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

[centreurope]

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

 

[DomainsMaven]

Sorry that happened to you.
Not a big fan of Godaddy. Moving all my domains away from these guys. Too expensive.

 

[centreurope]

Many thanks canswift for you interest

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 don't remember exactly what happened, because this domain name was of little importance for me. I think I that I've only checked the end of the auction. I don't think that I've bidded such a strange amount, especially that I would have seen it in the confirmation screen.

What seems astonishing to me is that Godaddy can take the amount it wants from you ("it's in our TOS"), and wait 3 days until they answer a simple copy & paste that totally ignores what a sensible customer is requesting.

The least would have been: "sorry blablabla, we are going to investigate".

 

[centreurope]

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.[/USER]

the thing is that the person I talked to by phone told me that Godaddy Auctions is a separate entity, which can only be contacted by email. And I noticed the problem very lately, just before the end of the auction.

 

[davidc1]

one of the worst support in this industry.
managing domains with them is a nightmare.
many bulshitting products and packages...

GOOD LUCK !

 

[Nitaky]

I agree with Centreurope. Godaddy can not disregard a support request and charge the amount they want just because it's in their TOS !!!

 

[proer]

@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.

I do agree with that. I think Godaddy should respect Centreeurope's request.
It seems he's an old customer (he's on NP since 2007). We all know there's already a problem when an old customer has to create a thread on a forum because support is not considering him.
He's a real client who thinks something has gone wrong on Godaddy's platform.
Thinking there can't be any bug on his platform is a very big mistake, but a bigger mistake is to think being big enough to ignore any customer's request because some money has already been given. Trust is something Godaddy should not play with. There are a lot of customers on NP and this sad case from an old member is not a little joke for us. So you can be charged tomorrow for a name you didn't bid on and you won't have any help from support, not any investigation... ?

 

[Joe Styler]

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.

There is a bid confirmation before it is accepted.

 

[Joe Styler]

I do agree with that. I think Godaddy should respect Centreeurope's request.
It seems he's an old customer (he's on NP since 2007). We all know there's already a problem when an old customer has to create a thread on a forum because support is not considering him.
He's a real client who thinks something has gone wrong on Godaddy's platform.
Thinking there can't be any bug on his platform is a very big mistake, but a bigger mistake is to think being big enough to ignore any customer's request because some money has already been given. Trust is something Godaddy should not play with. There are a lot of customers on NP and this sad case from an old member is not a little joke for us. So you can be charged tomorrow for a name you didn't bid on and you won't have any help from support, not any investigation... ?

The thing we are really concerned about here is that the other bidder has had his proxy bid revealed. So if I am bidding on domain.com and I have a high bid of $50 and you come along and bid $300 as your proxy bid, the live bid showing will be $55 (the amount just big enough to outbid me). If another member comes and puts in a $1,000 bid the bid will jump to $305 just big enough to outbid your proxy bid. This shows everyone else on the auction what your bid was, $300. If the $1,000 bid is removed a couple days later and the auction goes back to $55 all the other bidders potentially know your proxy amount which should remain hidden unless there is a real bid for a higher amount.

 

[Joe Styler]

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.

I am pretty much the highest level of support you can get. You can PM me the domain and I will take a look but as I said we very rarely cancel a bid.

 

[forge]

The thing we are really concerned about here is that the other bidder has had his proxy bid revealed. So if I am bidding on domain.com and I have a high bid of $50 and you come along and bid $300 as your proxy bid, the live bid showing will be $55 (the amount just big enough to outbid me). If another member comes and puts in a $1,000 bid the bid will jump to $305 just big enough to outbid your proxy bid. This shows everyone else on the auction what your bid was, $300. If the $1,000 bid is removed a couple days later and the auction goes back to $55 all the other bidders potentially know your proxy amount which should remain hidden unless there is a real bid for a higher amount.

Aren't you talking about an active auction here? This auction has ended.

I guess maybe you're addressing whether the bid could be retracted mid-auction.

 

[davidc1]

The thing we are really concerned about here is that the other bidder has had his proxy bid revealed. So if I am bidding on domain.com and I have a high bid of $50 and you come along and bid $300 as your proxy bid, the live bid showing will be $55 (the amount just big enough to outbid me). If another member comes and puts in a $1,000 bid the bid will jump to $305 just big enough to outbid your proxy bid. This shows everyone else on the auction what your bid was, $300. If the $1,000 bid is removed a couple days later and the auction goes back to $55 all the other bidders potentially know your proxy amount which should remain hidden unless there is a real bid for a higher amount.

the problem is that you say nothing about a possible bug on your platform.

to me and for 99.99% customers putting a 400k bid within 2 clicks could be a real problem.
I used gd for years and sold hundreds of dolains on gd and i saw that near to 10% domains were not transfered as the transfer process is not easy and fast as everyone expects.

 

[forge]

to me and for 99.99% customers putting a 400k bid within 2 clicks could be a real problem.

You're right, it seems to me that GoDaddy ought to have a verification requirement in place as does Namejet. At the very least for bids >$10k.

 

[centreurope]

Please Joe don't take personnally this message if you happen to read it. I don't know you and have thus nothing against you. My problem is with Godaddy Auctions support.

as I said we very rarely cancel a bid.

Of course. Everybody can understand that a company such as Godaddy with so many transactions a day must have strict rules and processes. I may have purchased about 1000 domains at auctions, struggling like my colleagues with a sytem which is full of bugs, domain transfers that don't process, etc. but I've never asked for anything. I know that Godaddy is bad, but I also know that it would be difficult to do much better owing to the size of the company, and I know that nobody obliges me to use your services.

BUT in some situations that are exceptional, the rules and processes can not apply because it would lead to an absurd situation, which is very much the case here. In those particular cases, a human intervention is necessary to find a way to solve the current problem and, if necessary, adapt the rules and processes to avoid more similar problems in the future.

I see from the threads that other professionals find it worrying that Godaddy's support might decide to charge the AMOUNT THEY WANT and do not do the slightest effort of trying to understand the situation. I ! thought that I would find at Namepros a way to handle rapidly this issue, but I was mistaken, it has not worked.

I've already lost a lot of time and energy for an unimportant matter, but the next step will make me loose much more time and energy, as I'll move the story to the social networks. The quality of the discussion will surely be much worse than here, but I will have done my job, informing people at a larger scale about risky situations with Godaddy auctions and an email support that works worse than a chatbot.

The story may last longer, without my participation. There are Godaddy haters (or competitors?) that love taking advantages of such messages written in in highly trusted domains such as NP, in order to make them very visible in Google.

PS. You can still close the case 35411543, refunding the money you took without my consent, for a domain name I don't want, (probably) because of a bug with your auction system. If this happens, don't expect me to be grateful, as I've already lost too much time and energy, which I will not recover when my money is refunded.

 

[forge]

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.

Which includes the real risk of losing all the domains he has registered with Godaddy. So I'd say this is not good advice.

 

[equity78]

Please Joe don't take personnally this message if you happen to read it. I don't know you and have thus nothing against you. My problem is with Godaddy Auctions support.


Of course. Everybody can understand that a company such as Godaddy with so many transactions a day must have strict rules and processes. I may have purchased about 1000 domains at auctions, struggling like my colleagues with a sytem which is full of bugs, domain transfers that don't process, etc. but I've never asked for anything. I know that Godaddy is bad, but I also know that it would be difficult to do much better owing to the size of the company, and I know that nobody obliges me to use your services.

BUT in some situations that are exceptional, the rules and processes can not apply because it would lead to an absurd situation, which is very much the case here. In those particular cases, a human intervention is necessary to find a way to solve the current problem and, if necessary, adapt the rules and processes to avoid more similar problems in the future.

I see from the threads that other professionals find it worrying that Godaddy's support might decide to charge the AMOUNT THEY WANT and do not do the slightest effort of trying to understand the situation. I ! thought that I would find at Namepros a way to handle rapidly this issue, but I was mistaken, it has not worked.

I've already lost a lot of time and energy for an unimportant matter, but the next step will make me loose much more time and energy, as I'll move the story to the social networks. The quality of the discussion will surely be much worse than here, but I will have done my job, informing people at a larger scale about risky situations with Godaddy auctions and an email support that works worse than a chatbot.

The story may last longer, without my participation. There are Godaddy haters (or competitors?) that love taking advantages of such messages written in in highly trusted domains such as NP, in order to make them very visible in Google.

PS. You can still close the case 35411543, refunding the money you took without my consent, for a domain name I don't want, (probably) because of a bug with your auction system. If this happens, don't expect me to be grateful, as I've already lost too much time and energy, which I will not recover when my money is refunded.

So to be clear you are saying that something not you bid on this domain? You never placed any bid?

 

[centreurope]

So to be clear you are saying that something not you bid on this domain? You never placed any bid?

I don't remember having bidded on this domain name at all. So it surprises me that I could have bidded such a strange amount : $425048. And then confirmed it at the next step.
But I'm not 100 % sure I did not do it. As everybody else, I do many things without being very concentrated. Placing an auction on Godaddy (most of the time 12 usd of 15usd) if one of the least important things I do throughout the day, so my brain is not fully dedicated to this action. I would be very surprised I did it, but I can not ignore this possibility. As well as the support can not ignore that there can a problem with the auction system.

 

[davidc1]

it's not normal that a cat on your keyboard could cost you 400k

 

[centreurope]

it's not normal that a cat on your keyboard could cost you 400k

Excellent!
when I was thinking about what could have happened. I thaught about the cats, which sometimes sit on the computer. But what surprises me is the confirmation. For this, I think that there has been a problem with the auction system.

I suppose you all have the same problem: when I click on "place bid", VERY often, the 1st screen is: "We're sorry, the domain name is no longer available blablba". Then I need to click on "search for domain names" and a window that allows me to bid appears. Or not.
This happens to me several times a day, and other similar things. The auction system is clearly deficient.

 

[centreurope]

Last thing, I thaught at first that the support would immediately cancel the auction because of the amount of the bid: 425,048. For me it was obvious that it was a computer bug. With namejet, dropcatch, Sedo, etc. you can not bid over a certain amount (1k or 10k) before being certified. I was convinced it was the same with Godaddy.
The fact that the system lets bid a 6 figure amount with a simple account is simply unbelievable. Especially when they charge your credit card without your consent.

 

[jalsoftware]

You're right, it seems to me that GoDaddy ought to have a verification requirement in place as does Namejet. At the very least for bids >$10k.

+1 here

I really hope they cancel this auction ASAP. If they don't then I guess I'll have no other choice but to leave GD. And so will my 2500+ domains.

 

[Nitaky]

There is a bid confirmation before it is accepted.

You don’t feel that $425048 is really a very strange number!!! And it’s surely a machine mistake! I can’t believe that Centreurope or any other human can use such number!

 

[NoBS]

Which includes the real risk of losing all the domains he has registered with Godaddy. So I'd say this is not good advice.

Don't worry it won't happen. At worst you'll be locked out of your account and need to arrange transfer out with support. Of course it's not worth it over $1,000 as you loose access to an exclusive stream of names.

 

[Joe Styler]

Again we do have a comfirmation screen for bids. Any size bid for that matter. We also do have a verification process for bids through your account over a certain amount which I believe is over 2500. I’m flying right now with bad WiFi so it takes forever to look it up but it’s certainly under 3k.
I’ve also asked for a pm with the domain name so I could look into it which I have not received.
I’m happy to look into it more.
I do not think that our bidding system is error prone or hard to navigate. We have a bid confirmation check on bids so you’d have to enter a very large number and then confirm that number and be a verified bidder to bid that amount. That’s three checks. We don’t make it easy to make a bad bid by mistake and we get almost no complaints about someone making a mistaken bid. I’ve never seen a mistaken bid for an amount even close to this before so I do not think the system is broken or troublesome for our bidders. We sell thousands of names a day on the platform without incident.

 

[centreurope]

At last, probably thanks to Joe Styler's intervention, the support sent me a message stating that the auction was cancelled and my money refunded. Apparently, the bidding IP did not match mine.

 

[tonyk2000]

the bidding IP did not match

Was it a bug on GD end then?