[Day 11] GoDaddy Seized a Name I Bought Here on NamePros

[Peak.Domains]

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.

(edited for brevity)​

 

[Silentptnr]

But my point is that the prior sale, listed on GoValue, supposedly that at Afternic /GD shows $400 not $975, unless their system deleted the sale with failed payment.

My mistake was knowing the value was higher than what I paid. I had bought the domain gxog for $100.

 

[Silentptnr]

I just can't imagine a "non domain investor" spending 20k, 30k or 40k and the name gets "repossessed by Godaddy".

I've been afraid to thoroughly read GoDaddy Terms Of Service because I fear if I do, I'll realize how screwed I am.

 

[55Domains]

Well, im one of the parties involved in this (the second one behind peak to be specific), we have decided to split the loss 3 ways on this case.

That being said, GoDaddy is clearly doing nothing more here then hiding behind a almost fraudelent like TOS,... if a store sells a brand new computer for $1,500 In cash, to user 1 and then user 1 sells it to user 2 and user 2 to user 3, now 3 months later the store becomes aware that user 1 paid them with counterfeit or stolen goods, will they just walk up to user 3 and say, excuse me, we accepted money we wernt able to keep and since this was originally ours it now still is, also we have no interest in working together to find user 1 and we also will not give you any info on user 1, infact we wont even tell you if we will at all pursue user 1, but this comp is ours so come on.. hand it over.

It is THAT and only that, in my humble opinion, it is nothing more than stealing from AN INNOCENT customer (whoever that may be at the time godaddy catches up) just because they were incapable of verifying a payment, oh, and of course cause of "TOS" and cause we thus just can..... and even thou GoDaddy may say other reputable registrars do the same, i have yet to see another reputable registrar do the same.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

In the case of your domain do you know the date of the supposed nonpayment purchase and how many days that was prior to them repossessing it?

i don't understand in any of these cases how payment could not be confirmed prior to allowing another transfer.

 

[Silentptnr]

You go to a computer store and buy a product. Later, the store goes bankrupt. Do the vendor/suppliers go to your home and repossess what you just bought because the store didn't pay them and they filed BK?

GoDaddy is really doing this wrong. Injured parties like me see them quickly selling the domain and trying for a profit. Just not right.

 

[Ja Kai]

My thoughts exactly.

And Joe Styler stays quiet - BECAUSE

You go to a computer store and buy a product. Later, the store goes bankrupt. Do the vendor/suppliers go to your home and repossess what you just bought because the store didn't pay them and they filed BK?

GoDaddy is really doing this wrong. Injured parties like me see them quickly selling the domain and trying for a profit. Just not right.

Exactly! Joe had time to thank someone last night for a complimentary post, but clearly doesn't want to weigh in again on this HUGE matter.

 

[Silentptnr]

Someone will come along, buy the domain from GoDaddy, and not make the payments. Then what? GoDaddy will allow the registrant to sell and push the unpaid domain, then repossess it. Makes no sense.

If a domain is on a payment plan or payment has not been verified, the push and transfer functions should not even work.

Given that scenario this is what GoDaddy is really doing...

GoDaddy sells expensive name to anyone. Cash or payment plan. Godaddy collects money

Buyer doesn't pay...no problem, GoDaddy takes back the name, keeps the payments.

Buyer doesn't pay, sells the domain to some unsuspecting person....no problem, GoDaddy takes back the name, keeps the payments, and puts name back on market to repeat the cycle.

Complete Scam. Why? Because they are aware of it, could fix it, but choose not to.

 

[Joe Styler]

Someone will come along, buy the domain from GoDaddy, and not make the payments. Then what? GoDaddy will allow the registrant to sell and push the unpaid domain, then repossess it. Makes no sense.

If a domain is on a payment plan or payment has not been verified, the push and transfer functions should not even work.

Given that scenario this is what GoDaddy is really doing...

GoDaddy sells expensive name to anyone. Cash or payment plan. Godaddy collects money

Buyer doesn't pay...no problem, GoDaddy takes back the name, keeps the payments.

Buyer doesn't pay, sells the domain to some unsuspecting person....no problem, GoDaddy takes back the name, keeps the payments, and puts name back on market to repeat the cycle.

Complete Scam. Why? Because they are aware of it, could fix it, but choose not to.

You bought a stolen domain, not a bad payment domain. Our legal team does not comment on anything like this. You get a canned email that the lawyers approve. I rarely comment on this kind of thing and ask you to correspond directly with the team that repossessed the domain. They are part of the legal team and it is their prerogative to answer as they do. There are reasons they may not choose to answer you more clearly that have legal ramifications.

I myself do this for many reasons, but one is I'd prefer not to be involved in any lawsuits. I try to come on Namepros and help as much as I can but there are limits to what I am willing to do or able to do. But as this thread is really going a bit off course in the accusations here I think it may help to go outside my norm and explain a bit more.

Your domain was a stolen domain. It had nothing to do with the payment. We received an order to move the name back to the owner. I'd assume that name would have been taken from you no matter what registrar you transferred it to.

Again I am not a lawyer, so this is just an educated guess, but I suspect had we not taken the domain from you and you had a stolen domain it would not have been too long before you were named in a lawsuit and asked to defend your ownership of the domain. That is assuming the order didn't demand we move the domain to the owner who had it stolen. I don't know, I only know for sure that the domain was taken and we needed to give it back. Beyond that, I did not ask or dig into it further on our side because again, the more lawyers who get involved the less I want to personally be involved and the less likely then I will be dragged to court or deposed by lawyers about it if there is a lawsuit down the road.

We do not own this domain and we are not selling it. The fact that the WHOIS was not updated doesn't mean that we have possession of the domain. We gave it back to the person who originally owned it. When we do resell domains we do not make money on them, we are trying to recoup a small amount of the money we lose. We eat the losses on domains that sell on our platform. Had you of the OP bought the domain directly from us or our Aftermarket and we had to repossess it for some reason we would refund you. That would cost us money and is one reason why it's good to use us for transactions, because part of the cost of that commission is us protecting your money or your domain.

When you buy elsewhere we have no money to give back to you, we may have refunded the person who paid us on our platform for these domains. We almost certainly did. So we are probably out money for them, just not to you. I will not go into specifics but it is in our best interest financially to not have things like this happen. So we are all aligned in our interests here.

So knowing we paid someone back something on these names already is it right that we also pay back people who did not use our platform or who did not pay us any money? Should we pay back all the people along the line who lose money and trust them on what they say they paid for the domain? If you lost a domain you bought on a platform you should seek to recoup your money from the place you bought it on or the seller. They are the ones who have your money. You can also speak with your payment provider, e.g. credit card. We never collected any money from you to refund.

There are a lot of assumptions in this thread that are wrong.

I also think that NamePros should be asked to investigate these sales on their platform. There is something happening here which isn't right and should be investigated.

I'm not willing to comment more on the OP's domains. I have sent him more info via PM as much as I am willing to discuss or have information on.

I think when you buy liquid domains for a decent amount less than the floor price it should raise some flags and you should make sure you make a transaction on a platform you know will protect you. Of course this should happen only after you have done the research and believe it is a legitimate sale. If you are buying a $1500 computer for $700 or a used car (to use the analogies in this thread) for half the car's blue book value wouldn't that make you think maybe something is wrong here?

By and large we do not repossess many domains. Not all the domains on the whois with that info are under our control. A lot of the domains we actually do repossess are able to be returned to the original person who had the domain, but that doesn't mean they update the WHOIS. Anyone who has sold a domain knows you can ask people to update the WHOIS but they do not do it a lot of the time.

I agree the legal team can do a better job of communicating what is happening here and am speaking with them about these concerns.

 

[Paul 11]

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.

(edited for brevity)​

Wow. I hear what went on. Frustrating, overwhelming and surprising. Yes I do have a tip, one that time and time has worked for me.

When you feel relaxed about what happened, call Godaddy and tell them what happened but only from the point of YOU (use "I" words) - not to make it about them what they did (usually with "you" words, like "Godaddy did x and x". Why? because they could feel judged and get on the defensive and not hear what happened to you.

(Of course they did do things but, still, make it about you (e.g., "I did x and x and thought it would work but when I read what Godaddy sent me, I felt surprised and worried and upset". Namedeck, if you do this and stay with "I" words vs. you words, they will likely acknowledge you (hear you) and feel empathy for you and now and Godaddy have a mutual connection which will make the following request work for you:

Your request: Ask the Godaddy rep for their advice: "Given x and x that I experienced (again no YOU-did words), Is there anything I can do going forward that could prevent this from happening?"

Namedeck, when I have done this I had a pen and paper ready to take notes from their suggestion. They will have heard you. You will enjoyed 'being heard' You will have some ideas to consider.

Note: If you go this route, use you words and whatever you think will work best; I just used my words to give you the idea. Good Luck (and would enjoy hearing how it went for you).

The above strategy came from a teacher in my life, Marshall Rosenberg the founder of Nonviolent (or Compassionate) Communication. Google him if you'd like. His work is being practiced globally among millions.

 

[Paul 11]

Wow. I hear what went on. Frustrating, overwhelming and surprising. Yes I do have a tip, one that time and time has worked for me.

When you feel relaxed about what happened, call Godaddy and tell them what happened but only from the point of YOU (use "I" words) - not to make it about them what they did (usually with "you" words, like "Godaddy did x and x". Why? because they could feel judged and get on the defensive and not hear what happened to you.

(Of course they did do things but, still, make it about you (e.g., "I did x and x and thought it would work but when I read what Godaddy sent me, I felt surprised and worried and upset". Namedeck, if you do this and stay with "I" words vs. you words, they will likely acknowledge you (hear you) and feel empathy for you and now and Godaddy have a mutual connection which will make the following request work for you:

Your request: Ask the Godaddy rep for their advice: "Given x and x that I experienced (again no YOU-did words), Is there anything I can do going forward that could prevent this from happening?"

Namedeck, when I have done this I had a pen and paper ready to take notes from their suggestion. They will have heard you. You will enjoyed 'being heard' You will have some ideas to consider.

Note: If you go this route, use you words and whatever you think will work best; I just used my words to give you the idea. Good Luck (and would enjoy hearing how it went for you).

The above strategy came from a teacher in my life, Marshall Rosenberg the founder of Nonviolent (or Compassionate) Communication. Google him if you'd like. His work is being practiced globally among millions.

OOPS it's Peak Domains NOT NameDeck (sometimes it's not easy for me who said what).
Note: My strategy is most useful when a customer doesn't know exactly why something happened. I read some replies above and what they said is very useful TOO.

 

[Silentptnr]

You bought a stolen domain, not a bad payment domain. Our legal team does not comment on anything like this. You get a canned email that the lawyers approve. I rarely comment on this kind of thing and ask you to correspond directly with the team that repossessed the domain. They are part of the legal team and it is their prerogative to answer as they do. There are reasons they may not choose to answer you more clearly that have legal ramifications.

I myself do this for many reasons, but one is I'd prefer not to be involved in any lawsuits. I try to come on Namepros and help as much as I can but there are limits to what I am willing to do or able to do. But as this thread is really going a bit off course in the accusations here I think it may help to go outside my norm and explain a bit more.

Your domain was a stolen domain. It had nothing to do with the payment. We received an order to move the name back to the owner. I'd assume that name would have been taken from you no matter what registrar you transferred it to.

Again I am not a lawyer, so this is just an educated guess, but I suspect had we not taken the domain from you and you had a stolen domain it would not have been too long before you were named in a lawsuit and asked to defend your ownership of the domain. That is assuming the order didn't demand we move the domain to the owner who had it stolen. I don't know, I only know for sure that the domain was taken and we needed to give it back. Beyond that, I did not ask or dig into it further on our side because again, the more lawyers who get involved the less I want to personally be involved and the less likely then I will be dragged to court or deposed by lawyers about it if there is a lawsuit down the road.

We do not own this domain and we are not selling it. The fact that the WHOIS was not updated doesn't mean that we have possession of the domain. We gave it back to the person who originally owned it. When we do resell domains we do not make money on them, we are trying to recoup a small amount of the money we lose. We eat the losses on domains that sell on our platform. Had you of the OP bought the domain directly from us or our Aftermarket and we had to repossess it for some reason we would refund you. That would cost us money and is one reason why it's good to use us for transactions, because part of the cost of that commission is us protecting your money or your domain.

When you buy elsewhere we have no money to give back to you, we may have refunded the person who paid us on our platform for these domains. We almost certainly did. So we are probably out money for them, just not to you. I will not go into specifics but it is in our best interest financially to not have things like this happen. So we are all aligned in our interests here.

So knowing we paid someone back something on these names already is it right that we also pay back people who did not use our platform or who did not pay us any money? Should we pay back all the people along the line who lose money and trust them on what they say they paid for the domain? If you lost a domain you bought on a platform you should seek to recoup your money from the place you bought it on or the seller. They are the ones who have your money. You can also speak with your payment provider, e.g. credit card. We never collected any money from you to refund.

There are a lot of assumptions in this thread that are wrong.

I also think that NamePros should be asked to investigate these sales on their platform. There is something happening here which isn't right and should be investigated.

I'm not willing to comment more on the OP's domains. I have sent him more info via PM as much as I am willing to discuss or have information on.

I think when you buy liquid domains for a decent amount less than the floor price it should raise some flags and you should make sure you make a transaction on a platform you know will protect you. Of course this should happen only after you have done the research and believe it is a legitimate sale. If you are buying a $1500 computer for $700 or a used car (to use the analogies in this thread) for half the car's blue book value wouldn't that make you think maybe something is wrong here?

By and large we do not repossess many domains. Not all the domains on the whois with that info are under our control. A lot of the domains we actually do repossess are able to be returned to the original person who had the domain, but that doesn't mean they update the WHOIS. Anyone who has sold a domain knows you can ask people to update the WHOIS but they do not do it a lot of the time.

I agree the legal team can do a better job of communicating what is happening here and am speaking with them about these concerns.

I just wonder why the domain is listed for sale. How do we know that the "rightful owner" is not in on the scam?

I know you mean well Joe, but there are questions that someone at your place should be able to answer.

This is the first time that anyone at GD has told me it was a matter of a theft. I would still say, what proof is there that the domain was a stolen domain.

I have bought several liquid domains and hundreds of domains right here on Namepros. Never had a problem except with these. There was one other time that I almost got scammed, but I didn't lose any money.

Even with your explanation, it still makes no sense that the domain is currently on auction and I have never been contacted again.

I am a businessman. Plenty of high level business experience. This process is not efficient. I understand it, but it is lacking.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for the detailed response re @Silentptnr case @Joe Styler and sorry if we were making incorrect assumptions but the only explanation you gave in that long thread was

There are a few reasons they would repossess the domain name. The most probable is that the domain was not paid for originally

which resulted in most of us assuming it had been a payment issue.
Bob

 

[Peak.Domains]

EDIT: I just realized that Joe was replying to someone else re: the stolen name, and not my case. As such, my initial response was not relevant so I've removed it.

Still, in my case, all signs and communications from GoDaddy and Joe still point to it being a case of GoDaddy accepting a fraudulent payment and taking way too long to realize it, and then making their users pay the price for their lack of fraud prevention.

 

[Joe Styler]

I just wonder why the domain is listed for sale. How do we know that the "rightful owner" is not in on the scam?

I know you mean well Joe, but there are questions that someone at your place should be able to answer.

This is the first time that anyone at GD has told me it was a matter of a theft. I would still say, what proof is there that the domain was a stolen domain.

I have bought several liquid domains and hundreds of domains right here on Namepros. Never had a problem except with these. There was one other time that I almost got scammed, but I didn't lose any money.

Even with your explanation, it still makes no sense that the domain is currently on auction and I have never been contacted again.

I am a businessman. Plenty of high level business experience. This process is not efficient. I understand it, but it is lacking.

I've already commented more than I usually would. If you would like more specific information you can correspond with the legal team at GoDaddy directly.
I don't think people understand that while most people on this forum can write whatever they like, I am an employee of a public company there are certain things I can and cannot or should not comment or elaborate on.
We have a lot of lawyers on staff. No one is going to take a domain from an account of a customer without a really good reason and one we are prepared to defend legally. Also one we are prepared to encounter bad customer experience from and negative PR that will almost certainly accompany such a decision. The communication may be lacking, and as I said I will see what we can do about that. But the rationale to remove a domain is not lacking in serious forethought or undertaken lightly.

 

[Ja Kai]

You bought a stolen domain, not a bad payment domain. Our legal team does not comment on anything like this. You get a canned email that the lawyers approve. I rarely comment on this kind of thing and ask you to correspond directly with the team that repossessed the domain. They are part of the legal team and it is their prerogative to answer as they do. There are reasons they may not choose to answer you more clearly that have legal ramifications.

I myself do this for many reasons, but one is I'd prefer not to be involved in any lawsuits. I try to come on Namepros and help as much as I can but there are limits to what I am willing to do or able to do. But as this thread is really going a bit off course in the accusations here I think it may help to go outside my norm and explain a bit more.

Your domain was a stolen domain. It had nothing to do with the payment. We received an order to move the name back to the owner. I'd assume that name would have been taken from you no matter what registrar you transferred it to.

Again I am not a lawyer, so this is just an educated guess, but I suspect had we not taken the domain from you and you had a stolen domain it would not have been too long before you were named in a lawsuit and asked to defend your ownership of the domain. That is assuming the order didn't demand we move the domain to the owner who had it stolen. I don't know, I only know for sure that the domain was taken and we needed to give it back. Beyond that, I did not ask or dig into it further on our side because again, the more lawyers who get involved the less I want to personally be involved and the less likely then I will be dragged to court or deposed by lawyers about it if there is a lawsuit down the road.

We do not own this domain and we are not selling it. The fact that the WHOIS was not updated doesn't mean that we have possession of the domain. We gave it back to the person who originally owned it. When we do resell domains we do not make money on them, we are trying to recoup a small amount of the money we lose. We eat the losses on domains that sell on our platform. Had you of the OP bought the domain directly from us or our Aftermarket and we had to repossess it for some reason we would refund you. That would cost us money and is one reason why it's good to use us for transactions, because part of the cost of that commission is us protecting your money or your domain.

When you buy elsewhere we have no money to give back to you, we may have refunded the person who paid us on our platform for these domains. We almost certainly did. So we are probably out money for them, just not to you. I will not go into specifics but it is in our best interest financially to not have things like this happen. So we are all aligned in our interests here.

So knowing we paid someone back something on these names already is it right that we also pay back people who did not use our platform or who did not pay us any money? Should we pay back all the people along the line who lose money and trust them on what they say they paid for the domain? If you lost a domain you bought on a platform you should seek to recoup your money from the place you bought it on or the seller. They are the ones who have your money. You can also speak with your payment provider, e.g. credit card. We never collected any money from you to refund.

There are a lot of assumptions in this thread that are wrong.

I also think that NamePros should be asked to investigate these sales on their platform. There is something happening here which isn't right and should be investigated.

I'm not willing to comment more on the OP's domains. I have sent him more info via PM as much as I am willing to discuss or have information on.

I think when you buy liquid domains for a decent amount less than the floor price it should raise some flags and you should make sure you make a transaction on a platform you know will protect you. Of course this should happen only after you have done the research and believe it is a legitimate sale. If you are buying a $1500 computer for $700 or a used car (to use the analogies in this thread) for half the car's blue book value wouldn't that make you think maybe something is wrong here?

By and large we do not repossess many domains. Not all the domains on the whois with that info are under our control. A lot of the domains we actually do repossess are able to be returned to the original person who had the domain, but that doesn't mean they update the WHOIS. Anyone who has sold a domain knows you can ask people to update the WHOIS but they do not do it a lot of the time.

I agree the legal team can do a better job of communicating what is happening here and am speaking with them about these concerns.

Wow.



This contradicts what your support rep told me when they told me to reach out to [email protected]. Why have I wasted two weeks trying to go back and forth with them if it has nothing to do with a payment issue? Why are they asking for my ID to verify a payment if it isn't a payment issue?



Lol, trust me, I've been trying.



Again, why has GoDaddy been telling me otherwise, every step of the way? Why would you suggest it was a payment issue initially before even taking a MINUTE to look into it?



You mean this PM?

From Joe (emphasis mine): "If you are getting an email from verify payments that means we were not paid for the domain. So what likely happened is someone bought the domain with a bad credit card (say a stolen one) the owner finds out and the card company takes the money back from us and charges us an extra fee on top of that. We repossess the domain because we were not paid for it. It sounds like someone did that and then sold it on so they could keep the money from the sale of the domain. The only way to try and recover the domain would be to talk to the department who emailed you and explain things and see if they will sell you the domain back for what we went negative from the credit card company. We do not have any money here, we are negative so the only way to get your money back is to talk to the guy who sold it to you and see if they will return your money."

Acting like I'm trying to spread some false narrative here when it came directly from your mouth and every other contact I've had with GoDaddy has said the same.

What an absolute joke.

I'm glad everyone can see this and make up their own mind.

Joe, I don't blame you for ducking out and not wanting to comment on this any further, it's pretty obvious to everyone watching how poorly this has been handled by you and your coworkers.

Joe, I think I can speak for the masses. If not, I'll get a bunch of dislikes.

1) Yes, If a domain is stolen, it should be returned to the rightful owner.
2) If this is alleged to have happened (a theft), an email should be sent to the current holder of the domain, advising that the domain is being locked in their account and the reason for it being locked, while the matter is being reviewed -
3) The review process should allow both sides to be heard - until the jury (godaddy) makes a decision.
4) When godaddy makes a decision, they should advise both parties of that decision and advise that a transfer/push will occur in 5 days, or not occur at all.

All the above (every step) should be relayed to both parties via email - prior to the actual event taking place.

 

[Peak.Domains]

@Ja Kai

Just want to quickly clarify that I removed the message that is quoted above, I misunderstood and thought Joe was referring to my names as having been stolen, rather than having been purchased with a fraudulent payment. He was referring to a separate case in which another user has their names seized by GoDaddy without notice. That's my bad for misunderstanding, there's plenty of contradictions and examples of GoDaddy being misleading here, so I want to make sure I'm sticking to the concrete ones to avoid muddying the waters even further.

 

[Ja Kai]

I've already commented more than I usually would. If you would like more specific information you can correspond with the legal team at GoDaddy directly.
I don't think people understand that while most people on this forum can write whatever they like, I am an employee of a public company there are certain things I can and cannot or should not comment or elaborate on.
We have a lot of lawyers on staff. No one is going to take a domain from an account of a customer without a really good reason and one we are prepared to defend legally. Also one we are prepared to encounter bad customer experience from and negative PR that will almost certainly accompany such a decision. The communication may be lacking, and as I said I will see what we can do about that. But the rationale to remove a domain is not lacking in serious forethought or undertaken lightly.

Joe - I don't think you have been listening. The OP has tried corresponding with your legal team and is getting nowhere.

 

[Silentptnr]

Joe,

I truly appreciate this and all efforts I have seen you make on behalf of namepros members.

We wont let a few bad apples ruin the bunch.

Perhaps GD needs less lawyers and more developers.

There have been some innovative ideas from from very smart people here. Maybe a publicly traded company at $65 a share and dropping should listen. Other registrars do.

Regards

 

[Silentptnr]

@Joe Styler on a side note, who over there is messing with all the graphics and fonts? Favicon is interesting too.

Anyway, you might suggest they immediately stop the "You've Cancelled Your Domain" email. It sets up bad communication from the start in an already unpleasant situation. Inaccurate and outright untrue. Just say

"Domain Repossessed"

"We apologize for any inconvenience but unfortunately this domain must be repossessed. We are unable to provide specific information however, rest assured we have carefully reviewed this case and this action.

We understand that this notification might prompt questions. While we hope this notification is adequate, feel free to call customer support. Your assigned case # is .

If you purchased this domain on our site, we may be able to further assist you. If you purchased this domain elsewhere, please contact the merchant directly.

We regret any inconvenience."

Is that so hard for a multi million dollar company with a deep legal staff?

 

[Silentptnr]

My apologies to the OP. It wasn't my intention to hijack your thread. Just struck a cord. Sorry.

 

[Peak.Domains]

@Silentptnr You're all good buddy, I know first hand how frustratingly difficult and misleading GoDaddy chooses to make this process for their customers.

I'm glad you were able to finally squeeze out some information about what happened in your case.

The more people who speak up and share their negative experiences, the less likely it is to happen to someone else, one way or another.

 

[Ja Kai]

Godaddy: The first step to fixing a problem is accepting that you have a problem.

 

[Eric Lyon]

I also think that NamePros should be asked to investigate these sales on their platform. There is something happening here which isn't right and should be investigated.

Hi Joe,

I just wanted to add that namePros always investigates (As thoroughly as possible with the data available) when something like this is brought to our attention. I'd love to be able to collaborate with you privately about these incidents and share information that could help us all keep the community (Includes domain companies like GoDaddy) safer and free from fraud. I understand you may be limited in what you can share as a public company, but we're still always happy to help if possible.

Here's a related post I just made in another thread about how namePros keeps the community safe:

• https://www.namepros.com/posts/7408390/

There's a long history of it, but a lot of it isn't publicized (Don't want the troublemakers to know too much about what is done or how, so it's not shared publicly).

 

[7363824]

Now I'm no lawyer. But my understanding is when a domain is stolen the original owner must file a court case against either the current registrar (in this case GD) or the registry (Verisign). Then it is not GD's job to determine of it is actually stolen, it is the Court's job and the judge issues an order demanding the defendant (GD) to move the domain into an account controlled by the plaintiff (original owner).

At his point GD's lawyers get involved and a general email is auto generated that is clearly not applicable to this situation. This is the problem with lawyers, they are not customer service people. Their goal is to cover GD's...liability we shall say. That said this is really a sign that GD dev and pr teams need to work together to make sure the emails that get sent out make much more sense (and don't, in a situation I've encountered recently, contradict each other). In this case I fully agreed the email should have said the domain was repossessed to comply with a court order because the domain was stolen.

 

[branding]

In this case I fully agreed the email should have said the domain was repossessed to comply with a court order because the domain was stolen

The way they handled it is another way to cover their own liability. Obviously what you stated is the right thing to do but....

When there's no court order it's just another tactic to act on your own evidence and cover your ass.