Warning about making minor registrant changes at GoDaddy

[David G]

I tried to transfer some domains from GoDaddy the other day. All transfers away were rejected on the untrue grounds they were not yet 60 days old.

Since they were actually much older than 60 days I called tech supt and was told that since I made a change to registrant information a few days ago the 60 day no transfer rule applies.

All I changed were a couple minor characters in the registrant name field but that is all it takes. Even though the names were more than 6 mos old by changing a little thing like a comma or a punctuation mark it is considered a brand new registration date as far as waiting 60 days again.

Tech Supt refused to make an exception and was very abrupt and non-flexible about the issue and could care less about the stupidity of it. I am very disapponted in GoDaddy (I was told WildWest also has this same policy).

P.S. After finding even GD/WW difficult on transfers away (who I always thought were excellent vs other firms), I am getting angrier and angrier by the day. It is now to the point where I literally spend more and more time every day trying desperately to consolidate my domains at one registrar.

Other registrars are often much worse than GD/WW so it is getting super frustrating and time consuming, making domain consolidation an almsot impossible very big job. For example, over the past week I have spent more than 50% of my time working on transfer away issues, in fact today more than 6 hrs and it is only mid-afternoon. This entire situation with firms making it so tough to transfer away is insane and a severe detriment to the entire domain industry. Are others also experiencing this to such a degree?

 

[Duke]

I tried to transfer some domains from GoDaddy the other day. All transfers away were rejected on the untrue grounds they were not yet 60 days old.

Since they were actually much older than 60 days I called tech supt and was told that since I made a change to registrant information a few days ago the 60 day no transfer rule applies.

All I changed were a couple minor characters in the registrant name field but that is all it takes. Even though the names were more than 6 mos old by changing a little thing like a comma or a punctuation mark it is considered a brand new registration date as far as waiting 60 days again.

Tech Supt refused to make an exception and was very abrupt and non-flexible about the issue and could care less about the stupidity of it. I am very disapponted in GoDaddy (I was told WildWest also has this same policy).

Sorry to hear that Dave. You have always been one of GoDaddy's biggest boosters. Stupid of them to treat a loyal customer that way and even stupider to enact that kind of rule in the first place.

 

[Nexus]

Yup. It's been a big complaint for a while. GoDaddy's seemingly arbitrary 60-day rule application and the explanation of it being "ICANN POLICY" (add dignified flourish). You can probably find complaints on all the major tech/internet forums about this policy from GoDaddy. In fact, there's another thread going on right now at another forum with someone flabberghasted about that same "minor edit" condition, and the abruptness of phone support over the issue.

It's interesting that you've always been a GoDaddy fan. Dissappointing you like this isn't very good for relations I think.

As I think an "character change" you make, isn't going to be analyzed for how "big" a change it is, I'm thinking that's why it falls under the same heading. That and because that's how GoDaddy sees it. Goes to show... whenever you're thinking of transferring FROM GoDaddy, best make you alter details *after* you transfer.

~ Nexus

 

[Anthony Ng]

Thanks for the heads up. I just caught a name with GoDaddy's backorder the other day; now I'll keep in mind not to make just ANY change so I could transfer it out in 60 days.

I was a GoDaddy fan too, but I was so upset by their "Summer of 2003 database mess-up" that I now have only this one domain with them.

 

[Dave Zan]

GD's stretching the 60-day rule to other things is just a tad too far. NetSol used
to do that but at least they finally swept that away.

On a rather cynical view, why should registrars care about how you feel when
you transfer out since you're no longer doing business with them? A shame...

Unfortunately that's one reason why ICANN was "forced" to create that new
transfer policy, due on November 12.

Better brace yourselves for that, especially if Go Daddy won't be of much help
attempting to recover possibly stolen domain names. %+|

 

[Anthony Ng]

On a rather cynical view, why should registrars care about how you feel when you transfer out since you're no longer doing business with them? A shame...

Seriously though, when you treat your leaving customers well enough, they could well be back, some day ... at least some of them.

 

[Steen]

GD's stretching the 60-day rule to other things is just a tad too far. NetSol used
to do that but at least they finally swept that away.

On a rather cynical view, why should registrars care about how you feel when
you transfer out since you're no longer doing business with them? A shame...

Unfortunately that's one reason why ICANN was "forced" to create that new
transfer policy, due on November 12.

Better brace yourselves for that, especially if Go Daddy won't be of much help
attempting to recover possibly stolen domain names. %+|

If you opt for lock then the domain won't be Xfered (under the new policy) AFAIK. I am sure they can slip that in somewhere to keep domains with them.

 

[nsusa]

I had a bad experience with GoDaddy, too. Clean name, clean records - still denied 3 transfer requests. I complaint and tried again a few days later. Suddenly they let the name go.

Chris

 

[Dave Zan]

If you opt for lock then the domain won't be Xfered (under the new policy) AFAIK. I am sure they can slip that in somewhere to keep domains with them.

Speaking of which, my domain name is still with them though I'm transferring
soon. But I've yet to receive any email from them saying they'll lock them up,
similar to what NetSol and NameSecure (recently) did.

 

[Nexus]

Seeing as how GoDaddy is #2 these days, its understandable that they only want to encourage MORE domains under them, and not LESS. I'm sure internally, they have a particular time frame for being #1. Should be interesting.

~ Nexus

 

[mystery250]

I have had many problems transfering domains from them, to another domain registrar, but I've never had any problems with transfering to them, as I have never wanted to do that.

 

[David G]

Not too long ago as a long time defender of them I would never have dreamed one day I would be so critical of GD/WW. Not happy over GoDaddy/Wild West policies now that even more transfers away from GD have failed on the incredible grounds that even though they are well past the 60 day new registrant rule they were renewed recently.

This group of failed transfers were renewed just before the transfer order as did not want them to expire near the date of transfer or that may cause them to fail. But a call to GD tech supt today reveals that even if the name was reg'd there yrs ago once it is renewed the 60 day clock is set again to day 1, that policy is ridiculous of course.

Now I had transfers fail for all 3 dubious reasons, (A) too close to expiration date (B) was a recent renewal (C) adding something like a comma to registrant information resets the 60 day clock.

It also makes zero difference to the policy if you are still keeping the name there but moving say from GD to WW, they don't care (proving it is not neccessarily done to keep the domain there as alleged by others).

To compound matters it seems they also fail to give automatic refunds of the required transfer pre-payment fees. Unless you later remember to call them asking for the refunds it appears you will not get it. It's real easy to completely forget to ask for a refund if you are dealing with multiple transfers and all the confusion involved and problems.

Another concern is most of the time when I call tech supt they check all exp dates and end up 'twisting your arm' to get you to renew soon expiring names, it is a form of upselling they use successfully. A few times they were so insistant over the phone that they renew a bunch of names for me that I got confused thinking I forgot to renew some or mark them auto-renew and said OK, later to discover they were names I wanted to expire. No reply when I asked for a refund on not wanted those names.

Still another big time complaint is that a push bewtween WW resellers is simply not permitted. That means if you sell/buy a name reg'd at one reseller and want to reg it thru a different resellers acct., there is no way to push it, other than pre-paying for a regular transfer and making sure the 60 day rule is not violated, and wait 60 days to order a transfer. Duke and I have had that problem first hand and it is a big annoyance.

Another problem is they have owed me a fair amount of money for WW reseller sales commission for ages and have been unable to get the money. A long time ago they said they were looking into it the matter but never responded, and that was many mos ago.

I would actually think about moving away if I could find someone as good or better reagrding the same low prices, excellent free services, fine control panel and good 24-hr tech support, but from my past dealing with other registrars it appears no one is any better than them overall (but others may be better in regards to the issues above), but others are likely inferior regarding many other important issues desired from a registrar.

 

[JEsports]

Thank you very much for the heads up!

 

[Theo]

That's not news. GoDaddy used to deny transfer for 60 days if ANY change was made to the WHOIS record, including DNS. Also, GD was the first to implement a charge for changing ownership, a hefty $45 back in 2000.

 

[Dave Zan]

Also, GD was the first to implement a charge for changing ownership, a hefty $45 back in 2000.

Didn't NetSol charge for this back then? If I remember it right, although it was
optional, they had a $200 "expedited service" for ownership changes.

 

[David G]

Didn't NetSol charge for this back then? If I remember it right, although it was optional, they had a $200 "expedited service" for ownership changes.

I actually paid NetSol the $200 for the fast service so remember it well.

Regarding GD/WW, they quickly eliminated that transfer fee after many protests.

Also re GD/WW, several more transfers I put thru since my last post also failed due to either a recent renewal or very minor registrant change. That really sucks.

 

[bellweather]

Found this out also the hard way when I tried transferring a domain recently from GD

 

[dvdrip]

Trader are the domains you are trying to transfer .com/.net or .org/.info/biz/.us?

 

[Dave Zan]

What in blazes does Go Daddy have to gain by enforcing all those incredibly
stupid restrictions!?

Renewing expired names before allowing to transfer out is fine. But not letting
transfers after minor changes, account transfers, and what have you!?

Stupid! :veryangry

Good thing I moved out 2 days before my domain name expired...

 

[David G]

Trader are the domains you are trying to transfer .com/.net or .org/.info/biz/.us?

Mixed ext, mostly org's and .us. but they apply the change of registrant policy to all extensions as far as I know.