Is this a common GoDaddy practice?

[pier0]

I've been a happy GoDaddy/Afternic customer for 10 years, but the other day I've noticed a five figures domain missing from my GoDaddy account.

Knowing that domains listed for fast transfer on Afternic are exempt from the DTVS process (GoDaddy phone call to confirm a transfer out) and than when sold they are removed immediately from the account, I've checked if a sale had been confirmed, but found no trace of it.

I then emailed my GoDaddy account manager and asked him, who confirmed the domain sold and the sale was pending while Afternic verified the payment.

Now more than 48 hours later there is no trace of a sale having been agreed on Afternic nor I received any information let alone a confirmation.

Do you think is acceptable than domains are removed/cancelled from a Godaddy account, pending a sale verification, with no hint of information in regards to the reason for their removal/cancellation?
Is this a common GoDaddy practice ?

 

[xn--v4h.com]

Just wait until you go to accept the whois change details on an incoming push and they tell you they have rejected your acceptance because it is invalid. If I'm the only one experiencing this, I think I'm justified in being paranoid My last three incoming domains have all been the same way.

The irony here is why do they even ask you to validate the transfer, when they have already decided the acceptance will be invalid, beforehand.

I believe you that you are experiencing it. Lord knows GoDaddy customer service is spotty and in fact they had to refund me on 9 domains because their automated system couldn't handle something. I'm just sharing with you in my experiences transfers with Godaddy is so easy and without any problems except for the other registrar, in or out.

 

[xn--v4h.com]

wow... this is serious and no one bothered to mention @Joe Styler ?

Can you update me on why?

 

[wwwulff]

No, there is nothing yet on the main dashboard under My Domain Sales nor under the Portfolio-Domains Sold.
Only if I search for the domain under Domain Portfolio, I can see that its status is "pending sale".

Ok, that probably means that the buyer has not yet payed for the name and you will first get a confirmation mail when the money is in landed in their escrow - The same happened to me earlier this year and it is a little frustrating that you first get to know about the sale, when the name is payed.

 

[jideofor]

Can you update me on why?

He works there and he represent them on here.

 

[xn--v4h.com]

He works there and he represent them on here.

Oh yeah! That's right, thought his name sounded familiar. Another great guy is Jon Roig. He's one of the good guys and would vouch for him any day.

 

[pier0]

Ok, that probably means that the buyer has not yet payed for the name and you will first get a confirmation mail when the money is in landed in their escrow - The same happened to me earlier this year and it is a little frustrating that you first get to know about the sale, when the name is payed.

That's not the issue here. The problem is that the domain is not where it should be while payment is verified, ie my account, and the lack of transparency of the entire transaction.

 

[Name Trader]

@stub - Netsol said talk to afternic to get it sorted out. They said they don't have access to the details of the transfer, even though it happened at their own registrar.

Afternic only responded to a single email about this where they said they "found a way" or something along those lines to take the domain out of my account, and then ignored all other emails from me about this incident. I was never given any explanation of what happened by either party.

I would transfer all of my domains out of NetSol IMMEDIATELY. They cannot shirk their responsibilities as the Registrar. If they can do this once without providing a full explanation. They can do it again. I would also give Afternic a verbal drubbing for activating this without your permission. What you have explained here is OUTRAGEOUS by both parties involved.

 

[Name Trader]

Ahh, yes you need to go to your godaddy account and re-login before you click the link in the email or you will get an invalid notification. I have had that happen.

Thanks. I'll make sure to do that next time

 

[MapleDots]

I swear, I am logged in but that is not good enough, if you click the link log in again and then re-click the link. That bugs me because even when I tell godaddy to stay logged in it continuously prompts me to log back in. One the plus side that is good security but I don't need that on my daily driver. I am logged in please keep me logged in.

 

[wwwulff]

That's not the issue here. The problem is that the domain is not where it should be while payment is verified, ie my account, and the lack of transparency of the entire transaction.

You name is in escrow, that's how it works - If you have a issue with it, then it may be a good idea not to use afternic - As I said earlier, I also think that more transparency would be preferable

 

[Arca]

I would transfer all of my domains out of NetSol IMMEDIATELY. They cannot shirk their responsibilities as the Registrar. If they can do this once without providing a full explanation. They can do it again. I would also give Afternic a verbal drubbing for activating this without your permission. What you have explained here is OUTRAGEOUS by both parties involved.

I totally agree. I have raised this issue with both Afternic/GD and NetSol, but neither of them think it’s an issue.

I was actually more disappointed with Afternic than NetSol in this situation. At least NetSol made an effort to find out what had happened. Strangely they seem to not have access to what is going on at their own registrar. They first told me that the name left my account because it expired (it had a year to go before expiry, so that was not the reason), and then after researching for some time, they told me it was to fulfill an Afternic sale. I told them I never opted the domain in to fast-transfer and never authorized a transfer (e.g. by clicking a confirmation link - never got any transfer approval requests), and they told me to get it sorted out with Afternic if I had any problems, because they have zero details about Afternic sales and names being moved as a result of them.

Afternic on the other hand did not respond to any of my messages for days, which was frustrating as I thought the name was stolen and fervently worked to get it back, before finally getting their reply which confirmed that it was they who took it. The only form of communication they ever provided regarding this issue was a curt one sentence email reply telling me they “were able to get this domain moved” by themselves. So they acknowledged that they somehow pulled the name right out of the registrar account without my approval. However, they never provided any further explanation, no apology for the situation they created, no explanation about the sales price disparity, and then went on to ignore my follow up seeking clarification as to what had happened (their customer support and escrow agents frequently do this regardless of the inquiry thought, so it was not really out of the norm). I still have no idea how they managed to just take a domain out of the registrar account without my approval.

I move all names out of netsol as soon as I get a chance now. But since a lot of NJ/SN names are delivered at NetSol it's not possible to avoid them altogether.

 

[Name Trader]

I totally agree. I have raised this issue with both Afternic/GD and NetSol, but neither of them think it’s an issue.

I move all names out of netsol as soon as I get a chance now. But since a lot of NJ/SN names are delivered at NetSol it's not possible to avoid them altogether.

Yeah. I understand that. I have the same problem. However, I always move them after the 60 days is up. It's amazing we have to put up with these shenanigans, in order to be in this domaining business. These practices are totally unacceptable in every business. Including domaining. But until/unless we stop using these services, en mass. We are at risk of something we all have in the back of our minds. Domain theft. Which is an accident waiting to happen. IMHO.

 

[pier0]

As of this morning, the domain is no longer under "pending sale" on Afternic. Now it's just "listed" and it has magically reappeared on GoDaddy.

Afternic has not replied to my email asking for information.

 

[main]

It's happened to me several times before, but I have been getting the emails these days.

 

[Joe Styler]

I'll ask about it if you send me the domain. The scenario I know of where email informing you of the sale is delayed is where a sale is flagged by us for further investigation. The buying customer has paid but the money needs to be manually verified. The domain may "disappear" from your account but it is not really gone until we verify the funds. It is still in your account on the back end and just hidden from your view. The names don't move until the funds clear. If there is manual involvement the emails will be delayed until after the funds are verified. This situation does not happen often.

 

[Name Trader]

I'll ask about it if you send me the domain. The scenario I know of where email informing you of the sale is delayed is where a sale is flagged by us for further investigation. The buying customer has paid but the money needs to be manually verified. The domain may "disappear" from your account but it is not really gone until we verify the funds. It is still in your account on the back end and just hidden from your view. The names don't move until the funds clear. If there is manual involvement the emails will be delayed until after the funds are verified. This situation does not happen often.

I think you should not be taking a domain out of anybody's account at any registrar until the funds are verified. This is outrageous. And Afternic (and NetSol) know this. Otherwise they would have given a full explanation about what they have done. I hope GoDaddy don't operate under these same policies.

 

[pier0]

I just heard back from Afternic:
"The domain LLLLLLL.COM never actually.moved from your GoDaddy account. Based on the information on hand, a shopper placed the domain in their cart, which resulted in a hold being placed on the domain. However, the shopper never followed through and completed payment for the domain. As such the hold was released."

Irregardless of their version of the story, the domain was not available in my GoDaddy account for 72+ hours. The fact that it was still in the account but hidden from view and that this does not happen often is of no consolation.

 

[Name Trader]

I just heard back from Afternic:
"The domain LLLLLLL.COM never actually.moved from your GoDaddy account. Based on the information on hand, a shopper placed the domain in their cart, which resulted in a hold being placed on the domain. However, the shopper never followed through and completed payment for the domain. As such the hold was released."

Irregardless of their version of the story, the domain was not available in my GoDaddy account for 72+ hours. The fact that it was still in the account but hidden from view and that this does not happen often is of no consolation.

Agreed.

 

[EmotiveDomains]

I had this exact same issue a few months back. I did eventually get paid, but wondered for a while what the heck was going on.

I think there should always be at least an automatic email to let you know the sale and transfer process has begun. It would have avoided a lot of stress.

 

[slimjim270]

>> Just wait until you go to accept the whois change details on an incoming push and they tell you they have rejected your acceptance because it is invalid. -Stub

@stub - I recently had the same situation occur - I accepted the whois change, received an "validation rejected" message, then an hour or so later received an email the transfer was completed.

I use 2FA, so wonder if that may be what is causing the GD validation error message as their automated whois validation process may not be properly checking for 2FA.

Curious @stub, do you also use 2FA on your GD account? (I am just wondering if this might be the common factor to why we both get the error message)

Also curious if those not receiving the validation error message possibly don't have 2FA?

Just a thought...

-Jim

 

[Name Trader]

>> Just wait until you go to accept the whois change details on an incoming push and they tell you they have rejected your acceptance because it is invalid. -Stub

@stub - I recently had the same situation occur - I accepted the whois change, received an "validation rejected" message, then an hour or so later received an email the transfer was completed.

I use 2FA, so wonder if that may be what is causing the GD validation error message as their automated whois validation process may not be properly checking for 2FA.

Curious @stub, do you also use 2FA on your GD account? (I am just wondering if this might be the common factor to why we both get the error message)

Also curious if those not receiving the validation error message possibly don't have 2FA?

Just a thought...

-Jim

I don't have a fixed IP Address. I have had tremendous problems with 2FA at GoDaddy. To the point I turned it off because my account, it seems to me, is in a precarious position at GoDaddy. And I don't want to get into a position where they close my account again. An account of 10-15 years good standing. It's a very long story. And it seemed to me that if I had problems setting up 2FA, it might trigger them closing my account again. Maybe paranoia creeping in. But better to be safe than sorry.

On the other side of the coin. I don't now keep anything valuable at GoDaddy any longer. And what is there, is only there during their 60 day hold requirement. So 2FA isn't a requirement.

A long answer to you question. The short answer is no. I don't use 2FA at GoDaddy. So this was not causing my problem. Somebody said. You need to be logged in before you click on the approval link. I haven't yet had a chance to try it yet because I prefer to transfer domains away. Rather than accept a push to my GoDaddy account. Which has now consistently failed to accept the last 3 pushes to my account.

However. After about 2 weeks of f'ing around. My last receiving push, which was also rejected, I received an email from GoDaddy 4 hrs after they rejected my approval, stating the whois contacts have changed. Previous rejected pushes never received those approvals though. So the only thing which has worked for me was to push without whois changes, change the whois details to mine, have my approving email rejected, and just wait around to see if I receive an email later (say for1 day) stating the whois details have changed. Not very satisfactory.

 

[slimjim270]

>> Somebody said. You need to be logged in before you click on the approval link.

@stub - thanks for the feedback.

I had 2 incoming transfers this morning. I logged into my GD account prior to clicking on the GD email containing the (registrant name change) approval link. Sure enough... no error message this time, the transfer went smoothly, and registrant whois contact info updated correctly.

-Jim

 

[Joe Styler]

We do need to know if you are the person who owns the account so if we cannot see any cookies and you are not logged in we wont know it is you approving the email. If you have a cookie blocker or perhaps you are making us think you are not you because of the ip changes you are doing. It may not be that. Next time you have the issue let me know the domain name and I will see what is happening on the back end to see who approved etc and where the emails were sent.

 

[Name Trader]

We do need to know if you are the person who owns the account so if we cannot see any cookies and you are not logged in we wont know it is you approving the email. If you have a cookie blocker or perhaps you are making us think you are not you because of the ip changes you are doing. It may not be that. Next time you have the issue let me know the domain name and I will see what is happening on the back end to see who approved etc and where the emails were sent.

Perhaps you should suggest in your approval email that you require the approver to be logged into their GoDaddy Account, before they click on the email. That might help. I'm about to receive another domain shortly. I will keep you informed of the success or failure.

 

[UXela]

Really? You guys still keep valuable domains with NoDaddy?
...sooner or later you will find out why it's not a good idea to keep anything of real value with them...