I need some help with serious GoDaddy/Afternic issue!

[indiegrind]

I'm extremely pissed off right now.

Yesterday morning I randomly got an email that a domain I own was canceled from my GoDaddy account.

This happens sometimes when a domain is sold through afternic. Domain is just moved from my account and I get that email, then get the afternic domain sold email a few hours later. This time, a day later I never got a sold email. The domain was not due to expire and I didn't see anything in my afternic account.

Today I call my GoDaddy account rep, she looks into it. And finds out my domain sold apparently through afternic.

She reaches out to someone,don't know who, but eventually find out that someone else listed the domain in afternic for $295 dollars and it sold, and was moved out of my GoDaddy account via fast transfer.

This was a domain I wouldn't have sold for less than high 4 figures. Anyway, they let someone sell it who didn't even own it and took it out of my account, and I imagine preparing to pay the other person.

I was on the phone for about an hour trying to get to the bottom of this and get it resolved.

My GoDaddy rep comes back and tells me I need to contact afternic. So I do. On the phone and back and forth on hold about another 45 minutes. Then after talking to the afternic legal department, afternic rep came back with someone from legal on the line and told me I need to go back to GoDaddy, because afternic isn't the registrar and have them escalate the situation.

I bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction in September. Never even listed it through afternic myself. Afternic sold it through someone's listing who wasn't the owner and GoDaddy took it out of my account.


Now I can't get it resolved and being sent around in a circle to get my domain that was taken.

Who do I need to talk to to get this resolved. I do not have time nor should I need to get runaround about this!


Already had an extremely frustrating day at my main job, then had to spend a couple of hours on this and got nowhere and sent in a complete circle.

 

[Peak.Domains]

This is terrifying.

They get 20% from domain sales, 3-4x the price on registrations and renewals with privacy compared to other places, all of the sneaky upsells, yet they can't provide support in less than 45 minutes (let alone waiting 3-4 days for email responses). Absolutely ridiculous. I can hop onto a chat with other registrars and get a response within seconds, why won't godaddy invest more in support? Why do we continue to put up with this?

 

[7363824]

So, you bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction. The previous owner had it on Afternic Fast Transfer, and the system did not delete that Afternic Fast Transfer list after the domain changed hands, after the Godaddy auction.

If this is really what happened, all the domains we have purchased at Godaddy auctions are at risk of being Fast Transferred for $100, if they were previously listed for sale at Afternic Fast Transfer, because it looks that the system does not detect the domain owner's change and does not remove the Fast Transfer status and the domain "for sale" status itself, from Afternic.

As Afternic and Godaddy are virtually the same company, it would be good that Afternic REMOVES all domain listings there, after the domain changes ownership after being sold at Godaddy auctions.

I highly doubt that's how this happened. What I suspect happened if OP bought the name, never listed himself, someone else listed, OP got the fast transfer opt in email and assumed he must have listed it and clicked the link to approve. Thats usually what happened in other threads like this.

IMO the opt in email SHOULD INCLUDE the AFTERNIC USERNAME that listed the domain. That would make it much clearer to prevent accidential opt ins.

 

[indiegrind]

Not sure why this thread was moved to marketplace reviews which buries the topic. This is a serious domain security issue that impacts almost all who use GoDaddy, afternic or any fast transfer network domain registrar.

I didn't even list the domain in afternic.

 

[indiegrind]

Hello all. I just got an automated godaddy email that the domain has been transfered to my account. I did not hear from anyone else directly yet, but it is back in my GoDaddy account.

I still want some answers. And particularly if GoDaddy is going to keep the majority of my business, I will need a new account rep assigned.

 

[7363824]

FWIW Joe has stated elsewhere:

You should be emailing [email protected] for help with disputing domains that moved out of your account without your permission.

I presume that would apply to an Afternic sale you did not authorize as well. Personally if it were me I'd email them, CC Afternic Service and CC your account rep for good measure.

 

[Sutruk]

So, you bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction. The previous owner had it on Afternic Fast Transfer, and the system did not delete that Afternic Fast Transfer list after the domain changed hands, after the Godaddy auction.

If this is really what happened, all the domains we have purchased at Godaddy auctions are at risk of being Fast Transferred for $100, if they were previously listed for sale at Afternic Fast Transfer, because it looks that the system does not detect the domain owner's change and does not remove the Fast Transfer status and the domain "for sale" status itself, from Afternic.

As Afternic and Godaddy are virtually the same company, it would be good that Afternic REMOVES all domain listings there, after the domain changes ownership after being sold at Godaddy auctions.

 

[Sutruk]

I hope too some explanation from any GD rep about this issue.
If you haven't listed it for sale at Afternic and it was sold from somebody else and pushed from your account, this is quite worrying.
So anybody can list a domain for sale at Afternic (without any kind of owner verification), sell it, and if it's registered at Godaddy, it will be pushed out from the registrant's owner account, even if he didn't place it for sale at Afternic?
Worrying.

 

[Joe Styler]

I did email back with more information.

Just to give everyone watching this a bit more of an explanation without any specific account details. We do not unwind a lot of sales. The vast majority of our sales are good sales. Thus we do not have an automated way to undo them so the process is very manual and involves several parties and a lot of automation that is designed to sell, not "unsell". The domain is not sold, it did not re-sell, it is still in the account and will not move. The messages and such are automated and the teams are working on stopping the systems the rest of the way. There are lots of moving parts in a sale on our back end and undoing them usually takes some time but he is not in danger of losing the domain, the domain did not sell again, and it will not move.

 

[karmaco]

And this is the downside of fast transfer and GoDaddy/Afternic. People will routinely add your names to afternic and then the fast transfer emails start. Its not the last owner,its fraudsters. I get fast transfer requests often on names I never listed there and have owned for years. For those occasions when it is a past owner you need to make sure your name is not allready listed on Afternic when you get it. If you see your name on there you tell them to remove it. Then you can re add it.

They do nothing to combat fraud and have an embarrassingly archaic 1990 website. In your situation the question becomes who authorized that fast transfer because it sounds like it wasn’t you or your account would get the money.

 

[indiegrind]

Sry indiegrind, trying to clarify here;
Given the deeper digging, if you think there is a remote chance that you had listed the domain, and are not absolutely sure that you didn't, than that changes everything.

We have to eliminate the possibility of human error on your end before assuming the worst, because otherwise until this is resolved more of your domains and anyone else's for that matter is at risk of being taken.

I did not list the domain in afternic. It was never in my afternic account.

Domains that are in my afternic account after being sold remain in the account as "sold". We verified that it had been listed in someone else's account and not mine.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

I am glad Joe was able to help.

My question is what actually happened here? Why was the domain fast transferred when you did not list it?

Brad

I think GD should not keep the members here in the dark about what happened which I believe is the following.

If I have a name listed in my account and already fast trasfer opted in and I sell to a domainer or drop it, it still remains. This is what I believe happened here. The domain was previously approved for fast transfer by previous owner and the system as usual could not know that domain changed hands. That is the only explanation here and that is why they cancelled the sale.

 

[creataweb]

@Joe Styler @Paul Nicks

 

[HotKey]

Whoa. As Peak said, terrifying. Hope it's a one-off, and you get it back asap.

Don't know if you've seen this thread, could be some help:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/pr...ort-problems-here.1006373/page-5#post-6111126

Another slightly similar issue but the permalink is to an interesting response by Joe, essentially saying it is not possible for what just occurred to you.

 

[7363824]

Yes this is a normal scenario. But I assumed the OP did not click on that email, if it was really sent after he acquired the domain.

Well, this is a basic feature. I mean, how can you click on a domain fast transfer email, that does not include your Afternic Username?!

The registrar is responsible for those opt in emails, but I have yet to see any that include that so I presume Afternic does not provide that to the registrar. They should. In fact they should include a provision in the contract with the registrar that they must provide that in the opt in email.

I'm even thinking if the registrar had access to that information it could theoretically be possible to leave standing instructions with the registrar to approve opt in requests from your username and reject all others to make the process even easier.

But I ask for too much...clearly.

 

[D Haynes]

What's just as (if not more) scary than someone else being able to sell your name is the fact that GD and Afternic can't communicate with each other behind the scenes to sort the situation. They're probably sat in the same office yet they give you the run around and get you ring one then the other. Unfortunately it's a fact of life that when a company gets to a certain size their customer care goes out the window. Then they get smaller.

 

[indiegrind]

My reply just now:

Theresa, afternic sent me back to you and said you need to escalate and said hat this should have been handled on the GoDaddy end. This is not acceptable that GoDaddy and Afternic are passing me around for a domain I owned and did not list for $295.

I did not sell this domain through afternic and I did not set this price, but this is my domain that I own and was taken from my account, that I didn't even list in my afternic account.

 

[Embrand]

That is indeed scary. I hope you get the name back.

I have always been a bit afraid of using the fast transfer service. Even though we all know GoDaddy has the biggest reach, Afternic is really a joke when it comes to the user interface.

They don't even have 2FA, and what I fear is that someone gains access to your account, changes the price of some of your premium names that have fast transfer enabled and then immediately buys at a ridiculously low price.

I find it incredible that GoDaddy can spend millions on purchasing Uniregistry and large domain portfolios, but won't spend anything on improving Afternic...

 

[infosec3]

“And so the sale will be honored. I don’t think you can get the domain back but you will be paid the amount it was sold for which is over 200% of what you paid for it.”

What a response! Why should she care about what you paid for the domain? The only thing that should matter here is whether GoDaddy or Afternic operated correctly or not.

 

[bmugford]

what a haughty answer. If you did not list it for that price or at all they need to fix it. I bet they wouldn’t tell MikeMann or another big boy stop your whining it sold for 200% what you paid for it. What you paid is irrelevant. GD/Afternic IS the devil. They have no standards or desire to improve because they being the huge known monopoly— don’t have to. No matter what crap policies or crap interface people will continue to give them money.

Yes, I would be rather annoyed if this was the response I received from my account rep. The tone seems dismissive.

The part about doubling your money is irrelevant. Is GoDaddy willing to sell any domain they bought in large portfolios for only 2x what they paid?

I have had situations between Afternic/GoDaddy in the past and my account reps (Deron, then Brook) have always been extremely helpful in getting to the bottom of the situation.

I am sure next week Joe will take a look at this. It is probably going to require a little more deep research to figure out what exactly happened here.

Brad

 

[alcy]

theres tons names still listed aftdrnic by old owners..but if sells i thought least they do is compare aftrnic and gd owners...weird

 

[carob]

I did not list the domain in afternic. It was never in my afternic account.

Domains that are in my afternic account after being sold remain in the account as "sold". We verified that it had been listed in someone else's account and not mine.

In that case GD should reverse it - they do have the power to grab domains back.

Fast transfer is inherently unsafe for several reasons. And no 2FA at Afternic - someone can log in and change the sale price of your domain, then fast transfer it out.

It is a really good idea to keep frequent export spreadsheets of your Afternic listings.

 

[carob]

Anyone considering enabling fast transfer should read this about what happened to me:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/pr...rt-problems-here.1006373/page-47#post-7345852

You may change prices and find that your price change never took effect and you had no way of knowing it.

The only way to dis-able fast transfer is ask Afternic to disable it. If you delete a fast-transfer enabled name and relist it, they just re-enable fast-transfer without telling you.

Some people don't use fast transfer, others use it only for low-value domains.

 

[7363824]

Yes, GoDaddy gets well into five figures a year from me, and right now I am looking at moving my business to dynadot.

I don't blame you. I haven't had a positive image of GoDaddy for awhile. About 11 years ago someone I know had their domain name for their business expire when his card was expired and he never got an email from Godaddy letting him know. Someone else got it on the drop and today it sits in the portfolio of a large well known domainer with a nearly 20k price tag. Since then I've had a low view of Godaddy and more recent experiences both first hand and stuff like this hasn't helped that at all.

Dynadot would be a big improvement over GD in my opinion, they are my second favorite registrar after Epik.

 

[carob]

Normally if you sell something you do not own that is theft, and the buyer is in receipt of stolen goods and has no right to keep the goods.