Domain purchased from closeout is now GONE?

[CryptoInvestor]

Hello! I purchased a domain from GoDaddy back in December, I got it from a closeout deal for about $17 total. I just got it Brandpa approved and went to change the nameservers, and its gone! I checked the whois and found it was transfered back to another user on the 6th of this month. I emailed him but, why was he able to do this and how is this allowed?

 

[Arca]

From a legal standpoint I would consider this theft, complicating the matter is a conflict of interest. It is essentially like a bank employee accessing your account to pay their own bills from it.


The fact they issued a $50
Gift card shows they know they are wrong, and that employee should be fired for going into your account, and starting a fraudulent account change.

I don’t know what TOS they are using to justify this, they need to be more careful they are a public compmay, a PR move like this can cost them tens of millions in stock market cap valuations. There should have been a discussion where they outline their TOS, and what procedural rights they have to take the name back, and if they can’t they should eat it.

I quickly looked through their TOS for both auctions and for registrations, and I was not able to find anything that could be used to justify GoDaddy's actions (doesn't mean it's not hidden in there somewhere though - can anybody else spot it?). What I did notice is that they say, in a number of places, that they are not responsible for un-renewed domains. For example:

"You agree that GoDaddy will not be responsible for cancelled domain names that you fail to renew in the timeframes indicated in this Agreement."

They also say if there is any payment mess up, GoDaddy has no responsibility ("If for any reason GoDaddy is not able to take the payment from the Payment Method you have on file, and you fail to respond to our notices, your domain name registration will expire").

On the 30 day redemption period:

If you do not redeem your domain name prior to the end of the 30-day redemption period GoDaddy may, in its sole discretion, delete your domain name or transfer it to another registrant on your behalf.

I don't see how these can be interpreted as we may take responsibility for your un-renewed domains, and take them from another registrants account 17 days after the redemption period has ended. Their own TOS seem to say the opposite of what they are claiming.

GoDaddy also breached their change of registrant agreement TOS in the manner in which they took back the domain (via the account change, rather than renewal method). This is how the change of registrant should have taken place:

The Current Registrant and the New Registrant both agree they are entering into this Agreement of their own free will.

Once the Current Registrant initiates the change of registrant request, GoDaddy will send a confirmation email to both the Current Registrant and the New Registrant. Both parties must acknowledge and explicitly consent to the change of registrant information in order for the changes to be approved.

I did not initiate the change of registrant request. I did not consent to the change of registrant. I was not asked to confirm it. Somebody from GoDaddy went into my account and initiated and approved the domain push on my behalf. GoDaddy says:

Upon completion of the change of registrant transaction, GoDaddy will send an email to both Current/Prior Registrant and the New Registrant confirming the change of registrant contemplated by this Agreement.

The first time I learned of this "change of registrant" was when I got this email.

 

[MapleDots]

I quickly looked through their TOS for both auctions and for registrations, and I was not able to find anything that could be used to justify GoDaddy's actions (doesn't mean it's not hidden in there somewhere though - can anybody else spot it?). What I did notice is that they say, in a number of places, that they are not responsible for un-renewed domains. For example:

"You agree that GoDaddy will not be responsible for cancelled domain names that you fail to renew in the timeframes indicated in this Agreement."

They also say if there is any payment mess up, GoDaddy has no responsibility ("If for any reason GoDaddy is not able to take the payment from the Payment Method you have on file, and you fail to respond to our notices, your domain name registration will expire").

On the 30 day redemption period:

If you do not redeem your domain name prior to the end of the 30-day redemption period GoDaddy may, in its sole discretion, delete your domain name or transfer it to another registrant on your behalf.

I don't see how these can be interpreted as we may take responsibility for your un-renewed domains, and take them from another registrants account 17 days after the redemption period has ended. Their own TOS seem to say the opposite of what they are claiming.

GoDaddy also breached their change of registrant agreement TOS in the manner in which they took back the domain (via the account change, rather than renewal method). This is how the change of registrant should have taken place:

The Current Registrant and the New Registrant both agree they are entering into this Agreement of their own free will.

Once the Current Registrant initiates the change of registrant request, GoDaddy will send a confirmation email to both the Current Registrant and the New Registrant. Both parties must acknowledge and explicitly consent to the change of registrant information in order for the changes to be approved.

I did not initiate the change of registrant request. I did not consent to the change of registrant. I was not asked to confirm it. Somebody from GoDaddy went into my account and initiated and approved the domain push on my behalf. GoDaddy says:

Upon completion of the change of registrant transaction, GoDaddy will send an email to both Current/Prior Registrant and the New Registrant confirming the change of registrant contemplated by this Agreement.

The first time I learned of this "change of registrant" was when I got this email.

Great post

 

[campout]

yet they seemed to take lightly on their action of confiscating your 360 domains!

Wait, what's this about 360 domains being confiscated? Did I miss something?

 

[Arca]

Wait, what's this about 360 domains being confiscated? Did I miss something?

They closed @stub's GD account and confiscated the 360 domains that were in it after he changed ownership of his domains from personal name to a company name. No compensation or offer to transfer out the domains, just straight up account closure without appeal. He appealed anyways, five times, and just when he was about to give up they turned around and decided to give him back his domains.

 

[Name Trader]

Update: Godaddy have told me in the first case there was a backorder on the domain.

I thought backorders showed up as a bid on the public auction, but perhaps not.

That was also my understanding. That if you put a backorder on the domain whilst it is in auction. The backorder wins the domain between auction and closeout. But I never challenged another member in another thread here when they said it was put as a first bid on the domain. But I won't quibble if there are some semantics. Like if the backorder was placed before or after the auction start might be treated differently. My information was very old, so I just accepted that maybe things had changed. But it seems that my recollection was correct.

BTW. The use of the backorder to hide you bid is about the only good use of a GoDaddy Backorder. It won't catch the domain unless it drops and nobody picks it up ever. A hand reg will beat a GoDaddy Backorder.

 

[Name Trader]

They closed @stub's GD account and confiscated the 360 domains that were in it after he changed ownership of his domains from personal name to a company name. No compensation or offer to transfer out the domains, just straight up account closure without appeal. He appealed anyways, five times, and just when he was about to give up they turned around and decided to give him back his domains.

That was a pretty good paraphrasing of what happened (without getting into detail). Except you missed out one very important point. I did nothing wrong. I had tried to do the right thing. I asked and followed the instructions of my then account manager.

 

[wwwweb]

I completely agree. It would have been easy for them to just let these 33 expired domains go. After all they took them back for themselves and are now sitting on them.

As for their auction platform, between GoDaddy and DropCatch there isn't all that much for resellers to buy elsewhere anymore. These two giants have truly cornered the market and we are at their mercy, hence why they can steamroll their customers without backlash. Sad truth is that we need them more than they need us, so they don't have to pay too much attention to their reputation and trustworthiness. So while I promptly transferred out all eligible domains from GoDaddy account after this (and recommend others to do the same!), I see no option but to keep buying names at GD auctions... All bought names will be leaving my account on day 61 though, and I will refrain from listing them for sale immediately after getting them into my account in case GoDaddy later decides to take the domain back.

We are feeding our competing bidders with the same hand we are attempting to feed ourselves. Huge Domains runs the show over at Godaddy, if their script picks up on your little $12 bid, guess what, that just became a $200 domain if you want it now. It doesn't matter to them as they control so much inventory it all gets costed into the ecosystem.

Anyone try to bid on an auction at Dropcatch, you get piled on by 4-5 different bidders all fighting for that same domain, the prices there are beyond insane for subpar names sometimes. The good names go for end user pricing.

Want something good at Namejet you have to beat out Taryn's top bid, along with a slew of others from Mark Monitor all the way to Buy Domains sometimes.

Pheenix is a dead platform, I don't have proof, but something was not right about the way bids were going down there, it felt very off.

Leader runs the show over at Dropcatch, who is Easily at Namejet also, they just keep bidding, and bidding, I don't know where the revenue source is, but it never dries up. I am guessing some of these overseas bidders are using domains as a monetary vehicle, much like they did with the chips.

Inventory has become more scarce, bigger companies are buying up huge blocks of portfolios, you are paying more than you ever have, at the same time you are getting more low ball offers.

Then you have to deal with things like this, I feel for you Arca, You had PHEENIX steal your domain, now you got to go thru this crap, like seriously why do these companies need to play these games, and have their hand in every cookie jar. If I do business with a company for their products, and they are competing with me, guess what I am not going to do business with them for very long, as I am essentially just working for them.



Bid Smart!

 

[Arca]

You had PHEENIX steal your domain, now you got to go thru this crap, like seriously why do these companies need to play these games, and have their hand in every cookie jar.

Pheenix recently took a name, GoDaddy just took a name, HugeDomains took a name out of my NameBright account and listed it in their marketplace (though they returned it), I've also had a names won at SnapNames and NameJet taken from my NetSol account, Melbourne IT account, and other more obscure registrars. One NameJet won name was taken from me after it had been in my registrar account for nearly two months (they took it when I was going to transfer it out upon the expiry of the transfer lock), taken Snap names predictably go to shady New Venture Services Corp. The common thread I've seen is that names taken from my account go to the portfolio or affiliated portfolio of the company taking it. These companies are eager to help themselves to your domains - It's extremely rare for a domain to be taken out of my account to be returned to a former owner. Registrars and affiliated marketplaces profit more from selling the expired domain to the highest bidder or taking it for themselves and thus have little incentive to "help" past registrants get back domains they forgot to renew. Domainers should avoid registrars that warehouse domains or keep their own portfolio. Their secondary interest as a portfolio holder at times unduly cloud and influence their primary activity as a registrar/marketplace that needs to respect ownership rights and should serve their customers, not themselves. You're far more likely to have a domain snatched from your account if the company you keep it with is also a domainer. I've never had a domain taken from my account by a registrar that does not have their own portfolio of domains (or associated shell company for the same purpose).

 

[Arca]

So GoDaddy has put my account under the "Transfer Verify" dept's oversight... which is, from my understanding, a feature they activate when they suspect illegitimate transfer outs may be be occurring. It is incredibly annoying as you have to go through additional verification or else your transfer outs will be delayed. Manually approving transfer outs from within your account has zero impact. You still need to wait for the transfer verify dept to reach out to you every single time you want to transfer out a name (which means I'll be hearing from them daily). And they're usually in no hurry letting you transfer out the domains you own.

This obviously has come as a response to my complaint that a domain was taken out of my account.

It's just too ironic that GoDaddy illegitimately transfers out a domain from my account and then activates a feature making it more difficult for me to transfer out my domains in order to prevent illegitimate transfer outs. I wonder why the transfer verify didn't ask me whether I wanted to authorize the illegitimate account change GoDaddy themselves used to take a domain out of my account? Seems to me my account needs to be protected from GoDaddy, the ones that activated the feature, more so than myself, the owner of the domains in my account - Because I have never had any disputes or payment issues with GoDaddy whatsoever, I've spent a ton of money in their auctions and I always pay on time. Never missed a payment. There has been no suspicious activity involving my account other than GoDaddy themselves taking a domain from my account and putting it in their own portfolio, yet now my account is practically being protected from me transferring out my own domains as a response to it? Since GoDaddy knows they are the only ones who have taken a domain out of my account, why do they need to ensure that further illegitimate transfer outs don't happen? I don't see any reason for this being activated for my account other than GoDaddy fearing that GoDaddy will carry out more illegitimate transfer outs (which I certainly hope is not a real fear on their part!). I find this action to be paradoxical on GoDaddy's part, and it does not deter me in any way from transferring out my domains, just gives me further motivation to move all auction won domains out on day 61.

 

[Name Trader]

@Arca - I feel your pain

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

This is really sad and scary to know what happened with OP, @Arca @stub .

The best advice I can give you all especially those who are willing to transfer out their domains from GoDaddy before waiting 60 days is either to contact your account manager who will help in unlocking the domain you won through expiring/closeouts in 1-2 days instead of waiting for 60 days. I have been doing this for last many months with the help of my account manager.

In case, if someone doesn't have account manager, then your best bet is to send email at [email protected] for them to unlock the domain.

 

[Name Trader]

This is really sad and scary to know what happened with OP, @Arca @stub .

The best advice I can give you all especially those who are willing to transfer out their domains from GoDaddy before waiting 60 days is either to contact your account manager who will help in unlocking the domain you won through expiring/closeouts in 1-2 days instead of waiting for 60 days. I have been doing this for last many months with the help of my account manager.

In case, if someone doesn't have account manager, then your best bet is to send email at [email protected] for them to unlock the domain.

Thanks Abdul,

But my experience is [email protected] will not help you to transfer out your domain which has been bought in their auctions before the 60 days has been expired,

rgds
stu

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Thanks Abdul,

But my experience is [email protected] will not help you to transfer out your domain which has been bought in their auctions before the 60 days has been expired,

rgds
stu

I have asked about unlocking one of my domain couple of years back which I won through expiring auction and here is what they said:

"This domain is currently under a 60-day lock; if you would like to transfer the domain more immediately GoDaddy has a team that you can send a request to remove the 60 day lock, and hopefully they will be able to remove it for you. Here is their email for that [email protected]. If you have any questions in regards to the lock you will need to contact that email or GoDaddy Support."

But since I'm assigned account manager, I usually ask him to unlock the domain and he sends request to the concerned department and the locking is switched off usually within 2 business days.

So if sending them email doesn't work, you can try with your account manager if have assigned with one.

Thanks!

 

[wwwweb]

I have asked about unlocking one of my domain couple of years back which I won through expiring auction and here is what they said:

"This domain is currently under a 60-day lock; if you would like to transfer the domain more immediately GoDaddy has a team that you can send a request to remove the 60 day lock, and hopefully they will be able to remove it for you. Here is their email for that [email protected]. If you have any questions in regards to the lock you will need to contact that email or GoDaddy Support."

But since I'm assigned account manager, I usually ask him to unlock the domain and he sends request to the concerned department and the locking is switched off usually within 2 business days.

So if sending them email doesn't work, you can try with your account manager if have assigned with one.

Thanks!

I believe there was no icann 60 day lock a few years ago, this rule is a new one that came into effect o believe late 2016 early 2017, prior to that is was just a godaddy lock

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I believe there was no icann 60 day lock a few years ago, this rule is a new one that came into effect o believe late 2016 early 2017, prior to that is was just a godaddy lock

The last time I was denied to get my domain unlocked by GoDaddy was in 2012 due to 60 days lock period which eventually led to cancellation of a deal at Escrow.com. At that time there was definitely no option of sending email to [email protected] and get your domain unlocked. Also I had no account manager to avail this service.

 

[Name Trader]

I have asked about unlocking one of my domain couple of years back which I won through expiring auction and here is what they said:

"This domain is currently under a 60-day lock; if you would like to transfer the domain more immediately GoDaddy has a team that you can send a request to remove the 60 day lock, and hopefully they will be able to remove it for you. Here is their email for that [email protected]. If you have any questions in regards to the lock you will need to contact that email or GoDaddy Support."

But since I'm assigned account manager, I usually ask him to unlock the domain and he sends request to the concerned department and the locking is switched off usually within 2 business days.

So if sending them email doesn't work, you can try with your account manager if have assigned with one.

Thanks!

Ok. I've sent them an eMail requesting them to unlock a domain which I bought from a private seller recently. I will keep everyone informed of their response. I no longer have an account manager.

 

[Name Trader]

emailing [email protected] got a positive answer from them. They said yes and sent me instructions on how to transfer the domain. But I'll reserve full judgment until I get the domain at another Registrar, just in case there are any booby-traps.

 

[Name Trader]

I can confirm my domain was transferred before 60 days were up by asking [email protected] to release the lock and then performing a regular transfer to the new registrar. Went smooth as silk.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I can confirm my domain was transferred before 60 days were up by asking [email protected] to release the lock and then performing a regular transfer to the new registrar. Went smooth as silk.

Glad you got it done that way and hopefully others do the same in order to keep their domains safe.

 

[Name Trader]

Glad you got it done that way and hopefully others do the same in order to keep their domains safe.

I'm now trying again with my last 3 domains in my account. all won in expiring domain auctions at GoDaddy in the last 60 days

 

[wwwweb]

Now just get ENOM to do that, and life shall be good.

I'm now trying again with my last 3 domains in my account. all won in expiring domain auctions at GoDaddy in the last 60 days

At least godaddy listens, companies like ENOM are a nightmare to deal with, 60 day lock, 5 day transfer hold. Namebright doesn't budge either, you think they would be domainer friendly, especially after what you end up paying there, slim picking today, first and leader were fighting over BJDuck.com

 

[anantj]

BJDuck

Beijing Duck would be quite popular I presume

 

[wwwweb]

Beijing Duck would be quite popular I presume

Yes, I figured that much, among other things, was a very slow day. Lol

 

[Arca]

I can confirm my domain was transferred before 60 days were up by asking [email protected] to release the lock and then performing a regular transfer to the new registrar. Went smooth as silk.

Interesting, I wonder whether they would bulk-approve transfer outs of all domains in an account each time asked, so that we could truly get our names to "safety" right after winning them. I'll give that a try once the transfer verify dept eventually backs off...

 

[Sunkymike]

I experienced this same issue with Godaddy this month. I bought Canadianmotel.com from closeout. After 2 days, i got a mail telling me that the domain name has been removed from my account. I contacted Gd support team but they couldn't give me any good explanation. the only thing they kept saying was that i would be refunded. The thing has to stop. If i had bought a shitty domain name, they wouldn't have thought of deleting it from my account.