GoDaddy auctioned domain without my knowledge

[silverider]

I visited the domainparking page of GD for my domain, and my name was being auctioned for close to 1K. That was new to me, I did pay the GD fee for auction a few years ago, but then stopped paying so it wasn't up for sale anymore !

what's up with that ? Is that another questionable trick of GD ?
they "don't know what happened" .

 

[cdboard]

do you still have control of the domain? can you cancel the auction, or transfer the domain to another registrar?

if you would accept the auction amount, verify that it is YOU that would be paid.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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Is this domain expired?

If so, Go Daddy starts an auction on day 25 after expiration, and, no, you will not receive the proceeds from the sale.

The good news: you can still rescue the domain, but it will cost you $80.00.

Also, this could be an old listing from a long ago seller, now a ghost listing.

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[silverider]

I did not mention that of course I still owned the domain, thought it was obvious. I did try to bid higher to see what happened, but you have to be a member of GD auctions apparently, which I am not.
So I can't check what happens if someone bids higher and ends up winning the auction.

I would not be surprised if GD put the name up for sale then act as a broker for a fee when some interested party comes up.

btw I found out about this while researching what would happen to my domain if I "deleted" it, I did not want GD to auction off my name afterwards. It is my understanding that deletion send them back to the registry skipping the GD auction process. Why GD gets away with auctioning people's expired names (without hardly any notification and no possibility of opting out) is to me incomprehensible, hasn't anyone complained or sued ?

 

[Ted.T]

Once you delete the domain from your account, you don't own it anymore. Godaddy, as a registrar, owns it for 60 days more then delete it.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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If the name is not expired, then it's probably a ghost listing from a former owner. All you have to do is get in touch with support [at] Godaddy.com, and they will investigate it and remove it from the listings. Very simple.

Even if someone "wins" the auction, the sale will not complete because it's not your auction listing.

If you delete the name, it will not go to auction, and Go Daddy will delete it in 30 days. (I recently hand-regged such a domain. My rep had told me about the deletion process regarding owner-deleted domains, I put an alert on it, and snagged it.)

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[domainbartender]

I experienced something similar recently. Listings are not automatically removed when your membership expires as I have been told, and your only choice is between selling the domain or having your auctions membership banned should you decide to reactivate it again in the future.

Always remember to remove your listings before your membership expires! I hope Godaddy changes their system and removes all listings when someone's membership expires.

 

[Name Trader]

Personally, I'd get on the phone immediately with GoDaddy and ask them why your domain is being auctioned off, and ask them to cancel the auction because you are not any longer a member of their auctions.

 

[Electric-Shadow]

You still have the right to redeem for $80, then they have to cancel the sale with the buyer. If the sale is going over $1k then it will sure as hell be worth paying the fee.

GD are allowed to do this though and they're not the only registrar that do, they're just more aggressive with marketing their expired auctions. They can't officially transfer ownership until the grace redemption period has expired, it is your responsibility afteral to make sure you renew names you wish to keep.

A small tip would be to set up auto renewal, be sure to check only for a year at a time, GD can be sneaky sometimes and try to get you to ad 5 or 9 years.

Another tip is that you could put the name back up on private auction at GD, every chance it will gain the same interest again. Hope this helps a bit.