So now GoDaddy is Removing Names that I added to my Cart..

[Fadi H]

Hello everyone.

I hope all is well,

The following strange case has happened with me today,

So i was watching a domain auction, No bids placed and the domain dropped to $11 BIN, I have added the name to my cart but meanwhile i was busy doing some other things, A matter of minutes and i cameback to my cart to complete the purchase, And i find my cart empty? I immediately reached out to Live Chat support and they said the domain was purchased by another party ???

As i know, Once a domain is added to cart, GoDaddy removes it from closeouts and this is to prevent double purchases, It should remain in cart up to 2 hours and if somehow the purchase fails the domain will be available again on closeouts, But for me it was a matter of minutes and the domain disappeared from my cart! For what right?

@Joe Styler I Pm'ed you the name, I will be waiting for an answer about this, And if possible to get the domain back to my cart so that i can complete the purchase. Because the support was just talking nonsense.

 

[RJ]

If someone else bought it first, I don't see how GoDaddy can reverse that transaction and put it back in your cart. What would they tell the other domainer?

 

[karmaco]

Two hours is excessive. You snooze you lose. I would never expect a close out price held for me for anything above 15 minutes.

 

[xynames]

Putting a purchase in the cart - whether a domain or a vacuum cleaner at walmart dot com just puts you one step closer to the purchase. You might not complete the purchase. Your credit card might get declined. Your order might fail verification.

Now especially if the commodity is unique - such as a domain or a one of a kind collectible - it should be clear that the seller would not be interested in your intent rather in your completed action.

So many similar threads to this one - people complaining that they somehow missed out. I made one myself once but in that case I wished GDiddy had given me more than one notice at just a few minutes of auction’s closing. Still, none of these threads points out untoward behavior by the seller - just establish that if you want something unique you had better move fast and decisively.

 

[Joe Styler]

When you go shopping and you put a few things in your basket, They are still not yours as you didn't pay for them yet, But you do have the time to finish your shopping or make your phone call and then you can go for payment, During that time while you still didn't pay for them, Can someone else purchase them? Of course not, Until you fail to make the payment or put them back from where you picked them in first place, Then someone else will be able to take them.

Same at GoDaddy, They claim to be giving you 2 hours when you have a domain in your cart, And if you fail in purchasing that name within 2 hours they will make it available again for other people to purchase.

If domains are not safe while they are in cart they should at least mention it so that we know what to do next.

That is not exactly true. Domains are a competitive business. Especially closeouts. The domain is not yours because it is in the cart. It is yours when you pay for it before anyone else pays for it.

So let's use your analogy. You are putting things in your cart at the store. Because of the current situation Toilet paper is really in demand. It is very competitive to buy it. You put the only pack of toilet paper in the store in your cart and walk away to go pick up some milk. You come back two minutes later to find that someone took it out of your cart, paid for it and left the store.

This thread covers what you are asking in more detail. https://www.namepros.com/threads/domains-taken-from-account-auctions-closeouts.1195276/

Bottom line though is that buying domains in general is very competitive. Buying closeouts is even more competitive than that.

 

[Josytal]

Domain(s) in your cart, not paid for by you, is not yet your property, so can be purchased by another party. It happened to me a couple of times, so I've learnt my lesson.

Not sure of the rules today, couple of years back, even having paid for an expired domain name from closeout bin, you still needed to wait for 5-7 days until it's transferred to your account. Within this "waiting period", should the owner decide to renew the domain, then you lose it. GD would make refund.

 

[Ategy]

But the support confirmed that someone else purchased it.

I immediately reached out to Live Chat support and they said the domain was purchased by another party ???

Keep in mind that knowing what actually happened isn't a strong suit at the first level at contact at GoDaddy. In general they'll tell you what they think happened.

In your case it could be a multitude of things. Including what seems to be going on more frequently with two people supposedly adding them to each other's cart within fractions of a second so that there isn't enough time for the first cart addition to be registered in the GD system in time for the 2nd to get the expected error, and as such it also allows the 2nd purchase to go through.

However .. that would not explain a domain missing from your cart after a couple of minutes (unless they've tinkered with the error handling).

What could have happened is that GD auto-logged you out either due to platform hiccup or a regular session time-out. So it's also possible you were logged out, and when that happens, and you add domains to your cart while A) unknowingly logged out and then logging back in .. or B) logged in and then unknowingly getting logged out, then the domains *sometimes* will no longer be a part of your session and dropped from your cart. I won't really get into to too much detail because the GoDaddy platform has seriously critical level security issues (left open for YEARS), and as much as it frustrates me, I won't discuss open security issues in a public forum (for what should obvious reasons I hope .. lol)

 

[linuxfreak]

This is not a mall shopping, putting a thing in your cart does not mean it's yours. Obviously system watching the domain, if someone else purchased, it removes from other carts. It's useful. This is domain business, if you want the domain then delay your all other jobs and buy it immediately. Even seconds matter. You can't reserve the domain by adding in to your cart.

 

[Way3]

I know about the renewal, But as for the domains placed in cart, If they still could be purchased by another party then this is nonsense, When you add a domain in your cart it will no longer be available for someone else to add it in their cart, The system automatically removes it to prevent double purchases. So, While you have a domain in your cart it can be purchased by someone else if you fail to complete the purchase within a certain amount of time which supposed to be 2-hours, If that happens the domain will be available again for other people to purchase. Or, If someone from GoDaddy removes it from your cart for any reason.

Not here to defend any particular business but...

Actually cart placement is not an actual purchase, it is just a placeholder for you as a potential buyer - a convenience.

You haven't purchased anything until you actually check out and purchase said thing. This is common e-commerce practice. Happens to me all the time with flash sales (trying to buy Nikes and such for my teenage sons). Precisely why I'm obsessive when I find something I know I want, I process it. Fast.

Sorry that happened to you.

 

[Kpett]

Although the toilet paper in the shopping cart analogy may not be the best, I can see how someone can abuse the system by placing domains in a shopping cart to keep other people from claiming them, either in order to try and get a better price (closeout domains go down in price over time) or just to disrupt the system.

The domain name is not yours until you have purchased it. As others have said, once you put a domain in your cart, it is in your best interest to get it paid for as soon as possible.

 

[Fadi H]

If someone else bought it first, I don't see how GoDaddy can reverse that transaction and put it back in your cart. What would they tell the other domainer?

They can do anything.

I remember once, A friend of mine bought a name on closeouts and paid for it, Later on he received an email from GoDaddy apologizing to him that the domain was first purchased and paid by another party. Somehow a double purchase happened as of them, So they simply refunded him the amount and the name went to the other buyer's account.

Edit : I heard from a supervisor that it's impossible for a domain to get reversed if it was purchased successfully. Possibly for the case i shared above is that my friend was the second buyer and the domain went to the first buyer's account as normal.

Now the question, Will we have to purchase domains immediately once we add them to cart? Because this doesn't seem to be safe anymore. This is confusing..

 

[Fadi H]

Domain(s) in your cart, not paid for by you, is not yet your property, so can be purchased by another party. It happened to me a couple of times, so I've learnt my lesson.

Not sure of the rules today, couple of years back, even having paid for an expired domain name from closeout bin, you still needed to wait for 5-7 days until it's transferred to your account. Within this "waiting period", should the owner decide to renew the domain, then you lose it. GD would make refund.

I know about the renewal, But as for the domains placed in cart, If they still could be purchased by another party then this is nonsense, When you add a domain in your cart it will no longer be available for someone else to add it in their cart, The system automatically removes it to prevent double purchases. So, While you have a domain in your cart it can be purchased by someone else if you fail to complete the purchase within a certain amount of time which supposed to be 2-hours, If that happens the domain will be available again for other people to purchase. Or, If someone from GoDaddy removes it from your cart for any reason.

 

[Way3]

For now i got the lesson, But i thought domains would be at least safe while they are in cart for the certain amount of time set by the system, Which should be 2-hours, If i somehow missed the purchase in 2 hours i'd be fine, But i never knew when a domain in cart is still at risk.

Yeah. I hear you on that one. Not certain about all sites, but in my experience buying tickets, shoes, etc, businesses normally give you about 10-15 minutes "grace period" to complete your purchase before an item becomes available for others.

In the case of domains, especially ones gaining traction, I'd drop that down to 10-15 seconds (even when it's not a true auction). I always assume, if I found it, and like it and see some value in it, there's several others coming right behind me (or even in front of me, lol). I like Dynadot for just that reason, I can process a domain quickly, as soon as I want it. GoDaddy's process isn't as intuitive imo.

 

[Josytal]

I know about the renewal, But as for the domains placed in cart, If they still could be purchased by another party then this is nonsense, When you add a domain in your cart it will no longer be available for someone else to add it in their cart, The system automatically removes it to prevent double purchases. So, While you have a domain in your cart it can be purchased by someone else if you fail to complete the purchase within a certain amount of time which supposed to be 2-hours, If that happens the domain will be available again for other people to purchase. Or, If someone from GoDaddy removes it from your cart for any reason.

Did you use the search function on the marketplace to search for the domain, after it was removed from your cart?

I'm saying this 'cos GD closeout domains go through something similar to dutch auction and once it's time for the price to drop, they can be retrieved from carts and re-listed with the new, albeit, lower prices. From 11 to 8 and then to 5$.
A domain for $11 was once removed from my cart, only to be re-listed
for $5 the following days. i'm not saying this is good or bad, just sharing my experience.

 

[NLP]

I'm sorry to hear you lost a domain. I've found the info about the "2 hour" mark to be true; in fact, it happened to me around 2 weeks ago. I clicked on a .com that was listed at $50 and added it to my cart, at the same time that I was on the phone with GD support.

I actually had two items in my cart at the time (I'd found an outdated listing for the same name, so that's what I was calling about). Rather than focusing on the task at hand, I got distracted as I was verifying my info at the beginning of the call, and accidentally deleted the wrong name from my cart.

I couldn't believe I'd done that, because I knew it meant waiting at least 2 hours for it to show up again. I waited until 2am (exactly two hours), kept refreshing, and sure enough, it was back in the inventory.

I don't know how someone else could have bought it if your 'cart placement' should have meant the name was inaccessible for a couple of hours. But if it was a valuable name, I could see how multiple people could have been after it at the same time. I try to "add to cart" and pay as quickly as possible.

 

[Fadi H]

I try to "add to cart" and pay as quickly as possible.

Domain lost but the lesson is definitely well understood, I'd go this way for any future purchases.

 

[7363824]

A few people have pushed back on the idea that adding a domain to your cart reserves it. So I did a quick search and found the answer straight from Joe...

...The way the closeouts work is that if you add it to the cart it allows you time to complete the purchase which makes it disappear from everyone but you so no one else can buy it while you are trying to do so...

 

[tldboss]

Yes there are cases when that happens. They are rare but happen more often now that the demand for closeouts is extremely high. We have a system in place where if a closeout is added to the cart it adds a hold on the domain for you to be able to complete the checkout process. The issue is that in these cases where someone buys it before you, you and that other party are adding the domain to the cart within fractions of a second of each other, too quickly for our system to catch that and place a hold for any other parties.

I would wager that the original poster here is scripting the site or using an API and that it is being added at the more or less the same exact time as someone else doing the same thing. There is a great amount of demand on the closeouts now as I have stated. And even so the hold system catches this most of the time but there are domains that this is happening to and in that case it is going to the fastest person even if they are beating you by milliseconds.

You sent Joe the name, he can provide more details, specific to this case. Agree with others purchase as soon as you can, don't rely on the 2 hour window.

 

[Fadi H]

You sent Joe the name, he can provide more details, specific to this case. Agree with others purchase as soon as you can, don't rely on the 2 hour window.

That's the answer i was looking for, Thanks for sharing.

This could be the case scenario here. Lesson learned.

 

[DomainVP]

As i know, Once a domain is added to cart, GoDaddy removes it from closeouts and this is to prevent double purchases

A few people have pushed back on the idea that adding a domain to your cart reserves it. So I did a quick search and found the answer straight from Joe...

No, it's a pretty flawed system. Multiple people can add to cart, depending on the name and timing, and the first to buy is the winner/owner.

I remember once, A friend of mine bought a name on closeouts and paid for it, Later on he received an email from GoDaddy apologizing to him that the domain was first purchased and paid by another party. Somehow a double purchase happened as of them, So they simply refunded him the amount and the name went to the other buyer's account.

Oh once you say?

This was happening to me 3-5 times a week.

Seems that API buyers have slowed down, or are more selective using their secret back door now that it's been discussed publicly.

See previous threads:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/domains-taken-from-account-auctions-closeouts.1195276/
https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-disgusting-godaddy-auctions-api-issue.1186700/

 

[7363824]

The way the closeouts work is that if you add it to the cart it allows you time to complete the purchase which makes it disappear from everyone but you so no one else can buy it while you are trying to do so.

That is not exactly true. Domains are a competitive business. Especially closeouts. The domain is not yours because it is in the cart. It is yours when you pay for it before anyone else pays for it.

So I'm guessing thats a recent change within the last few years?

I think the 'old' way makes more sense. If i go to buy tickets online to a concert as soon as I select what tickets I want they reserve them and i have 8 minutes to complete checkout before they are returned to the pool of available tickets. Unlike with my concert example with closeouts some people can checkout faster than others (API users) to me this would make it somewhat more fair, not completely, but somewhat.

 

[Joe Styler]

No change except for the fact that the closeouts are much more competitive. If you read the other thread you will see that in most cases you cannot add a domain to the cart if someone else had already done so. The edge cases where this happens is usually in fractions of a second where two people add it and it slips past our hold. There is much more detail in the other thread.

 

[Samer]

They can do whatever want. they’re Godaddy.

Forgot @Paul Nicks. Good luck

Samer

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

They can do anything.

I remember once, A friend of mine bought a name on closeouts and paid for it, Later on he received an email from GoDaddy apologizing to him that the domain was first purchased and paid by another party. Somehow a double purchase happened as of them, So they simply refunded him the amount and the name went to the other buyer's account.

Edit : I heard from a supervisor that it's impossible for a domain to get reversed if it was purchased successfully. Possibly for the case i shared above is that my friend was the second buyer and the domain went to the first buyer's account as normal.

Now the question, Will we have to purchase domains immediately once we add them to cart? Because this doesn't seem to be safe anymore. This is confusing..

I had a ordered a dropcatch once at dropcatch.com.

I know I ordered it.

This is my issue with Dropcatch. when you order a dropcatch. there is no confirmation email indicating it. So who knows if it "stuck" on their own.

it's all based on "honor code"

but anyways. the drop I ordered ended up not in my name.

but in someone else's account at dropcatch.

I explained I ordered a dropcatch and if someone else ordered it. at the very least the domain would go into auction if there was more than one person ordering a dropcatch on it.

In thee end the domain was removed from the other account and put into my account.

and it was explained that this often happens since Dropcatch is partners with other registrars.

I was surprised they were able to just removed it from the other account and put it in my account. I really thought I had no shot at getting it since it was already clearly in someone else's account.

I suspect it might have been HugeDomains account as probably it was still in the process of being officially put in their account like in limbo.

All I saw was it was under Dropcatch so I assumed it was in someone else's account as when I checked it wasn't in my Namebright account.

I mean it was all just based on my "say so". I mean I wasn't lying. but I definitely could have, just to get the domain.

So yea anything IS possible as far as domains being in someone else's account.

 

[Fadi H]

Not here to defend any particular business but...

Actually cart placement is not an actual purchase, it is just a placeholder for you as a potential buyer - a convenience.

You haven't purchased anything until you actually check out and purchase said thing. This is common e-commerce practice. Happens to me all the time with flash sales (trying to buy Nikes and such for my teenage sons). Precisely why I'm obsessive when I find something I know I want, I process it. Fast.

Sorry that happened to you.

For now i got the lesson, But i thought domains would be at least safe while they are in cart for the certain amount of time set by the system, Which should be 2-hours, If i somehow missed the purchase in 2 hours i'd be fine, But i never knew when a domain is in cart it could still be at risk.