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.

 

[alcy]

i also heard they reserve domain for couple hours.. but that coudl well not apply to certain types of things like closeouts.

 

[7363824]

I don't know for sure but here is what I suspect. Ive heard somewhere too they reserve the name when its added to a cart, makes sense so they don't have to refund numerous other parties who ended up not completing their payment first.

That said setting it as reserved in the database as fast as it is isn't a guarantee that someone else can't add it to their cart just as quickly before their database updates to reflect its reserved.

Hard to say what they do in that case, then it may fall to the customer whose payment is made first. Either then preventing another payment from a second custom if detected and if not refunding the other payment that occurred second.

If I had to guess I'd say this is what happened to the OP. They and someone else likely added the domain to their cart within a fraction of a second of each other so they didn't know the other had it in their cart yet. The OP steps away the other customer completes payment. As the OP comes back to process their payment the GD system recognized the name was already sold and therefore removed the domain from the OPs cart to avoid having to refund their payment later. Admittedly this is conjecture but imo quite plausible but only Joe knows for sure.

 

[Josytal]

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.

I believed exactly what happened in OP case. The domain must be a good one, I bet.

 

[hui2000]

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.

Am not sure if it's right saying "its yours once you pay for a closeout" I have had two senarios in which i have paid and am issued a refund after 3 days without any reason and end up not getting the name and even loss some money due the exchange rate deviations.

 

[Ategy]

Two hours is excessive. You snooze you lose.

Not if you buy your closeouts in batches of 5 to get the $5 discount. Long ago I made the suggestion for them to simply make the discount a running count. If you bought more than 5 domains in a day, then you'd get $5 off on the 5th domain you bought that day. That way there'd be no reason to wait at all. Ideally then $1 off per domain after that .. or just keep going in fives if $1 per subsequent is too hard for them to code.

 

[Fadi H]

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.

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.

 

[Fadi H]

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 price. 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 know where you are coming from, But the support confirmed that someone else purchased it.

 

[Fadi H]

I don't know for sure but here is what I suspect. Ive heard somewhere too they reserve the name when its added to a cart, makes sense so they don't have to refund numerous other parties who ended up not completing their payment first.

That said setting it as reserved in the database as fast as it is isn't a guarantee that someone else can't add it to their cart just as quickly before their database updates to reflect its reserved.

Hard to say what they do in that case, then it may fall to the customer whose payment is made first. Either then preventing another payment from a second custom if detected and if not refunding the other payment that occurred second.

If I had to guess I'd say this is what happened to the OP. They and someone else likely added the domain to their cart within a fraction of a second of each other so they didn't know the other had it in their cart yet. The OP steps away the other customer completes payment. As the OP comes back to process their payment the GD system recognized the name was already sold and therefore removed the domain from the OPs cart to avoid having to refund their payment later. Admittedly this is conjecture but imo quite plausible but only Joe knows for sure.

I exclude the possibility of adding the same domain to multiple carts, If you are 0.01 second late you'd lose it to someone else, HD bot is a good example.

 

[Fadi H]

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...

That's what i was talking about, But it doesn't seem to be the case here. I am positive that i didn't take long to get back to the cart and complete the purchase, Unless if i somehow didn't feel the time and spent the 2 hours in a flash.

 

[Fadi H]

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)

Very logic answer, Thanks.

 

[Joe Styler]

You will have to read the longer thread I linked to in order to understand what I mean here. I also did not mention the fact that some domains can be redeemed, as it did not apply to this specific situation but may to yours, and others had already brought that up.

 

[7363824]

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.

Thanks for clarifying. It sounded like you were saying you don't reserve names at all in your post here. So you still do its just not guaranteed. That makes sense.