Dynadot

GoDaddy into ill-practice & unfair ethics?

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Baarman

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Hellos,

I am fairly new to the business as I started in Jan this year with very few sales so far.

Side 1 :
I recently sold a domain at a GoDaddy auction for $xxx. Expected GoDaddy has robust system and felt I would not have to do anything.

After an week, not hearing from them, I connected GoDaddy and they said I need to mail GoDaddy Auctions team as their customer service doesn't deal with auctions! Once I mailed the Auctions team, they replied 'very fast' after couple of follow ups with multiple days gone. What they replied summarizes that the buyer has 30 days to make payment. And that too, GoDaddy does not have any control on. Buyer is bound to pay, but can opt out and may not pay. In that case GoDaddy would 'take action' against the buyer by warning him or terminating his auction account!

Meanwhile, I received another direct offer with around 1-2% less from what GoDaddy auction got me. I declined as it was already on payment queue and the transaction is in safe hands of GoDaddy.

After around 40 days, GoDaddy informs that buyer did not make payment and I could list it again for auction!
40 days wasted, one prospective customer passed (who did not respond later as well), no compensation.


Side 2 :
This time I won 11 domains at GoDaddy expired auction out of which I paid for 3 domains in couple of days. Then I tried to pay for rest 8 domains and I was unable to pay with 404 gateway error. Thought there was some issue with server, but that continued for next few days. Their customer service, this time since I was buying domains, tried to help me instantly stating to clear browser cache, change brewers, network, private window and lot other tricks. Did not work.

After few days, they stated that my account was terminated/blocked due to non-payment of the domain won at auctions. I told them that I am ready to purchase these at any point of time however I was unable to access. They said that I need to pay $50 in order to unblock the account first. Then I would have access to pay and buy the domain. Why so? Because I did not pay within 48 hours of winning the domain.

Fair enough!

Shouldn't there be some warning or notifications before blocking an account? Shouldn't the payment term (As it was 30 days for the buyer when I sold one in auction) same for all? They are allowing buyer 30 days to pay when another seller sells it. However when the same seller tries to buy from expired domains auction, he is bound to pay within 48 hours!

May be due to lack of my knowledge about the industry practices. Is is the same for all platforms? Is it kind of malpractice by GoDaddy that needs to be addressed?

Thanks for your comments!
 
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In sum, there must be a better way.

Unfortunately, what you write doesn't surprise me. Fifty dollar fee to unlock an account, when the problem arose through no fault of your own, borders on extortion imo.
 
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u can cancel sale after 15 day.. else 30day and cancelled
..so 40day is wrong number u gave.
 
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Shouldn't there be some warning or notifications before blocking an account? Shouldn't the payment term (As it was 30 days for the buyer when I sold one in auction) same for all? They are allowing buyer 30 days to pay when another seller sells it. However when the same seller tries to buy from expired domains auction, he is bound to pay within 48 hours!

May be due to lack of my knowledge about the industry practices. Is is the same for all platforms? Is it kind of malpractice by GoDaddy that needs to be addressed?

Thanks for your comments!

When you win an expired action you have to pay instantly or in a few days. Because the domain will have to drop in a few days if you don't pay. This is an industry standard in all registrar's marketplaces. Some registrar marketplaces allow 24 hours. If not paid in 24 hrs, they ban the user from their marketplace.

When you win a customer's action, the domain has a longer time to drop. Some registrar marketplaces allow 7 days to pay, some may allow 30 days.
 
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In sum, there must be a better way.

Unfortunately, what you write doesn't surprise me. Fifty dollar fee to unlock an account, when the problem arose through no fault of your own, borders on extortion imo.
Thanks for your comment @forge . They are asking 80$ now, haha!
 
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u can cancel sale after 15 day.. else 30day and cancelled
..so 40day is wrong number u gave.
Thanks for your opinion.

May be after 30 day it is auto cancelled, I don't disagree as GoDaddy also says that they allow 30 days. However, I received the email from GoDaddy representative around an week after the 30 days period. I am sure you have better experience with all these, you should know how fast GoDaddy auction team responds. Or may be that was one-off case with mine, I don't disagree with your thoughts.

Yes of course, after 15 days I can cancel. You would cancel only if you get clear communication from the buyer that he/she is no more interested on this, in my opinion. In absence of any communication from buyer/GoDaddy, you would still feel as a seller that the transaction is in progress and won't cancel it unless you have a comparatively better offer that you may want to opt for. For me there was not a better offer but an equivalent offer. As a seller, I would prefer a trusted platform over a direct deal unless the buyer is renowned or any third party security (such as Escrow) does not deduct additional charges.

Being said all these, my point is not to blame any party. Since I am fairly new, I am trying to understand if the policy is fair and standard practice across platforms that when you sell you would have to wait for 30 days (that too, without assurance) but when you buy from the register you are allowed only 48 hours or your account is blocked! (Both for Auction I am talking about)
 
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When you win an expired action you have to pay instantly or in a few days. Because the domain will have to drop in a few days if you don't pay. This is an industry standard in all registrar's marketplaces. Some registrar marketplaces allow 24 hours. If not paid in 24 hrs, they ban the user from their marketplace.

When you win a customer's action, the domain has a longer time to drop. Some registrar marketplaces allow 7 days to pay, some may allow 30 days.
That makes sense @poweredbyme . Thanks for your comments.

May be the marketplace (indicating to GoDaddy) can make more clear communication to the participants.

Also, wondering what if my domain is sold on the last day the domain's validity (read receive offer / bid). Would GoDaddy allow me to transfer or complete sale transaction on the grace period without me requiring to renew it, or the buyer would have to pay within 48 hours in this scenario or his account would be blocked! Hypothetical scenario though, just for my understanding.
 
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Thanks for your opinion.

May be after 30 day it is auto cancelled, I don't disagree as GoDaddy also says that they allow 30 days. However, I received the email from GoDaddy representative around an week after the 30 days period. I am sure you have better experience with all these, you should know how fast GoDaddy auction team responds. Or may be that was one-off case with mine, I don't disagree with your thoughts.

Yes of course, after 15 days I can cancel. You would cancel only if you get clear communication from the buyer that he/she is no more interested on this, in my opinion. In absence of any communication from buyer/GoDaddy, you would still feel as a seller that the transaction is in progress and won't cancel it unless you have a comparatively better offer that you may want to opt for. For me there was not a better offer but an equivalent offer. As a seller, I would prefer a trusted platform over a direct deal unless the buyer is renowned or any third party security (such as Escrow) does not deduct additional charges.

Being said all these, my point is not to blame any party. Since I am fairly new, I am trying to understand if the policy is fair and standard practice across platforms that when you sell you would have to wait for 30 days (that too, without assurance) but when you buy from the register you are allowed only 48 hours or your account is blocked! (Both for Auction I am talking about)

dude it's not my thought or opinion... the cancel email u got was not gd rep.. it's an auto email ..and everyone gets it at 30 days... I'm sure if.u sent all dated pics of what happened when u would see there is no such thing as 40days..nothing happens at 40days..unless yer 10day late to read it
 
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dude it's not my thought or opinion... the cancel email u got was not gd rep.. it's an auto email ..and everyone gets it at 30 days... I'm sure if.u sent all dated pics of what happened when u would see there is no such thing as 40days..nothing happens at 40days..unless yer 10day late to read it
Dude you are champ with all knowledge, I agree. However it's my mailbox that I checked with all possible ways including spam. The offer acceptance (12th may) and auto cancel email (16th June) make it probably 36 days difference if I calculated properly. And the manual GD email came after that in separate email to my follow ups conversation.

And you should agree that not "everyone" who finds the process normal, raises a query. It is the one or two people who finds deviation, raise a query to validate if his/her experience was an odd one out!
 
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Dude you are champ with all knowledge, I agree. However it's my mailbox that I checked with all possible ways including spam. The offer acceptance (12th may) and auto cancel email (16th June) make it probably 36 days difference if I calculated properly. And the manual GD email came after that in separate email to my follow ups conversation.

And you should agree that not "everyone" who finds the process normal, raises a query. It is the one or two people who finds deviation, raise a query to validate if his/her experience was an odd one out!

humans make errors.. this is robot.. automated cancel and email after 30days..do u have any clue what the odds are of this automation working in 50 million cases but not yours? that's right.. go buy lotto tonite...cause u lucky gun
 
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humans make errors.. this is robot.. automated cancel and email after 30days..do u have any clue what the odds are of this automation working in 50 million cases but not yours? that's right.. go buy lotto tonite...cause u lucky gun
Lol, thanks mate.
 
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That makes sense @poweredbyme . Thanks for your comments.

May be the marketplace (indicating to GoDaddy) can make more clear communication to the participants.

Also, wondering what if my domain is sold on the last day the domain's validity (read receive offer / bid). Would GoDaddy allow me to transfer or complete sale transaction on the grace period without me requiring to renew it, or the buyer would have to pay within 48 hours in this scenario or his account would be blocked! Hypothetical scenario though, just for my understanding.

Registrars don't let users listing expired domains for sale in their marketplaces. That's an industry standard. Before "x number of days" to domain expiration, registrars remove the domain from their marketplace. If removed, in order to list the domain again, seller has to renew the domain. "x number of days" is usually the number of days that buyers have to make payment.
 
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Registrars don't let users listing expired domains for sale in their marketplaces. That's an industry standard. Before "x number of days" to domain expiration, registrars remove the domain from their marketplace. If removed, in order to list the domain again, seller has to renew the domain. "x number of days" is usually the number of days that buyers have to make payment.
That's really informative for people like us. Thanks a ton!
 
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