GoDaddy Auction Reversal - Enforceable?

[Seraphim]

If I'm not mistaken GoDaddy has an artificially shorter grace period than most other registrars so they can milk it two ways. [A] Send your name to their auction quicker, or force you pay the redemption fee of $60 per domain. This among other reasons is why I stopped using GoDaddy (only have a small number of domains still there). Once I transfer my remaining domains out of GoDaddy I will never use them again.

 

[Domagon]

Cartoonz has already explained the grace period / RGP time lines in great detail.

In a nutshell, figure on about 75 days from the expiration date before getting confident the domain is yours.

After 75 days, the odds of the previous registrant getting it back drops off sharply to near zero. But not completely zero though, since any domain that didn't go through a complete drop cycle could in theory be recovered by the "previous" registrant, who could use one or more arguments to get it back ... ie. didn't get renewal notices, was stolen / misappropriated by the registrar, insist they're still the current registrant, regardless, since it never really deleted.

The ability of the previous registrant of potentially getting an auctioned domain back is another of one of the numerous risks of drop-catching that one needs to be aware of and plan for. Ie. Hold such domains for a few months before selling / developing, allocate extra funds to refund buyers in the event they lose such a domain shortly after purchase, etc.

With all that said, for most expired domains, especially those of lower profile, that didn't go through the complete drop cycle, things go fine.

Ron

 

[JB Lions]

"Amusingly, I have dealt with GoDaddy before (from way back with their .asia auction fiasco) and have never had a single good experience with them. Not sure why I expected any different this time around."

They don't hide that info, with Expired Auctions:

"** Original owner may still re-claim ownership for approximately 2 weeks."

 

[eeedc]

"They don't hide that info, with Expired Auctions:

"** Original owner may still re-claim ownership for approximately 2 weeks."

There is an expression, "hidden in fine print." A double astrick footnote seems like fine print to me.

Aside from GoDaddy's communication skills, I think GoDaddy's "missunderstandings" with auctions is that people assume that GoDaddy auctions are like virtually every other auction, where there is a clear title to the sale.

I know some real estate auctions the foreclosed homeowner has a legal right to redeem his house by paying - but very few, percenage wise, buy in foreclosure auctions.

 

[namenut]

I would go so far as to say some domainers are using the drop process to find bidders on a name
then recover to try and sell to the interested parties. I don't think it is just GD (SlowDaddy) either.
I mean have you ever seen one of your dropped names with a $300 - $400 in bids on it and you still
have the option to recover it? Hard to ignore that.

NN

 

[JB Lions]

There is an expression, "hidden in fine print." A double astrick footnote seems like fine print to me.

Aside from GoDaddy's communication skills, I think GoDaddy's "missunderstandings" with auctions is that people assume that GoDaddy auctions are like virtually every other auction, where there is a clear title to the sale.

I know some real estate auctions the foreclosed homeowner has a legal right to redeem his house by paying - but very few, percenage wise, buy in foreclosure auctions.

Right but it's right there on the page - http://www.godaddy.com/auctions/domain-auctions.aspx as well as other places.

"I think GoDaddy's "missunderstandings" with auctions is that people assume that GoDaddy auctions are like virtually every other auction, where there is a clear title to the sale."

They do it the same way Dynadot does it, remember a recent thread here on that, and have won a few over there myself. It's just the way Expired Auctions work.

---------- Post added at 02:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------

Wanted to add what Dynadot says about it:

"Please note: In rare cases, a domain won at auction will not be added to your account because it was renewed by the original Registrant. If this occurs, your account will credited the full amount of the order. Because of the nature of the life-cycle of a domain, we must auction expiring domains at the tail-end of the original Registrant's Renewal Grace Period. In most cases, this will not cause a problem and the domain will be added to your Dynadot account in 3-4 days."

---------- Post added at 02:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 PM ----------

Luckily, I've never had this happen, so don't think it happens that much. But I've had some vanish in the process of bidding on them over at GoDaddy, guess somebody decided to renew while that was happening.

 

[eeedc]

Right but it's right there on the page - http://www.godaddy.com/auctions/domain-auctions.aspx as well as other places.

"I think GoDaddy's "missunderstandings" with auctions is that people assume that GoDaddy auctions are like virtually every other auction, where there is a clear title to the sale."

They do it the same way Dynadot does it, remember a recent thread here on that, and have won a few over there myself. It's just the way Expired Auctions work.

---------- Post added at 02:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------

Wanted to add what Dynadot says about it:

"Please note: In rare cases, a domain won at auction will not be added to your account because it was renewed by the original Registrant. If this occurs, your account will credited the full amount of the order. Because of the nature of the life-cycle of a domain, we must auction expiring domains at the tail-end of the original Registrant's Renewal Grace Period. In most cases, this will not cause a problem and the domain will be added to your Dynadot account in 3-4 days."

.

Now that you mention GoDaddy's page, the double astrick is in smaller (FINE) print.

I am not saying that GoDaddy is 100% wrong, just that it could be done BETTER, and maybe should be done better if they did not explain the better elsewhere, since 1) many first-timer users of domain auctions are going to incorrectly assume that the auction is final and 2)GoDaddy's fine print, maybe unread, does not correct enough of the misunderstandings.

 

[JB Lions]

Now that you mention GoDaddy's page, the double astrick is in smaller (FINE) print.

I am not saying that GoDaddy is 100% wrong, just that it could be done BETTER, and maybe should be done better if they did not explain the better elsewhere, since 1) many first-timer users of domain auctions are going to incorrectly assume that the auction is final and 2)GoDaddy's fine print, maybe unread, does not correct enough of the misunderstandings.

But it's not only there. It's in the Terms, there's that little box you have to check off before you bid. It's in the help section - http://community.godaddy.com/help/919/winning-expired-domain-name-auctions So it's in a few places. Think it's more they were just new to Expired Domain Auctions and weren't sure exactly how it worked. Now they do. It's like my first time with Dynadot Expired Auctions. Had to wait awhile before the names I won moved over to my account, just like GoDaddy. But what I didn't know (because I missed something when I was reading about it) is they also have a 30 day lock where the whois is still not in my name. But now I know how it works over there.

---------- Post added at 04:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 PM ----------

Little off topic, but with Dynadot, I don't even fully understand this:

"When a domain won in our Expired Domains Auctions is added to the winning bidders account, the domain will be on an "auction lock" status for about 30 days.

While in this status, the domain cannot be unlocked or moved into another Dynadot account. The domain's name server settings can still be set. The WHOIS information will still show the Registrant as "Pending Renewal or Deletion."

At the end of 30 days, the "auction lock" status will be automatically removed."

The whois is not in my name yet but I can change the nameservers.

 

[eeedc]

"But it's not only there. It's in the Terms, there's that little box you have to check off before you bid. "

If you read the Terms of Service before checking the box, you are the one person out of a hundred that does. I take your word that your read the Terms and it contains what you say, but most serious academic studes have found that very few people even look at the terms of service, fewer look at it for more than a minute, and even fewer understand the legal terms.

Of course with a big company like Microsoft or Google, the terms of service might be in their favor but not rip you off. But con artists at small companies have used the unread or unundersot terms to con people. I doubt that GoDaddy wants to be seen as in this group of shaddy actors.

 

[JB Lions]

"If you read the Terms of Service before checking the box, you are the one person out of a hundred that does."

I agree with you on that. GoDaddy probably knows that as well. It's probably why they put that info at other places as well. 3 that I counted, probably more if I looked. And GoDaddy isn't looking bad here. I'm not seeing them as shady just because people don't take the time to search and read.

 

[eeedc]

"I'm not seeing them (GoDaddy) as shady just because people don't take the time to search and read.

A professor once told me that I (or anyone) can't blame the readers of my paper for not getting my argument. That I have to rewirte the artcile so that more people understand it.

If a large number of people are not getting GoDaddy's system, the blame lies mostly with GoDaddy, not the reader.

 

[DomainsInc]

A professor once told me that I (or anyone) can't blame the readers of my paper for not getting my argument. That I have to rewirte the artcile so that more people understand it.

If a large number of people are not getting GoDaddy's system, the blame lies mostly with GoDaddy, not the reader.

lolz, lets see how that works in out in real life for you. godaddy has to do nothing more than provide the fine print, if you fail to read it or understand it, they are still covered legally and thats all that matters to them.

 

[JB Lions]

A professor once told me that I (or anyone) can't blame the readers of my paper for not getting my argument. That I have to rewirte the artcile so that more people understand it.

If a large number of people are not getting GoDaddy's system, the blame lies mostly with GoDaddy, not the reader.

You haven't offered up any suggestions on how they might do that. I think mentioning at least 3 times is plenty. I doubt the thread starter even bothered searching for this info at GoDaddy, if they did, it would have popped right up. You have to take a little personal responsibility for these type of things. I guess they could put this info in flaming, bouncy text and maybe some animated gifs of lightning bolts or something.

 

[eeedc]

they (GoDaddy) are still covered legally and thats all that matters to them.

I would venture a guess that GoDaddy cares a bit about customer satisfaction

---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 PM ----------

You haven't offered up any suggestions on how they might do that. .

I would move the sentence in the ** footnote right up to where the ** is on :
http://www.godaddy.com/auctions/domain-auctions.aspx

"Expired Domain Auctions - Place your bid on an expired domain name. If the auction ends and you're the highest bidder, the domain's yours.**
Offer/Counteroffer - Make an offer on a domain and Go Daddy Auctions will instantly notify the seller, who then has the option of accepting or countering your bid.
7-Day Public Auction - Like a traditional online auction, sellers set a minimum starting bid price, and bidders place increasingly higher bids. When time runs out, if you have the highest bid, you win.

* Source: Zetetic, an independent domain name resale market research and appraisal company
** Original owner may still re-claim ownership for approximately 2 weeks. "

and keep it in the same size text, maybe put it in red if they wanted more people to notice, and maybe reword "the domain's yours" to "the domain's yours IF/IN MOST CASES AS LONG AS..."