Domain name sold on GoDaddy Auctions but no confirmation email

[trap3]

Hi

I got an transfer email from godaddy "Domain name transfer – Initial Authorization for Registrar Transfer".

I then 2 days later i got an email from a buyer, saying the domain in question had been bought from godaddy by him. However, i have heard nothing from godaddy or anyone else confirming the sale.

When asking godaddy, they said it was take up to 3 weeks to check the status !!

Anyone else had this problem or is this a scam ?

Thanks

 

[tldboss]

If it is your domain name & you did not initiate the transfer then it is a scam.

"When asking godaddy, they said it was take up to 3 weeks to check the status !!"

I am suprised they said that to you.

Normally, Godaddy will tell you not to release the domain name, until the funds have been cleared + confirmed & they tell you the next steps after that.

I suggest you contact Godaddy support again for more information / clarification.
Maybe @Joe Styler can help clear things up

 

[tldboss]

You can log into your Godaddy account

Check Selling List for domains that are selling / sold / didn't sell / pending

Note: It takes time (several days) for a transaction to complete, but I am sure Godaddy support can look into this for you

 

[trap3]

the domain is up for sale at sedo and afternic. and then got sold at godaddy.

the domain recently expired so maybe thats why i havent got anything from anybody to notify me of the sale, and godaddy auctioned it, rather than as a partner of afternic or godaddy. i dont know.

 

[pokainc]

Hey buddy, HAD THE EXACT same situation, I would say don't worry.

1) My domain sold on Godaddy but because I had a buy now on afternic and it shows when someone searches the domain on Godaddy. So technically it sold on the afternic afiiliate link on Godaddy

2) I got the transfer codes but nothing from Godaddy saying it sold, nothing from afternic the domain is sold

3) after contacting Godaddy 2-3 times and then being referred to afternic, the above was made clear.

Apparently they are working on streamlining it.. but it's not there yet.. I would say wait 3-5 business days and you should get an email from Afternic.. don't transfer any codes before that.

Behind the scenes, supposedly Godaddy is gathering the funds from the client and take 3-5 days to "secure" the funds that are received, only then do they contact Afternic to tell them the domain sold. In my case during this process my domain was still showing buy now on Afternic as Godaddy hadn't told them..

If you contact the chat service or customer line of Godaddy or the customer service of Afternic, they do have access to see if the domain sold. That 3 week thing comment is because the rep was an amateur that didn't know anything.. Ask them to check with the Auctions Department.

***** By the way it WON'T show in your sold section on Godaddy, but if you search for the domain in your listings, it will not show as an active listing anymore as they remove it (even though on Afternic it will still show as a live listing ironically).

 

[trap3]

Thank you thats an awesome reply and i just this minute got off chat with a supervisor over at godaddy and he basically said exactly what u said. Its been 3-4 days and now I should hear from Afternic within 24 hours or so.

Its a very poor system to say the least, and ive wasted a few hours trying to solve this.

Thanks again @pokainc

 

[pokainc]

My pleasure. I told them that this can cause an issue as if on the odd chance I would've accepted an offer for this name on my own site through a direct inquiry by someone else during that delay, then I would've sold it and then you would come to me saying you sold the name and secured the funds from a client I wasn't notified about.. They agreed it's a fairly major issue and it's apparently in the fixing stages.. how long would that take who knows haha

 

[urlurl]

my first experience with selling on godaddy (premium listing)

So i get an email from godaddy saying "Your name has been cancelled" - what, holly crap, i called godaddy and they said the name sold on premium listing - i then got the 'sold premium name notification', but not until 1/2 hour later.

you would think they would send the later notification first, lol

 

[Joe Styler]

Thank you thats an awesome reply and i just this minute got off chat with a supervisor over at godaddy and he basically said exactly what u said. Its been 3-4 days and now I should hear from Afternic within 24 hours or so.

Its a very poor system to say the least, and ive wasted a few hours trying to solve this.

Thanks again @pokainc

We have a better system coming very soon. It may have been made more complicated if your domain was expired at the time it sold.
You would never have to wait three weeks for anything, maybe they meant days which would make sense but either way it was incorrect. Glad you got the answer you needed and congratulations on the sale.

 

[wwwweb]

Thank you thats an awesome reply and i just this minute got off chat with a supervisor over at godaddy and he basically said exactly what u said. Its been 3-4 days and now I should hear from Afternic within 24 hours or so.

Its a very poor system to say the least, and ive wasted a few hours trying to solve this.

Thanks again @pokainc

Afternic works with different partner registers in it's expanded platform, so sometimes just going between all these parties, and getting the funds secured takes a few days.

Once you get a few of them, it turns into a good feeling, and not a negative one, the next one will be much better for sure. Just something you have never seen before.

 

[pokainc]

it's not a matter of not having seen that before. It's a matter of notifying when someone clicks on "buy now" and sending a notification to the seller saying funds are being secured, it may take 3-5 days.

Notifying a seller their domain sold is a must and a priority so that they don't sell the name to anyone else within that time frame. This is especially important with liquid domains..

It's just basics of logic..

 

[wwwweb]

it's not a matter of not having seen that before. It's a matter of notifying when someone clicks on "buy now" and sending a notification to the seller saying funds are being secured, it may take 3-5 days.

Notifying a seller their domain sold is a must and a priority so that they don't sell the name to anyone else within that time frame. This is especially important with liquid domains..

It's just basics of logic..

I think it has to do with the expanded partner program, where other register partners bring the lead, and afternic handles the transaction. So it's complex process, I know Godaddy is working on making it smoother, it's good you have a forum to come to, and find out what is going on, but try not to get to negative about it, they just sold your domain.

Once the funds are secured they do send the confirmation emails. It might be the cart before the horse on some of the steps needed to secure the deal, but otherwise once you undestand the process it is a nice email to get because you know whats in the works.

It's good the OP brought it up, Joe has stated they are launching something new soon, so all good.

 

[urlurl]

We have a better system coming very soon. It may have been made more complicated if your domain was expired at the time it sold.
You would never have to wait three weeks for anything, maybe they meant days which would make sense but either way it was incorrect. Glad you got the answer you needed and congratulations on the sale.

Hey Joe, is there a way to see how many people have searched for my listed names?

 

[pokainc]

wwwweb I get what your saying, on the other hand there's the seller side to consider too.. it would've been complicated if the domain was sold in that delay to another person as I mentioned, it's not just a nuisance, it could be a legal nightmare for high value domains. In my case it was a $2000 domain, so I am paying them $400 also in commission.. it's not like it's a favor to sell my name... but I understand things improve over time and luckily this seems to be a priority to fix.

 

[toughdomains]

yes agree with @pokanic it takes a while for your names to appear in your account on buy side or to get funds on sell side. godaddy is great marketplace to sell but clearly they deal in volume.

 

[trap3]

We have a better system coming very soon. It may have been made more complicated if your domain was expired at the time it sold.
You would never have to wait three weeks for anything, maybe they meant days which would make sense but either way it was incorrect. Glad you got the answer you needed and congratulations on the sale.

Well tomorrow is day 5 and if i haven't gotten confirmation of the sale with godaddy/afternic then the transfer gets cancelled and perhaps so does the sale ?

If i lose the sale and seller changes his mind and wants a refund. Who is going to compensate me for the $800 he purchased it for ?

 

[forge]

This may be cold comfort, but chances are high this will go through successfully. The domain is registered at Godaddy? If so, the transfer will not be cancelled.

The answer to your last question, however, is still Nobody.

 

[trap3]

It's cold comfort, but chances are high this will go through successfully. The domain is registered at Godaddy? If so, the transfer will not be cancelled.

The answer to your last question, however, is still Nobody.

No its registered elsewhere and you have 5 calendar days to do the transfer or it gets cancelled.
The whole thing is really unacceptable. Especially when there is a 20% commission to pay !

 

[forge]

+1

 

[Joe Styler]

If you let me know the domain name I can look into it for you.

 

[DNGear]

what happened to your sale @trap3
I got a similar mail from Godaddy with Transaction ID and code 2 days back.
Auctions team was saying, there was no pending sale.
Transfers team was saying, we can not provide any further information on whether or not the domain has sold.
DNescrow, No reply.
Its still showing as active listing in both godaddy and afternic.

 

[trap3]

They are just useless tbh.

The buyer ended up contacting me direct and after about a week it finally got sorted.
Niether Godaddy or Afternic took any responsibility. But still took their 20% commission.

 

[trap3]

ps. I basically got the same response from Godaddy as you got.

Ask to speak to a supervisor. You'll get more info. Hopefully.

 

[DNGear]

Reply from GoDaddy Auctions support:

Thank you for contacting Aftermarket support. This domain has not sold. Someone purchased a transfer for the domain, however as long as you do not provide them with the codes including the authorization code, it will not affect you or your domain.

why someone bought a transfer for my domain??

Reply from GoDaddy Transfers Support:

Thank you for contacting transfer support. You have used the GoDaddy auction service as an online venue to sell your domain. However, as the transfer service we can provide no further information on whether or not the domain has sold.

@Joe Styler As a owner of domain, why shouldn't i ask who initiated transfer?

 

[Josytal]

Same happened to me with two different domains. Both registered with them and listed in their hyper-expensive marketplace. Precisely, jszcc.com and humog.com. Funny enough, I had the plan of dropping these two domains. But couple of months before the expiration date, an offer came in for jszcc.com on 12/23/2016 06:36:19 PM (PDT). Godaddy never notified me about the offer. The domain dropped and now registered (most probably to the potential buyer). Avoidable loss.

Humog.com story is more of hide and seek. Several weeks after Godaddy has sold out the domain (again, without any notifications sent to my mail box), I received a message from their support ([Incident ID: 31858090] - humog.com) asking me to provide them with transfer code to the buyer. By this time the domain has left my account, but luckily, to save my face before the buyer, I was able to buy the domain back from closeout lot - $5+$19 avoidable waste.

All these within two months!!!

As to my questions why such a thing could have happened - MUTE. In fact, just to get you confused, they have now developed some hilarious attitude of not quoting previous mail message(s) when pretending to answer your request.

Lesson learnt: set up a website and host your domains. Your website should be the first point of sale (POS). If the domains are good, buyers will always find them. No re-directing to anywhere. Period.