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On August 24th, I purchased a name from [User 1] here on NamePros. Everything went smoothly, until a few days ago, when I received an unexpected email from GoDaddy:
"You’ve canceled a product.
You can review your full billing history and manage your preferences from your account. Here's what we removed for you today:
.COM Domain Registration
(associated with: "xxxxxxxx")
Purchased on original receipt: "xxxxxxxx"
This is alarming, since I did not cancel this domain name. There's nothing about owning them a single penny in my billing history, no requests for payment or anything of the sort. I didn't buy this name from them.
I hop on with their support staff, and after quite a wait, I'm told:
"Thanks for the patience as I have checked there was a invalid payment due to which your domain got cancelled."
This still doesn't make any sense to me, since I have no idea what payment they're talking about.
"CHARGEBACK DEPT: Domains have been repossessed due to an invalid payment. Have customer email [email protected] with domain names they are requesting."
"As I have checked there was a charge back on your domain due to payment disputes. that is why the domain has been removed. The bank must have found something wrong from your payment method."
I still have no idea what this has to do with me or why they're talking about MY payment method. I purchased this name from a user here, not from GoDaddy's marketplace. I'm not the one who paid GoDaddy for this domain.
I get a bit of a clarification finally:
"Alright,but at some point of time somebody has bought the domain,right.
However you have to send an email at [email protected] to verify that there was no dispute"
But how can I verify there was no dispute when I have nothing to do with whatever bank issued a chargeback?
I'm trying to understand how I can possibly verify something that has nothing to do with me...
"If you don not send an email then you will not get th domain back."
Ultimately, they told me I just need to email that address and tell them that I want the domain back. This seems like such a clunky process, and we're on day 3 now with no response from [email protected]. They still have my name, and I'm out a decent chunk of cash.
Getting to the bottom of this
I reached out [User 1] who I purchased the name from here on NamePros, who informed me they purchased it from [User 2], who informed me they purchased it from [User 3]. User 1 and 2 are reputable members here, I'm not trying to drag them into this since I genuinely don't think they did anything wrong and I have been in contact with both of them, they both responded instantly and were eager to help.
[User 3], however, is a new account with 0 feedback who hasn't responded to our messages and hasn't logged in since last Sunday. In this case, I'm okay revealing that User 3 is @Samsquantch . Be careful dealing with this user until they've come forward. I want to make clear: I have no reason to believe that this is an alt account of any of the other users I've dealt with.
I'm not accusing Samsquantch of anything at this point, but what could have happened was *somebody* purchased a liquid domain with a "questionable" payment method, they quickly flipped the domain, it got sold twice more since then, and I'm left holding the bag when someone wakes up and sees a charge they don't recognize on their credit card.
There are probably other explanations, the above is just my guess. I can only go with what I've been told my GoDaddy, which is next to nothing.
I genuinely don't know what I could have done differently to protect myself in this situation, I purchased a name from a reputable member who purchased it from a reputable member and it was still seized.
Thank you for reading, if anyone has tips on how to avoid getting our domain names sized by GoDaddy I think that would be helpful for a lot of people here.
"You’ve canceled a product.
You can review your full billing history and manage your preferences from your account. Here's what we removed for you today:
.COM Domain Registration
(associated with: "xxxxxxxx")
Purchased on original receipt: "xxxxxxxx"
This is alarming, since I did not cancel this domain name. There's nothing about owning them a single penny in my billing history, no requests for payment or anything of the sort. I didn't buy this name from them.
I hop on with their support staff, and after quite a wait, I'm told:
"Thanks for the patience as I have checked there was a invalid payment due to which your domain got cancelled."
This still doesn't make any sense to me, since I have no idea what payment they're talking about.
"CHARGEBACK DEPT: Domains have been repossessed due to an invalid payment. Have customer email [email protected] with domain names they are requesting."
"As I have checked there was a charge back on your domain due to payment disputes. that is why the domain has been removed. The bank must have found something wrong from your payment method."
I still have no idea what this has to do with me or why they're talking about MY payment method. I purchased this name from a user here, not from GoDaddy's marketplace. I'm not the one who paid GoDaddy for this domain.
I get a bit of a clarification finally:
"Alright,but at some point of time somebody has bought the domain,right.
However you have to send an email at [email protected] to verify that there was no dispute"
But how can I verify there was no dispute when I have nothing to do with whatever bank issued a chargeback?
I'm trying to understand how I can possibly verify something that has nothing to do with me...
"If you don not send an email then you will not get th domain back."
Ultimately, they told me I just need to email that address and tell them that I want the domain back. This seems like such a clunky process, and we're on day 3 now with no response from [email protected]. They still have my name, and I'm out a decent chunk of cash.
Getting to the bottom of this
I reached out [User 1] who I purchased the name from here on NamePros, who informed me they purchased it from [User 2], who informed me they purchased it from [User 3]. User 1 and 2 are reputable members here, I'm not trying to drag them into this since I genuinely don't think they did anything wrong and I have been in contact with both of them, they both responded instantly and were eager to help.
[User 3], however, is a new account with 0 feedback who hasn't responded to our messages and hasn't logged in since last Sunday. In this case, I'm okay revealing that User 3 is @Samsquantch . Be careful dealing with this user until they've come forward. I want to make clear: I have no reason to believe that this is an alt account of any of the other users I've dealt with.
I'm not accusing Samsquantch of anything at this point, but what could have happened was *somebody* purchased a liquid domain with a "questionable" payment method, they quickly flipped the domain, it got sold twice more since then, and I'm left holding the bag when someone wakes up and sees a charge they don't recognize on their credit card.
There are probably other explanations, the above is just my guess. I can only go with what I've been told my GoDaddy, which is next to nothing.
I genuinely don't know what I could have done differently to protect myself in this situation, I purchased a name from a reputable member who purchased it from a reputable member and it was still seized.
Thank you for reading, if anyone has tips on how to avoid getting our domain names sized by GoDaddy I think that would be helpful for a lot of people here.
(edited for brevity)
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