Is GoDaddy treating me unfairly?

[silberman]

On March 31 at 7:58 pm I hand registered a domain at Godaddy. I am certain that although it has a co.uk extension that it has significant value. I went to GoDaddy, checked the name and saw it was available, I registered it, I paid, and shortly thereafter received a receipt from Godaddy, confirming my registration and ownership of the name.Then, shortly after that, I received another email from them saying:

"This is the error message we got from the registry: Domain failed availability check: Domain cannot be registered because another domain was found in a restricted status

We'll look into why this happened and try to fix it. But if we're still unable to register the domain, we'll go ahead and give you a refund (allow one business day for processing)."

I spoke with people at Godady twice but was told that the name wasn't, in the end, available. Then they had the gall to write me saying that I had cancelled the name. I wrote them back to say that, in fact, I had not cancelled it, I want it, and I have proof in the form of a receipt from them showing that I had registered it.

I am fairly new to domaining and wondering what is going on here and if this is 'normal' or I am, indeed, being treated unfairly. By 'unfairly' I mean that they sold it to me, then someone somewhere in the system realized this was a valuable name, and decided to 'cancel' my ownership to reap the rewards for themselves. Can this happen, or am I just over-reacting?

Thanks for insight from anyone with more experienced than I.

- J

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Remember that there are thousands of registrars. While most of the time the information re availability is correct, at times it is not because either another registrar registered it in the short time when it was in your cart, or an error was made and in fact it was never available. While this has not happened to me at GD yet, it has with other registrars.

I don't think you have been treated unfairly. However, always smart to follow the WhoIs just to see what happened. If it ended up that it got registered at GD after the date of your receipt then ask GD what i happening, but I think that is unlikely.

Bob

ps I don't know co.uk at all but are the forthcoming changes re .uk and co.uk possibly part off this? Others will know details.

 

[silberman]

Thank you very much for your advice.

- J