HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

wwwweb · May 6, 2019

So annoying Godaddy hasn't stopped Huge Domains from sniping Godaddy Closeouts with their automated tools, no way a human bidder can win a even closeout.

First they were sniping with the backorders, now you cut that out, and you are letting them snipe via automated tools.

So what do you say @Joe Styler , you want to even the playing field a bit, as your partners are bidding everything in a split second, from $12, to $11, and bidding everything else into the hundreds from a simple bid. I would rather pay a Huge Domains surcharge at checkout.

Huge Domains has an unfair advantage on the auction platform, essentially taxing every user for using it with their automated access advantages given to them thru the house.

tonyk2000 · Sep 16, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
Same experience anybody?

This is very strange. Why would GD prevent somebody from purchasing closeut or anything else if available... Even if they have a number specific individual agreements in place, which may well be the case (there is enough evidence right in this thread) - an available closeout is still something that simply should be offered 1st come - 1st served. Must be another gd bug... Did you try another browser and/or incognito mode and/or disabling adblock ?

Blitzpotz · Sep 16, 2019

tonyk2000 said:
Did you try another browser and/or incognito mode and/or disabling adblock ?

Not yet. Used Firefox latest version without incognito.

Everything else worked with Godaddy today: added monitoring and backorders, unlocked a domain. Bulk searched availables.
There is no payment issue, too.
Login, once more: I was logged in. I wouldn´t have got access to my watchlist else. The empty shopping cart greeted me with my first name right on top of the page, otherwise there is the Login button when logged out.

I never had problems with Godaddy auctions right now, everything worked smoothly. On the contrary to the well-known bugs and weaknesses in the new domain management.

Blitzpotz · Sep 16, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
Used Firefox latest version without incognito.

Interesting, Firefox with incognito mode worked. Ordered another closeout name from my watchlist and it showed up in the shopping cart. Did not complete it (not pay).

The two names I tried to purchase two hours ago did neither return to my watchlist nor are they available in the inventory.

The $5 name was ecigtech.com. Anybody else able to hunt it?

Blitzpotz · Sep 16, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
The $5 name was ecigtech.com. Anybody else able to hunt it?

Now I feel fooled.

Right after I wrote my last post I returned to my closeout watch which included the ecig name but not the other one. Ordered it, jumped to the shopping cart - still logged in - which was empty. Firefox incognito mode.

tonyk2000 · Sep 16, 2019

On various occasions, my GD account manager was able to add stuff to my shopping cart (and even completed orders on my behalf, if I explicitly asked him to). You may probably call GD and ask them to add this e-cig domain to your shopping cart, and finalize the purchase from your end... or purchase it by phone. Not sure is it something they are supposed to do or will be willing to do with closeouts though...

Blitzpotz · Sep 16, 2019

wwwweb said:
At the $5 range, nobody would be sniping

Just to add, not necessarily with regard to my issue: If they already had one or more backorders for this name it could make sense to prevent it from being bought at Closeouts for bargain.

P.S.: I couldn´t solve my problem. Thanks for helping to both of you.

Joe Styler · Sep 17, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
Now I feel fooled.

Right after I wrote my last post I returned to my closeout watch which included the ecig name but not the other one. Ordered it, jumped to the shopping cart - still logged in - which was empty. Firefox incognito mode.

Looks to me like you added it to the cart three times in a row. Each time you do that it places a hold on the domain. Then someone else came along and tried to buy it.
Various things could be at play here. If your browser cookies are making us think you are in another account then it may add it to that account instead.
It also might be us blocking you. We don't like when people add domains to the cart over and over again and don't pay for them. This locks them up from other people being able to buy the domain. So in theory if we allowed this, you could just keep putting the domain in your cart when the hold expires when it's at $11 and keep going until it is at $10 or $5 by doing the holds over and over again, effectively blocking everyone else from the ability to add it to the cart. If we think you're doing something like this we may block you from that domain, or we may ban your whole auctions account etc.
We have various automated and manual tools that we employ to help make sure the auctions are not being abused. I don't want to go into all the scenarios because I am not willing to spell out various things people try and what we do to defend against them. Suffice it to say, adding a closeout to the cart over and over again when the holds expire isn't a good thing to try.

Blitzpotz · Sep 17, 2019

Hi Joe, thanks for your long response which tries to tell us that I am the problem, doesn´t it?

Joe Styler said:
Looks to me like you added it to the cart three times in a row.

Please read my posts once again: I could not add the domain to the cart. Not once. (or it was not visible to me at least.) Otherwise I would have bought it.

Joe Styler said:
Various things could be at play here.

I think so, too.

Joe Styler said:
We don't like when people add domains to the cart over and over again and don't pay for them.

Are you in need of this? As I said before: If this name would have been in my cart I would have bought it. And I would´ve found the necessary $13.49 anywhere to pay.

Joe Styler said:
If we think you're doing something like this we may block you from that domain, or we may ban your whole auctions account etc.

"Doing something like this"!
What did I do? I did what I did hundreds of times, buy Closeouts at Godaddy. Respectively, I did not this time because this name wasn´t in my shopping cart.

Joe Styler said:
Suffice it to say, adding a closeout to the cart over and over again when the holds expire isn't a good thing to try

Would this be even possible: Adding the same closeout name several times to my cart when it is already in there? Let´s think.

There´s nothing to add from my side. It´s not my target to be a target, neither as David (the Goliath thing you know) nor as scapegoat or public idiot. Everything is best.

Joe Styler · Sep 17, 2019

From the back end I can see the domain was added by you three times in a row each time soon after the hold expired. You cannot add the domain to the cart when it is there already, but after the hold expires it goes back to the auctions, is removed from your cart, and is again able to be added to it.
I am not saying you did it on purpose. I am saying the logs we have show the name being added to the cart three times in a row by you. That could have triggered something on our end that looks for things like this.
This is also why I said there are various things probably in play. I think that if you are having an issue seeing the name in your cart that can be a part of it and it may be due to cookies.
It is hard to say exactly what happened after the fact. I am only trying to help give some ideas of what can cause this. I believe you were having an issue buying the domain. I do not think you were doing it on purpose.

Blitzpotz · Sep 17, 2019

Joe, I do not wear a head cam when domaining. And, sadly, I did not screenshot. So I cannot prove what I mentioned here.

But why would I post untrue things that can be easily disproved?

I am no bloody beginner, I do not make easy mistakes when checking out.
I do not want to hurt Godaddy, I do want to help by posting possible bugs. Maybe this thread was the wrong thread. Ok. Sometimes my fantasy is way ahead and I hear the grass growing as we say in Germany. Is kinda sixth sense a correct translation?

Believe me: This domain was not in my cart - or it was not visible. There was no amount of money shown to be paid, nothing to close the purchase: "Your shopping cart is empty."

I exercised Closeouts hundreds of times, review my account. Everything smooth for years, and then you think (as an investor who is worried about his property): Oh god now it starts here, too.

Joe Styler said:
I am saying the logs we have show the name being added to the cart three times in a row by you.

Is it allowed to post these logs here? I would accept from my side as I am curious if your logs only show my several unsuccessful attempts to add to the cart, as I posted quasi in realtime here, or if they also show their arrival in the cart, or not.

Blitzpotz · Sep 18, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
The $5 name was ecigtech.com.

@Joe Styler

I guess that there is a peacemaking solution for this issue.

Minutes ago I received a status change E-Mail by Godaddy Monitoring:

" The following domain changes happened between September 17, 2019 and September 18, 2019:
The domain name servers have been changed: OLD: NS1HNX.NAME.COM NS2FGV.NAME.COM NS3NPV.NAME.COM NS4LRT.NAME.COM NEW: NS1CRV.NAME.COM NS2JQZ.NAME.COM NS3NRZ.NAME.COM NS4JPZ.NAME.COM
for the following name(s):
ECIGTECH.COM "

My theory is that the domain was obviously recovered in the last moment with Name.com. Possibly during my order process or shortly before that, though my shopping happened on the 16th and your monitoring says status change was later.

Possible process: I found the domain still listed in your system. However, the domain was no more really available because of the recovery with Name.com. Your system did not yet "know" this but rely on its own database listing which doesn´t seem to be updated in realtime. So your system wanted to sell the domain to me but wasn´t able to do so. Not aware of the recovery your system believed that I was playing around.

The registrant of this name is viewable in public Whois. It´s not me.

Is this theory reliable?

tonyk2000 · Sep 18, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
Is this theory reliable?

@Blitzpotz - when you posted the issue originally, I checked public whois (registrar whois). It showed _expired_ domain (2019 expiration date). So the domain was not technically renewed yet. However, now it is. So it may be in fact very good that you could not pay for it due to some (still unknown) reason... or you'd have to expect and track the refund from GD now...

Sheogorath · Sep 18, 2019

Looks like cheating isn't exclusive to gaming

I wish people will stop cheating, that's so immature.
Well, I did buy some great closeouts from GoDaddy Auctions so the automated tools that the mentioned company is supposedly using aren't that efficient.

I guess it has something to do with this, I guess it stops them somehow:

Joe Styler said:
We do permit API access. I just gave someone access this week in fact. If you are an active auctions user and a known good customer reach out and we can get you API access.
However it is important to note, we do not allow "drop catching" on closeouts. We limit requests via the API on closeout domains. We do this for two reasons. We want it to be fair across the board for anyone to get them. We do not want our servers "ddos" attacked by our own API customers trying to grab closeout domains. So getting API access is not a silver bullet for getting good closeout domains. I get asked this a lot which is why I am bringing this up. Closeout domains are very competitive.

Blitzpotz · Sep 18, 2019

tonyk2000 said:
@Blitzpotz - when you posted the issue originally, I checked public whois (registrar whois). It showed _expired_ domain (2019 expiration date). So the domain was not technically renewed yet. However, now it is. So it may be in fact very good that you could not pay for it due to some (still unknown) reason... or you'd have to expect and track the refund from GD now...

If so - domain renewal/recovery after my purchase attemps - we are thrown back to start? There is no more explicit explanation for my or / and the shopping cart´s behaviour then.

So either there was a (1) dark force preventing me from buying or (2) I am either a liar, moron or paranoid (might start my first poll here), supposed that there is no (3) Gadaddy bug. I exclude that I had a (4) PC or browser problem on my side. Then I suppose I would have had somewhat connection problems but no reportedly filled shopping cart looking empty.

Writing writing writing in several Godaddy threads.
I wish there was a central Excel sheet where forum members can briefly place their findings in a SE hidden space and Godaddy staff can work with it from the other side and give status updates. All relative discrete and without novel writing, emotions, misunderstandings, allegations, overeagerness and style questions.
Silence or amenities alone will not help.

tonyk2000 · Sep 18, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
I wish there was a central Excel sheet where forum members can briefly place their findings in a SE hidden space and Godaddy staff can work with it from the other side and give status updates

I am second to this. Also, a real system status of all gd venues with realtime updates, like: "pushes are not working as expected", "we have cookies problem so please use incognito mode", "afternic login is not working", "afternic added domains are not currently processed, please wait up to 5 hours" - on a spot view. And many more... @Joe Styler

tonyk2000 · Sep 18, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
So either there was a (1) dark force preventing me from buying

Most probably

Joe Styler · Sep 18, 2019

tonyk2000 said:
I am second to this. Also, a real system status of all gd venues with realtime updates, like: "pushes are not working as expected", "we have cookies problem so please use incognito mode", "afternic login is not working", "afternic added domains are not currently processed, please wait up to 5 hours" - on a spot view. And many more... @Joe Styler

we do have something like that https://www.godaddy.com/system-status/

Joe Styler · Sep 18, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
If so - domain renewal/recovery after my purchase attemps - we are thrown back to start? There is no more explicit explanation for my or / and the shopping cart´s behaviour then.

So either there was a (1) dark force preventing me from buying or (2) I am either a liar, moron or paranoid (might start my first poll here), supposed that there is no (3) Gadaddy bug. I exclude that I had a (4) PC or browser problem on my side. Then I suppose I would have had somewhat connection problems but no reportedly filled shopping cart looking empty.

Writing writing writing in several Godaddy threads.
I wish there was a central Excel sheet where forum members can briefly place their findings in a SE hidden space and Godaddy staff can work with it from the other side and give status updates. All relative discrete and without novel writing, emotions, misunderstandings, allegations, overeagerness and style questions.
Silence or amenities alone will not help.

I do not think it was a dark force, or you are a liar, or a GoDaddy bug. I am not able to post log files publicly but I also cannot make false statements publicly.
Something obviously went wrong for you but I am not sure what it is. I believe you did not see it in the cart. I do not believe it had anything to do with the domain being renewed.
I do not believe it was a bug, at least not a large scale bug because the Manager of the support team let me know when I asked him that we had no other complaints about this and it doesn't seem like our closeout sales varied enough to show an issue. Normally things like this point to an issue, other complaints are normally quick to come in because closeouts are time sensitive and people typically really want that domain.
There was a complaint about not being able to buy in another thread which you pointed the OP to this one as a possible reason. His domain was already a won auction. That domain was renewed by the registrant at the third party between the time he won the auction and the time he went to make payment for the auction. The auction was cancelled as a result which is why he was not able to pay. Beyond that we did not have any complaints about people not being able to buy a domain on the auctions that I am aware of after asking around.
My reason for bringing this up is because I am trying to help you buy the domains you want to buy. I think there was an error with the cookies. I have seen that kind of thing happen before. It is hard to say after the fact exactly what happened so that is my best guess. The way I would troubleshoot that would be to use an incognito window next time with a browser that is not blocking cookies and see if doing that shows the domain in the cart.

Blitzpotz · Sep 18, 2019

Thanks for your post @Joe Styler

It lets me breethe a sigh of relief (so the translation on Leo.org for what I want to express).

I never had that experience before with Godaddy. That´s why I had become nervous.

A last idea for my possible reason No. (4) above is VPN.
I use a free Antivirus. Connected are a few free products by the same vendor icluding VPN with limited bandwidth/month. This VPN tool sometimes activates after an Antivirus software update or after a restart of my Notebook. I often do not notice it. Not sure if VPN was activated on Monday or not. But if so, could this be a reason for Godaddy to be more vigilant?

Joe Styler · Sep 18, 2019

@Blitzpotz I kept digging around on this and spoke with a couple our developers. We did have a small technical issue two days ago where some people were not able to get the closeout name to add to their cart. It was pretty small and resolved soon so that explains why maybe we were not getting other complaints. It is quite possible this impacted you. I don't know for sure without a lot more digging around. This could certainly explain it and hopefully brings you a sense of relief that there are no dark forces at work against you.
I apologize if my answers upset you. I did not think you were being either untruthful or doubt your technical skills at using our site etc. Which is the main reason I kept digging around.
Normally the things I said could be causing this kind of issue are the usual culprits and occur much more often than a technical issue, especially one that is not universal but only impacts a small subset of users. Usually if there is a problem it impacts everyone

Hopefully this gives you a sense of vindication and relief.

wwwweb · Sep 18, 2019

Blitzpotz said:
@Joe Styler

I guess that there is a peacemaking solution for this issue.

Minutes ago I received a status change E-Mail by Godaddy Monitoring:

" The following domain changes happened between September 17, 2019 and September 18, 2019:
The domain name servers have been changed: OLD: NS1HNX.NAME.COM NS2FGV.NAME.COM NS3NPV.NAME.COM NS4LRT.NAME.COM NEW: NS1CRV.NAME.COM NS2JQZ.NAME.COM NS3NRZ.NAME.COM NS4JPZ.NAME.COM
for the following name(s):
ECIGTECH.COM "

My theory is that the domain was obviously recovered in the last moment with Name.com. Possibly during my order process or shortly before that, though my shopping happened on the 16th and your monitoring says status change was later.

Possible process: I found the domain still listed in your system. However, the domain was no more really available because of the recovery with Name.com. Your system did not yet "know" this but rely on its own database listing which doesn´t seem to be updated in realtime. So your system wanted to sell the domain to me but wasn´t able to do so. Not aware of the recovery your system believed that I was playing around.

The registrant of this name is viewable in public Whois. It´s not me.

Is this theory reliable?

Maybe they saved you $15, this whole ecig, vape sector looks to be headed south really quick, as more kids end up in the ER. All in all, not a bad eye, for a sector that will incorporate a lot of tech into their product going forward, certainly worth a gamble at that price.

xyo · Sep 18, 2019

Good job on whoever is bidding them up on an***.com since like half an hour
Edit: Auction ended, HD paid $338 for anepa.com instead of getting it for $38

Dave · Oct 8, 2019

The HD bot is still running rampant, day in day out. Bidder 913932.

@Joe Styler How can bots be allowed to operate on your expired auctions platform? This gives an unfair advantage to the bot owners vs manual bidding.

wwwweb · Oct 8, 2019

Dave said:
The HD bot is still running rampant, day in day out. Bidder 913932.

@Joe Styler How can bots be allowed to operate on your expired auctions platform? This gives an unfair advantage to the bot owners vs manual bidding.

Don’t forget closeouts also, the bot loses a lot also, but forces people to pay 5-15x more, that’s why they allow it.

Just bid the bot up, it likes to pay about 10% of appraised value.

Joe Styler · Oct 8, 2019

Dave said:
The HD bot is still running rampant, day in day out. Bidder 913932.

@Joe Styler How can bots be allowed to operate on your expired auctions platform? This gives an unfair advantage to the bot owners vs manual bidding.

You can do the same thing if you want. You can enter a proxy bid if you want or you can use the app to be alerted and re-bid, or you can hire programmers to create a program to bid in your account if certain rules are met that you make up in the code. We provide a platform that is available to everyone. We do limit the amount of times someone can ping us or try and place bids etc so that the auctions run smoothly and everyone gets a chance to participate. No one is doing anything anyone else cannot do.

HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

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