Entire GoDaddy account repossessed!

todaygold said:

I think you read that wrong. It says "it is around one-tenth of a percent of our entire portfolio."

Meaning 1/10th of 1%, not 10%.

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I'm not sure how many domains GoDaddy has for registration, but 1/10th of 1% of 50M registrations is 50,000 domains. Sounds like a lot to me

stub said:

Maybe to-date, you just been lucky? and run under the radar You haven't been asked for document verifaction yet? Which would you send? Your's or your father's?

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I have never been asked for any verification, yet. Neither from GD or any other registrar. I sometimes use my card and sometimes my father's card, whether it's a new reg, expiring auction payment, or account funds.. and I am from Pakistan. I guess I am lucky

Godaddy are famous for their shoot first, ask questions after approach. They have twice threatened to lock my account over trivial things where the threat was overkill - once it was an overheated support person who did not like a factual question I asked about a free service they supplied.

But actually several times I have used my card to pay for domains in someone else's account when they could not. I wasn't sure it would work since the card address and the account holder's billing address were different. If it had failed I would have tried Paypal.

But if Godaddy do not want you as a customer that does not automatically give them the right to take away domains they have accepted payment for - instead they could let you transfer them out, then close your account.

If they have not cancelled what you paid for you could start a credit card dispute or chargeback.

Haris100 said:

I have never been asked for any verification, yet. Neither from GD or any other registrar. I sometimes use my card and sometimes my father's card, whether it's a new reg, expiring auction payment, or account funds.. and I am from Pakistan. I guess I am lucky

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Yep. I agree with your last sentence

carob said:

If they have not cancelled what you paid for you could start a credit card dispute or chargeback.

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I woudn't do this until the last moment when they are definitely not going to re-open the account. Then Whammo! Funny. I didn't even think about that in my case. But I would have done the same, if I'd thought about it. Fortunately, it wasn't needed

stub said:

I woudn't do this until the last moment when they are definitely not going to re-open the account. Then Whammo!

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Yes that really is tne nuclear option and you would leave with a bang, definitely last choice.

Godaddy have a lot of weird clauses letting them cancel a domain if they want to and defining all sorts of normal email as spam, but I don't think ICANN would like them mass grabbing domains especially since with their in house market they could be doing it to re-sell them.

If it is your name in the WHOIS then ICANN rules let you force transfer even if the account is locked.

Here is a similar case at another registrar who, when pressed, let the suspected customer at least transfer out: https://forums.digitalpoint/threads/dynadot-is-not-giving-epp-they-stole-my-domains.2155566/

Have we had a response from GD yet. I'm thinking of moving my names, and I moved one to GD as an experiment. These threads raise some concerns, I'm fed up with registrar problems. I need to find one who will let me register names, and not try to steal them, or to raise all sorts of problems that don't seem to be relevant to their use. I've got a lot of things to sort out in my life, and I don't want to have to spend non-productive time in clicking hundreds of redundant links, or having to check name registrations on a daily basis. Registrars seem to be keen to spam clients these days, and often important mail can be lost in the spam bin.

Update:
Still no response from GoDaddy.
Started a credit card dispute as the goods bought were not delivered. Bank assures me that most funds spent in last 3 months will be recovered.
However, the issue is that I had some domains with them that I believe to be valuable. I will only be able to get these domains by buying them back when they expire (if not sold to someone else by then).

move out immediately!! Imagine you bought a valuable domain and manage it with godaddy because they are supposed to be large and secure.

Then some problems with payment arise and you lose your domain. What are they doing with repossessed domains? Auction them off maybe?

LordMomo said:

Started a credit card dispute as the goods bought were not delivered. Bank assures me that most funds spent in last 3 months will be recovered.

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I thought using your daughter's credit card was a one time usage as your card recently expired? Or are you talking about card disputes on your own card? Either way, hope you get this straightened out.

dordomai said:

move out immediately!! Imagine you bought a valuable domain

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I was in negotiations to sell 4 of them imminently.

tiawood said:

I thought using your daughter's credit card was a one time usage as your card recently expired? Or are you talking about card disputes on your own card? Either way, hope you get this straightened out.

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Thanks. My daughter already had that last small transaction refunded. The credit card dispute is for transactions on my own payment method

LordMomo said:

However, the issue is that I had some domains with them that I believe to be valuable. I will only be able to get these domains by buying them back when they expire (if not sold to someone else by then).

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I would raise with ICANN the issue of Godaddy changing ownership of the domains. If the WHOIS shows your name you can force transfer even without access to your account
https://forms.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/registrars/standards-complaint-form
https://www.icann.org/compliance/complaint.


Does Godaddy have formal complaints procedure or an appeals procedure? Ask them, if they say no that in itself is useful evidence for later. Make sure they have stated a reason for their actions.

If Godaddy have an issue with a payment on a domain surely they would only freeze/repossess that domain?

What if you were a web developer or PR agency with client domains in your account?

LordMomo said:

Update:
Still no response from GoDaddy.
Started a credit card dispute as the goods bought were not delivered. Bank assures me that most funds spent in last 3 months will be recovered.
However, the issue is that I had some domains with them that I believe to be valuable. I will only be able to get these domains by buying them back when they expire (if not sold to someone else by then).

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I'm not sure I understand you here.
Do you want your money back or your domains?
If you want your domains back I think you need to put the breaks on your Panic Mode for the time being.
It's bad luck that this went down during NamesCon, but just wait a couple of days until the dust settles and see if @Joe Styler can sort this out.
Joe can go deep and get to the root of the problem, but if you start initiating irrevocable processes, then what?

If everything is as you say it is, (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) I don't think waiting a bit longer is going to make a difference either way.
I don't think it will. I could be wrong. But I don't think it will.
Nothing usually happens that fast.

Good luck.

Peace,
Cyberian

LordMomo said:

Update:
Still no response from GoDaddy.
Started a credit card dispute as the goods bought were not delivered. Bank assures me that most funds spent in last 3 months will be recovered.
However, the issue is that I had some domains with them that I believe to be valuable. I will only be able to get these domains by buying them back when they expire (if not sold to someone else by then).

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Personally. I think that's the nail in the coffin of you ever getting your account restored. But we shall see

chargebacks may put his other accounts at risk, too.

Every time I read one of these where GD has shut down someone's account with no recourse the transfer train leaves the station to NameSilo ...I understand GD trying to battle fraud, I really do, but no recourse? That is downright uncivilized.

stub said:

This brings back into mind the famous statement of Christine (forgot the last name) former Legal Counsel for GoDaddy. Who said, paraphrasing from memory. We can do anything we like to any domain (and customer) with no repurcussions to themselves whatsoever. It's in their ToS. You should read it. After her statement, I immediately started moving my domains out of GoDaddy as my main registrar. It was a pity. Because I actually liked their control panel (which shows how weird I am).

I also had my account locked, fairly recently, when I changed my account name from a personal account to a company name. On the advice of my previous account manager, who said GoDaddy couldn't care less what you put in that box. But it turned out they do care. They were asking for documents which I couldn't provide because they didn't exist. So they also told me (to eff off) and refused to unlock my account. I had just about accepted I'd lose a few hundred domains in my account (bought at GD auctions). It was only the continued persistence of my current account manager (after me badgering him endlessly), that they wanted me to provide some statement to them (which was essentially, meaningless) but couched in legalese which they could accept. So I can refute absolutely that what they say about being unable to unlock an account is just BS.

As others have said, @Joe Styler is the person to talk to. But this comes at a busy time with Namescon. Everybody is so busy. But he has been called to this thread by many of us. So let's hope he clears his desk and pays us a visit here.

You should state openly what transpired. And tell them it was a genuine mistake on your part. And that you changing your payment method was an attempt by you to rectify what you had done. You should also state that there was no fraud here, and the original payments were never disputed by your daughter. But I know they are sticklers about fraud. They need to be tough on it. But not to honest customers, who admit what they've done, and GoDaddy only found out when you tried to fix the problem. If there is a mismatch between the account name and name on the credit card, this could be enough for them to lock your account.

Best of luck with your endeavours. It's going to be a long, hard, frustrating struggle. Believe me. And I hope it works out for you, in the end. Which came for me only after I'd already given up all hope of them ever unlocking my account. It's going to be tough.

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Truly Scary.
This makes me think which one is the best registrar to keep my most valuable domains at?

Nitindomains said:

Truly Scary.
This makes me think which one is the best registrar to keep my most valuable domains at?

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This is a difficult question to answer. But it certainly ain't GD. This type of action was exactly why I transferred the bulk of my domains out of GoDaddy years ago, and to this day I continue to transfer out every domain the day they are unlocked. And I still almost lost a couple of hundred domains. Based upon what my previous Account Manager had told me. That's really scary. IMHO. And believe me, I'm a great GoDaddy customer. But was still treated like a bum. Just imagine what would have been the effect, if all my domains had been at GoDaddy, and they decided to do this. I would have been bankrupted. Really! These kinds of unconscionable actions are really very, very scary, IMHO. And they can make these decisions, at the drop of a hat, without any prior discussion, and with a fraud department which doesn't even understand the word yes in their vocabulary. They have no respect for their customers. None whatsoever. Their word is THE LAW.

This is the first time I've ever talked about this. And it was not my intention to talk about it, except to say that it was BS of them to say accounts cannot be unlocked. They can unlock accounts. They did with me. After I had effectively given up the fight. So I was almost one of their 1/10th of 1% statistics. Through no fault of my own.

But back to the question at hand. If not GD, then who. This was done years ago. For the question in hand, there was no criteria available. Well, I evaluated about 40 Registrars. Some were dismissed relatively quickly. My shortlist ended up with Dynadot, Name, NameSilo. I evaluated as much as I could about each registrar. Price, Control Panel, Support, Account Manager (preferred). All these Registrars where evaluated. NameSilo were a good choice, but they were still in their infancy at the time of my evaluation. So I decided they were the riskiest. They've since come on in leaps and bounds. I find the Control Panel comprehensive, if a tad unique. they were the first to be eliminated. This probably would not be the case today. Name, were eliminated, finally on my dislike of their 2 lines per domain control panel. Which I think they have subsequently fixed. Leaving Dynadot. Which definitely had a Control Panel with the highest learning curve of the three. And they had a couple of unique twists, which I really liked. But they won out on Price, Flexibility, Account Manager, Support generally. After 5 years plus since I made the decision. And I'm still completely satisfied. But it doesn't exactly answer your question. I don't think your question can be evaluated.

Normally, you don't usually hear about these cases. It's my way or the highway, with no discussion, and no appeal process. Often, this is completely justified. But to just say no, without having a chance to put your case, was and is, completely unfair. Enough to know when considering GoDaddy as your registrar of choice IMHO.

Oh. I forgot to say that GoDaddy's Fraud Dept is totally, 99.9% unresponsive to any argument you make. Good or Bad. communicating directly with GoDaddy customers is beneath them. Because they are all GODS. Beholden to nobody. These are not the actions of a service responsible company.

stub said:

Oh. I forgot to say that GoDaddy's Fraud Dept is totally, 99.9% unresponsive to any argument you make. Good or Bad. communicating directly with GoDaddy customers is beneath them. Because they are all GODS. Beholden to nobody. These are not the actions of a service responsible company.

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Yes I think we have all been misreading their domain name - you'd think domainers of all people would know better.

It's GOD ADDY .com folks - that's God's address on the internet.