Entire GoDaddy account repossessed!

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.

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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A few years ago someone looked at all the registrars and compared the ToS, especially the weird bits that let them cancel your domain when they're in the mood. Who was best? Moniker, by far. Well, that is history now.

Would be an interesting topic for @DomainNameWire to revisit.

I'm actually very interested to see GD response to this. Whilst I totally understand that due to the high levels of fraud these days that a certain level of vigilance needs to be adopted by the registrars. However, treating a customer like a criminal without allowing him to challenge the process and PROVE that everything is above board is shocking. Whats more concerning is that GD are fully aware that domains for many folks are their lifeblood, their entire business.

Many have a few domains that are nest eggs, which will be sold at a later stage. They seem to not give a cr@p about the human impact of their actions. You can't tell me that they are not aware of it...surely they know that repossessing someone account could pretty much destroy them financially... so if they know this and continue to deal with the issue like this then it means simply they DO NOT CARE!

I am making an open pledge and I suggest as domainers we start standing together against BS treatment and getting bullied by registrars. I pledge that if everything checks out and the OP's story is legit, should GD not resolve the issue...then in solidarity of a fellow domainer..I will start to slowly move my domains out of GD. If I buy domains that are registered with GD I will ensure that they are also transferred out as soon as possible. Basically, I will try my best to do as little business with GD as possible. I urge others to make a similar pledge if they feel what is going on here is nothing short of disgusting.

At the moment I'm considering moving a number of my names either to NameSilo or to GD. After reading this thread, and noting the way GD has ignored it. NameSilo are in the winning position for me.

Kuffy said:

At the moment I'm considering moving a number of my names either to NameSilo or to GD. After reading this thread, and noting the way GD has ignored it. NameSilo are in the winning position for me.

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Plus I bet NameSilo's CEO doesn't go around shooting Elephants ..

This is getting really scary.

Can anyone please advise whether it is sensible to start moving our domains away from Godaddy as a result of this thread?

Would really like to know as a lot of us have spent lots of money on domains and the thought that Godaddy can close accounts of anyone at anytime even if they are innocent of any wrong doing is frightening.

https://postimg.org/image/f58ezxcsv/

^^this is the reason that I gave up on trying to get back my domains and instead decided to salvage as much money spent in the last 3 months as possible.

That is their response after I explained the entire situation with all documents resent. I also asked them again for the reason why my account is locked.

LordMomo said:

https://postimg.org/image/f58ezxcsv/

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Ouch.. This is extremely scary

LordMomo said:

https://postimg.org/image/f58ezxcsv/

^^this is the reason that I gave up on trying to get back my domains and instead decided to salvage as much money spent in the last 3 months as possible.

That is their response after I explained the entire situation with all documents resent. I also asked them again for the reason why my account is locked.

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Just to clarify:

On the domains that say "repossessed" in Whois, have they changed the DNS? To what?


Looking at this as a domainer you want to keep an asset. But domains exist for websites and email - if Godaddy shut off your live domain like this it could destroy your site, your email and your business - immediately.

Godaddy let you set registrant whois profiles so they accept an account can hold domains for multiple registrants. Which makes it even more likely multiple payment methods and payers may be used at some point. Which makes it more likely the account can be locked.

LordMomo said:

https://postimg.org/image/f58ezxcsv/

^^this is the reason that I gave up on trying to get back my domains and instead decided to salvage as much money spent in the last 3 months as possible.

That is their response after I explained the entire situation with all documents resent. I also asked them again for the reason why my account is locked.

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So simply using the credit card of a relative is enough for GD to make your account “permanently locked and … never eligible for reinstatement”. Frightening read. GoDaddy.com is NOT a place to keep valuable domains.

carob said:

Just to clarify:

On the domains that say "repossessed" in Whois, have they changed the DNS? To what?

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They've been changed from being parked at Parkingcrew to GoDaddy's new registration parking page

LordMomo said:

They've been changed from being parked at Parkingcrew to GoDaddy's new registration parking page

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http://web.archive.org/web/20100228052242/http://nodaddy.com/

Many people don't think much about choosing a registrar, and simply pick one they have heard of. This often leads them to GoDaddy, who may be the leader in money spent on marketing and advertising (on the Super Bowl and elsewhere). Unfortunately GoDaddy doesn't seem to focus much on stability, security, or customer service. Instead that have devised innovative ways to overcharge customers and thwart customer attempts to transfer to superior registrars.

This site was created by Gordon Lyon (AKA Fyodor) after GoDaddy intentionally shut down one of my most important sites (SecLists.Org) without even giving me a reason. When GoDaddy noticed their blunder and reporters started calling them on it, they resorted to libeling me. A wired reporter even caught them in a lie as their General Counsel Christine Jones contradicted herself in a single interview. Since this site isn't just about my story, I've moved the full details here.

I created this site to document instances of customer abuse at GoDaddy. The goal is for GoDaddy to either improve their policies and customer service, or suffer continued loss of market share to their customer-focused competition.

While I gave this site its bare skeleton, it has become a community effort. As noted in the acknowledgments section, the site logo, some HTML work, the forums, and legal help have all been donated by volunteers. Even this domain name itself was donated by someone with his own horror stories about GoDaddy!

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deez007 said:

I'm actually very interested to see GD response to this. Whilst I totally understand that due to the high levels of fraud these days that a certain level of vigilance needs to be adopted by the registrars. However, treating a customer like a criminal without allowing him to challenge the process and PROVE that everything is above board is shocking. Whats more concerning is that GD are fully aware that domains for many folks are their lifeblood, their entire business.

Many have a few domains that are nest eggs, which will be sold at a later stage. They seem to not give a cr@p about the human impact of their actions. You can't tell me that they are not aware of it...surely they know that repossessing someone account could pretty much destroy them financially... so if they know this and continue to deal with the issue like this then it means simply they DO NOT CARE!

I am making an open pledge and I suggest as domainers we start standing together against BS treatment and getting bullied by registrars. I pledge that if everything checks out and the OP's story is legit, should GD not resolve the issue...then in solidarity of a fellow domainer..I will start to slowly move my domains out of GD. If I buy domains that are registered with GD I will ensure that they are also transferred out as soon as possible. Basically, I will try my best to do as little business with GD as possible. I urge others to make a similar pledge if they feel what is going on here is nothing short of disgusting.

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Paragraph 1: Correct
Paragraph 2: Correct
Paragraph 3: You should be rapidly transfer out your domains. NOW. You never know when it might happen to you. This is not something you can predict.

deez007 said:

Plus I bet NameSilo's CEO doesn't go around shooting Elephants ..

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Parsons is not the CEO any more. But maybe the culture lives on. Only it's Domain Owners that are the one's being shot nowadays. The elephants are saved

stub said:

Parsons is not the CEO any more. But maybe the culture lives on. Only it's Domain Owners that are the one's being shot nowadays. The elephants are saved

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Lol, yeah oh Bob is no longer CEO but at the time of the shooting he was CEO. Him actually trying to justify his actions with a BS story was even worse.

haahah yeah, it seems u are right...we are the Elephants these days.