Why do old and experienced domainers hate GoDaddy

[Vibhor]

I have seen many experienced domainers on youtube and some here in namepros that they dont like godaddy if they do hate godaddy can we know any reason or experience about it they might had about godaddy

I might be wrong in my understanding

Please Correct me if i am wrong

 

[Peak.Domains]

This is just my experience, I can't speak for anyone else. Prices are in Canadian dollars, which is about $1 CAD for $0.75 USD.

My main complaint with them is communication/customer service.

It's comically bad. It's like you're on Candid Camera or Punk'd and you're waiting for the host to step out and be like "Nah just kidding, there's no way we'd actually treat our customers like this, gotcha!"

Another reason I dislike them is their janky pricing.

Right now, I'm looking at a registration for a .com. It's $3 for the first year. Awesome, right? Nope, because you have to buy two years at once, and the second year is $25. And so is every year after that. Then it's another $15 on top of that for privacy (or $10 if it's on sale?)

When it's all said and done, year two at GoDaddy is going to cost me around $40 to renew a domain name with privacy, so I'd rather get 3 or 4 .com's somewhere else for the same price. Even year 1 is more expensive at GoDaddy with their $3 .com promotion if you want privacy, compared to a bunch of other places that offer privacy for free, cheaper registrations, and much cheaper renewals.

They're allowed to price things however they want to, I just prefer a company that's a little more domainer-friendly.

It seems like GoDaddy got really big by being provocative early on, and being the only place to buy domains that many people had even heard of. This leads to small business owners buying names there because they don't know any better, and then forgetting to renew their domains which gives GoDaddy such a massive auction house... Which I think is ultimately the reason that domainers put up with everything else I've outlined above. They have a ton of names going through the auctions every day, and there are some gems to be found.

In fairness: I've heard their support is fantastic if you have an account rep. And if you pay $174 every year for their discount domain club you unlock the special power of paying just about the same price for renewals as you can find somewhere else (but you still end up paying the same amount for privacy that other places charge for an entire domain with free privacy, not to mention the $174...)


Unrelated sidenote: I was punching in a random name to check the price and it was taken LOL

 

[equity78]

Not all old time domainers hate GoDaddy. When you are the 800 pound gorilla everyone has used you and with so much more volume than most, more problems arise.

 

[BaileyUK]

I think most 'Old hands' are just fed-up with Godaddys constant screwing around with pricing, terms of service, interface, service levels.etc - most of all Pricing though (renewals costs are very expensive)
When they first entered the market. they were brilliant and I was one of the first to jump onboard. I keep promising myself to get away ASAP. but no i'm still there. Personally I've had lots of bad experiences with Godaddy, from their reps giving conflicting advice about pricing, renewals etc. I wouldn't advise anyone to use their service, unless it was just for a say one or two domains that were taking advantage of some of their additional bolt-on services for a small business website

 

[Windoms]

At the same time there's a lot of people who are dealing with 1 or 2 registrars and they choose GD or GD + something else.
Up this point I was only dealing with GD but I'm looking to transfer most of my domains somewhere else. I will still be using GD for acquisitions because hand regs aside, it's my main place to get domains.
imo you find more hate toward GD with domainers who are dealing with 5+ registrars and always looking for deals.
If GD could include free privacy with discount club, it would change everything.
Add the possibility to have afternic landers with modern features and ITS DONE.
Problem is GD aftermarket is stuck into old ways.

 

[lock]

I been domaining for 20+ years and am with Godaddy with 600+ domains so not quite right
Why I am with Godaddy may make you consider them.
I had domains at registrar F they were dodgy Icann were involved and X registrar was a quick solution for transfer. This point of time history of registrars all of a sudden became important.
In meantime others have grown up but if you been through the experiences you do not think same as newbies. I have seen domains I owned lifted for sale that angered me. I have had plenty of problems but not like I have had with other registrars. Reminds me member Craigd helped uncover a lot back in day.

 

[Tia Wood]

My only complaints about GoDaddy are the costs of renewal and the quality of their hosting.

 

[lock]

Looks like I got a new account manager the last one thought to ring 5 am my time to discuss business. Still stick with them but I am in no rush to move anything and don't really require assistance. NP circles solve 90% of my issues thanks again for all those I lean on at times.

 

[carob]

When it was a privately held company run by founder Bob Parsons the prices were higher than other registrars, but there were a lot of discount coupons, and customer service and email support was excellent and prompt about dealing with stuff. So the higher prices seemed possibly justified, except for the mediocre hosting.

Since being sold and made a public company, prices have risen and quality of customer service and the web interface have nosedived. So I don't hate Godaddy but I certainly do not love them or keep many domains there.

Their complete unwillingness to fix even the simplest issues at Afternic, which they own, makes me think they are totally focused on short term profits and feel they are big enough to afford to lose customers. And they do.

 

[Windoms]

Their complete unwillingness to fix even the simplest issues at Afternic, which they own, makes me think they are totally focused on short term profits and feel they are big enough to afford to lose customers. And they do.

I feel like this is all due to whoever is in charge of aftermarket at GD and not GD as a whole.
They are the one's supposed to be aware of the tweaks and updates needed to improve the platform.
But in order to have improvement you need a young, dynamic and innovative team.
Things like afternic landers that give full priority to brokers with absolutely 0 features or HD auctions abuse; absolute nonsense.

 

[D Haynes]

Their prices are astronomical. 18 bucks a year for a .com? No thanks.

 

[Rob Monster]

I starting using Godaddy in 2007 or thereabouts. I concluded that Godaddy needed in competition in 2010 after they tried to rip me off with a WHOIS privacy scam. I called them out but go no remedy:

https://epik.com/blog/bob-parsons-tear-down-your-privacy-wall.html

Epik became a registrar a year later through an acquisition.

That said, they have lovely people. As such, I believe they endure on relationships. They have some of the classiest people on the front lines, e.g. @Paul Nicks, @Joe Styler, Bob Mountain, etc.

The problems with Godaddy:

- The technology is terrible -- and the staff have known it for years. When you have a revolving door in your development team, it becomes unmaintainable. They would have to rewrite it. Tough duty.

- The policies are increasingly opportunistic and Draconian. If you know people there, you're good. If you don't well, tough luck.

Eventually the financial games of buying portfolios and selling off the cream will run out, and the stock price will collapse. The smart money left the building. Retail investors will be left holding the drippy bag.

As for the great people at Godaddy, at some point they have to gut-check, and decide the value of their soul. I hope a few of them make their way to Epik before they are too soul-crushed.

 

[Larion]

Why do old and experienced domainers hate godaddy

As per my experience with them, I think GoDaddy is tracking you.
I think they watch every move you do on their website.
Either that or their system is just crappy.


Would never use GoDaddy myself. I do not trust them.

 

[gtldomainer]

System is quite buggy and acts weird at times.

I'm getting this error since last 12hrs.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

What I hate is how you can't compete in their own auction against their expired domains auctions.

They heavily promote their expired domains auctions. Just check namebio.

Thing is. If my domain with GoDaddy expires, not too many know this but you can still transfer out. Yet you are not allowed to auction you domain because it is expired.

Yet if 7 days before delete or redemption. I forget which. They are already auction your domain which you can still transfer out.

Ever won a domain at auction but find out owner renewed or transferred out? That's proof.

We all know the POWER of labelling a domain as an "expired auction" why is that option or that power reserved only for the GoDaddy? Or for any registrar that your domain is at?