How GoDaddy Went Back on Sales to Save Dollars - My Story

[heysmile]

I have been a Godaddy customer for over a decade. For several years it’s an open secret on many blogs & here at namepros threads that pricing of certain Godaddy products comes out to be quite cheaper when paid in ARS currency instead of USD.

From early April 2020 to 9th May 2020 I purchased 3000 odd backorder credits at Wild West Domains (Domains Priced Right – This is the official Godaddy backed reseller for Wild West Domains) through multiple transactions at the price of ARS 114.33/credit which is much cheaper than the USD pricing of nearly $20. Please note this pricing was not a one off error but has been there for several years.

These backorder credits got delivered into my account; I was using them & had even caught some domains with them at the drop.

Now the pricing gets updated on the website around 12th May 2020 & on the 13th May 2020 I get an email stating an issue with my card payment method & some of my orders were cancelled & refund initiated. I was asked to submit my Government ID & photos of Credit/Debit Card to unlock my account. I had made all these payments using a Debit Card in my name & within 30 minutes of receiving the email, I sent them my Govt ID, Debit Card photos & bank statement detailing the transactions at Godaddy & several other merchants. I clearly selected the option in the system to reinstate my cancelled orders. I got onto phone with them & immediately my account was restored but all my Backorder Credits were cancelled & a refund initiated.

After repeated emails & phone calls I was told that the orders cannot be reinstated & that I need to “Re-Purchase” at the increased price. In fact the Customer Rep told me it was never about the card but the error price I purchased & was rude enough to suggest that I use a different backorder service if they can provide at a cheaper price.

I reached out to @Joe Styler using a DM but apparently he too cannot help:


I think this is not just illegal but also ethically wrong for a Multi Billion Dollar company which often claims here on Namepros to bear losses however huge they are just to do right with the customer. You can accuse me of taking advantage of an error pricing but who will not? Will we not buy a LLL .com if it was listed for $100 somewhere?

I have the following questions for @Joe Styler & GoDaddy:

1. Can GoDaddy take back products that were paid for at the price listed on the website; whose invoices were issued, products were DELIVERED & were being used by the customer even though the pricing could be an error pricing? (Will Apple come to your house to take back an Iphone you are using for over month because you purchased it for an error pricing on their website?) Reminds me of this thread of how Network Solutions took back a domain after a bargain sale (Search for the post about domainnames (dot) com here by @owntype , I cannot post a link yet) , never thought GoDaddy could do that too.

2. If I accidently list a $100,000 domain for $10,000 missing a “0” at Afternic or better still the price gets accidentally lowered while making a bulk update using CSV Upload & someone buys it. The domain gets delivered using Premium network, the new buyer makes a website on the domain & I report to GoDaddy that it was an honest error of missing a “0”, Will they pull out the domain from the buyer’s account & issue him/her a refund, putting back the domain in my account?

I am nobody when it comes to the might of this Multi Billion Dollar enterprise, nor do I have the resources to take this up in a court of law, I was just a Happy Godaddy customer till yesterday, but today this is my story on how GoDaddy went back on it sales that they had already fulfilled to save itself Dollars whatever be the amount.

Thanks for Reading,
KD

 

[tonyk2000]

From early April 2020 to 9th May 2020 I purchased 3000 odd backorder credits at Wild West Domains (Domains Priced Right – This is the official Godaddy backed reseller for Wild West Domains) through multiple transactions at the price of ARS 114.33/credit

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=114.33&From=ARS&To=USD

114.33 ARS = 1.68602 USD

this Multi Billion Dollar enterprise

One should not expect any enterprise, multi billion dollar or not, to accept such a loss, even with all their profits from other activities. Imo. So, who would pay? @Joe Styler from his salary? Or a support rep. who might allow you to keep these credits - maybe he should pay then? Somebody should pay each time such a backorder wins - a 1 year registration goes for USD $1.69 ... It appears that neither Joe, nor a support rep. wanted to pay. So, GoDaddy applied an appropriate part of their T&C (which is of course "we can cancel anything for any reason" or similar wording, I am too lazy to search in these large legal texts).

 

[heysmile]

So, who would pay? @Joe Styler from his salary? Or a support rep. who might allow you to keep these credits - maybe he should pay then?

Good question. The Team that is responsible for maintaining prices on the website should pay. As I said this is not a one off error that I caught onto, this pricing has existed for years & there are several threads here on how ARS pricing has been used & is in fact the source from where I got to know of the error pricing in the first place. Godaddy hardly has some some 100 products/SKUs to look after outside of domains. For a Software As a Service technology company that cannot update prices for years, definitely the team whose responsibility is to maintain prices should pay or their supervisors or the company that employs such people should.

FYI Still there are products on Godaddy (dot) com as of date & time of this post which are considerably lower for ARS. They only updated the backorder pricing. I have nothing against @Joe Styler (I know he has helped many on this forum & just asked him two questions because there is no way besides him to hear from GoDaddy. He is a genuine guy & I am sure he will give me genuine answers for those two questions). You can read posts of @stub & others on how the verification department responds to customers, so do not expect any clarification from them.

 

[tonyk2000]

One cheap backorder credit might be unnoticed... Even a dozen or so. But not 3000. GD did the right thing imo. They restored your account. They did not cancel or confiscate the domains you already won (if any) with these credits, did they? They refunded the rest. T&C do allow such a thing.

I posted just to draw your attention to a fact that they might indeed allow you to keep a bunch of erroneous credits - but Joe or your support rep. should have paid the difference instead. This is how big corporations work... They may pay bonuses to employees, but they can also deduct $$$$ to compensate errors and omissions. Like this one.

 

[heysmile]

They restored your account.

Because the reason they gave for suspending my account was that my Card Payment had issues & they could not hold onto this argument because I immediately supplied my details.

I wonder why they could not send an email like" "Sorry you purchased credits at an error pricing we listed & thus need to cancel them & are very sorry for the inconvenience .. etc .. etc " instead in a subtle way they accused me of using a fraudulent payment source. But Don't expect any of those courtesies from the Verification department.

 

[tonyk2000]

@heysmile - Eres Argentino? Hablas Español? Me parece q no

Which is also why the system might mark your account as a suspicious one, if you were not accessing the account from Argentina or using the payment method with appropriate billing address...

 

[heysmile]

@heysmile - Eres Argentino? Hablas Español? Me parece q no

You don't need to change the language, just the currency works

If it was not about the pricing, they would have first checked my details & then cancelled orders had I not been able to furnish them.

We are just beating around the bush, important are those two questions I asked & answers to them.