Is GoDaddy a LowDaddy? (Cross-posted)

[DomainMyName]

As evidenced below, this afternoon, I successfully registered the domain names CARRIAGE.COM, POWERMATIC.COM and SNESROM.COM, two of which were scheduled drops.

RECEIPT NUMBER: 7423432
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1 .COM Domain Name Registration - 1 Year $ 8.95
CARRIAGE.COM
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RECEIPT NUMBER: 7423782
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1 .COM Domain Name Registration - 1 Year $ 8.95
POWERMATIC.COM
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RECEIPT NUMBER: 7423550
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1 .COM Domain Name Registration - 1 Year $ 8.95
SNESROM.COM
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Suffice it say that nailing these primo domains made for an exultant day at the market. However, about 20 minutes thereafter, I received the following notifications from GoDaddy:

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The following domain name has failed to be registered:

CARRIAGE.COM

Error: pendsetup: (540) Attribute value not unique;

We will evaluate this error and retry the registration if appropriate.
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I received identical "too bad" notices for POWERMATIC.COM and SNESROM.COM, the latter of which appeared unexpectedly as "available" when I logged into my account, assumedly because SNESROM.US. is already registered in my account.

LOOK -->

As you might expect, I'm rather pissed. And suddenly highly suspcious of GoDaddy -- not for having lost out on SNESROM.COM, because a subsequent whois reveals that it is, in fact, registered through 16-Mar-2004. But because CARRIAGE.COM and POWERMATIC.COM were drops that I had apparently snagged.

Any suggestions as to how I might best address this thorny subject with GoDaddy? Is compensation (beyond the promised refund of registration fees) a reasonable expectation?

How would YOU react if you were in my shoes.com?

Scott

 

[Gumby]

I've had the same thing happen, here's the response they gave me:
"It appears that the domain registration did fail because it was registered by someone else first, however, when our system attempted to register it, it was showing as being available. Once the system processes the request, if it was being registered by someone else, it may fail for you, or it may fail for them. It is a toss up. This is the down side.

We can not guarantee that someone else did not have the domain backordered as well. There is no search that one can do that will be able to determine without a doubt that a domain has or has not been backordered."

 

[DomainMyName]

Originally posted by SteveK

"It appears that the domain registration did fail because it was registered by someone else first, however, when our system attempted to register it, it was showing as being available. Once the system processes the request, if it was being registered by someone else, it may fail for you, or it may fail for them. It is a toss up."

A quasi-reasonable explanation, Steve, but bordering on escape from culpability. If the domains had been snapped-up by another party during the registration process, my registration should have been reported "FAILED" at the moment I submitted it. That would have also negated unnecessary charges to my account.

"We can not guarantee that someone else did not have the domain backordered as well."[/B]

This statement, however, makes no sense whatsoever. Either it's available or it isn't. A backorder on the name is irrelevant.

Scott

 

[Anthony Ng]

Same here. But unless you have the money AND TIME, that's not much you can do when like any registrar, they have from the very start disclaimed all legal consequences like no guaranteed registrations, etc.

The truth is: catching drops has become a game of speed that counts by the millisecond. So we might have to bear with this. Sometimes GoDaddy wins, other times the other guy does.

 

[DomainMyName]

Originally posted by nameslave
Sometimes GoDaddy wins, other times the other guy does.

One for three would have at least afforded me some measure of consolation. With two, I'd have been too exultant to whine. But 0-for-3 screams, "FOUL!"

Scott

 

[Momentum]

Yeah Godaddy has that problem a lot. Their domain check will say domains are available when they are clearly not available. I see this a lot when attempting to use their back-order system. Usually it happens to me a few times a week and just about any domain name is available to register (according to GD). Since I know it is totally bogus, I exit the site, go back in an hour or so and things are back to normal. Pretty sad state of affairs, I know.

Register.com used to also allow registration of unavailable domain names. I remember a couple of years ago, I registered and paid for pc.net using Register.com at drop time. Then the next day I check the whois record and was like what the ...? I still get emails from Register.com telling me to register various tld alternatives of pc.net such as pc.us, pc.pro, etc. They really are one of the worst registrars ever!

 

[Sharpy]

"if it seems too good to be true....It is"

GoDaddy has always had this problem. It has nothing to do with being scamed. Their system checked a name, a glitch happened, the name appeared to be free when it wasn't, they told you, and either refunded your money or never charged you to begin with.

 

[Beachie]

Godaddy are totally incompetent. I have lost several high traffic (1000+ uniques per day) domains because they ****ed up their account merging, pushed them to someone elses account, who then took the opportunity to transfer them to a different registrar.

Transfer your names away from Godaddy before they **** you over.

 

[JoDomains]

I had this problem before with one of the domains I registered. I called up their customer service and asked to talk with a supervisor. The supervisor told me that what caused the problem is that their link to the central registry was down, and when the link is down, their system will accept any domain registration and it will try to register the name as soon as the link is back online. If the domain was already taken, then all what they can do is refund your money (which took 10 days btw to process!).

 

[WebCat]

Originally posted by Lwgik
If the domain was already taken, then all what they can do is refund your money (which took 10 days btw to process!).

Yes but... let's see you get a refund from Verisign or Register.com!

The word is NOT even in their VOCABULARY!