You will see more info on the valuation in the future. For now this is only some tests we are running with it, but we plan on talking more about it and the data behind it.
Do you genuinely not think this is the type of communication and information disclosure that should be shared front and center and in detail with absolutely everyone who sees such valuations
BEFORE (or at least
AS) they are implemented.
ESPECIALLY if they are only "some tests"?
Anyhow .. I'm smart enough to completely ignore these valuations (would be nice if I had the option of removing them .. lol), and quite frankly they probably do more good for me than bad as it takes away attention from some of the other domains I actually am interested in! lol
But it's stuff like that which send a very loud message to end users that GoDaddy does not care about transparency .. and to be honest .. I'm not quite sure how GoDaddy doesn't see this rather glaring fact?
It's likely one of those cases where there is a genuine to make a better product for customers, but the people involved are so close to the product during development, that they sometimes end up missing some important points and/or the bigger picture. I have no doubt in my mind that GoDaddy is genuinely trying to make improvements with nothing but the best of intentions .. but the unintended results make it seam otherwise.
Valuations should never be presented without at least some basic information on how they were made.
ESPECIALLY if they are a test/beta that quite obviously is far from being accurate.
Somebody was allowed to cancel thousands of bids, as if it was no big deal. But it is a big deal.
I agree with a lot of your points .. but honestly .. as long as they cancelled the bids within the specific parameters I mentioned above .. I don't think it really matters that they cancelled the bids. They implemented the changes rather poorly and it's not unreasonable for them to fix things considering it was mostly their fault.
HOWEVER ...
I do have a huge issue however with the way it was done and their excuses after the fact here as opposed to what you'd expect from a company that values their integrity .. which would have been to actively and aggressively notify everybody who visited the platform.
It comes across as very disingenuinuous when they offer to repair the damage for us after the fact when they've already been caught with their pants down. An auction house that manipulates bids (even for good reason as I think the case is here) without full and equal disclosure to everybody in an extremely timely manner has a communications breakdown issue and much more importantly leaves the door open for people to very fairly and understandably question their overall integrity of said company.
On multiple occasions I've had to contact my rep because I was double charged or wrongly billed for something ... and the response was always "oh .. they were already planning on getting to that soon". I'm not sure what it's like in the states, but where I live in Canada (more specifically Quebec) there are serious consumer protection laws in place for situations like that.
We did not think it was fair since the customers did not know. If anyone who thought they were outbid now wins the auction and does not want the domain please contact me directly and I will help you out.
Seriously
@Joe Styler .. this is a great offer and the correct solution .. but don't you think it would be more appropriate to offer this clearly and openly to everyone on the GoDaddy platform itself where all this actually happened ... instead of a tiny thread in a relatively obscure sub-forum on a site GoDaddy officially has no affiliation at all with.
The way it is now it just feels like you're trying to quietly appease those who noticed instead of actually being committed to transparency, integrity and actually doing the right thing from the start the next time something like this happens.
At the end of the day I guess it makes no difference .. GoDaddy has the domains we want .. so we don't have much of a choice but to put up with the bugs, incorrect billings and lack of transparency ... I'm still a customer .. lol
The ironic part is that I'm pretty confident there is no deliberate evil conspiracies going on .. all my real conversations with real people at GoDaddy always leaves me with a confident feeling that the person I talked to really cares about my products and me as a customer. My big issue is pretty much with the buggy platform, bureaucracy, wrong/incomplete information/pricing/communication etc etc
Anyhow Joe .. sorry for the rant .. but I'm just saying it exactly how it really is .. glad you had a good trip!