GoDaddy double selling BO's

[JMJ]

I've been chasing certain names for the past few months with Godaddy back orders where godaddy has been quite successful. Most of the time the back orders are completely worthless. For starters I buy my back orders via a reseller account. It has become very obvious to me that godaddy is selling back orders to two separate people. One is to the resellers and the other is to godaddy retail customers. If the capture is successful and both types of customers have a BO the domain goes to the retail customer. 100% catch rate on my back orders in the past week and 0 went to me the reseller all went to retail customers.

This is wrong in more ways than one and I'm seriously considering legal action.

 

[cdboard]

were the domains you missed in pending delete when you backordered?

with a backorder I tried recently, I set the backorder up when the domain was in pending delete. in the control panel, I never saw an "available date". the domain dropped, the backorder did not grab it, and I hand regged it that evening.

perhaps their system is not set up for domains that close to dropping.

 

[JMJ]

were the domains you missed in pending delete when you backordered?

with a backorder I tried recently, I set the backorder up when the domain was in pending delete. in the control panel, I never saw an "available date". the domain dropped, the backorder did not grab it, and I hand regged it that evening.

perhaps their system is not set up for domains that close to dropping.

These are drop catches via them not hand regs. It's easy to tell the difference. Hand regs don't go through their dropcatching registries. Orders are placed well before the drop and drop dates are recognized and set in CP. As I said they have been quite successful here and were 100% successful on my last 8 or so orders. They are double selling BO's. That or someone within is stealing BO names.

 

[WORDSWORTH]

I placed a backorder a while back at BlueRazor (GoDaddy owned discount club) that was successfully captured but went to a GoDaddy customer. I was a bit miffed and curious so I gave GoDaddy a call. They told me they allocate randomly in this case so presumably they do the same if the other backorder/s were at resellers. Not sure how accurate this really is though.

 

[JMJ]

I placed a backorder a while back at BlueRazor (GoDaddy owned discount club) that was successfully captured but went to a GoDaddy customer. I was a bit miffed and curious so I gave GoDaddy a call. They told me they allocate randomly in this case so presumably they do the same if the other backorder/s were at resellers. Not sure how accurate this really is though.

I'd say randomly means whoever paid more for the backorder. I've noticed it before and I let it go as a fluke but it became more obvious when I went after multiples in the past week. Either way there should only be one backorder.

 

[Name Trader]

I thought that if there was more than 1 backorder the domain goes to a private GoDaddy auction

 

[WORDSWORTH]

I thought that if there was more than 1 backorder the domain goes to a private GoDaddy auction

That's what I thought too but apparently not if the backorders were placed at two different GoDaddy owned companies and/or resellers.

I still have the reply to my email (rec'd Sep 18th 2009). The domain in question was successfully captured by GoDaddy or one of their shell registrars they use for drop catching and subsequently moved to a GoDaddy account:

Dear Sir/Madam:

Thank you for contacting online support

Our system checks the registry twice a day. Domains are released at 3pm EST and consequently available for re-registration - in the event that a specific domain is backordered through multiple companies, both companies are likely to win the domain so it becomes a “toss of the coin” situation when both attempt to register the domain at the same time. This works the same way as any other domain registration - essentially if it is released, our Domain Alert Pro Backorder service is just as likely to win the domain as any other backorder system (NOT TRUE - lol).
Please understand that a backorder does not guarantee that you will acquire the domain name being backordered. The domain name you are backordering may be renewed by the current registrant and not become available or we may be unsuccessful in our attempts to grab it and register it on your behalf.

Please note that if your backorder is not successful, it can be reassigned to another domain name.

Sincerely,
----------------------------------------------

Well, I knew this was a canned response or bs so I called them. When pressed, they conceded it is possible to backorder the same name at two or more GoDaddy owned companies or GoDaddy resellers and the domain is allocated at random in this instance. Not sure what would happen if the domain was backordered by two or more people at the same reseller. Presumably then there would be an auction.

Bear in mind this was almost two years ago. Procedures may have changed in the meantime.

 

[JMJ]

I thought that if there was more than 1 backorder the domain goes to a private GoDaddy auction

Nope. At least I've never been informed of one. Godaddy support just emailed me and more or less said yep you're right and you're S.O.L. I'm about to jump on the f*ck GD bandwagon and begin the xxxx domain migration.

 

[Name Trader]

OK. I just checked with my GoDaddy Account Manager. He says that GoDaddy, WWD, BlueRazor are all separate companies backordering the same domain. So it's whichever company wins the domain, get's the domain for their client. There will be no auction, because there was only one winner. There would only be an auction if there were 2 backorders at the same company, ie GoDaddy. He also said the GoDaddy has many more backordering Registrars than the others, so your best bet is to back order it at GoDaddy rather than WWD or BlueRazor. Of course he also said you have a better chance if you backorder at all three This explanation would appear to fit the explanation JMJ outlined above.

@JMJ - Join the throng Although I only have one very specific reason I'm moving away from GoDaddy. Actually, I like them a lot. But what I have found is that they are not so cheap for most other tld's and cctld's (other than .com). Particularly for renewals.