GoDaddy does not want my business

[MapleDots]

It's year end time and I called godaddy to move over 300 domains to them. They offered me 500 bucks for a 5 year term to get into their discount club. I just laughed and told them I spend thousands at their auctions inly to have the domains not show up in my account. Then I call to move my domains and I have to pay $500 just to get the same price as I already pay with my registrar.

I plan to register at least another 500 domains this year plus acquire a number at auction and expiry auction.

The cost to simply move my domains in is immense, I cannot believe I have to pay to do business with them. With the thousands of dollars I have given them you would figure they would get me an account rep and help me transfer the domains over. Imagine how much they could make off me if I used them exclusively instead of all the other services I use.

Hosting, email, privacy, auction, it goes on and on.

I asked them to get this domain club for free (same as some of my friends already have) and instead they wished me well.

Too bad for Godaddy.... their loss

Imagine $500 bucks to pay the same price with less services than I already have.

I would have moved for convenience but this is poor management on their behalf. Also short sightedness for not seeing profit potential.

 

[xynames]

My experience with GD is that they will negotiate not all the way down to the about eight dollars I pay at DynaDot, but close if you extend out the domains enough years. I pretty much keep domains for sale at DD and domains that I have developed into websites at GD.

 

[wwwweb]

300 domains at godaddy's lowest price point is like $100 profit for them, there is no margin in renewals for them, or transfers, very little. The upsell services is where they make their money.

As for the auctions, they were more in your own self interest, not theirs, and they know this, there are people who will complain about godaddy all the time, but yet they still use their auction services, because they like their inventory selection. They know there is no meat on the bone, so they are not going to sell the farm for 300 domains.

It is the simple reality of this business. Most businesses like cell phone carriers do not get phases when they get call ups from customers who say they are going to switch, as they know some people switch every year just to keep getting port credits, and free hardware. They are aware of their price points, and business model, and I would do the same. What is godaddy going to gain by getting 300 domains, about $100 a year, and they know you are going to buy the auctions you like regardless, otherwise hugenames bot will if you don't.

 

[Mister Funsky]

I cannot believe I have to pay to do business with them

I went through the same thing with them a few years ago and while searching for a discount code, since they would not 'help' me out, I found Epik. Went from 600 names down to a few now at Gdaddy. Best thing that could have happened to me was finding a cheaper registrar.

 

[wwwweb]

I went through the same thing with them a few years ago and while searching for a discount code, since they would not 'help' me out, I found Epik. Went from 600 names down to a few now at Gdaddy. Best thing that could have happened to me was finding a cheaper registrar.

Epik is one of the cheapest especially if you prefund the account, lots of good internal services for sales also inside. Only downside to watch for is 15 day grace renewal. If you have a nice domain in your portfolio, and you forget to renew it on time, consider it epik property.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Epik is one of the cheapest especially if you prefund the account, lots of good internal services for sales also inside. Only downside to watch for is 15 day grace renewal. If you have a nice domain in your portfolio, and you forget to renew it on time, consider it epik property.

True...they don't mess around when it concerns expiry date. A second late and you are obligated to renew for two years. At first I got mad but now that I am ready for it, it has not been a problem.

 

[MapleDots]

I do a lot of Godaddy auction and purchase of expiring domains and I was just trying to centralize a bit and am still hoping someone at godaddy will just say here is the domain club for free.

Thats what they need to do to earn my business

They will make the money back dozens of times over. I buy expiring domains at $800 usd when they bid up and that is pure profit for godaddy. Amazing they don't see that when they are specifically told they are on the phone with a domainer. I said I am not a regular client, I do this for a living do you not want me on your platform?

 

[hawkeye]

I do a lot of Godaddy auction and purchase of expiring domains and I was just trying to centralize a bit and am still hoping someone at godaddy will just say here is the domain club for free.

OMG!! Seriously??? After you tell them "you are not a regular client", you tell them 'YOU' do a lot of business with them, and you feel they should give 'you' the domain club for free??? I guess 'you' must be the only one who does 'lots of business' with them, of all their thousands of clients, and 'you' should get DCC for free, and not all the others that do 'lots of business' with them. You don't think too highly of yourself do you? good grief!

 

[MapleDots]

No, after I tell them I have spent thousands and they want 500 bucks just for the honor of doing business with them. Dozens of registrar's are cheaper and they want me to pay to do
business with them.

If I were bad at math that would make sense. If thinking highly of myself means not wanting to be ripped off then yes, I think higher of myself.

 

[hawkeye]

Well you should just use those dozens of cheaper registers then. I'm sure GD won't be heart broken.
And the cost of the DCC club, be it one year or 5 years, is not for the 'honor of doing business with them' as you see it.

 

[MapleDots]

Well you should just use those dozens of cheaper registers then. I'm sure GD won't be heart broken.
And the cost of the DCC club, be it one year or 5 years, is not for the 'honor of doing business with them' as you see it.

Yup, I will agree with you on that, I do use their competition for well over 300 domains because I think too highly of myself to give Godaddy money they are not entitled to. I spend thousands at their auctions, the least they could do is give me a decent price for renewals.

Hawkeye, I don't want to argue with you and appreciate your input but I talked to them on the phone and the guy quoted me 500 bucks. Seriously though at 9-10 bucks per renewal that pays for 50 renewals. That's asking an awful lot just to move my domains to them.

I'm tired of buying at auction, waiting 60 days and then moving out. I was trying to simplify and GoDaddy does not make that simple. For the convenience I have to give up 50 renewals plus pay for privacy etc etc all the upsells I now get for free. By now you would figure they would have a better program for domainers.

If we band together we could probably get some kind of concession, if you look how many domainers on namepros alone we could make quite an impact.

 

[Name Trader]

@MapleDots - GoDaddy's business model has never been kind to domainers. But I do remember a time when your account manager did actually care. But now all they are good for are reading their rules to you telling you what you cannot do. I transferred my portfolio out of GoDaddy a long time ago (to Dynadot) where the account manager's actually listen to you and try to do something for you. (Still to this day).What I had left at GoDaddy was approx 300 domains which were all auction purchases. I transferred out (to Dynadot) immediately the 60 day lock expired. So I was more or less buying approx 100-150 domains/month on their auctions. When I got a new Account Manager (due to staff changes) he gave me 2 years DCC for free. Before that I used to hunt for a discount code of between 30-40%. I no longer buy domains in their auctions so I no longer have any domains in my account, and have lost my account manager, and my free DCC will be expiring soon. Which won't be renewed. I'm almost completely done with GoDaddy. And I'm happy about that. I get much better services at Dynadot, and cheaper. I can highly recommend them. If you can deposit a usable $500 which gives you cheaper prices, ($5000 which gives you even cheaper prices). You just need to keep this amount as a running rate per year, to maintain the registration/renewal prices. 1 neat thing they have is no/partial/full privacy which is free at the the higher levels. The partial privacy is the same as full privacy but allows you to put some text in the whois. Which I use to put my selling website address, but still have full privacy benefits. No spam. And they are pretty good at identifying any non-spam stuff and sending it to you.The level of service between GoDaddy and Dynadot is as different as chalk and cheese. There are probably about half a dozen other Registrars similar to Dynadot, and GoDaddy is not one of them.

Something also struck me about something you said. Was you wanted to use your registrar for hosting. I definitely would not recommend using the same registrar/host. If you get into a problem with your hosting (which is not unheard of), and your domain/account gets locked. You will not be able to point your domain to a new host. I'd highly recommend you select separate registrar as host. I definitely want a good strong registrar and a separate good strong host. Registrars generally don't make good hosts, and vice versa.

PS: I selected Dynadot out of about 50 registrars. 2nd and 3rd places went to Name.com and NameSilo.com respectively.

 

[MapleDots]

Wow... thank you stub for that wonderful review and detailed post.

I run three businesses and spend an enormous amount of money on ssl certificates, dedicated server (online store) hosting etc. I agree that hosting the domains and websites at the same registrar is not a good idea and I will take your advice on that.

I still use godaddy a fair bit but have pretty well moved my domains out because they won't let you use discount codes for renewals.

I thought I would give it a shot, I figured in most cases I would be able to negotiate when volume got to a certain amount and because I regularly bid fairly high at auction I kind of hoped godaddy would look at all my services with them and cut the price a bit.

Seriously though what domainer would spend 500 (what they offered me) to get into a discount club. I already have those prices and all I wanted was a bit of convenience instead of always having to move my domains away from godaddy.

Sigh...

 

[JB Lions]

Seriously though what domainer would spend 500 (what they offered me) to get into a discount club. I already have those prices and all I wanted was a bit of convenience instead of always having to move my domains away from godaddy.

Sigh...

Going direct, it's about $480 for 5 years, $7.99 a month. Then, I think you can use a coupon to get the normal price down. What domainer would spend that amount? For me, with the amount I have, it's cheaper than other places, even after paying for the Discount Club. Speaking of which, I don't remember the last time I paid for it. Not sure why, maybe since I've been with them for years, don't know. I think other threads this has been discussed, Best Registrar, GD coupon thread. Everybody needs to work out the math for themselves to see what's cheaper. Depends on things like number of domains, which extensions you invest in, etc.

 

[MapleDots]

Going direct, it's about $480 for 5 years, $7.99 a month. Then, I think you can use a coupon to get the normal price down. What domainer would spend that amount? For me, with the amount I have, it's cheaper than other places, even after paying for the Discount Club. Speaking of which, I don't remember the last time I paid for it. Not sure why, maybe since I've been with them for years, don't know. I think other threads this has been discussed, Best Registrar, GD coupon thread. Everybody needs to work out the math for themselves to see what's cheaper. Depends on things like number of domains, which extensions you invest in, etc.

Funny you say that, a few of my friends said they don't pay for the discount club, that is why I called them in the first place.

 

[wwwweb]

Funny you say that, a few of my friends said they don't pay for the discount club, that is why I called them in the first place.

You have to show godaddy you bring profit to their platform.

Put your names there, do $xxx,xxx sales thru afternic, other swhere they make commissions, buy premium auctions, sell premium listings, etc... at which point they will be calling you if they see your domains moving out. You have to make them want your business, you have to show first, ask later. To many people make big claims before the fact. Why should they give you feee ddc for 5 years for 300 names, pay for 1 year, use a coupon, and show them the value of your business, don’t expect a handout before the facts.

If you make them $10-20k in profit on your account, surely they will waive the $100 fee, but for 300 domains with a 30 cent profit per domain, you can’t expect much.

 

[Name Trader]

@MapleDots - Without the DCC, you will be charged full retail price for the renewals included with your auction wins. OK. this isn't a problem with a big purchase. It's insignificant. But $15+ on a lot of $5-$20 auction wins is going to be an irritant, at best. You can do the math. 15-8.50=6.50. full price DCC $120/yr divided by $6.50 = 18.5 (rounded) domains a year to break even. If you are buying hundreds of domains. It's a no-brainer to have DCC. Free or not.

 

[campout]

What exactly does the renewal portion of a GD Expiring buy cost if you don't have DDC?

(It costs me $8.47 with DDC.)

 

[Name Trader]

What exactly does the renewal portion of a GD Expiring buy cost if you don't have DDC?

(It costs me $8.47 with DDC.)

I just answered that (approx) in my last post. Actual List Price is $15.35 including ICANN fee. Making it B/E with 17.5 (rounded) auction wins, at full price DCC.

 

[campout]

I just answered that (approx) in my last post. Actual List Price is $15.35 including ICANN fee. Making it B/E with 17.5 (rounded) auction wins, at full price DCC.

OK thanks. So it's just one of those things that anyone who buys even semi-regularly at GD Auctions has to have, even if they don't keep any of the names at GoDaddy longer term.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

They offered me 500 bucks for a 5 year term to get into their discount club.

If you don't think $500 is a good deal for 5 years of DDC, then you should applaud yourself for being able to find a better deal. ie 60 months of DDC with promo code = $359.64 [current at time of posting]

I understand your frustration in not wanting to pay "club" fee's. FWIW, I try to focus on the value saved at GD auction renewals to rationalize the DDC purchase. Other registrars are aware volume customers want bulk discounts, and accommodate accordingly.

 

[Name Trader]

OK thanks. So it's just one of those things that anyone who buys even semi-regularly at GD Auctions has to have, even if they don't keep any of the names at GoDaddy longer term.

Correct.

 

[MapleDots]

If you don't think $500 is a good deal for 5 years of DDC, then you should applaud yourself for being able to find a better deal. ie 60 months of DDC with promo code = $359.64 [current at time of posting]

Show attachment 76283

I understand your frustration in not wanting to pay "club" fee's. FWIW, I try to focus on the value saved at GD auction renewals to rationalize the DDC purchase. Other registrars are aware volume customers want bulk discounts, and accommodate accordingly.

They were quoting me in Canadian funds so a bit different calculations... you have to add about 30% for the USD

I decided to stay with my current registrar, the 500 bucks will be reinvested on more domains. I already have the club price with my registrar, just a pain to move every purchase from auction out of godaddy. Nonetheless $500 bucks will buy a lot of inconvenience.

 

[Arca]

If you have a nice domain in your portfolio, and you forget to renew it on time, consider it epik property.

Do they warehouse some of their customers' expired domains?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

told them I spend thousands at their auctions

the 500 bucks will be reinvested on more domains.

Depending on how many auctions you win at GoDaddy per year, you may be spending more than you need to if you don't have GoDaddy DDC. IDK if you use coupons when you buy without DDC, but if you're paying auction price + $15 .com renewal, than at 20 auction wins per year, you'd be paying about $140 over the cost you would pay if you had DDC. Thus, If you can get DDC at $70 per year, and you decide not to purchase DDC you'd be forgoing on +/- $70 year.

Do they warehouse some of their customers' expired domains?

A very important question to consider when deciding your default registrar. All I'm saying regarding GD DDC is it makes financial sense to buy it on a promo code when you're a bulk auction buyer. [unless somebody can show a better way?]