7 ms·

GoDaddy buying domains when they expire to extort their own users

79 points by lordleft 4y ago

kevmarsden 4y ago
I don't really trust GoDaddy, but there's no evidence there that GoDaddy purchased the domain in question. It's just parked with them.
skeeter2020 4y ago
First, GoDaddy is a garbage company and I would avoid using them. It is very hard to purchase a domain without agreeing to some other high-margin, bs-service add-on. The dark patterns are off the charts. That said, you did let your domain expire. This is really tough to do unless you're not getting admin reminders (I think you get 3 before it expires?). If your domain is important or valauble why would you save a piddly few bucks and wait until it's near expiry? Buy multiple years or auto renew. This is not a "brilliant new scam"; registrars and 3rd parties have been doing it since we all used verisign. Also, how do you know it was purchased by GoDaddy? How can you tell the differnce between someone else registering and parking it with them?
- tsetsetaset 4y ago
  > That said, you did let your domain expire. They also let you remove your domains long before they expire. I once tried it, it gets automatically "catched" and offered for an eye-watering amount. Godaddy have nothing to lose, ICANN charges them only 18 cents per domain, why not cybersquat.
- miohtama 4y ago
  GoDaddy is the pioneer of dark patterns and the Silicon Valley SaaS model. Every step they take is a step to extract more money out from the user. Sadly, it is clearly a good business model.
- evad3r 4y ago
  She did say in the tweet replies that yes, it’s on her that her domain expired, the credit card expired and the reminder emails went to spam. That’s not what she is complaining about though.
- scifibestfi 4y ago
  They must not be aware that this was a common thing before GoDaddy joined. It happens to most domains that get traffic? These domain buyers all suck.
user3939382 4y ago
ICANN doesn’t enforce its rules with GoDaddy because they’re too big. I had this conversation with Vint Cerf about their shenanigans several years ago when he was the chairman. Something that’s a grey area is 0 hope. Some things never change. Don’t do business with GD.
- _vyrd 4y ago
  Fortunately we don't need ICANN here. GoDaddy is claiming that the new domain owner paid over $100 for the domain. If the new owner is GoDaddy itself and they haven't completed the necessary accounting gymnastics to make this legal, then their statement may likely constitute fraud. IANAL & TINLA.
ffgh 4y ago
I'm not surprised. GoDaddy supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Is the public still not convinced GoDaddy is an evil and shady company? When someone mentions them I always advise them to transfer their domain/hosting elsewhere.
partiallypro 4y ago
I really hate GoDaddy, I try to avoid them personally, but they do have a good DNS collaboration (sharing access to another account) that I wish others would mimic. Cloudflare requires you have Enterprise to have the exact same features.
Arubis 4y ago
When given the choice, don’t do business with companies with a history of treating people like garbage—be those people their customers, employees, or innocent bystanders. I’d no sooner recommend new business use GoDaddy than Wells Fargo.
busymom0 4y ago
I have had a personal experience and have also read others where I added a domain to my cart, then came back a few hours later to buy it and it was “sold” and godaddy wanted premium price after.
enneff 4y ago
The entire domain name market is populated by rent seekers by definition. And GoDaddy has a long history of bad behaviour. Not surprising in the least.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
drtz 4y ago
Anecdotally, this type of behavior seemed to be the norm in the late 90s / early 2000s. I remember having a domain my parents' had registered for their business. My parents forgot to pay the bill on it one year, and the registrar (don't remember which) bought it up, and wanted some huge "fee" in the hundreds of dollar range before giving it back. It's akin to the overdraft fees banks charge: charging ridiculous prices for a "service" the customer didn't even ask for.
subrat_rout 4y ago
One more suggestion. Never ever search any domain you want to buy on GoDaddy. If you search something and the domain name is available and you did not buy it, then good luck getting that domain at a normal price in the future. GoDaddy generally buys it and then parks it with asking price of x100 to x1000 range.
fleddr 4y ago
Not sure if still a thing, but years ago some registrars would register an available domain as you searched for it. They could do this instantly, at zero or near-zero costs, and then release it later if the purchase did not go through. In other words, be careful which tool you use to search for the availability of domains.
- hericium 4y ago
  GoDaddy was the undisputed champion of this scam.
paxys 4y ago
So the author didn't set their domain on auto renew, ignored all warning emails and let it expire. Then someone (probably a bot) bought it and put it back up for sale, for an amount more than the author is willing to pay. And somehow this is all GoDaddy's fault? Where is the "scam" exactly?
- emodendroket 4y ago
  It sounds like the claim is GoDaddy themselves are squatting on domains their customers fail to re-register. According to previous reports they also do this to domains prospective customers search for.
  - paxys 4y ago
    That’s the claim, yes, but there’s nothing to back it up. What makes her think that GoDaddy bought the domain and not like literally anyone else on the planet?
arcastroe 4y ago
Others have mentioned that GoDaddy will park domains that users have searched for or added to cart. Does this cost them money to do? Or do they get to buy domains at near zero cost by virtue of being a registrar? I wonder if it's possible to penalize them for this behavior with bots to perform searches of useless word permutations and adding them to the cart at scale. It would probably be too easy to identify and filter the traffic, but just musing out loud.
snehk 4y ago
This has happened to like ten years ago. Had a domain with my last name and after it expired, someone bought it and kept it for a year. The last name is absolutely uncommon and there are about ten people world wide who have it. It's also not a name for another thing or anything. I always wondered why someone would even spend money on it.
gofarty 4y ago
I hate godaddy, they renewed my hosting without my consent, and the price went from around 15-20$ a year, to a $400 charge!!! ANd THEY REFUSED TO GIVE THE MONEY BACK WHEN I CALLED THEM. THEY ARE THE WORST.

79 points by lordleft 4y ago

I don't really trust GoDaddy, but there's no evidence there that GoDaddy purchased the domain in question. It's just parked with them.

skeeter2020 4y ago

First, GoDaddy is a garbage company and I would avoid using them. It is very hard to purchase a domain without agreeing to some other high-margin, bs-service add-on. The dark patterns are off the charts. That said, you did let your domain expire. This is really tough to do unless you're not getting admin reminders (I think you get 3 before it expires?). If your domain is important or valauble why would you save a piddly few bucks and wait until it's near expiry? Buy multiple years or auto renew. This is not a "brilliant new scam"; registrars and 3rd parties have been doing it since we all used verisign. Also, how do you know it was purchased by GoDaddy? How can you tell the differnce between someone else registering and parking it with them?

tsetsetaset 4y ago
> That said, you did let your domain expire. They also let you remove your domains long before they expire. I once tried it, it gets automatically "catched" and offered for an eye-watering amount. Godaddy have nothing to lose, ICANN charges them only 18 cents per domain, why not cybersquat.
miohtama 4y ago
GoDaddy is the pioneer of dark patterns and the Silicon Valley SaaS model. Every step they take is a step to extract more money out from the user. Sadly, it is clearly a good business model.
evad3r 4y ago
She did say in the tweet replies that yes, it’s on her that her domain expired, the credit card expired and the reminder emails went to spam. That’s not what she is complaining about though.
scifibestfi 4y ago
They must not be aware that this was a common thing before GoDaddy joined. It happens to most domains that get traffic? These domain buyers all suck.

user3939382 4y ago

ICANN doesn’t enforce its rules with GoDaddy because they’re too big. I had this conversation with Vint Cerf about their shenanigans several years ago when he was the chairman. Something that’s a grey area is 0 hope. Some things never change. Don’t do business with GD.

_vyrd 4y ago
Fortunately we don't need ICANN here. GoDaddy is claiming that the new domain owner paid over $100 for the domain. If the new owner is GoDaddy itself and they haven't completed the necessary accounting gymnastics to make this legal, then their statement may likely constitute fraud. IANAL & TINLA.

ffgh 4y ago

I'm not surprised. GoDaddy supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Is the public still not convinced GoDaddy is an evil and shady company? When someone mentions them I always advise them to transfer their domain/hosting elsewhere.

partiallypro 4y ago

I really hate GoDaddy, I try to avoid them personally, but they do have a good DNS collaboration (sharing access to another account) that I wish others would mimic. Cloudflare requires you have Enterprise to have the exact same features.

Arubis 4y ago

When given the choice, don’t do business with companies with a history of treating people like garbage—be those people their customers, employees, or innocent bystanders. I’d no sooner recommend new business use GoDaddy than Wells Fargo.

busymom0 4y ago

I have had a personal experience and have also read others where I added a domain to my cart, then came back a few hours later to buy it and it was “sold” and godaddy wanted premium price after.

enneff 4y ago

The entire domain name market is populated by rent seekers by definition. And GoDaddy has a long history of bad behaviour. Not surprising in the least.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

drtz 4y ago

Anecdotally, this type of behavior seemed to be the norm in the late 90s / early 2000s. I remember having a domain my parents' had registered for their business. My parents forgot to pay the bill on it one year, and the registrar (don't remember which) bought it up, and wanted some huge "fee" in the hundreds of dollar range before giving it back. It's akin to the overdraft fees banks charge: charging ridiculous prices for a "service" the customer didn't even ask for.

subrat_rout 4y ago

One more suggestion. Never ever search any domain you want to buy on GoDaddy. If you search something and the domain name is available and you did not buy it, then good luck getting that domain at a normal price in the future. GoDaddy generally buys it and then parks it with asking price of x100 to x1000 range.

fleddr 4y ago

Not sure if still a thing, but years ago some registrars would register an available domain as you searched for it. They could do this instantly, at zero or near-zero costs, and then release it later if the purchase did not go through. In other words, be careful which tool you use to search for the availability of domains.

hericium 4y ago
GoDaddy was the undisputed champion of this scam.

paxys 4y ago

So the author didn't set their domain on auto renew, ignored all warning emails and let it expire. Then someone (probably a bot) bought it and put it back up for sale, for an amount more than the author is willing to pay. And somehow this is all GoDaddy's fault? Where is the "scam" exactly?

emodendroket 4y ago
It sounds like the claim is GoDaddy themselves are squatting on domains their customers fail to re-register. According to previous reports they also do this to domains prospective customers search for.
- paxys 4y ago
  That’s the claim, yes, but there’s nothing to back it up. What makes her think that GoDaddy bought the domain and not like literally anyone else on the planet?

arcastroe 4y ago

Others have mentioned that GoDaddy will park domains that users have searched for or added to cart. Does this cost them money to do? Or do they get to buy domains at near zero cost by virtue of being a registrar? I wonder if it's possible to penalize them for this behavior with bots to perform searches of useless word permutations and adding them to the cart at scale. It would probably be too easy to identify and filter the traffic, but just musing out loud.

snehk 4y ago

This has happened to like ten years ago. Had a domain with my last name and after it expired, someone bought it and kept it for a year. The last name is absolutely uncommon and there are about ten people world wide who have it. It's also not a name for another thing or anything. I always wondered why someone would even spend money on it.

gofarty 4y ago

I hate godaddy, they renewed my hosting without my consent, and the price went from around 15-20$ a year, to a $400 charge!!! ANd THEY REFUSED TO GIVE THE MONEY BACK WHEN I CALLED THEM. THEY ARE THE WORST.