discuss Scammed on GoDaddy auctions!!

[JudgeMind]

A month ag I won auctions for two LLLL .com domains on godaddy. These were both public auction. I paid for the auctions then I sent the sellers info for transfers. A week and a half went by and I did not hear from the sellers nor did I receive either domains into my godaddy acct. I sent messages to sellers two more times after that. At this point it had been 3 weeks and still no response. I sent an email to godaddy explaining what happened and that I needed their assistance getting my domains or getting a refund. Here is their response:

As we are a payment processing service rather than an escrow service, we hold the funds for a specified period of time, and must release the funds at the end of that period unless we as your agent receive a dispute. As a dispute had not been received during the 15 day period described in the agreement, your funds have already been released to the seller. Any request for return of the funds will need to be made directly to the seller. However, we cannot intervene further. Once the 15-day Transaction Assurance period is completed, the window of opportunity to dispute the transaction has closed and we are limited in ways to help.

 

[solarix]

Hi JudgeMind, I had a very similar thing happen.

About a month or so ago I purchased a LLLL on GoDaddy (BIN price). 10 days go by and I still had not heard anything, so I emailed auctions support and they proceed to tell me that the owner had let the domain expire and it went to public auction. They told me to bid on it if I wanted to get the name.

I didn't think that was acceptable, and was not about to get into a bidding war and over pay. So I just decided to wait and see what happened with the auction outcome. (This was probably the mistake I made.. Should have just cancelled immediately.)

I email again after the auction is over, some time passes and GoDaddy tells me.

Thank you for contacting AfterMarket Support. Since no dispute was filed within the 15 day dispute period, the funds were released to the Seller on day 20. We are still attempting to work with the Seller to resolve this matter. ​

Well, a few more days go by and still have not heard anything, so I email for another update. Here is what they tell me.

As previously mentioned, we are contacting the seller to get the funds returned and we will update you when we have more information. ​

As stated in Section 9 DISPUTE POLICY of the Domain Name Aftermarket Membership Agreement, which you accepted at the time of purchasing your membership: "To file a Dispute, you must submit an email to [email protected] . The email must include, Your account number, name and contact information, the order number associated with the transaction, the domain name over which the Dispute arises and a detailed account of the Dispute. Such email must be received within 15 days from the sale date." Reference to the agreement can be found below:
https://www.godaddy.com/Agreements/ShowDoc.aspx?se=+&pageid=DNA_MEMBER

As we are a payment processing service rather than an escrow service, we hold the funds for a specified period of time, and must release the funds at the end of that period unless we as your agent receive a dispute. As a dispute had not been received during the 15 day period described in the agreement, your funds have already been released to the seller. Once the 15-day Transaction Assurance period is completed, the window of opportunity to dispute the transaction has closed and we are limited in ways to help.

We have requested that the seller return the funds so that a refund may be issued to you.
​

Uh oh, this does not sound promising. I nearly blew a gasket, but figured I would keep my cool and just fire off an email to that dispute address and see what happens, before going to more extreme methods.

Here is their response. Perhaps light at the end of the tunnel?

Thank you for contacting Aftermarket support. As you have been advised several times because a dispute was not filed prior to the funds being released we hae to make every effort to retrieve the funds from the seller before issuing a refund. To date the seller has been unresponsive to our calls and emails. We have sent 1 final email. If we have not contacted you about a refund in the next 7 days please reply to this message and we will issue your refund at that time regardless of whether or not the funds have been returned.​

Sent one final email for an update. They respond and tell me that I will be refunded. Thank god!

Thank you for contacting us. We have issued a refund for the purchase of ****.COM. Please allow 3-5 days for the refund to process. Please let us know if you require any additional assistance.​

It's very unfortunate their marketplace allows this kind of crap to happen and our funds get tied up for weeks. Just be persistent and you should be able to get the money back.

Good luck!

 

[bluebox]

Send this thread to all the popular domaining blogs (so they can run "Think twice before buying a domain on scammer friendly Godaddy Auctions" articles) - it's the only way to force them to refund.
Who knows, you might even get a insincere apologies...
Good luck

 

[carob]

Credit card chargeback for the simple reason that you did not receive the goods you paid for.

Dispute is then between GD and credit card co. I don't really see what GD can do to you there and I can't see why they would want to - they know the TOS of credit card companies already and know this can happen. If they want to prevent it, they need to change their procedures - as many here have said.

 

[manurawat]

Recently i faced the same situation ......i won an auction and and paid for it .....for 2 days winning domain was in my winning bid list and suddenly it started to show some error loading that domain name on list.....i searched whois of the domain.....and found that it was still listed for sale in sedo...by the previous owner...and he didnt initiated the transfer .. i immediately contacted godaddy and they contacted the seller for transfer...and got this issue resolved ........(yes it was withing 15days period)

for all those who r buying domains from godaddy....please keep eyes on your winning domains...till they transferred to your account and if you see any problem contact godaddy immediately keep this email id handy for any dispute raising

auctiondisputes(at)godaddy dot com

 

[Nile Patel]

Look , like direct domain buy with bin price is not good with Godaddy.
I m fan of godaddy for all registration and tech support very quick response when i call them from usa, and only holding my whole portfolio with them, but have never used their auction house to sale any names, but bought few names and found out they automatically push the name, no other communication that make me upset and waste my time to track and keep me worried and has to confirmed i got the name in my account even i paid above $800 for some names. Now after reading this thread it make me more confused as when i called them couple week ago for few domain won in auction and not see them in my account after 4 days , I called them and they say do not worry just relax ,we will push the name in your account within 7 to 10 days. I waited and the name was pushed in my account , so it seems the problem is with out side seller who do not have name registered with godaddy, can someone Clear that to all??

I love new communication system made by sedo.com a nice big text chatting box with left and right column make communication with seller very easy , even i forgot to reply their message for 10 days and forgot to given godaddy's account id to transfer the name, they created new godaddy accout for me free and when i gave them my godaddy id , they push the name same day very happy with sedo.com, the way they communicate even the amount was only $200, a lot of work for them.

Same problem with namejet.com , when you win the auction they create account with different registrar and transfer name their for you that is good but hate to say , when they send name to enom, enom put 30 or more days lock so you are not allowed to move your name from them to any new registrar even you paid for auction and has to keep tracking your account with enom which is extra work.

Hopefully godaddy keep different type of auction and separate them for buyer's understanding of process involved with each type of auction.

 

[carob]

Some posters here seem to think GD might do something to you if you do a chargeback? Has that happened to anyone?

 

[Joe Styler]

Judgemind reached out to me last night and I started looking into it for him. We don't ever want to have people lose money or not get a domain. We do thousands of seamless transactions a day. This is an edge case and I will assist in it. Thank you for the members who suggested he reach out to me and for those who brought this to my attention.

 

[Nile Patel]

Joe is here to help you.

 

[Nile Patel]

Look like Joe has posted before me and he will be willing to help you.

 

[pablohc86]

To my eyes the thread starter case is not a scam but GD followed their TOS.
All the GD auctions user have agreed to this.
However as they release the fund also if they do not hear anything from both part I think they should wait at least 30 days, 15 is a too short period.

if i do not hear anything from the counterpart in 1 week i'll contact immediatly the marketplace support.
I love to know what people are doing while they are doing biz with me, i can only make an exception if i already made several deals with the same person.

Sad lesson @JudgeMind
I believe in Karma, as you conducted the auction with bonafide you will receive the money lost in one of your future sales

 

[DomainGist]

Don't be concerned with GoDaddy being mad about a chargeback or being out $300 lol....they are a multi, multi-million dollar company with standard accounts to write off losses, much bigger than this, on a daily basis.

I doubt his concern is some sort of moral one, they will also be 'writing off' plenty of user accounts on a daily basis too, that will be his concern here... that Godaddy will consider HIM to be the scammer and zap his account if they see a chargeback.

That's an understandable concern, lossing the ability to trade on godaddy is a big deal for any domainer.

 

[forge]

GoDaddy does need to be more proactive in vetting domain listings on their Auctions platform. It's not such an impossible task. It's a widespread problem, that of unauthorized domain listings. I've not been aware of such problems on Sedo, for example, who seem to have pretty good vetting processes and standards.

Checking that Whois records/contacts match those of the "seller's" account -- how difficult is that?

 

[Beezy]

This is just a huge customer service fail.

Do you think Amazon says "too bad." to any customer?

Godaddy needs to either fire the reps that did nothing, or empower them if they don't have the power to do anything in these situations.

 

[NameOmnia]

I am sorry for what has happened to you but unfortunately, as someone else has said already, this is not a scam situation but simply GD applying their own rules/TOS.
We ( all of us ) should seriously learn how to read TOS& Co for all the companies we work with and probably cases like this one would be avoided more often.

As they clearly state they are not an Escrow service so they do not have to behave as such; do I like it? NO, but that's how it is. I have sold and bought many names on their platform and I have never had an issue but I agree that communication with them ( especially if you are not a US customer ) is a bit sh*t.

I was under the impression domains are automatically transfered from sellers?

Only if the domains for sale are with GD.

the issue i see with filing a credit card dispute is that then godaddy will be out the $300, theres only one person they will turn to to get it back. ME

They have insurances and if they don't..well..it's their problem as it is your full right to try to get your money back in all the possible ways you can. I hope you will resolve this very soon.

 

[Joe Styler]

Thanks for all the feedback. We will take care of this for the customer. We are actively working on a way to further reduce instances like this and continue to speed up the payment times for the seller. We do verify names via the whois. As I said, this is an edge case where the buyer didn't wind up with the domain but we are continuing to refine the process and make things even tighter.
We have been continually working towards a friction less aftermarket where people can buy and sell domains even more quickly and get paid just as quickly. Integrating with Afternic earlier was a part of this overarching goal and other plans are being implemented to improve the platform overall.

 

[NameOmnia]

Thanks for all the feedback. We will take care of this for the customer. We are actively working on a way to further reduce instances like this and continue to speed up the payment times for the seller. We do verify names via the whois. As I said, this is an edge case where the buyer didn't wind up with the domain but we are continuing to refine the process and make things even tighter.
We have been continually working towards a friction less aftermarket where people can buy and sell domains even more quickly and get paid just as quickly. Integrating with Afternic earlier was a part of this overarching goal and other plans are being implemented to improve the platform overall.

Thanks for taking the time to reply t this thread.
I would also suggest you to make things a bit easier for your customers who are not US residents and to have less standardized email replies. I have also noticed that some of your support team just doesn't have a clue and that there is too much bouncing back and forth when we email you ( you = GD ).
Normally there is a copy and past email then if the customer replies the issue ( I assume ) is assigned to a more prepared support person...Can we just avoid this? Why aren't requests and complaint immediately handled by people who A know what they are talking about and B can actively make decisions and solve the problem?
That would be great.
Thanks

 

[carob]

To my eyes the thread starter case is not a scam but GD followed their TOS.

The GD TOS may be a violation of the TOS that GD agree to with credit card companies - I would like to know. I hope in this situation someone does a chargeback and tells us so we'll know - very likely GD will then have to revise their TOS.

Claiming to be just a "payment processor" is not going to work and is a bit suspect - we all know that credit card companies do not accept that argument from Paypal and chargebacks of credit card payments to Paypal succeed.

You can't enforce an illegal contract, nor can you enforce unallowable TOS.

 

[DomainGist]

A 15 day protection period is very short, paypal is also a "payment processor" and theirs is 45 days.

Godaddy should consider looking at aliexpress, they have a countdown to the end of the buyer protection period in bright red letters, which makes it very clear how long is left to open a dispute.

And finally, the very worst thing about Godaddy's responses as seen is this thread is NOT that they refused a refund, but that they make no mention at all of their willingness to monitor the seller and take appropriate action, no mention at all about how they seek to keep their marketplace safe.

Godaddy really need to work on how the communicate to give those assurances. When I report a trading partner for bad practices on ebay I get a response which at least tells me that they will take appropriate action against the user, they don't specify what (can be as simple as a gentle email reminder, a black mark / policy violation strike, or an account suspension / termination).

It is obvious that they have to have a time limit on disputes (if clearly not long enough), but they could do a lot more to assure buyers that they take security seriously, as far as the OP is aware here the seller could still be busy on godaddy scamming others completely unnoticed by the platform!

 

[pablohc86]

I am sorry for what has happened to you but unfortunately, as someone else has said already, this is not a scam situation but simply GD applying their own rules/TOS.
We ( all of us ) should seriously learn how to read TOS& Co for all the companies we work with and probably cases like this one would be avoided more often.

Personally i'm tired about all those TOS with 532487582394758935734895738294 number of pages each.
Every thing we do in our life, before to join or apply, we should read and agree to all those 532487582394758935734895738294 number of pages.

Starting from a simple app download to our smartphone to a more complex tool we can need.

Do they really think we have a day with 2342432 hours?
If i read and understand at 100% all the TOS about everything I use, I think i'll never purchase an item on ebay coz i'll be still finishing to read the windows TOS when i'm launching it on my laptop..

This is not against godaddy but only to show another proof that customers have really low protection.

I neither mention that government can send out new laws and company may change contracts agreement only from their side, sure we can leave without to pay nothing but it is not a fair deal, IMO

 

[Skyvisum]

Dispute the payment with your credit card immediately. You have a very good chance of getting your money back. In fact your chances are close to 100%.

Regardless, this situation is inexcusable. I currently have two BIN purchases through GoDaddy that have gone nowhere, and I'm also waiting (and waiting more) to get my money back, over $1000.

This is an eye opener as I got my money back even after winning the names and would have been down $700 on 2 occassions.Lucky I got my refund back on my card .Bad service from Godaddy.