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GoDaddy auction problem: GoDaddy charged me $920 without my consent

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Hello,
I would please need your help on how to handle a problem with Godaddy.
I've reported by phone a bug for a domain name auction, where my proxy bid was... $424k!
The person told me that he could no cancel my bid and that I would need to contact by email the auction department. Which I did the next minute.
Of course I won the auction, at a final price of 920usd. I've not paid for this domain name I did not want, but Godaddy has debited the amount from my Credit Card.
3 days after my request to cancel the auction or/and handle the domain to the 2nd bidder, a person from the support sent me a stupid copy and paste answer. I tried to explain that it is a problem with the platform and that I don't want the domain but they don't care. Any advice on how to solve this?
thanks
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Hello,
I would need please your help on how to handle a problem with Godaddy.
I've reported by phone a bug for a domain name auction, where my proxy bid was... $424k!
The person told me that he could no cancel my bid and that I would need to contact by email the auction department. Which I did the next minute.
Of course I won the auction, at a final price of 920usd. I've not paid for this domain name I did not want, but Godaddy has debited the amount from my Credit Card.
3 days after my request to cancel the auction or/and handle the domain to the 2nd bidder, a person from the support sent me a stupid copy and paste answer. I tried to explain that it is a problem with the platform and that I don't want the domain but they don't care. Any advice on how to solve this?
thanks

Happend to me, many years back, lucky for me I won a non generic one word .com for $6xx, fast forward a few years it's all good, but back then I was panicked also as I put an extra digit in. It is just like when your at a live auction, and you put your paddle up, this is a big boys game, you better double check your bids before you press submit, and the TOS you click when you submit your bid give them the right to do this.

If you don't like your buy, list it on namepros for $1K, and let's see what happens.
 
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@Joe Styler . Can you help this guy out?
Joe Style can do many things, when the auction has closed, and the card has been charged, that is something they cannot fix, as that was a live bid, he is lucky the person stopped when they did. $920, and 424K are very far apart. Given there is another bidding party in play, for the integrity of the platform, I don't know what they can do.

Auctions, and fixed price listings are not two of the same.

I have seen this a few times over the years, if you read the TOS, they reserve the right to charge your card on the 4th day I believe. You needed to remove your card, and take the penalty if you did not want to pay for it.
 
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Many thanks to both of you!
When the buyer does not pay, I suppose that they cancel the auction. So why can't they do it here?

I am pretty sure that I have not bidded this amount (How would I confirm $424k?), and that it is rather a bug of the platform. From my experience, the platform does not work well. For example, in the last 2 years or so, almost every day, I've got an error message stating that a domain name I am looking for is not available anymore, but 2 seconds later, a screen allows me to bid on the same domain name.
 
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Typically we do not reverse a bid that exposes someone else's proxy bid. It is very rare we would reverse any bid but even more so on one where you now know and let everyone else know the other bidder's proxy amount. If there was indeed a technical issue, meaning something broke we would look at the bid so if you believe that is true you can email [email protected] but it is unlikely as I do not know of any technical issues we had on bidding.
I am sorry this happened but as someone pointed out you obviously have a domain other people are interested in so maybe you can resell it and gain most if not all of your money back quickly.
 
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Many thanks to both of you!
When the buyer does not pay, I suppose that they cancel the auction. So why can't they do it here?

I am pretty sure that I have not bidded this amount (How would I confirm $424k?), and that it is rather a bug of the platform. From my experience, the platform does not work well. For example, in the last 2 years or so, almost every day, I've got an error message stating that a domain name I am looking for is not available anymore, but 2 seconds later, a screen allows me to bid on the same domain name.
To be honest, it sounds like user error with you inputting a $424 bid into your phone. People have to take auctions seriously, these are binding bids, no takebacks, you are playing with real money for keeps, and you are playing against other peoples money as well, so you can't change your mind. Someone must have had a $895 proxy on it. I buy domains all the time, so PM me, if I find value in it, I will pay you the $1K. If it is not of quality, then I will tell you the truth also. My guess is you probably got a decent name, but you probably paid higher than wholesale value for it.
 
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Nothing you can do really and nothing godaddy can do.

Share the domain!
 
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I mistakenly put just 1 extra zero once somewhere else (snapnames I think), and the system did not instantly accept the bid. I was asked something like "do you really want to bid $<...> as it is not in line with the current highest bid". Why wouldn't GD implement something similar? Accepting $424K proxy without any extra cofirmation screen is not good programming style.
 
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I mistakenly put just 1 extra zero once somewhere else (snapnames I think), and the system did not instantly accept the bid. I was asked something like "do you really want to bid $<...> as it is not in line with the current highest bid". Why wouldn't GD implement something similar? Accepting $424K proxy without any extra cofirmation screen is not good programming style.
With the app, things move quickly, It would not have been an isolated incident if it wasn’t user error, but they can check logs to verify what happend.

Maybe an extra confirmation opt in for people who need it could be implemented.
 
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If it's a bug, or you entered a decimal seperator either a comma or period and the system didn't reject the bid entirely then I doubt you're liable for the amount, despite any confirmation prompts. If you mistyped, take it as a lesson if you can afford it, but if the bidding did get a lot higher you could argue that 424k is a ridiculous number.

I doubt you want to take it to court so if you can't get GD to accept their system is flawed, you need to decide if you want to end your relationship with them. In that case issue a chargeback and accept a possible permanent ban.
 
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Many thanks Joe for your quick answer,
I've already emailed twice the support, which delivered slow and unsatisfactory simple copy and paste answers.
The solution of selling the domain name that you offer does not satisfy me either. The problem is not about money. What I like with domain names is not earning money, which I don't, but finding quality domain names, imagining what I could do with them, developping websites, exchanging with friends, learning about law, SEO, branding, trying to understand new trends, helping people when I'm asked for, etc. It's my main hobby.

I sincerely appreciate the time you took to answer a message that was not specifically destined to you, on the contrary to the horrible Goddady support that is currently handling my case.
Still I don't understand the logic of your answer. If the auction would have raised $424k, would you have charged me such amount? I guess not.

If I had removed my payment means, would the auction had been cancelled? Of course yes.
So stating that is impossible to solve this case is incorrect. I'm pretty sure it's a bug from Godaddy's part, but, even though it would be my mistake, I find at least disappointing that your support is not able to answer more than an copy and paste message to a client which has purchased over 500 domains at auctions in the last 10 years, without the slightest incident.
 
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424k has a lot of zeros.... very ironic given your avatar

What was the domain?
$920 is not the end of the world, like suggested above, maybe you can recoup some of your costs.

Heck according the the godaddy evaluation tool the domain now has at least that value because it recorded the sale.
 
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thanks for all your comments
I'm familiar with purchasing domain names with Godaddy, I've bidded on thousands of them and probably purchased over 1000 in the last 12 years. I've never had a single problem until now.
The proxy bid was $425,048, which is a strange amount. I remember having checked this domain name but I did not bid at all on it, not even 12 usd.
 
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thanks for all your comments
I'm familiar with purchasing domain names with Godaddy, I've bidded on thousands of them and probably purchased over 1000 in the last 12 years. I've never had a single problem until now.
The proxy bid was $425,048, which is a strange amount. I remember having checked this domain name but I did not bid at all on it, not even 12 usd.

Ask them to show you the transaction coming from which IP Address?
 
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but they can check logs to verify what happend..
interesting, thanks
I guess that it is the minimum they should do. Try to see what happened, first.

""Ask them to show you the transaction coming from which IP Address?"""
excellent, thanks

The idea is that no communication is possible with a support that do not wish to go above copy and paste answers
 
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Lesson learned, don't bid there anymore.
 
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interesting, thanks
I guess that it is the minimum they should do. Try to see what happened, first.

""Ask them to show you the transaction coming from which IP Address?"""
excellent, thanks

The idea is that no communication is possible with a support that do not wish to go above copy and paste answers

you can always raise your support request above level 1 support replies.
 
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you can always raise your support request above level 1 support replies.
Any idea please how I can raise the support request above level 1?
For the 1st time somebody with a brain understood my request but still they do not want to do anything.
 
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@Joe Styler

Apparently, the guy's complaint is not only just "I made a mistake, can you cancel" type.

- he claims he never did a bid, and $425,048 is a hard number to mistype
- your system has no stop for this ridiculous type of bids. Apparently, their should be some kind of verification before allowing this kind of amounts, no?
- he is not managing to get non "copy and paste" responses from support. Please help him to get his tickets to next level, as apparently he had already done what you have advised him here in the thread (mail to [email protected])

Also, if he contacted before bid reached $900+ level, why couldn't support cancel his proxy bid and just leave his max amount there? No one would have been affected.
 
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Hi @centreurope, sorry to hear of your GoDaddy issues. Could you just clarify this a bit? I can't figure out if you're saying that you didn't bid on the auction at all, or if the amount of your proxy bid was input incorrectly by you, or if your proxy bid was recorded incorrectly (ie: changed) by GoDaddy. I realise the outcome is the same for you (ending up with a domain you feel you've overpaid for) but as someone who bids on GD auctions, I'd really like to know if there's a GD bug / issue.
 
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