GoDaddy Blocking Emails?

[KoolKat]

Does anyone know when Godaddy stopped forwarding emails from domains that are under privacy? I just checked my portfolio and it seems that there is a new setting requirement and the option to receive emails sent to @domainproxy was disabled on all my domains over 1k there and you now have to manually (1 by 1 as no bulk option) enable the option to forward emails from an interested party using domainproxy to your main email address. I wonder how many offers were not received because of this as, with privacy, I used to always receive email offers, I decided to check and noticed this major change. Did Godaddy issue any press release or email info on this as this seems rather problematic on several points. Let me know if I'm missing something and if someone can bring some clarity on this @Joe Styler @James Iles

thanks

 

[Reallybigidea.com]

Yes buyers can not connect via Godaddy whois. Unable to send a message to owner.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Absolutely a problem, and probably quite frankly extremely disappointing. This issue had been brought up on the forum quite a while ago. It's not just an issue of domain name selling---even at least one business had problems with communication thanks to this obscure technicality.

If someone wants to buy your name, and tries to send an email about it,my understanding is that you will not receive the direct communication if you have not clicked that checkbox. Is there a reason that that is not explicit? Why not have the default be that communications are forwarded to you? That is being respectful of the owner of the domain.

 

[James Iles]

Thanks for tagging me, @BostonDomainer - I have no info on this at the moment, so I'm going to be educating myself today! I'll report back when I can.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Thanks for tagging me, @BostonDomainer - I have no info on this at the moment, so I'm going to be educating myself today! I'll report back when I can.

This default prohibition on emails with privacy on basically means that no inbound inquiries about a domain canl be received directly by the domain owner. None whatsoever. Not even to a spam box.

Why does that default make sense? Sadly, then, domain owners are deprived of the opportunity to directly negotiate with interested buyers.

My question as well here is that if the emails are blocked, is there at least privacy such that the blocked emails are not being read by GoDaddy. That would be, in my opinion, highly improper, to have this obscure total email block going on under privacy, but messages that were being sent to one's domain then being read by some third party for potential leads for sales.

If privacy is on, are the blocked emails kept completely confidential as well--i.e. simply blocked and not intercepted and read?

 

[Reallybigidea.com]

@BostonDomainer here's the answer.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

So, instead of free, direct communication with the actual owner, the potential buyer can pay $69 and try to proceed.
More than likely, there are many very experienced domainers here that are quite capable of doing their own negotations, and don't need the help of a brokerage to negotiate a sale on their domains.

I'm sure that they would be really ticked off if they have lost leads and potential sales due to this obscure technicality unwittinlgy blocking them. And, they would be even more ticked off if those blocked emails with offers instead were being sent to the brokerage as well. I truly hope that that was not going on.

The reason why this is all the more a sore point is that I can't seem to have GoDaddy keep privacy off on my domains--even after I've moved them out of the account! They still have information blocked in my lookup.icann.org listings. Their GoDaddy Whois was inaccurate for many of my domains that are at another registrar. They really seem to have a problem accurately displaying registrant, technical, and admin information when privacy is off. I see the ubiquitous 'contact a broker' to get this domain messaging when searching those domains. Can't they do better?

This email privacy technicality issue, to me, raises concerns about blocking potential leads and funneling them instead to their brokerage. So, to avoid any perception of conflict of interest, hopefully these issues will be resolved.

 

[KoolKat]

@James Iles following up on this. thanks

 

[James Iles]

Apologies for the delay @BostonDomainer. I know how important the Domains by Proxy feature is to domain investors, and with that in mind, I can say that the email forwarding feature is slated to be enabled by default for new registrations in the next 60 days, which includes bulk functionality. Domains in the interim will likely need to be manually adjusted.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Apologies for the delay @BostonDomainer. I know how important the Domains by Proxy feature is to domain investors, and with that in mind, I can say that the email forwarding feature is slated to be enabled by default for new registrations in the next 60 days, which includes bulk functionality. Domains in the interim will likely need to be manually adjusted.

Wouldn't it make sense to alert all your current customers that they may want to correct this? That's a pretty significant issue for domainers. Especially for those with thousands of domains registered, they may be losing important potential leads. If you only correct this with the new registrants, that may be unduly harming quite a few of your current customers.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

If you only correct this with the new registrants, that may be unduly harming quite a few of your current customers.

Correction to the above: you are correcting it forward with new registrations, not registrants, within the next sixty days.
Other questions include whether there is privacy of the communications that come through domainsby proxy, or whether those may be intercepted and read--whether or not you are having the emails forwarded. Are the contents of any communications (blocked by or sent through them) kept completely confidential.

Perhaps there needs to be complete transparency here about the actual privacy of such communications going through a third party and GoDaddy. Or, better yet, if you have any emails blocked, there should be an option for the domain owner to explicitly deny or provide permission for domainsbyproxy to forward any messages about buying offers to the GD brokerage. That would show some real integrity on the part of your company.

 

[KoolKat]

I'd like to see one of the writers on namepros like @Bob Hawkes maybe take a look at this issue with a write up for the domain community. This practice by godaddy is a really big deal and how they handle it matters to the entire community. (if you or someone else is up for is up for some digging Bob or other blogger) thanks. I am so upset about all this.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

This is an issue I had not thought about previously. I realize perhaps partly off topic, but does someone know how other registrars handle it for names under privacy.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

What would be especially helpful here is having the various domain registrars comment if GoDaddy's practice is the standard also for them.
Or, perhaps we could start a different thread to address the broader concern here?

Thank you to the astute Namepros member who first alerted us to this problem within, I think, this past year. The problem appears to have been going on much, much longer than that, though. So who knows how many potential sales leads over the years have been lost by these GD domain owners?

Privacy is not meant to be, by default, blocking any communication with a domain owner. And it certainly doesn't imply consent for a third party to intercept and be privy to messages that are trying to be sent to that individual or company.

 

[KoolKat]

This is an issue I had not thought about previously. I realize perhaps partly off topic, but does someone know how other registrars handle it for names under privacy.

Thanks for stopping by Bob.. I know it depends on the regiatrar... some forward emails sent to private whois go straight to you which is what GD used to do and changed without notice while others have guided forms to address issues like Dynadot.

I'll dig a little further tomorrow at others.

A few questions I have:
1)When did this change occur? And why do I have to manually re-enable this now. I have over 1k names there and to do it one by one is prohibitive and not happening no bulk option.
2)Were domain owners notified (I know I wasn't) I used to get offers forwarded and then all stopped
3)What do they do or have done with the emails received through privacy up to this point
4)Is this in line with ICAAN approved practices for privacy

 

[karmaco]

Most of what they are filtering is spam but it should be your choice to receive or not.

 

[KoolKat]

Most of what they are filtering is spam but it should be your choice to receive or not.

We're not talking about filtering... talking about forwarding being turned off completely for all names and you have to manually go through a few steps, re-enable for each domain 1 by 1.

 

[Dane]

Apologies for the delay @BostonDomainer. I know how important the Domains by Proxy feature is to domain investors, and with that in mind, I can say that the email forwarding feature is slated to be enabled by default for new registrations in the next 60 days, which includes bulk functionality. Domains in the interim will likely need to be manually adjusted.

Wait... are you saying that this "feature" was turned OFF? If so, why weren't we notified about it? I was not aware of it until reading this post.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

We're not talking about filtering... talking about forwarding being turned off completely for all names and you have to manually go through a few steps, re-enable for each domain 1 by 1.

Yes, the setting is not consent to have spam filtering activated. It is a complete, blanket blocking of ALL EMAIL TO YOUR DOMAIN registrant, etc, by DEFAULT. No explicit consent. Nothing to double check with registrant that they really intended this.

When that very astute Namepros member posted about this problem last year, it was surprising tome that there wasn't much more of an uproar. At a minimum, an alert to all members might have helped prevent this confusion AND perhaps have helped folks get more direct sales.

,Again, an important question here is how many leads and potential sales have been lost due to this? Not just for the domain name in question, mind you, but for other catchy names you may have had or still have? A potential buyer may be a very valuable resource to a domain investor, especially a prospect that comes via inbound directly to you.

 

[SuperDudePro]

Yes, the setting is not consent to have spam filtering activated. It is a complete, blanket blocking of ALL EMAIL TO YOUR DOMAIN registrant, etc, by DEFAULT. No explicit consent. Nothing to double check with registrant that they really intended this.

When that very astute Namepros member posted about this problem last year, it was surprising tome that there wasn't much more of an uproar. At a minimum, an alert to all members might have helped prevent this confusion AND perhaps have helped folks get more direct sales.

,Again, an important question here is how many leads and potential sales have been lost due to this? Not just for the domain name in question, mind you, but for other catchy names you may have had or still have? A potential buyer may be a very valuable resource to a domain investor, especially a prospect that comes via inbound directly to you.

I get the concern generally, but why would someone bother to pull the whois information and email you when they could have simply typed in the name to a browser and gotten your landing page? Or searched for the name in any of the large marketplaces that would include the affiliates? I've never gotten anything but bullshit from those emails. All that said, everyone should be able to make the choice. Personally I stopped replying to any of them long before GoDaddy shut it off.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I get the concern generally, but why would someone bother to pull the whois information and email you when they could have simply typed in the name to a browser and gotten your landing page? Or searched for the name in any of the large marketplaces that would include the affiliates? I've never gotten anything but bullshit from those emails. All that said, everyone should be able to make the choice. Personally I stopped replying to any of them long before GoDaddy shut it off.

Yes, it's understandable that it may not be worth the hassle to get those emails. And, no doubt GD had some feedback, when spam was extremely rampant, that customers wanted the spam to stop, ergo perhaps this drastic solution.
But, consider the benefit potentially of those few cherished buyers that do come to you.

1. Commission save generally 10-20% currently with the marketplaces --- unless using you use your own customized landers.

2.Communication -- email is fast, with no go between. And the domain owner who is a negotiation pro can work his or her magic directly

3. Confidentiality-- the potential buyer is a lead, with potential for other sales. Do you really want to share that lead with others?

4. Cost-- For the buyer, they are not faced with additional potential upselling. This includes being required to renew the domain even if it is not even close to expiration. A sale could be lost at that point, when the price starts going up higher than you posted.
Or, by being redirected to a broker, they could be sold a different, more expensive alternative. And you might not even know that your lander was used as a "bait and switch."

5. Clarity-- you don't have to worry about losing a potential customer that doesn't want to deal with some third-party lander or broker.

And it really is important to be reminded that some potential end-users may be far more comfortable directly dealing with the owner. It's a matter of choice you are also honoring, if that's what they would prefer.

 

[lock]

They will message you to let you know you have interest in a domain and want to know how low you will go my reply was just to send me the lead and will handle it myself. There is plenty i don't like about this i also haven't authorized Afternic but they notice it appearing. There is plenty i don't like about domaining and i get a lot of negative feedback just trying to sort out fact. They aren't exactly blocking email just offering free privacy thinking can catch the customer and keep offering them other names should not commit to the one landed on. This is my main gripe right now.


From: xxx
Sent: date 2022
To: xxx
Subject: censored.COM - [Appraisals Enclosed]


GoDaddy
Hi xxx,

I wanted to follow-up again to see whether you had a price in mind to sell the censored.COM domain name.

I’ve included some appraisals below. Of course, I have many domain names that I’d happily sell for less than their appraised value because it’s very rare for a buyer to come along. However, appraisals can give some rough guidance on pricing:

DOMAIN: censored..COM

APPRAISAL #1: https://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal

APPRAISAL #2: https://www.estibot.com/

We can facilitate the entire sales process in-house at GoDaddy and the buyer would be paying all broker/listing fees too.

Can you think about this and let me know a dollar amount that you would consider?

Regards,
xxx

 

[karmaco]

They will message you to let you know you have interest in a domain and want to know how low you will go my reply was just to send me the lead and will handle it myself. There is plenty i don't like about this i also haven't authorized Afternic but they notice it appearing. There is plenty i don't like about domaining and i get a lot of negative feedback just trying to sort out fact. They aren't exactly blocking email just offering free privacy thinking can catch the customer and keep offering them other names should not commit to the one landed on. This is my main gripe right now.


From: xxx
Sent: date 2022
To: xxx
Subject: censored.COM - [Appraisals Enclosed]


GoDaddy
Hi xxx,

I wanted to follow-up again to see whether you had a price in mind to sell the censored.COM domain name.

I’ve included some appraisals below. Of course, I have many domain names that I’d happily sell for less than their appraised value because it’s very rare for a buyer to come along. However, appraisals can give some rough guidance on pricing:

DOMAIN: censored..COM

APPRAISAL #1: https://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal

APPRAISAL #2: https://www.estibot.com/

We can facilitate the entire sales process in-house at GoDaddy and the buyer would be paying all broker/listing fees too.

Can you think about this and let me know a dollar amount that you would consider?

Regards,
xxx

This is the kind of stuff that irks me. Their appraisals are shit and generally a low wholesale price. Even the comparable sales are iffy because you don’t know when that sale happened. Last month or ten years ago— pricing should be different.

Also the verbiage they talk like you are a dumb child who needs to be scolded into a low price not like an intelligent adult fully capable of pricing your own domains. You can’t get an offer without their brokers trying to stick their nose in either.

 

[DomainBarracksRob]

I get the concern generally, but why would someone bother to pull the whois information and email you when they could have simply typed in the name to a browser and gotten your landing page? Or searched for the name in any of the large marketplaces that would include the affiliates? I've never gotten anything but bullshit from those emails. All that said, everyone should be able to make the choice. Personally I stopped replying to any of them long before GoDaddy shut it off.

Honestly it use to happen more often then most realize. Savvy buyers will do this sometimes when trying to remain Anon.....I've not had a WHOIS inquiry in a very long time....I'm sure this is why. Also this is good when resellers such as us also are trying to contact an owner about a name, this impacts us on the buy, not cool if you ask me. I'm not pleased with what GoDaddys been cooking lately.....especially after this summer...when I went into my dashboard and saw 2 High End Names had Once Active but "closed" by the time I seen them "Broker negations " on names buyers were interested in.

I Never received an Email, or a call.....only to find out once I called my rep..leads that went cold/silent/no responses

...OKayyyyyy But Still WHY was I not Notified? Instead I stumbled upon these "old leads" by mishap of a friend telling me same thing happen to him and to check..!?!!?


Reguarding the main topic of this thread, Some noise about this email forwarding block should be made
@EJS @Robbie are few that also come to mind with voices and blogs.

 

[lock]

Brokers have always stuck their nose in with decent names. To find people to work with ethics is a challenge. Let them turn over brokers i will stick around like always.