Possible shady godaddy practice ?

[Picassoface]

I think they may be using user searches to make results into "premium" names. Example; the other day i searched on the name Protection. One of the results was protection.systems on sale for $4.99. I put it in my cart but deleted it 10 min later. Just now i go back to reg it and miraculously it is now priced at $439.99 with annual renewal of $439.99. Not the 1st time this has happened as i do thousands of searches a day.....hmmm

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

weren't they already caught out there "Front running"? would they try it again?

like I've said before.

sometimes you can't blame the Registrar.

I suspect Godaddy wouldn't risk their reputation just to steal your "ideas" but I think in house? Employees can Watch in REAL TIME every time you enter things into the CART. and once removed?

well there you go.

THE EMPLOYEE snatches it up..guaranteed without me checking I bet Protection.systems has privacy on it yes?

if I were a thief I'd hide my tracks too. it's sad really because things like this casts a shadow on Godaddy even though the company itself technically doesn't Front Run it's their employees.

picture a guy. working at support. Boring job. pay is lousy probably BUT. you have access 247 to see what's being put in the cart.

I remember one time contacting any registrar to let them know that my cart is acting funny.

gave them my info and pass. and right there they can see exactly what's in my cart.

now I'm not saying it's accurate. but imagine a stack of papers like millions of them each one with an Social Security number?

you can't pick a specific Social Security number but you sure can tell it's a stack of papers with social security numbers and you sure can pluck 1 sheet and check it out randomly at your leisure maybe even on your lunch break?

You don't think Employees aren't Domainers themselves?

I mean I spoke to one Rep who told me about his Domain "investments" I said "Really"?

back of my head I was thinking. THIS MUTHA-EFFER. are you serious right now?

so let me ask you? if one your "down time" at work.

if you could sneak a peak into some random shopping cart whenever you feel like it to get an idea of domains being registered?

in fact what if you set your pc at work to detect domains that were put in the cart then removed? easy enough yes? maybe not on purpose by Godaddy but easy enough for a geek at Godaddy to do for his own purposes.

nice way to make a little extra cash right?

 

[Start]

I really don't think you have to worry about that type of thing with GoDaddy (and I say that as someone who avoided them for a long time, because I didn't like their "in your face" advertising, but they have toned that down in recent years. Also, the founder killed an elephant in 2011.).


They have systems in place to prevent employees (at least low level ones) from looking at your account "just for fun". They basically need the 4-digit pin code in order to look at anything... I've needed help at times, but they needed that in order to do anything.

Plus, they have so many customers, and most of them are semi-clueless about domains (I recently saw a domain where the registrant picked businessnameinc.com even though businessname.com was available), so there's a very low "signal-to-noise" ratio... i.e. even if GoDaddy staff could watch, it would be worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.


What I think probably happened was:
- There was a sale on .systems domains (I've noticed they have different sales all the time, and it can be on one day, and off the next)
- You did a search once when the extension was on sale, and when you went back another day, the sale was over
- But I have noticed that if you search for a domain, the automated system does try to get you to buy it later, even if you deleted it


I'll add a PSA (Public Service Announcement):

- Elephants may go extinct in this century (which is why the GD founder's elephant hunting was bad)
- People shouldn't ride elephants or buy elephant paintings:
https://www.thedodo.com/elephant-rides-trek-1132645600.html
...you basically have to crush an elephant's spirit, and almost kill them, in order to get them to do stuff like that. And their spines can't handle weight properly.

 

[deez007]

Yeah I've seen this happen way way to many times. Not just on GD but many other registrars as well.

This is why I don't check name availability unless I'm going to register it immediately.

 

[Asfas1000]

Perhaps you mistyped the sld the first time and you got the normal (non-premium) reg rates.
It's the central registry that determines the prices, not Godaddy....

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

China. Russia. Can hack dnc files . You don't think anyone can watch registrar shopping carts maybe a data scraper harvesting "tasted" domains at registrar's? How secure could registrar shopping carts be?

Anything is possible these days.

 

[168]

Perhaps you mistyped the sld the first time and you got the normal (non-premium) reg rates.
It's the central registry that determines the prices, not Godaddy....

Yes, mistypes soo easy to do !
Registry determines base premium or standard pricing. Godaddy adds what it wants on top. All registrars do.
the best way to get around this is what deez007 suggested or keep the cart full for "evaluation" over a day or two while you check with other registries to see what they are asking for it. The price won't change and the only risk is someone else pushing the buy button before you and they will leave you a nice message: no longer available. It doesn't happen too often in new regs but it happens a lot in the auction buy now's.
Godaddy doesn't always get the pricing right the first time. ( Not sayin you haven't been jacked, there will always be trickery)
I have had the opposite happen too !
When .media went into GA I picked up some killer 3L and 3N and was shocked to have them in my cart at just slightly above standard reg fee. I had issues with the cart so I had to get tech help to split 1 order into 3 or 4 purchases which required deleting and relisting. When some of them were relisted they were at 5x the original cart quote with elevated renewal fees!
After some back and forth they did the right thing and honored the original pricing quote to their loss. To this day they might be eating the cost of the renewal fees or not I don't really know. Some I have transferred out to get even lower renewal fees. (not by much but every dollar counts!) Also, I was fortunate to have saved a copy of my cart w/pricing to demonstrate the original price and
if it is a registry buy now, always call to see if they will negotiate. Sometimes it works, sometimes not but worth the try !
Happy Hunting

 

[Picassoface]

Good advice !

 

[Asfas1000]

Happy Hunting

How happy can it be when items are getting pricier just because they are in the cart

 

[RJ]

It wouldn't be GoDaddy, it would be Donuts, Inc. (registry of .systems domains) who set that price. Since that domain is not registered by anyone the price is set by the registry and the domain will be premium priced no matter where you register it at. I checked Uniregistry.com and it says $440 registration fee and $440/yr renewal for protection.systems

 

[urlurl]

i have always wondered if their was some sort of spy ware on GD, a few years ago i searched a name on GD - it was available. the next day i was going to buy it and the name was now taken?????. checked back a week later and it was available again.

i figured someone watch's to see what you are searching, buys it and hope you contact them... if you don't they go back to GD and get a refund.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

i have always wondered if their was some sort of spy ware on GD, a few years ago i searched a name on GD - it was available. the next day i was going to buy it and the name was now taken?????. checked back a week later and it was available again.

i figured someone watch's to see what you are searching, buys it and hope you contact them... if you don't they go back to GD and get a refund.

that's an idea! now that's something I wouldn't put a company doing it "in house"

also I suspected that was going on too with Sunrise and Landrush.

how does it work?

you submit domains you want to register for an upcoming new extension?

and once it's Live??

"They Let you know which domains you GOT? and which ones you DIDN'T GET? and someone ELSE got it?

really? so we just gotta blindly trust that company who created the extension honestly didn't cherry pick the domains you submitted. and take it for themselves and put privacy on it?

and then turn around and tell you.

"Sorry. this domain is taken. You've been refunded. Someone else submitted this domain BEFORE YOU. You were too late."

No one ever questions it right?

but doesn't it look RIPE for Cherry picking?

who would ever be the wiser?

unless there was an independent party from ICANN monitoring the whole process?

 

[Paul Nicks]

Hey folks, just wanted to reiterate here that we do NOT do any sort of front running, and no, we were never caught front-running in the past. I imagine what caused this behavior was due to how we handle availchecks internally. We emphasize speed, so often it is more efficient for us to do availchecks against a local cache of a zone file. This can cause us to think a domain is available at standard regfee when in actuality it is on a registry reserve list or otherwise unavailable. When actually attempting to buy the domain we do another check direct to the registry, who is the source of truth, and it's this check that will show the correct price and availability.

 

[Marco Alvarez]

trust me there is too many crappy domains to even bother trying take ideas from people. Have you ever gone through expired domains list full of crap just to find a couple of gems? Imagine that on a much larger scale with current hand regs that you don't even know if they will hold any value because if you did then other people would too and then they probably wouldn't be available

 

[Picassoface]

Thanks Paul. Never had a prob with Godaddy. Love it and hope it stays forever.

Please close thread. Question resolved. Next time ill call GD first.