Why isn't my EPP code from NameCheap.com working?

I'm trying to transfer a DNS domain from a third-party to our company's account. The third-party used NameCheap.com, also known as enom.com.

Namecheap gave the third-party an authorization code (an "EPP code") which we use to begin the transfer process.

The error message we get is:

We were unable to get authoritative domain information from the registry. This usually means that the domain name or auth code provided was not correct.

More info:

1. The DNS domain is unlocked. whois shows it is unlocked and has been unlocked for days.
2. We've tried copy and paste as well as manually typing the EPP code.
3. I've called my registrar twice and they say there's nothing they can do. The error message is the error message. They suggest asking NameCheap to re-generate the EPP code.
4. The third-party has spent time on the phone with NameCheap and was told the EPP code can't be regenerated, and that if we wait a few weeks it might change on a periodic schedule which they can't/won't give details about. (Not sure if I'm more concerned that they can't regenerate the code, or that it gets magically regenerated from time to time.)

What should we do?

Solution 1:

The trick is that the EPP code may have additional chars that you might not think to copy. Look at the original web page (get a screen shot) and type exactly what you see.

We asked the third-party to send a screenshot of the EPP code. It turns out that even though the code looks like a 15-digit hexadecimal code, there is actually a period at the end. The period is part of the EPP code. That is, we kept typing 1a2b3c4d5e6f789 when the code is actually 1a2b3c4d5e6f789. (16 digits total) [Note: that's not the actual EPP code.]

This little fact isn't on their support page.

I understand that a registrar wants to make it difficult to lose a customer (well actually I don't... one of the best 'advertisements' for a company is if they have the confidence to make it easy for a customer to switch to a competitor) but this was pretty low. What a bunch of weasels.