GoDaddy grabs a valuable domain name from their customer because of invalid email

[Auraka]

Godaddy strikes again

http://domainnamewire.com/2007/02/27/godaddy-deletes-domain-name-for-inaccurate-email-address/

So if their email gets caught in your spam filtering they will cancel your domain.....nice

 

[Kate]

Well we all know that E-mail is not as reliable as it once was...
To me there is not doubt that godaddy has been negligent.
I would understand deletion of a domain where the whole whois is obviously fake but minor errors/typos are always possible. To cancel a domain just because of some E-mail issue sounds rough and stupid.

As the world's largest registrar GD should understand the value of domains. Some domains are worth more than a house.
What is funny is that gd is playing white knight and trying to lure registerfly customers but they are basically sharing the same lousy practices as rf

I believe - I hope - that the registrars where I have 100s of domains and developed personal relationships would at least attempt to contact me via alternate means to settle that kind of problem if it would ever happen.
Deletion of a domain should never be taken lightly. The registrars seem to follow ICANN rules when it suits them best.

On a side note - but I know some will be interested to know.
Some people have complained that they are not receiving E-mails from Namecheap (including renewal notices). Well there probably is a simple explanation...
Namecheap is on the Enom platform. Maybe it's because Enom has so many customers, they are identified as a source of spam by many ISPs. Messages that originate from Enom will often never make it to the recipient.

A while ago I had purchased POP3 E-mail from Namecheap and I would only get 1/4 of my E-mail.
I found that out that the rest were quietly intercepted by my ISP and sent to a black hole somewhere...
Obviously if it happens with Enom it could happen with GD too. I am in no way responsible for the shoddy practices of my (ex-)ISP.
The fact is, every day an incredibly large percentage of E-mail is simply LOST. Unfortunately spam filters sometimes do more harm than good and will kill legitimate correspondence too.

I recommend to avoid using free E-mail addresses in your whois. Use a domain name that you control. And be careful with private whois.
Also, find a registrar you are comfortable with, and that will not treat you like a number. I often have the feeling that the big registars are just that: too big to care.

 

[Dave_Z]

As the world's largest registrar GD should understand the value of domains. Some domains are worth more than a house.

Oh, they indeed do. They just don't have to see it the way others do.

We can all argue 'til we're black and blue that Go Daddy was right or wrong or
could've or should've done more. But they can do whatever they see fit, and
those among you who use them had better become aware and responsible.

You have other choices, after all. But when a registrar charges little for .com
domain registrations, or less for others, they have little to no incentive to give
support for potentially complex issues like this.

Been there, done that. It's not for the faint of heart.

 

[-db-]

If you are going to point the finger of blame at GoDaddy, it should only be after you've already pointed the same finger at the domain owner, because ultimately he created this problem for himself. Was it an 'innocent' mistake he made? Yes of course, but it was still his mistake.

Sure, it would be nice if they had telephoned him after getting no reply to their email contact attempt(s), but none of this would be necessary to begin with if the guy had updated his information like he's supposed to do. If there's one thing you should always make sure is current, it's your email address, because that's often the first (and primary) way folks communicate these days.

I feel for the guy - but I don't think this makes GoDaddy an evil horrible company.

That's just my opinion.

 

[mis_chiff]

:imho:
I agree with you -db-, spam filters, invalid email addresses,
it's all within OUR power to ensure they are correct, no one else's!

I'm just coming up on my first year domaining [yay me] but
the first thing I learned was to be sure my info was correct.
I was thinking about sales offers and such.
I mean, I thought I was buying million dollar names [red]
I of course wasn't, but I certainly didn't want to loose my domain
through something that was MY fault!
Call me a fanatic, but I log into my registrars once a month, check the whois,
check renewal dates and nameservers. It takes awhile, but it's worth it.
Considering 95% of lost domains are through user error, whether it's renewals
or whois!

PS: Can I have my ice cream now

 

[greggish]

db, it sounds like you have a misplaced confidence in email as a reliable form of communication in general. Email is absolutely wonderful, when it works, 99.99% of the time, but still suffers from regular problems. I use enom email forwarding and have had sporadic problems with that as well as other email services. Even if an email address is valid, one should not assume that email sent was actually received if you don't get a response back.

 

[-db-]

Greggish, it has nothing to do with my confidence in email. That's not my point at all.

And I apologize if I seem cold or uncaring towards the domain owner. I assure you I'm not. I would be very upset if my domain was taken away from me like that. It's a terrible thing.

But I don't see this as a deliberate attempt by GoDaddy to harm anyone, or profit from somebody else's loss. If anything, it was a simple lack of communication inside a very-very large company. And I certainly don't believe the conspiracy theorists, who say GoDaddy stole this domain for themselves. The way some people talk about GoDaddy, you'd think they were the Anti-Christ of the domain world. I just don't see it that way. I've used GoDaddy for years, and never once experienced a serious issue that wasn't resolved properly.

 

[greggish]

db, I agree with what you said above. I also don't think this was a deliberate attempt by Godaddy to steal a domain name from a customer. But rather, I see this as a clear example of Godaddy's incompetence and crapiness in general. So I guess we are indeed on the same page there.

 

[-db-]

greggish, I hear you.

I guess one thing we all agree - this is a big mess that could/should have been avoided.

 

[timmaay]

they might of sent snail mail as well ... how many times have you just ripped up those godaddy mails that they send out thinking it was some stupid promo junk

 

[Kate]

db, it sounds like you have a misplaced confidence in email as a reliable form of communication in general. Email is absolutely wonderful, when it works, 99.99% of the time, but still suffers from regular problems. I use enom email forwarding and have had sporadic problems with that as well as other email services. Even if an email address is valid, one should not assume that email sent was actually received if you don't get a response back.

See my post above ^ I don't trust Enom mail forwarding from experience.
Obviously GD is not stealing domains, it's just that are lazy and careless, just because they can.

In such a situation, a more clever registrar will first put the domain on hold - unless the domain is parked, the holder will notice that it has stopped functionning.
Enom is one registrar that will do that when incorrect whois is reported/detected.

 

[Damion]

So in this case the email address wasn't valid anymore - which i agree is a responsibility the domain owner needs to take on. Not that i justified what GD did in this case but let's talk about responsibility and look at it from another angle which just as may been have the case.

BUT...

1:What if you where hospitalized and are unable to email or check your email - what if you have a really bad period health wise?

The domain owner has valid WHOIS information but he can not reply to his email and still the domain would be revoked from him due to GD negligent and irresponsible approach.

2: What if you are jailed for a couple of months for some misdemeanor?

@-db-

You say it could all be avoided if the domain owner made sure his email address was valid but what would you say in above situations?

The domain owner has lived his part up to be responsible in the case of above situations by having correct personal details and having a valid email address - would you or other people for that matter still think that GD did the right thing?

By only sending an email?

Miscommunication is a severe understatement in this case reviewing the circumstances of this case being brought forward :imho:

Personally, i think this whole inaccurate WHOIS report thing should be reevaluated to insure no misconduct like this can happen for legitimate responsible domain owners.

 

[ZuraX]

I reported a few bad WHOIS domains to ENOM before and yes a few were not fixed and ENOM took back the domains. Remember people its either the register do this when notified or get nailed by ICANN.

 

[tm]

There is a huge scandal developing about the behaviour of Godaddy.

The owner of FamilyAlbum.com was surprised to find that he no longer owned the domain, which had not expired.
Godaddy had received a complaint about invalid email address and sent an email to this invalid email address demanding the owner correct his invalid email address and predictably when no action was taken by the unaware domain owner (whose mailing address and phone number were correct!) godaddy grabbed the domain to itself and then either sold it for profit or kept it and with it valuable typein traffic.

Godaddy's explanations are vague and the domain still points to godaddy's inhouse domain parking program which makes godaddy a lot of money for each click and the domains new owner is hidden by godaddy service Domains by Proxy.

It seems to me that it would be common sense to try other contact methods instead of email when the whole basis for the godaddy complaint is an invalid email address!

If I would have any valuable domains at godaddy I would be transferring them away right about NOW to another registrar who cares about their customers and their customers business and domain property and is NOT trying to screw their customers for profit the first chance they get.

That this kind of a thing happened means that godaddy is prepared to destroy their customers business without a second thought for undeliverable email address even while phone number and mailing address are CORRECT!

Imagine your best earning website domain taken away on whim like this because of invalid email...

source http://www.threadwatch.org/node/12636

GoDaddy can't do that, and I've never liked them as a registrar. Yet another reason not to go GoDaddy.

 

[Rom]

GoDaddy did the right thing. Doesn't matter, it had an invalid whois and the registrant was warned and notified and yet no action was taken.

Funny how everyone starts bashing GoDaddy for doing the right thing.

 

[mis_chiff]

Thread here also about the same thing
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/299354-godaddy-strikes-again.html

Thought it was a spam filter issue - not an invalid email?

 

[maxxwebb]

i kinda like GODADDY, however...

it seems VERY unreasonable that a name is "taken away" for an "invalid" e-mail.

it doesn't seem like GD looked TOO HARD to find the owner???

what about his GD account e-mail? possibly different.

i'm sure there are many places GD could have looked if they wanted to.
(if you owed them money, i bet they could find you)

i'd say a good lawyer could solve this one. IMHO

what a mess. (or there's a LOT MORE to this story)

 

[guateman9]

Godaddy

This is for Bob, I have used Godaddy for a long time, 8 years, however in the last few months have noticed a definate downgrade in service. CS seems slow and never seems to answer the question. I live overseas, Guatemala, so I use email support and it always seems it takes numerous emails and getting nasty to get anything done. I have made shopping carts for clients, web pages for clients and my self and now am full time doing nothing but web stuff. I would like to stay there but, gotta change something, thought you should know.

 

[GeoOwners]

i'm sure there are many places GD could have looked if they wanted to.
(if you owed them money, i bet they could find you)

:bingo:

 

[Jasdon]

GoDaddy did the right thing. Doesn't matter, it had an invalid whois and the registrant was warned and notified and yet no action was taken.

Funny how everyone starts bashing GoDaddy for doing the right thing.

You better check this out http://www.namepros.com/legal-issues-and-disputes/300352-urgent-check-your-godaddy-names.html

 

[floatingworld]

GD delivered email to the admin email address provided on whois. The admin email address maintenance is the responsibility of the domain owner. The problem is created by the domain owner not looking after their contact details. the value of the domain is irrelevant.

 

[MCDomains]

GoDaddy did the right thing. Doesn't matter, it had an invalid whois and the registrant was warned and notified and yet no action was taken.

Funny how everyone starts bashing GoDaddy for doing the right thing.

You gotta be kidding me? GoDaddy could have tried calling or mailing, there is more to the WHOIS than just the e-mail. If they cared about their customers they would have done that. Since they don't want to be bothered, they just drop on a dead e-mail and profit from the backorder.

 

[Jeffrey]

What if CNN.com made a mistake in their whois info? Will they take that one also?

 

[floatingworld]

You gotta be kidding me? GoDaddy could have tried calling or mailing, there is more to the WHOIS than just the e-mail. If they cared about their customers they would have done that. Since they don't want to be bothered, they just drop on a dead e-mail and profit from the backorder.

There is no reason to call or snailmail because there is no problem. zero reply from whois email address = drop and correctly so. No reason for a registrar to follow-up on a domainer's poor management.

 

[fonzie_007]

This is just another reason why I try to keep as few domains with GD as possible. GD is just a half-notch up from RF.

 

[GoPC]

Well... It's a "technical" argument and technically, GD was within it's right to do as they did. It is also arguable whether or not it was in Bad Taste to take the action they did.

Something about it thought... sounds a bit "odd" to me.

Coming from a point of personal experience, my GD reps have ALWAYS called me if there was anything out of place with a domain, a transaction or a change. CALLED ME... on the phone.

Why would they call little 'ol me and NOT call that domain owner?

Forgive me, but I think there just HAS to be something more to this story.

I mean, the reason you have multiple contact information on your account is for multiple contact attempts.

If I were them, I would have a Domain Lawyer (and we all know who) on this deal in a heartbeat and I wouls suspect that they would win on the basis that GD didn't exhaust all the contact possibilities and motive.

So... all these things points to a fishy story or at least an unfinished or incomplete account.

GoPC