GoDaddy blocking TLD that was recently sold

[dcei]

We recently sold a high valued domain that was originally registered 2000. We turned off privacy, submitted transfer, approved all transfer requests... and then we get an email that states the following:

***Hello, A transfer away request was received for the following domain(s), and has been flagged for manual review. Please respond directly to this email to confirm whether the transfer is valid and you wish to continue: XXXXXXX

If a response doesn't come back within 5 days, the transfer request will automatically be approved to the gaining Registrar.

Kind Regards, Transfer Verify Team**

Our team responded immediately to GoDaddy's request and haven't received a written response--even after submitting numerous emails. Their online support won't respond, and telephone support refuses to answer any questions. We obviously made a mistake moving these domains to GoDaddy last year and will not be forwarding ANY more domains to their platform.

Is this a common occurrence with GoDaddy?

 

[draco]

Yes. I've had it happen twice recently. First time, they hadn't released the domain after a week, even though I responded to their email authorizing the transfer. I had to spend almost an hour with customer support while they tried to contact the transfer verify team. They finally released the domain.

Second time, it took a few days. But they did release the domain without me having to contact customer support.

 

[Future Sensors]

It's a great frustration for a long time, and no improvements are being implemented.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/ch...-other-registrars.1275013/page-2#post-8616194

-and-

https://www.namepros.com/threads/ch...-other-registrars.1275013/page-2#post-8615244

cc @GoDaddy once again.

 

[dcei]

Update: Following a series of additional emails and numerous phone calls, a GoDaddy representative informed me that GoDaddy possesses ownership of all our domains, leaving us with no recourse. When I pressed for clarification on how GoDaddy acquired ownership of our domains, the response was shocking: "If they are high-profile, we can appropriate them and lease them to others—they belong to us." Clearly, I was speaking to an uninformed individual. Upon requesting to speak with a supervisor, I was met with hostility, accused of attempting to get the representative fired, and promptly hung up on. Most the domains that we transferred to GoDaddy last year have been registered with our company for nearly 25 years. This level of incompetence and unprofessionalism is unprecedented in my experience with any registrar company. Regrettably, a formal complaint has been lodged with ICANN, and a cease and desist letter is imminent.

Shame on @GoDaddy Community.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Update: Following a series of additional emails and numerous phone calls, a GoDaddy representative informed me that GoDaddy possesses ownership of all our domains, leaving us with no recourse. When I pressed for clarification on how GoDaddy acquired ownership of our domains, the response was shocking: "If they are high-profile, we can appropriate them and lease them to others—they belong to us." Clearly, I was speaking to an uninformed individual. Upon requesting to speak with a supervisor, I was met with hostility, accused of attempting to get the representative fired, and promptly hung up on. Most the domains that we transferred to GoDaddy last year have been registered with our company for nearly 25 years. This level of incompetence and unprofessionalism is unprecedented in my experience with any registrar company. Regrettably, a formal complaint has been lodged with ICANN, and a cease and desist letter is imminent.

Shame on @GoDaddy Community.

My sympathies for these challenges. No doubt, you do not need these hassles at this time.

In terms of the ownership issue, on your account does it use the term that you are a domain "subscriber?"

One of the reasons I moved all my domains away from GD was when they started using the term "subscriptions" rather than registrations. For years initially with them, one seemed to be deemed a "registrant." Then, GD seemed to start using the term "subscriber." So, when renewing the domain, one was renewing the subscriptions to a domain.

My understanding is that a usual setup for "domain subscriptions" is when it is bundled with a service package. The "subscriber" may think they are the actual registrant, but they are instead only "renting" the domain. The "landlord," such as GoDaddy, may be intermedary who is the actual registrant of record. And, indeed, the renters may have very limited if any rights with ICANN. It's unclear if this is the case for you.

So, you may want to consider checking to see, perhaps even with privacy off, who is listed as the actual registrant. Or see if there is any other language in your terms of service that confirm what their customer support has indicated. Granted, even if you are deemed a "subscriber" it may purely be semantics and you still may have recourse if this matter isn't resolved.

 

[dcei]

Thank you. We have enrolled in GoDaddy's Discount Domain Club under a Premium Membership tier, entailing an annual fee. In exchange, we receive complimentary auction services, discounted renewal rates, and additional services, albeit some of which are not utilized. Regarding the categorization of subscriptions versus registrations, this distinction is not apparent upon logging into our account; domains are instead categorized under the domain portfolio.

The majority of our domains, including the one under discussion, were not due for registration until 2025. Hence, we are perplexed by any claims of ownership over our domains. However, should any attempt be made to seize control of our domains, we are prepared to pursue legal action without hesitation.

 

[draco]

Interesting that nobody at GoDaddy is responding to the ownership question. @GoDaddy @Joe Styler @James Iles

 

[Joe Styler]

@dcei The @GoDaddy handle should respond to you as the official channel since I am not often on Namepros but they are frequently on the forum and can provide better responses. But as I am on here today I can add some commentary. What you are saying the agent you spoke with said is incorrect and for that I apologize. There is no way we claim to own your domains and lease them back to you. You own your domains and have complete control over them. In a very small number of transfers we intercede, as we are allowed to do, because something in the transfer triggered us to look more closely at it. I don't want to give too much away as we have various things we look for and they are based on protecting your domain from theft. I don't want to go into publicly what triggered us to look at this transfer so as not to enable bad actors to try and work around it.


When that happens we email (and/or call in some cases) the customer to give them a heads up. We want to make sure that you are really the one who is transferring the domain away and that it is not an attempt at theft. We are not trying to slow down your transfer or to claim ownership of the domain etc. We are trying to protect your asset for you. We cannot do this indefinitely so if you do not respond to us we will release the domain for transfer but we first try to give you a warning in case you need to stop the transfer. It is much easier to stop a bad transfer than to try and recover a stolen domain. Again this is on a very small number of transfers.

We have a way for you to contact the team responsible for the hold and they can release it by replying to their email. As has been stated above they do not always get to it the same day you send it because of scheduling and time differences, illness on the team, whatever, but it is normally pretty quick on their part. You can also call into support and let them know, whoever you get should be able to contact that team and let them know you are authorizing the domain transfer away. Again, I apologize for the bad information you got when you called in this time that should not have happened, they should have contacted the team with the hold and let them know you called in and wanted it released not told you that we own all your domains, which is of course untrue.

If you have a premier services rep they can assist you with this and contact the team to remove the hold to let the transfer go through faster. I also believe you can ask to have your account opted out of any extra security via your rep which will prevent any future holds if we suspect a potential for theft on your domain. So it is something you have to consider the advantages/disadvantages of for yourself. The @GoDaddy handle should know for sure if this is possible for every customer. If it is something you want to pursue send me an email jstyler at godaddy with your customer number and I will find out if we still can remove accounts from this layer of security.


I really apologize for this. It seems like something that would make me incredibly nervous if I were in your shoes instead of what is intended by this which is to try and protect your valuable asset and make 100% sure you know it is being moved out of your account and that you authorized it.

 

[GoDaddy]

To echo what Joe says above, we apologize for the advice that was given to you regarding ownership of your domain names. We'd like to look into this as a matter of urgency, and we'll reach out to you for more details.

 

[Acroplex]

Not everything communicated above on theft prevention makes sense and here's my personal experience.

When I decided to move my domains out of GoDaddy that were moved there when GoDaddy acquired and then shut down Uniregistry, things didn't go smoothly.

Here's how I found out what was going on behind the scenes. GoDaddy listed (lists still?) an arbitrary domain value for every domain in your portfolio which you can see. Of course, any domain investor should ignore that mostly lowball but consistently inaccurate number.

The point is, the GoDaddy appraisal played (plays?) a role in how domains were transferrable with or without added hassle: Any domain valued by the GoDaddy tool at $5,000 USD or above would automatically trigger the email the OP received about manual review. This creates extra workload and time delays for the smooth transfer out of any domain. On the other hand, domains valued at $4,999 or less did not trigger these emails upon a transfer out request.

Even after replying to the email with "Confirm transfer" the GoDaddy person in charge of manual reviewing of these emails would take their sweet time to process them. Sometimes there would be no response whatsoever. Many of these transfers had to complete - after that confirmation email was sent - waiting the full 5+ days, unlike most registrars that perform them in mere minutes.

GoDaddy has no right to impose transfer hurdles, slowdowns, or other mambo-jumbo reasoning just because they value a domain above a certain threshold. All it takes is the domain to be unlocked and a valid auth code to be present.

 

[draco]

GoDaddy has no right to impose transfer hurdles, slowdowns, or other mambo-jumbo reasoning just because they value a domain above a certain threshold. All it takes is the domain to be unlocked and a valid auth code to be present.

I actually appreciate the extra level of security. There are a lot of stories of domains being stolen. An extra level of security for high value domains is a good idea.

My only issue is that department now seems to be severely understaffed. I shouldn't have had to wait a week after I responded to the email, and then waste my time with customer service trying to contact the Transfer Verify team to release the domain. They used to do it in about a day.

 

[Acroplex]

I don't see any benefit in having a manual approval of transfers that depends on some random "valuation" model. The concept is fundamentally flawed.

One might have extremely valuable domains that fail to pass the GoDaddy test or which are valuable to them. So these domains won't undergo a manual exam (sounds like a doctor visit) upon a transfer request. Following the GoDaddy logic of theft prevention, these domains would be bypassed as far as manual checks are concerned.

The only thing that stops transfers is proper validation of credentials and a solid layer of security, e.g. 2FA enabled.