Does GoDaddy ever admit they screwed up? Cautionary Tale

[Interestedparty]

I have been through a nightmare with GoDaddy/Afternic and I'm curious if anyone has any advice.

Here's the timeline:

1. I buy a premium domain from GoDaddy for $1100 US.
2. They use Afternic to facilitate the transaction.
3. They contact the seller and she goes through all the steps to transfer and they send her a message that reads "you have successfully sold xxxxx.com" and she was paid ON THE SAME DAY THAT I BOUGHT IT.
4. The domain was never transferred to my account.
5. I called Go Daddy several times trying to find out what happened, and customer service and auctions gave me "answers" that varied from: "We can't get the codes from the seller," to "that domain expired after she transferred it."
6. This went on for months -- with GoDaddy not telling me what was going on. I even talked to stupid customer service agents that said that they couldn't contact auctions during the call.
7. I finally had to call them to tell them that it went into pendingDelete status -- and they even LIED and said that it would be 28 days before it went to auction - when we know that it's five. They failed at every customer service level.
8. They told me to place a backorder and I said -- do you think I need to get any other backorder companies -- and they said, "ha, ha that's stupid -- they just want your money."
9. In the meantime, I call Afternic with the WTF phone call -- and the escrow team is "looking into it." No communication since a week ago.
10. On friday morning (drop day), I get paranoid and enroll in a Snapnames backorder, thinking I have to have it and then...
11. That bastardo at drop catch got it and put it on huge domains for $2200.
12. Still no communication from GoDaddy/Afternic. They screwed up this transaction on their end and now the domain that I wanted is $1000 more than it was.

Any advice? Is GoDaddy really this clueless? What is there to do?

 

[tonyk2000]

GoDaddy would normally accept the payment directly (no Afternic payment processing involved). So did you sent the payment to Afternic or to GoDaddy?
As for other sides of the story, you may or may not be able to receive a refund (the whole story is technically unclear), but if the domain is now with DropCatch - then only dropcatch, who is a member here BTW, may sell or otherwise transfer the domain name to you directly (with or without discount or - who knows - for a nominal fee if asked to do so by GoDaddy as they pretty well know each other) or to Afternic/GoDaddy (Afternic is now owned by GoDaddy) should either of them elects to work with DropCatch to resolve this matter.
Normal godaddy support would likely be unable to help as they are simply not trained to resolve such specific issues

 

[Name Trader]

Did you get your refund from GoDaddy? If so, move on. Life is too short to worry about things in the past, which are past influencing. If not. Then you should consult a lawyer.

 

[NameOmnia]

This sounds like another thread I read not long ago here on NP!
..yes...I just checked and the OP is actually the OP of the other thread too
https://www.namepros.com/threads/help-me-outsmart-godaddy.843898/#post-4765261

Two threads later it's still unclear who you sent payment to and why you paid through GD a name that was listed on Afternic.
I have bought many names through GD and always paid them directly so I don't get it.
Also it's the domains you list with GD that are automatically listed on Afternic not viceversa so once again I don't get it.

That Gd support sucks is quite notorious unfortunately that's probably why many are transferring out. Not that you find stellar support everywhere else btw.