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.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

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

Well it is very hard to stay calm with an account rep like that lady honestly. If I were @indiegrind and stayed with GD, I would ask them to change her ASAP from being my account manager as from her attitude I feel she is not willing to help the customer at all.

 

[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.

 

[bmugford]

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.

I agree. We need to figure out what actually happened here.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/why-was-this-thread-moved.1193186/

 

[NameBuyer.com]

This is a major issue that I've been aware of, and in fear of for years. Here is my email to an afternic rep last year regarding a similar issue for a domain I owned for several years being recently listed on afternic by someone else.

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.

I have said that multiple times for years! Seems like at least a very simple quick fix. But since it would require coordinating Afternic data with GoDaddy email templates I'd say it's probably a 5 year job! At the very least if they can't coordinate, then they should send one email from afternic and one from the registrar the domain is at and have you confirm at each before the domain is able to change status.

Better yet would be to have a unique Afternic code associated with your individual registrar account, so that if you changed the settings within your registrar, that code would get sent to Afternic, who in turn would put it in the email (or even better on the confirmation page at Afternic after you click the link in the email AND after you log into Afternic)

I agree with both of your suggestions.


Since there are multiple registrars involved, it would need to be something forcing registrars to display the afternic account username or unique ID with the approval. Otherwise, you end up getting an approval not knowing if you are approving the domain to be listed in your afternic account, or someone else's account like I did!

Alternatively, it could require registrars to keep a list of your approved Afternic accounts. Let's say I have 2 Afternic accounts, then Dynadot, Epik, GoDaddy, Network Solutions or any other registrar I use would keep track of which 2 Afternic accounts are approved for my registrar account.

If they get an approval notice from any other Afternic account it is just simply rejected. At this point it should also be auto flagged for deletion from Afternic.

Just make it a security requirement for the registrars to remain afternic partners and it'll be completed within a couple months.

 

[BrandCollectors.com]

I have had experience with afternic: some of my newly registered domains was removed from my afternic account and re listed by another person the same person listed it on nodaddy auction with make offer. i sent proof of screens to no daddy auctions and afternic support that I am a current owner and than nodaddy staff just deleted all my domains from my afternic account it was really annoying I think someone from nodaddy doing dirty things..

 

[indiegrind]

The domain also has a for sale page at uniregistry market, which I did not list.

I found it by looking up the domaintools whois info for the domain which is under privacy and clicking the domain is for sale link at the top.

I didn't previously disclose the name, but it is DepositCrypto.com

https://uniregistry.com/market/domain/depositcrypto.com?d=depositcrypto.com&src=domaintools

 

[NameBuyer.com]

The domain also has a for sale page at uniregistry market, which I did not list.

I found it by looking up the domaintools whois info for the domain which is under privacy and clicking the domain is for sale link at the top.

I didn't previously disclose the name, but it is DepositCrypto.com

https://uniregistry.com/market/domain/depositcrypto.com?d=depositcrypto.com&src=domaintools

In my case, it could be that the person who listed my domain was a prior owner who never flushed out their expired domains from their domain list/spreadsheet/database. But the list would have been 4+ years old.

But in any case, whether it is by mistake or done with criminal intentions, it is a huge security hole that has a solution that is easy technically, but a pain when dealing with so many external registrars.

At minimum this should be offered at GoDaddy and made available to registrar partners since the fix is trivial (to stop the issue from propagating).

There are 3 parts that consist of patching the problem to prevent new cases and identifying incorrect listings.

1. Patch the fix at GoDaddy/Afternic (small effort - only allow afternic listings to be approved by GoDaddy that are related to pre-authorized Afternic accounts)
2. Allow registrars to patch the issue via their API (small effort - just sending the Afternic account info with each domain approval. If I add my Afternic account/unique identifier at Epik, optionally send me an approval email)
3. Come up with a process to backflush the data at GoDaddy/Afternic to ensure domains are not listed by the wrong Afternic account. (Medium effort, but can be fixed by individual domain investors. For example, once the patch fixes are in place above, I would just go through all my accounts and ensure the domains I expect to be listed in Afternic, are actually in Afternic.)

 

[indiegrind]

If they can figure out how to quickly remove a domain from a customer's account when someone purchases from "another" platform, it shouldn't be a problem to verify ownership.

 

[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.

 

[7363824]

If they can figure out how to quickly remove a domain from a customer's account when someone purchases from "another" platform, it shouldn't be a problem to verify ownership.

The weird thing is they do, to some degree at least. Sold a domain here. It was listed on my Afternic with fast transfer. After pushing the domain to the buyers Epik account I logged into afternic to delete it and found it was "in review". Not completely deleted but AFAIK in review removes it from sale at least.

 

[indiegrind]

In my case, it could be that the person who listed my domain was a prior owner who never flushed out their expired domains from their domain list/spreadsheet/database. But the list would have been 4+ years old.

But in any case, whether it is by mistake or done with criminal intentions, it is a huge security hole that has a solution that is easy technically, but a pain when dealing with so many external registrars.

At minimum this should be offered at GoDaddy and made available to registrar partners since the fix is trivial (to stop the issue from propagating).

There are 3 parts that consist of patching the problem to prevent new cases and identifying incorrect listings.

1. Patch the fix at GoDaddy/Afternic (small effort - only allow afternic listings to be approved by GoDaddy that are related to pre-authorized Afternic accounts)
2. Allow registrars to patch the issue via their API (small effort - just sending the Afternic account info with each domain approval. If I add my Afternic account/unique identifier at Epik, optionally send me an approval email)
3. Come up with a process to backflush the data at GoDaddy/Afternic to ensure domains are not listed by the wrong Afternic account. (Medium effort, but can be fixed by individual domain investors. For example, once the patch fixes are in place above, I would just go through all my accounts and ensure the domains I expect to be listed in Afternic, are actually in Afternic.)

All of those sound like common sense safeguards that should have been implemented before the fast transfer even went live with GoDaddy and any other registrar partners.

 

[NameBuyer.com]

The weird thing is they do, to some degree at least. Sold a domain here. It was listed on my Afternic with fast transfer. After pushing the domain to the buyers Epik account I logged into afternic to delete it and found it was "in review". Not completely deleted but AFAIK in review removes it from sale at least.

This fix will improve their whole "In Review" process. I have several domains that are "In Review" at any given time. I then need to reach out to an agent, who then needs to spend time manually reviewing these.

If they just had an automated check to say if Epik says the domain is being approved by someone who authorized this specific Afternic account, then that is all the review you would ever need. If the name is registered at Epik, and Epik is correctly requesting approval from the person who has the domain in their Epik account, and that Epik account already authorizes this particular Afternic account, what else could possibly be needed? "In Review" becomes obsolete, unless the process above occurs, and the domain is found to be in the wrong Afternic account. In that case, this same process would flag those domains to be deleted from the incorrect account.

 

[Spex]

Maybe it's time GD/Afternic just get rid of their archaic system. There must be a COTS product that could do a decent job and then GD/Afternic could just add their customizations in later

 

[indiegrind]

I'm still waiting on some response, and a couple of people have reached out to their contacts on my behalf which I am very grateful for.

But I am still waiting for some response.

 

[equity78]

Where are you @Joe Styler @Paul Nicks ???

 

[Kostas]

Τhe way your rep responded and her tone is simply unacceptable. They can easily reverse a sale if they want to and I'm sure they will once someone higher up sees this.

 

[Ategy]

Where are you @Joe Styler @Paul Nicks ???

What do you want them to say? The GoDaddy platform is a colossal disaster with multiple security issues (as I said above, this is far from being even the most serious one .. the bulk of their platform hasn't been secure for YEARS .. at the moment their actual website/platform is NOT secure).

Even this problem has been obvious for years. When did GD buy Afternic? Some mentioned in a private discussion that they made the suggestion of having a code available from the registrar more than a DECADE ago! (also what I mentioned above)

It's a classic GoDaddy case where the moment an issue overlaps more than a single department, nothing gets done because responsibility is shuffled from one person to another until everyone just gives up and forgets about it.

At this point the only decision we have to make is either stay or go .. but they are by far the biggest and we need GoDaddy .. so we have no choice but to put up with it. It's very frustrating ... particularly for those of us who have reported multiple bugs over and over again .. only to get the token "thank you for reporting it .. I've passed it on the proper department" .. and then ... Nothing .. crickets .. in fact .. maybe GD should finally change their on hold music to cricket noises!

Again .. I'm not saying this because I think GD is deliberately evil. In fact I have to insist that usually each person I've dealt with there has done as much as they could within the scope of their abilities to help me .. often very successfully in creative ways. My personal rep is a saint for having to deal with me .. if I started a company I'd hire him in a second .. which says a lot considering how detailed I am. It's simply bigger than any one person or department there .. and their corporate culture seems to not recognise any issues that spans multiple departments. It's like it doesn't exist.

sigh .. ok .. rant over .. lol

Τhe way your rep responded and her tone is simply unacceptable. They can easily reverse a sale if they want to and I'm sure they will once someone higher up sees this.

You're assuming the buyer made their sale at GoDaddy. It's possible the sale was made on a partner registrar ... and obviously that registrar would be fighting for the buyer who is their client and who they made a commission on. That being said .. in theory the domain would hopefully be locked there for 60 days. But that doesn't mean the other registrar would just hand it over.

 

[Kostas]

I agree, godaddy is definitely not "evil", they try to do the best they can in most cases but the end result is extremely inefficient.

You're assuming the buyer made their sale at GoDaddy

The domain is at godaddy with no pending transfer currently. Godaddy could easily settle the commission in case another registrar is involved but I'm sure they have a system in place where they can reverse a sale under certain circumstances.

 

[Ategy]

They can easily reverse a sale if they want to and I'm sure they will once someone higher up sees this.

The bigger problem is that reversing this one sale totally ignores the larger issue.

Particularly for those of us with larger portfolios .. the really scary part is that the way it is now, there's a good chance something like this happens without our even noticing it! We see an "action required" email that says:

"The following domain names have been requested for sale through the Afternic Premium Network:"

So we assume it's our own name AND that it's our afternic account .. when it fact it's only the first part and there's nothing in the email that indicates even the chance it could be otherwise.

The domain is at godaddy with no pending transfer currently.

I'm talking about the larger scope of this problem in general .. not this individual case. The whole point is that the way things are now, there is a likelihood something like this could happen without the owner even noticing if they get the typical 30+ registrar related emails per day. The answer to sloppy infrastructure isn't to fix each issue as they come up, it's to fix the actual problem.

I agree, godaddy is definitely not "evil", they try to do the best they can in most cases but the end result is extremely inefficient.

Yeah .. I've actually said it multiple times. What's required of them at this point is a monster task. But they seem to keep ignoring the problem. Every couple of years redo the pavement .. which usually does address some issues. But other things simply require hard work .. like going through their automated emails. That's not code .. that's tiring manual work that involves the bridging of multiple departments.

The issue is not unique to GoDaddy. It happens in just about every big institution that grows and grows .. then all of a sudden realise their FAQ and help files refer to things that were changed 4 years ago .. or that they do a huge upgrade to one part of their website/platform, but then realise it's not compatible with another part (how many YEARS have there been login issues at GoDaddy auctions?).

The biggest problem however .. regardless if they admit and apologise to us about it .. is that they don't even seem to recognise the issue themselves .. it's always someone else's department .. there's nobody who understands the entirety of the mess and nobody responsible for it. To each person and department, they have done what they need to do ... it's just that with lack of communication and coordination the end result is inefficient and the exact opposite of synergy.

 

[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.