1. 10 Responses to “Beware GoDaddy For Domain Registrations”

2. I didn’t knew about the “invalid domain” problem, but the removal (and retention) of domains is becoming a common trouble in GoDaddy, without mentioning the backorders. Once I lost a $50k domain just because I made the newbie decision of backordering with them, and after that, they auctioned it. Not fair.

   Can you recomment a trustable registrar?

   By Kyo on Mar 2, 2007

3. I haven’t had any problems with NameCheap. I can’t imagine too many registrars actually have this same policy.

   By Darren McLaughlin on Mar 2, 2007

4. I’ve been using Chuga.com in combination with Tag Board to register and that’s where I manage all of my domains .. since 2001. Knock on wood, but I’ve absolutely have not had any issues - ever. I remember in 2003 I consolidated all of my accounts registered elsewhere and with Internic.ca and the move went extremely smoothly back then. I also was using their tag-board (I still get spam on them) and I can’t remember them being down or anything.

   But, their legal page is a link of about 50 legal documents and I doubt I even read one of them in full detail. It’s also weird that Chuga.com actually doesn’t have a front webpage.

   When ever I read about a horror story about registars and domain handling .. it always seems to be wtih GoDaddy.

   By HART (1-800-HART) on Mar 3, 2007

5. Anyone got any thoughts on HostGator?

   By Bill on Mar 3, 2007

6. I wanted to add my horror story about Godaddy and answer Bill’s question about HostGator. Recently, I purchased 10 domains from GoDaddy and they were going to be my host using mySQL databases, however, after my webmaster spent 4 hours trying to install server-side software, it was not compatible with Godaddy’s equipment–something they should have told me upfront when I asked. Turns out after sending a complaint email, they did refund me for the hosting–a real surprise, but I’ll take it for my trouble. After this discussion, I am worried about the domains still with them and am considering a move. HostGator is the company my webmaster recomended and it has been smooth sailing ever since. HostGator has the resources, toll free support, short wait times, the most helpful people, you can pay monthly and they don’t try to sell you upgrades on every page you visit. Questions: Is it really true that you have to wait 60 days to move your domains? Should I not try to move all 10 domains at once?

   By gaylem on Mar 5, 2007

7. Hi All…

   This is actually quite a strange blog entry, to me. I am also a reseller for the sister company of GoDaddy, Wild West Domains. Both of these companies are individually accredited ICANN Registrars. They sell the same stuff (GoDaddy gets the new products and services first), but GoDaddy sells directly to the customer, while WWD uses resellers.

   I actually had my trouble with Domain Registrars long before I became a reseller myself. In fact, I still have trouble with some of the other registrars now that I manage a large domain portfolio of over 500 names.

   While I will agree that GoDaddy’s web hosting is proprietary and thusly has some problems associated with its hosting platform (particularly in the includes and asp arenas) there are often simple work arounds. Also, I will insist that GoDaddy’s & Wild West Domains’ web hosting is a budget service and should not be confused with a full featured web hosting account. But I have learned, from experience, that this web hosting solution is among the most reliable in the industry. If I require a site be up and online all the time, this is where I will host.

   I have never had any kinds of the problems mentioned above, though. Of course, I don’t spam or send out newsletters. Of course, I would think that if your website or business relies directly on email marketing, I personally recomend that you follow the current laws associated with spam.

   I hate spam and I loathe spammers, worse. I do think that spam should be outlawed and that spammers should be shot or at least jailed after conviction. Spam has contributed immensely to the slow-down of small business (particularly my own) and the extreme investment all web users have to make in order to stay safe on the internet. I HATE SPAM & Spammers with a passion! They disgust me.

   But don’t get me wrong, I know how easily it is to convict someone of spamming without trying. All you really have to do is report an address once, and most spam uses fake addresses. I am sick of people using my email addresses to send spam to me or anyone else.

   But you have admitted that you messed-up. In effect, you sent spam, whether you like it or not. I do not agree that all of your domains were responsible, only one of them sent the spam, right? So I think that you were railroaded. But I think I would have had a bigger fit and a better lawyer, too.

   Unfortunately, I have no good alternative registrar suggestion. I like being a Wild West Domains reseller (I go by Domain Hostmaster). As a web designer, it enables me to offer more value and expand my market reach.

   I will admit that the tech support staff seems to be a labor force of high school employees that rely too heavily on the documented materials they are trained with, but they are personable and they DO speak English. This was my main problem with other registrars. NetSol couldn’t understand much that I said and I couldn’t understand their Indian accents at all. Register sold me stuff that did NEVER worked and wouldn’t support it. AllDomains treated me like I was dirt and never gave me answers. RegisterFly lost my Domains. NameCheap treated me like crap and had no answers.

   It really is depressing how much power ANY registrar wields over ANY customer that relies on his/her/its Domain, I do agree.

   But, ICANN is the one requiring that each domain have a valid email contact address, not GoDaddy or Wild West. And for good reason… to combat spam and phishing. Of course these sites (with bogus email contacts) need to be deleted immediately. ICANN is quite serious about this.

   Still, I think that you were particularly vulnerable because of the nature of your business. I get your newsletter and I like it. But I am particularly shocked that you are cutting down GoDaddy for your experience that you admit was your fault. Did you follow up once the fine had been paid and appeal to someone more in charge?

   Sure, I agree that GoDaddy gauged you, but they did teach you a lesson that you haven’t repeated, right? I would simply appeal their decision both with GD and with ICANN. Yes, they should have charged you $75.00, but they took it too far and the yutz at the customer support desk is to blame for that. But it was your mistake to begin with for noncompliance to antispam legislation. I am surprised that you don’t see or understand that.

   By Syd's Eastside on Mar 6, 2007

8. The reason I never wrote about my experience before is because I suspected someone, like you, of misunderstanding the circumstances and accusing me of being a spammer. Let me clarify: GoDaddy wasn’t my web host. I’ve always managed my own network including DNS and SMTP since 1991 (long before GoDaddy existed). I also resold many domains for them when I was a webhost/ISP. I believe they used the “Domains Priced Right” and “Wild West Domains” for the accounts. The only service I ever used them for is DNS. They point root DNS to my name servers. I’ve never heard of a domain registrar handling “spam complaints”. The correct chain of command is to complain to the 1) Webhost (me) and 2) the backbone provider. When in the hell does someone complain to the domain registrar? It’s never happened in the 15+ years I’ve ran a commercial network sending commercial email on the internet.

   No, I’m not a spammer. I sent a newsletter out to all of my customers. This is what’s known as a “pre-existing business relationship”. I also sent it one time. It contained an “unsubscribe option”.

   GoDaddy wasn’t right to suspend my domains over this incident at all. THERE WERE NO SPAM COMPLAINTS. They said is was their employee who “complained about the spam”.
   
   The company themselves accused me of spamming. If there was a “victim” of my alleged crime I would have felt much more comfortable. The “employee” if he existed at all, was a customer of mine. More likely, it was automated, and no one complained at all. I never saw a copy of a single complaint, despite paying $375 in “fines”.

   Also, just so you know, there is no $75 mentioned anywhere on their website. Every other account that this happened to mentions paying $50. It’s complete horsecrap.

   I’m pretty sure you understand exactly what a SPAM email is, and you realize they don’t have let you opt out and they don’t even use real email addresses. Do you realize that almost NONE of the email I get is CAN-SPAM compliant?

   Do you also realize that if someone wanted to destroy your online business, it would be incredibly easy to forge a spam email and have you “turned off” at your registrar? This is the big problem. Anyone can forge a spam email. Since GoDaddy will fine you for it, I consider this to be a huge vulnerability, especially for anyone with big league competition in the SEO sector.

   GoDaddy wasn’t my web host. I run my own SMTP servers, so there is no possible reason for them to get involved in a spam complaint, except to make money. The idea that this morally bankrupt company could “teach me a lesson” in anything to do with ethics or business is laughable at best. As I said in my post, I used them from 1998-2006 without a single complaint. Most companies would have looked into the situation instead of going hog-wild trying to steal $375-1,000 from me.

   And since you brought morality into it: what is the message they’re sending? It’s okay if you spam, as long as you send $200? Hahahahahah! They wanted $200 per domain TO STAY WITH THEM. In addition to my $40 in reg fees, I could stay as long as I paid $1,000 extra. Hopefully this response doesn’t sound defensive, but I have to admit to getting pissed off every time I think about this. A fine of $1,000 for $40 per year worth of domains is just ludicrous!

   Also, I can honestly say that GoDaddy has done nothing to stop the amount of spam on the internet with these policies. So thanks for your comments, but we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. This was a cheesy move by one very shady company.

   By Darren McLaughlin on Mar 7, 2007

9. I’ve been really happy with Dreamhost.

   I signed up because I got a promo code to make the first year almost free (I think it was their 7th birthday?).

   I’ve used them now for about 2 years and they have a wide variety of one click installs, unlimited this, unlimited that, ever increasing bandwidth quotas, and I found a 25% off coupon using a tool I was trying, pligg (PHP digg clone) — enter promo code PLIGG25 for 25% off.

   They do free domain name renewal in the 2nd year it seems.

   I’m not affiliated with them — I’m only here because received an incoming link from Sootle after I blogged about SEO today (thanks technorati), but I am a happy customer with them.

   Interesting to hear about GoDaddy. Sounds awful.

   By Julian on Mar 19, 2007

10. I’ll admit it. I used to work for GoDaddy. It’s been well over 2 years, so the ‘non-disclosure’ agreement I signed has been void for a while.

    DOmain registration woes used to be the bread and butter of the calls I took every day. thousands of customers per day would call in with complaints exactly like the ones listed above:

    “My domain registrar is refusing to let me transfer my domain name.”
    “I got tagged as a spammer, what can I do?”
    “I just registered 3,000 domain names, and they were all mispelled, can I get a refund?”

    You wouldn’t believe how many calls, per day, Go Daddy received exactly like that. Earlier int his article, or a similar one related to this debate, someone mentioned “Go Daddy won’t even call you if you’re outside Arizona, they won’t even provide an 800 number!”

    I can answer this one confidently, having asked management several times about this exact issue. Why not have a 1-800 number? And the answer is simple - if your call isn’t important, you won’t dial the number. 1-800 numbers cost money to the owner. Every call is money. Every call where they are asking how to fix a printer, or how to fix the BlueScreen of Death is an employee who COULD be talking to a Go Daddy customer, selling them additional products or services.

    Because every department - billing, tech support, everyone - every department that answers the phone, is there to sell you something. That’s their job.

    Can I blame Go Daddy for removing the registration of a domain with incorrect information? Absolutely not. Check your EULA, or domain registration agreement. It’s there, in black and white, to keep your information correct.

    Does Go Daddy call every customer with an incorrect e-mail on their domain name? No. It woudl be an exercise in futility. One of my jobs was to call customers, and remind them their domains were expiring.

    Once again, one of the jobs I had, for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week plus overtime and benfits, was to call customers who had domain names that were expiring, and assist thme in KEEPING thier domain names. It was that simple. Sure, it was a sales call, plain and simple. I made more money off selling that customer e-mail services, or hosting, or any number of other services we offered in addition to their domain name. But we called as many a day as we could possibly call. And we couldn’t even keep up with it.

    Most people simply hung up, disgusted at the ’soliciation’ calls. Most never beleived you were with Go Daddy. WHY would they be calling? No self-respecting INTERNET company calls their customers. Even ones with entire departments devoted to reaching out to the new customers. It was appropriately named the ‘outreach’ department. Was it their intention to sell MORE products? Absolutely. But customers were OUTRAGED that we used the right information to contact them, and say hello.

    So, Go Daddy tries to contact a customer via e-mail, especially when it comes to domain disputes. This goes back to the days of NetSol (Network Solutions for the uninitated) refusing to do anyting if it didn’t come directly from the proper e-mail address. They try to contact the customer via the e-mail listed on the domain itsself (and a yearley letter to customers to keep it correct), as well as the e-mail provided in the customer account. The second e-mail (account e-mail) is kept private, never sold to anyone, but is used for their own e-mail ’spam’ campaigns. But since you provided the e-mail when you purchased the domain, you are a customer. So some people put the wrong address in their customer account.

    Let me stress, Go Daddy deals with this exact same situation THOUSANDS OF TIMES a day. It’s literally impossible for me to recount how many people complained to me that they lost thier domain because they failed to put the correct e-mail address on the registration, as well as their customer account. There is no end to the problems associated with domain registration, and the lack of good registration information.

    They took a slightly ‘harder’ stance than most registrars have taken…but I beleive it has to do with the owners military mindset and background than anything. To go ‘halfway’ into an engagement is to fail before you start.

    Should they immediately suspend an account when they receive a complaint? They don’t, usually. As the response from Camille stated, it is usually due to *SEVERAL* complaints. Do they reveal that information, as to who complained? Not to my knowledge. Admitting it was their own employee sounds preposterous. Secrecy, and avoidance of responsibility is the bread and butter of today’s technology company, and Go Daddy is no different. Admitting one of their employees made a complaint, and THEN immediately shutting it down sounds VERY thin, having worked with these people directly and knowing their work habits and practices.

    The simple solution, is to make sure your registration information (e-mail address…you can put whatever you want for the rest of it) is correct.

    The 60 day waiting period is encorced by ICANN. ICANN states that you cannot transfer a domain away from the ORIGINAL registrar until after 60 days. NetSol added, without ICANN approval, 60 days before expiration. Go Daddy will allow you to transfer domains away quickly, and easily. Provided the domain registration e-mail address and the e-mail address on the customer account are actually yours. I’ve seen thousands of domains get transferrred to, and from Go Daddy in 48 hours, with no issues. Because the customer was well informed (by me) of what was necessary, what to do when they got the confirmation e-mails, and how to get them transferred efficiently, and change DNS settings appropriately. Maybe 1 out of 100 got it right the first time.

    So your host was yourself, and you are your own e-mail adminstrator. Hey, fantastic, most people can’t do that, so I applaud your ability to be an independant operator. Someone, and we will never know who, complained you were spamming. Perhaps you have ‘open relay’ turned on your e-mail server, and you have been passing along spam for years. If you have open relay off, perhaps someone with a grudge spoofed, or smurfed your e-mail address and SMTP server. Go Daddy has absolutely no way of knowing.

    So they take action. They GIVE YOU AN OPTION - pay and leave, or pay & stay. I can’t say it’s a great policy, but it’s the policy they have against SPAM. Love ot hate them, they are taking a stance against SPAM. If you plan on staying with Go Daddy, or any of their associated WWD registrars, I’d suggest registering a domain at another site that you use for e-mail. For hosting, GoDaddy is top notch, but their e-mail usage policy covers ALL DOMAINS REGISTERED with them. Regardless of who hosts them, they are ultimately responsible, according to ICANN. They are simply the only ones taking action.

    As to the loss of FamilyAlbum.com - domains that have incorrect information are returned to the ‘domain name pool’….except, backordering domain names is HUGE business.

    It used to be a domain name that expired had 30 days for the owner to renew, and then an addition 30 days (the “redemption” period) where the owner could renew at a premium price. After that, it was ‘up for grabs’.

    Except that registrars like NetSol (who were the ones administering it, regulating it, and making money from it) seemed to always win over the ‘bids’ made by other registrars. This got noticed. Things got changed. Competition was created, and new rules established. And customers weren’t very well informed, because neither NetSol, nor Go Daddy wanted to explain how to get the EXACT domain you wanted, because of exploitation of the system.

    So domain backordering, the domain name aftermarket (TDNAM), and a bevvy of other methods were invented for people who want a domain that wasn’t free. After a while, though, waiting isn’t enough. NetSol offeres 100 year registrations (complete BS, check into it), and 10 year registrations are commonplace - but if someone wants your domain, and it’s at Go Daddy getting it is a matter of knowing how to exploit the system. This seems to have been what happened.

    The registration information on “familyAlbum.com” is the “domains by proxy” business solution offered by Go Daddy. It allows you to use all your correct contact information, and ensure spammers dont get ahold of it. DBP lets you keep registration and account information up-to-date, so you never fear losing your registration. Of course it costs extra, and the Federal Government is absolutely AGAINST it (which is why it cannot be applied to .us domain names), but it was done because Bob values privacy, especially the privacy of his customers. I know this first hand, because I’ve talked to him, face-to-face about it when I worked for him. And I’ve seen the ideas that have been presented to him that wqere rejected, or how they changed from when first suggested. He truly values his customers, but his heartstrings are connected to his purse strings - as you will find with all self-made multi-millionares who have internationally successful businesses.

    So, someone took the name familyalbum.com. I’ve seen comments about “every time someone clicks on their add, they make money”. From who? It’s hosted at Go Daddy, and registered at Go Daddy. All it’s doing is driving traffic to Go Daddy. They aren’t going to pay themselves for a referral to themselves. The banner ads are put on the parked pages because they know how valuable traffic to their site is. Its the same reason you’ll find banner ads on their free hosting - because it generates more business for a successful company.

    Ultimately, no one is EVER going to be completely satisfied with someone who takes hard stances, as Bob does. He takes his idea, and he runs with it. You might not like his ideas, but you have to give him credit. He has built a hugely successful company from the ground up, originally run from the garage of a home, into what it is today.

    And he does it by having everyone you talk to try to sell you services.

    By EvilDanger on Aug 20, 2007

1. 1 Trackback(s)

2. Mar 7, 2007: Are Your Mailings CAN-SPAM Compliant?

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.