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MAJOR glitch on GD -- be careful guys! This results in missing domains!

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alcy

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WARNING! if you transfered expired domains to gd, they may be missing from your gd account!!!

if you sometimes/often/usually transfer EXPIRED domains .. to godaddy.. you better check your account as there is strong possibility they were removed from your gd account and you did not even know about it!

this is exactly what happened to me on 2 domains today..

what happened was:

I transfered a few domains from another registrar around day 25-30 past their expiry.. to godaddy...

I expediated transfer via doster email.

then I got a confirmation email from godaddy within 24 hours that the domains were successfully transfered to my godaddy account. and they were there sitting pretty and all.

then 2 days later (today).. I get an email from godaddy saying those domains were cancelled and removed from my account... because there was a winning bid on expired auction on them.

obviously this is not how its supposed to go. else I'd have just renewed them where they were or transfered elsewhere than godaddy.

the worst thing is.. this is so unexpected behaviour (let's just call it a bug that needs fixing for now) that most people do not even think twice it would happen.. which in turn means that no one even bothers to check for such possibility .. and it is by pure chance I actually read a cancellation email from godaddy today.. of which I get plenty for each domain I do not renew there etc.. and then I noticed that it atually talked about a domain I just transfered and paid for transfer to godaddy 2 days ago!!! lo behold! it was removed from my gd account!

now I have a bunch of other domains I transfered to godaddy.. also succesasfully completed transfer and now sitting in my gd account.. but they are still in gd expired auctions.. what a mess!!!! now I have to keep track of which domains will be disappearing from my gd account whenever there are winning bids on auctions!!!

now I know not all people transfer domains after they expire.. maybe most do not do it even.. but we also all know that I am not the only gd client who does do it.. so if you fit the profile and transfer expired domains to gd ... I would run a serious check on what got taken out of your gd account!!!

just imagine that the only way to find that out for me was to read the actual cancellation email from gd.. unless I'm the only domainer who does not read them throughly... cause to me they are all just supposed to be confirmations of cancelled domains due to non renewal.

please be sure to contact gd to get yoru domains back if this happened to you!!!

I have no way to know how far back this glitch goes.. but I asked them to run a complete history check on all expired domains transfers I ever did to them, and tell me which ones were removed from my account after I paid to transfer them and got successful transfer confrimation emails from gd. i hope this thing does not go years back!!!!

@Joe Styler
 
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Scary. I’ll check mine now.
 
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email from 2 days ago:

upload_2018-5-22_23-26-18.png



email from today:

777567567.JPG
 
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Another GoDaddy glitch, great. This is why I moved to Dynadot. One of the few names I had on GD that I bought less than 2 weeks ago had just sold via a default $20 BIN even though I have had a banned GD auctions account for over 2 months because I have left the $10 administration fee in my cart.
 
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yeah... this one is nasty.. I love gd... they treat me well and 90% of all my sales/offers are there.. so I'd love to move my stuff there so buyers get easy push after auction win... but... this is major stuff! domains just disappearing from peoples accounts right after they pay to transfer them and complete transfer! wow! unthinkable!

what bugs me the most about all this is that I'd have never ever known about this unless out of boredom I decided to glance through a cancellation email.. which is supposed to be essentially nothing more than something that confirms they removed a domain from your gd account that you didn't wanna renew. so no news there really.

I'd have never known these were pulled out of my account if I did not read that email!

I mean who in his right mind expects gd to remove domains that you just paid to transfer to them few days ago.. and that you got confirmation email that said "successfully transfered"
 
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Thats a nice name. I see its NS are at Above. com, are those yours? whois is private unfortunately...

as I said, this domain has been taken out of my account

so whois is not mine now.

it is my understanding that it is now about to get handed over to winning bidder.. today.. or tomorrow.
 
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Thats why I moved 95% of my names out of GD, not this particular reason, but other reasons as well as their prices. The important thing here is never try and transfer or renew a name that has already expired, this is just asking for trouble. Any names you want to keep, make sure they are in the registrar you want and trust and set them to autorenew and problem solved.
 
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Thats why I moved 95% of my names out of GD, not this particular reason, but other reasons as well as their prices. The important thing here is never try and transfer or renew a name that has already expired, this is just asking for trouble. Any names you want to keep, make sure they are in the registrar you want and trust and set them to autorenew and problem solved.

thats true Gilles.
it is always best practice to transfer before expiry.. but.. at same time.. countless domainers and domains get transfered around after they expire... it is after all permitted by icann... registrars etc.. they put it in their faqs... explain how to do it... the grace periods.. the timelines... deadlines etc... even gd itself made a big fuss recently to modify their transferout timelines for expired domains to -30 days max... so I personally consider transfering expired domains as a normal process.. part of domaining.. not some magical thing that only works randomly or on full moons :)

and really, it all goes smoothly it seems everywhere but on gd.. this is a glitch plain and simple. and its clear that is a major one. as it can in nearly impossible to notice manner make domainers lose their domains! I'd be just fine if I trnasfered it to namesilo.. or renewed it where it was.. or transfered elsewhere.
 
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It may be permitted but issues are not uncommon and Ive had similar issues years ago at Name.com and I've seen other people with similar issues at Dynadot and Monica with transfer/renewing issues after expiry dates. Its risky letting a name expire that you want to keep.

To me, if a domain expires, it should just become available to the public on the date of expiry, no grace period or going to auction or anything, this would solve all these issues. I mean we pay for 12 months registration so thats what it should be, 12 months. Just my view on it.
 
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It may be permitted but issues are not uncommon and Ive had similar issues years ago at Name.com and I've seen other people with similar issues at Dynadot and Monica with transfer/renewing issues after expiry dates. Its risky letting a name expire that you want to keep.

To me, if a domain expires, it should just become available to the public on the date of expiry, no grace period or going to auction or anything, this would solve all these issues. I mean we pay for 12 months registration so thats what it should be, 12 months. Just my view on it.

I agree. but the point is that it DOES NOT become available to public on date of expiry. which does in turn mean that it is allowed to be transfered etc.

but I do understand what you mean. however, I've done my share of transfering of expired domains.. on all kinds of registrars, as did many others.. and I never had issues til this one here.

I do not want to turn this into a discussion about whether it should be allowed or not to transfer expired domains.

I want to bring attention to strong possibility that whoever did transfer expired domains to gd, may have lost them. and never suspect a thing about it!!

thanks for the input Gilles

cheers
 
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No problem at all, but I really dont think transferring expired names to a new registrar is a common practice, especially with names you plan on renewing. Have you called or emailed GD about it? Can they get the names back?
 
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No problem at all, but I really dont think transferring expired names to a new registrar is a common practice, especially with names you plan on renewing. Have you called or emailed GD about it? Can they get the names back?

I think common.. you think not.. let's make a poll on it in another thread one day maybe...

my point (and purpose of this thread) was that the glitch here isn't the people who transfer expired domains... but gd removing their freshly (and successfully) transfered domains, with transfer fees all just paid for, a few days after they hit people's gd accounts.

thanks Gilles. cheers.
 
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ok good luck alcy, hope you get the names back
 
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Gilles:
yes I called them and reported issue.
they'll check tomorrow. offices closed now.

of course godaddy has a way to get anythign back. as long as its within their registrar and things are confirmed as a glitch. which clearly this is. I Didn't just pay $8 to transfer vrcpu...com (or other affected doamins) to godaddy to have it removed 2 days after getting a "successful transfer" confirmation email. else I'd just renew it where it was, or move it to namesilo. I just moved it to gd cause most my sales are on gd auctions. so having domains there makes it easier for pushes.
 
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ok good luck alcy, hope you get the names back

yes I am not really worried abotu getting names back. cause I know gd can reverse ownerships done in error as long as domains are on their registrar.

what worries me is having to keep track of all other names I trnasfered and stll on expired auctions and still could get bids and then removed from my account.

as well as potentially how far back does this go? and how many names I or others missed like this in past years???

as well as.. when and if this will get fixed 100% so that people can continue to trnasfer domains there and not worry about removal.
 
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yeah, have these names been registered by someone else though..GD cant do much about that if they have been and are at another registrar.., what does the WHOIS say?

Are the ones that didnt get bids ok, they are still in your account?
 
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yeah, have these names been registered by someone else though..GD cant do much about that if they have been and are at another registrar.., what does the WHOIS say?

well .. .this isn't about the names expiring and just being available to reg by anyone.. its about people bidding on them on expired auctions.. so there is no registraton per se involved here

just change of ownership

I have 2 domains rmeoved so far.. but 1 more has bids now.. ending in 2 days.. and while its now trnasfered and sitting in my acount.. I expect it to be removed too.. unless they fix the glitch by then.

on top of it, a few more I transfered, which are still in auctions and COULD get bids still. so I have to keep track of it all.

and yes, they can get back anything they want from ownership change.. they just remove it from new owner account.. give him refund etc..

the worrying part like I Said is how many other people were affected without knowing .. or even me.. in past.. before I realized it. if you catch it early you can get domains back.. but if this happened 5 months ago.. and new owner had domain for 5 months.. he could have sold it by now.. so you would never get stuff back.
 
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To me, if a domain expires, it should just become available to the public on the date of expiry, no grace period or going to auction or anything, this would solve all these issues. I mean we pay for 12 months registration so thats what it should be, 12 months. Just my view on it.
I pretty much agree. I think there is room for grace period renewals, but this nonsense of registrars confiscating expired domains for auction really needs to stop. There are so many serious issues involving the domain industry right now. But you can forget about ICANN doing anything about it. The fox is in the hen house.
 
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People are transferring domains into GoDaddy?

I have moved all of my domains out of GoDaddy. The only ones that remain there are auction wins that are still 60 day locked; which I then transfer as soon as the 60 days are over.

Over the past year I waited until 28 days after expiration then transferred them out to another registrar. I did not want to push it to the max 30 days they changed their policies for.

Now they are on auto-renew safe at their new warm and safe homes with free privacy.
 
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I need help understanding why people leave it until the last minute to renew or transfer a domain. Do you get the 28/30 days of free registration when you transfer away at that point?
 
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I did not want to push it to the max 30 days they changed their policies for.
I wonder how many domains they ripped off from people in that not-so-publicized policy change?
 
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I need help understanding why people leave it until the last minute to renew or transfer a domain. Do you get the 28/30 days of free registration when you transfer away at that point?
Some people view the grace period (or registrar redemption) as the real expiration date to either renew or transfer out. You could say that is playing with fire, but if it's how a system works then it's safe to do.

The trouble came last year when GoDaddy and Name.com (and perhaps others) started removing domains from accounts on the tail end of the period if they were sold at aftermarket. There was very little publicity of this and I do believe it was an organized (though probably legal) theft of domains to beef up expired domain aftermarket revenues.
 
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Thats why I moved 95% of my names out of GD, not this particular reason, but other reasons as well as their prices. The important thing here is never try and transfer or renew a name that has already expired, this is just asking for trouble. Any names you want to keep, make sure they are in the registrar you want and trust and set them to autorenew and problem solved.

I have never had a problem transferring a domain that expired at GoDaddy to another registrar, just did one two weeks ago, GoDaddy to Uniregistry.
 
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