Dynadot

I need some help with serious GoDaddy/Afternic issue!

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I'm extremely pissed off right now.

Yesterday morning I randomly got an email that a domain I own was canceled from my GoDaddy account.

This happens sometimes when a domain is sold through afternic. Domain is just moved from my account and I get that email, then get the afternic domain sold email a few hours later. This time, a day later I never got a sold email. The domain was not due to expire and I didn't see anything in my afternic account.

Today I call my GoDaddy account rep, she looks into it. And finds out my domain sold apparently through afternic.

She reaches out to someone,don't know who, but eventually find out that someone else listed the domain in afternic for $295 dollars and it sold, and was moved out of my GoDaddy account via fast transfer.

This was a domain I wouldn't have sold for less than high 4 figures. Anyway, they let someone sell it who didn't even own it and took it out of my account, and I imagine preparing to pay the other person.

I was on the phone for about an hour trying to get to the bottom of this and get it resolved.

My GoDaddy rep comes back and tells me I need to contact afternic. So I do. On the phone and back and forth on hold about another 45 minutes. Then after talking to the afternic legal department, afternic rep came back with someone from legal on the line and told me I need to go back to GoDaddy, because afternic isn't the registrar and have them escalate the situation.

I bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction in September. Never even listed it through afternic myself. Afternic sold it through someone's listing who wasn't the owner and GoDaddy took it out of my account.


Now I can't get it resolved and being sent around in a circle to get my domain that was taken.

Who do I need to talk to to get this resolved. I do not have time nor should I need to get runaround about this!


Already had an extremely frustrating day at my main job, then had to spend a couple of hours on this and got nowhere and sent in a complete circle.
 
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Sry indiegrind, trying to clarify here;
Given the deeper digging, if you think there is a remote chance that you had listed the domain, and are not absolutely sure that you didn't, than that changes everything.

We have to eliminate the possibility of human error on your end before assuming the worst, because otherwise until this is resolved more of your domains and anyone else's for that matter is at risk of being taken.


I did not list the domain in afternic. It was never in my afternic account.

Domains that are in my afternic account after being sold remain in the account as "sold". We verified that it had been listed in someone else's account and not mine.
 
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I did not list the domain in afternic. It was never in my afternic account.

Domains that are in my afternic account after being sold remain in the account as "sold". We verified that it had been listed in someone else's account and not mine.

In that case GD should reverse it - they do have the power to grab domains back.

Fast transfer is inherently unsafe for several reasons. And no 2FA at Afternic - someone can log in and change the sale price of your domain, then fast transfer it out.

It is a really good idea to keep frequent export spreadsheets of your Afternic listings.
 
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Maybe you opted-in fast transfer by mistake in your registrar account.
Afternic is a must for me but your story make me think twice now before i list any there.
 
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Anyone considering enabling fast transfer should read this about what happened to me:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/pr...rt-problems-here.1006373/page-47#post-7345852

You may change prices and find that your price change never took effect and you had no way of knowing it.

The only way to dis-able fast transfer is ask Afternic to disable it. If you delete a fast-transfer enabled name and relist it, they just re-enable fast-transfer without telling you.

Some people don't use fast transfer, others use it only for low-value domains.
 
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I still have no respone from my last email yesterday, didn't hear back from my account rep today. I have been working all day and not able to call since 7:00 am and just left the office at 8pm.
 
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This is terrifying.

They get 20% from domain sales, 3-4x the price on registrations and renewals with privacy compared to other places, all of the sneaky upsells, yet they can't provide support in less than 45 minutes (let alone waiting 3-4 days for email responses). Absolutely ridiculous. I can hop onto a chat with other registrars and get a response within seconds, why won't godaddy invest more in support? Why do we continue to put up with this?
Just like any other near-monopoly as long as they're getting paid their billions they don't care. Just look at how many domains are registered at GD & their subsidiaries compared to the competition. They hire overseas support who take advantage of people, they've registered my domains for themselves.

About Afternic, their security is a joke, I've seen many domains of established businesses for sale on there. Their verification is something a high schooler would set up because they started the site as a hobby, just take a screenshot of your "ownership" & boom it's your domain now! The only reason I list my domains on there with their disgusting UI is so other scumbags don't list them which I saw was happening before I joined & listed them myself.
 
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Just like any other near-monopoly as long as they're getting paid their billions they don't care. Just look at how many domains are registered at GD & their subsidiaries compared to the competition. They hire overseas support who take advantage of people, they've registered my domains for themselves.

About Afternic, their security is a joke, I've seen many domains of established businesses for sale on there. Their verification is something a high schooler would set up because they started the site as a hobby, just take a screenshot of your "ownership" & boom it's your domain now! The only reason I list my domains on there with their disgusting UI is so other scumbags don't list them which I saw was happening before I joined & listed them myself.

For the most part I agree. But the main reason I list on Afternic, even beyond listing my names so someone else doesn't is for all their problems getting into the registrar path I think is very useful. Yes you can do so with Sedo, but for obvious reasons Godaddy only shows Afternic names and for as much as I don't liek them they are still the largest registrar and for many end users who simply don't know any better they are viewed as essentially the only place to get a domain.
 
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Look at this bs! This is not acceptable! Afternic sent me back to my premiere services rep, and here is her response.

Rod,



Thanks for your email. While I appreciate your feelings, as mentioned in our last call, the sale of the domain and for how much would need to be discussed with Afternic. If I was to make an assumption the domain was accepted into the Fast Transfer network by you. And so the sale will be honored. I don’t think you can get the domain back but you will be paid the amount it was sold for which is over 200% of what you paid for it. From my recall, the domain was never listed on Afternic for anything but what it sold for.

Keeping in mind this is all based on our last communication with the department communicating with Afternic. I recommend if you have any more questions about it, speak to Afternic as there is NOT anything else I can say or do to change what has happened. I hope that helps. Please let me know if there’s more I can do.



Be well,



Theresa Downs Barkley – Premier Services
 
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My reply just now:

Theresa, afternic sent me back to you and said you need to escalate and said hat this should have been handled on the GoDaddy end. This is not acceptable that GoDaddy and Afternic are passing me around for a domain I owned and did not list for $295.

I did not sell this domain through afternic and I did not set this price, but this is my domain that I own and was taken from my account, that I didn't even list in my afternic account.
 
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I did not list the domain in afternic. It was never in my afternic account.

Domains that are in my afternic account after being sold remain in the account as "sold". We verified that it had been listed in someone else's account and not mine.

If that is the case then GoDaddy obviously needs to reverse it. They can't just sell your domain, without permission, because some other party listed it before.

If they are going to have fast transfer as an option, then they are liable for making sure it works properly. If it doesn't, it is solely their responsibility to fix.

Brad
 
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My reply just now:

Theresa, afternic sent me back to you and said you need to escalate and said hat this should have been handled on the GoDaddy end. This is not acceptable that GoDaddy and Afternic are passing me around for a domain I owned and did not list for $295.

I did not sell this domain through afternic and I did not set this price, but this is my domain that I own and was taken from my account, that I didn't even list in my afternic account.

Getting the runaround between GoDaddy and Afternic support is not helpful.

I contacted @Joe Styler about this. Hopefully he can figure out what happened here.

Brad
 
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Getting the runaround between GoDaddy and Afternic support is not helpful.

I contacted @Joe Styler about this. Hopefully he can figure out what happened here.

Brad


I'm furious right now. I just emailed Joe as well. Thank you.
 
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That's absolutely insane. You obviously do a fair amount of business with GoDaddy to have an account rep and that's the best they are going to do for you? :banghead::xf.confused:

Unfortunately I doubt Joe is active over the weekend. Hopefully first thing Monday though he will see this and step in to fix this.
 
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That's absolutely insane. You obviously do a fair amount of business with GoDaddy to have an account rep and that's the best they are going to do for you? :banghead::xf.confused:

Unfortunately I doubt Joe is active over the weekend. Hopefully first thing Monday though he will see this and step in to fix this.


Yes, GoDaddy gets well into five figures a year from me, and right now I am looking at moving my business to dynadot.
 
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Yes, GoDaddy gets well into five figures a year from me, and right now I am looking at moving my business to dynadot.

I don't blame you. I haven't had a positive image of GoDaddy for awhile. About 11 years ago someone I know had their domain name for their business expire when his card was expired and he never got an email from Godaddy letting him know. Someone else got it on the drop and today it sits in the portfolio of a large well known domainer with a nearly 20k price tag. Since then I've had a low view of Godaddy and more recent experiences both first hand and stuff like this hasn't helped that at all.

Dynadot would be a big improvement over GD in my opinion, they are my second favorite registrar after Epik. :xf.wink:
 
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That is indeed scary. I hope you get the name back.

I have always been a bit afraid of using the fast transfer service. Even though we all know GoDaddy has the biggest reach, Afternic is really a joke when it comes to the user interface.

They don't even have 2FA, and what I fear is that someone gains access to your account, changes the price of some of your premium names that have fast transfer enabled and then immediately buys at a ridiculously low price.

I find it incredible that GoDaddy can spend millions on purchasing Uniregistry and large domain portfolios, but won't spend anything on improving Afternic...
 
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I am going to withhold judgement until there is more research into what happened here, but clearly if this was listed by a previous party then Afternic/GoDaddy would have no legal authority to sell the domain after the ownership has changed.

In that case any contract or TOS would have been agreed to by the party that owned the domain at the time, and Afternic/GoDaddy. Any new owner would not be a party to that agreement.

Brad
 
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I don't blame you. I haven't had a positive image of GoDaddy for awhile. About 11 years ago someone I know had their domain name for their business expire when his card was expired and he never got an email from Godaddy letting him know. Someone else got it on the drop and today it sits in the portfolio of a large well known domainer with a nearly 20k price tag. Since then I've had a low view of Godaddy and more recent experiences both first hand and stuff like this hasn't helped that at all.

Dynadot would be a big improvement over GD in my opinion, they are my second favorite registrar after Epik. :xf.wink:


Yes, dynadot is the only other registrar I use currently and have enough there to maintain bulk pricing. I've used them for about 5 or 6 years now without issue.


I don't think I have ever even had to contact customer service with them.


I've also held a good amount of names at namesilo, uniregistry, and name.com in the past, but I buy most of my names at GoDaddy auctions so it was convenient to consolidate as much as possible.
 
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For what you describe to happen:
Having it listed for sale by someone else is not enough. The domain must also be opted into fast transfer wherever it is registered.

Whether this opting in is somehow linked or must be linked to a specific for sale listing - I don’t know.
 
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Yes, dynadot is the only other registrar I use currently and have enough there to maintain bulk pricing. I've used them for about 5 or 6 years now without issue.


I don't think I have ever even had to contact customer service with them.


I've also held a good amount of names at namesilo, uniregistry, and name.com in the past, but I buy most of my names at GoDaddy auctions so it was convenient to consolidate as much as possible.

Can't blame you there. As much as I don;t like GD I am active on their auctions. Fortunately I recently discovered the have an API to shows me when a domain is eligible to be transferred away, and allows me to unlock it and get the auth code. So I am able to automate the consolidation, unlock and get the auth code after 60 days, then make an API call to Epik to start the transfer. I haven;t look too closely at the Dynadot API though to see if you can initiate a transfer automatically with them or not though. I really just have my DD account for their auctions.

For what you describe to happen:
Having it listed for sale by someone else is not enough. The domain must also be opted into fast transfer wherever it is registered.

Whether this opting in is somehow linked or must be linked to a specific for sale listing - I don’t know.

Dosen't matter who lists it, as soon as it is listed the registrar who controls the domain emails the owner, and as someone who myself is always getting opt in emails, I can understand how one can simply assume its from their listing and approve fast transfer. The result someone else lists it for sale, sets the price, and gets paid upon sale for your domain. Afternic could have a better system, but they don't.
 
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For what you describe to happen:
Having it listed for sale by someone else is not enough. The domain must also be opted into fast transfer wherever it is registered.

Whether this opting in is somehow linked or must be linked to a specific for sale listing - I don’t know.

I guess my question is if Party 1 owns the domain and lists it on Afternic with fast transfer, then down the road Party 1 sells the domain to Party 2. What happens with the Afternic listing?

Does Afternic know when ownership changes hands and the listing is removed or is that listing still active, and someone purchasing that domain @ Afternic would then have it removed from Party 2's account without permission.

Hopefully Joe can clarify. If that is the case, it is a massive issue.

Brad
 
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The thing is, I didn't buy it from whoever had it listed, and I still don't know if the person who listed in afternic ever actually owned the name, or if they listed it before or after I acquired it.

I bought it at a GoDaddy expiring auction.
I never listed it in my afternic account.
And Afternic confirmed it was not sold from my account.

Now afternic and GoDaddy are pointing me back and forth to each other.

That's where we are. I am going to wait to hear from Joe.
 
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Sigh .. GoDaddy is a raging disaster on a few things. Their website/platform is *NOT* secure .. and has not been secure for at least 4-5 YEARS !!! I reported the security issue at least 4 years ago, before I even started actually actively domaining .. lol .. and it's still there.

But the real root of the problem here is their absolute disaster of their automated emails. So much of it is wrong, incomplete, unclear, inconsistent, outdated information. It's been like that for as long as I can remember. The only word to describe it is "shameful".

I get those "action required" emails all the time .. but as mentioned above, it never even confirms if the domain is in my actual account or someone else's. It also says: "The following domain names have been requested for sale through the Afternic Premium Network:" .. but then there's never anything beyond that, it seems it's not an actual inquiry that triggers that email. What's worse is that these emails come from "GoDaddy" and not Afternic. Then I go to check at afternic, and like in this situation, it seems to be already listed at a low price I most certainly never set. Forget calling in .. as in this case .. GoDaddy tells you to contact Afternic and Afternic tells you to contact GoDaddy. So the end result is simply to never trust an automated email coming from GoDaddy and never click on any link in any of their emails. It's a colossal disaster. The problem persists for YEARS because ultimately each company and department blames a different one .. and so nobody ever takes responsibility to actually address the situation.

Each separate department at GoDaddy works fine .. but the moment anything overlaps with a different department it simply falls into a black hole for YEARS !!!

I've crossed bugs that make this look like a pimple compared to Mt Everest. I was forced to pay for auctions I didn't bid on .. I was then able to give a detailed report in how to duplicate the bug .. the end result .. NO action .. NO fix .. and a polite reminder that if I didn't pay for the domains (that I didn't bid on) that I would be banned from their auctions platform. But even that is nothing .. there was stuff that likely cost domainers literally countless millions of dollars in auctions. What's worse is that I'll continue to say GoDaddy isn't evil and they are NOT doing this on purpose. It's just bigger than any one person or department .. so any hopes of ever seeing things get better simply gets lost as the issue gets pushed around to the next department and the next department .. etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc and on and on and on ...


Sigh .. ok .. rant over .. lol .. almost ..



IMO the opt in email SHOULD INCLUDE the AFTERNIC USERNAME that listed the domain. That would make it much clearer to prevent accidential opt ins.

I have said that multiple times for years! Seems like at least a very simple quick fix. But since it would require coordinating Afternic data with GoDaddy email templates I'd say it's probably a 5 year job! At the very least if they can't coordinate, then they should send one email from afternic and one from the registrar the domain is at and have you confirm at each before the domain is able to change status.

Better yet would be to have a unique Afternic code associated with your individual registrar account, so that if you changed the settings within your registrar, that code would get sent to Afternic, who in turn would put it in the email (or even better on the confirmation page at Afternic after you click the link in the email AND after you log into Afternic)


I would like to know more about what happened here. There can obviously be potential issues with fast transfer if the ownership verification breaks down.
I quoted this to answer .. but it's pretty much most of what I wrote above .. lol
 
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I've crossed bugs that make this look like a pimple compared to Mt Everest. I was forced to pay for auctions I didn't bid on .. I was then able to give a detailed report in how to duplicate the bug .. the end result .. NO action .. NO fix .. and a polite reminder that if I didn't pay for the domains (that I didn't bid on) that I would be banned from their auctions platform. But even that is nothing .. there was stuff that likely cost domainers literally countless millions of dollars in auctions. What's worse is that I'll continue to say GoDaddy isn't evil and they are NOT doing this on purpose.
Not really a pimple, Ategy, more like a tumor. Having a domain taken from your account is pretty much the Mt. Everest of fear of climbing.

But what you do you mean you were "forced" to pay for auctions you didn't participate in? At first glance that makes as much sense as a pickled pudding palindrome. I'm sure there's more to the story..
 
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Not really a pimple, Ategy, more like a tumor. Having a domain taken from your account is pretty much the Mt. Everest of fear of climbing

Sorry .. I'm totally not trying to belittle what what is going on here .. as I mentioned above it is very serious. Just saying there are some really serious issues with GoDaddy's platform. Many have since been randomly paved over, not because they were fixed in a timely manner, but because every couple of years they upgrade their platform. One of the issues I was able to figure out (before I started getting serious about domaining) would have literally cost all of you sums completely off the charts. 1000x worse than the "being forced to pay for domains I didn't bid on" bug.

Even today their platform is not secure .. and it's something I reported at least 4 years ago!
(Don't ask me how .. it's not in anyone's interest for me to share information on an open bug/security hole)


But what you do you mean you were "forced" to pay for auctions you didn't participate in? At first glance that makes as much sense as a pickled pudding palindrome. I'm sure there's more to the story..

Nothing more .. exactly that ... long story short: Their system applied my bid for Domain B on Domain A. Then after detailing to them how it happened, I was told I still had to pay for Domain A.

Longer story: I generally make a point not to post bugs for obvious security reasons. But since this bug in question has since been randomly paved over (it was never actually fixed) when they upgraded the entire platform a couple years ago, then I can tell you it was something that happened if you had multiple tabs open and then also opened a specific type of auction page. When you placed a bid on that page, the bid would be applied on a previous auction you had opened. It likely wasn't something most casual bidders would encounter unless biddng on multiple auctions at the same time AND had multiple tabs open AND was using another specific page to bid on. It sounds complicated .. and it was a bit .. but I was able to duplicate and document and explain. I was likely given GoDaddy's typical "thanks, we'll pass it on to the proper department .. bla bla" and then never to be heard of again (I couldn't count the number of times I've encountered that .. I used to report so many bugs that I actually started some emails to my rep with an apology for taking up so much of his time .. lol). But after that, I still was told I needed to pay for those domains (there were 2 I think .. maybe a couple more, but at least 2) or my auctions account would be .. (I forget the actual wording, but it was clear that I would no longer have access to GD auctions if I didn't pay for the domains.. not sure if they said my account would be closed or if I'd be banned .. end result is the same thing though). I wasn't told that in a bad way .. but more in that the level I was talking to simply couldn't do anything about it at that point and that I needed to make a decision before the auction platform closed my account due to non-payment.

ADDED: Again .. I want to stress that I don't think GoDaddy is inherently evil .. nor out to get domainers as many people here at NP somehow believe. It's more simply that their platform is way too big to be managed efficiently. Most of their staff are really good people .. who know things within the scope of their department. But ultimately when there are things that involve multiple departments, nobody seems to be responsible .. and things simply just get lost in the shuffle. What's worse is that if you talk to any person at GoDaddy even half-casually off the record .. the ones who've been there for a while all know how much of a mess it is .. and the ultimate irony is that it's just as frustrating to them as it is for us. Because they know that when we complain .. we are usually right .. but it's simply that their hands are tied .. the issues are bigger than them .. and they know they regardless if they report it or not .. it'll almost never get fixed.
 
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