing to contact me by phone or postal service,
and canceling my domain name when I didn't renew. Now they tell me that
to reinstate it I have to pay $150 that goes to ICANN/Network Solutions
in order to remove it from "redemption" status. To add insult to injury,
they made me send a check--they wouldn't accept a credit card because
too many of their customers have been doing charge-backs on the $150
fee.

So I'm out $150 and all of my inbound email is bouncing until my domain
name comes back on line. I'm totally PO'd, but as I understand it, my
only other option is to wait a month or so until ICANN takes it out of
"redemption" status and hope no one else snags my domain name. I can't
afford to to this, I'm out of work and may already have lost job offers.

My questions are:

1. Do I have any recourse agains Names4Ever, other than writing them
nasty letters? They're based in San Diego, CA, also known as APlus.Net.

2. Once my domain is registered again, can it be transfered to a
different registrar without a loss of service. Recommendations? I'd like
to go with a business that thinks you should make a second attempt to
contact someone if an email bounces.

Thanks for listening :-)

Paul
-- 
Paul Mackinney
pmackinney@speakeasy.net