just about everything which could go wrong has been going wrong. Eg even the authorization code to approve the transfer (after paying the ransom demand to "unlock" my domain) doesn't work - in any of the places I was told to enter it.

only the demands to take my money go through.

that the whole thing is like a scam even without being a scam.

possibly finally succeeded in authorising the transfer after phoning up to complain and then having to wait for them to send a new transfer authorisation code (which, suspiciously, was nothing like the previous short one they sent).

if your domain had expired. That ends up being a huge pain.

trying to complete the handover before the renewal so that it doesn't expire.

it goes through. Still can be a pain, but at least it's not that massively expensive pain when it expires before you can figure out how to renew it.

from what should have been competent people this time. But even that is unable to completely mitigate against my naturally bad luck.