Go Daddy is directly robbing its own resellers

[ForumDomains]

Yesterday (11/4/2004) Go Daddy sent promotional offer for .BIZ at $3.95 per year to all business customers of all WWD resellers!!! Enough is enough!

1. They have lowered all their retail prices below the minimum allowed price for WWD resellers. The only exception is .COM.
2. They are offering .INFO at lower than $2 per year while their resellers are not allowed to sell below $8.75?!
3. Positioning themselves all the way down the last month, yesterday they have taken steps to collect the most profitable business accounts of their resellers by sending promo emails directly to the resellers' customers! It is really a disaster.
4. They claim it is a technical error and suggested compensation but refused to offer that same promotion to be available to their resellers?! It is a massive blow!

How would you explain all that, Dear Bob Parsons?

[HardwareGeek]

Isn't this exactly what network solutions did to GoDaddy that pissed GoDaddy off enough to have them sue network solutions?

It's kind of underhanded to do that to one of your resellers and it's illegal. Check the privacy policy of WWD and then submit complaints with the proper people.

[MediaHound]

Wow thats terribly unethical for them to have done, sending emails to their clients' clients.
As far as the different pricing, I think I'll have to side with them on that one though.
Thats the advantage of being a registrar vs. a reseller. They allow resellers, but in all essence, these resellers are competing with them for the same client anyway. If you want to offer pricing like that, you need to work your way up the ladder and build your own registrar. They did and therefore they can reap the rewards of good pricing. If it really bothers you, start your own registrar.

But for the "oops" email issue, thats another story.
Their PR meter just dipped way back.

[ForumDomains]

Can not agree with you about pricing you justify. Their success during the last couple of years comes exactly from the WWD business model. Senior management must know the simple truth that ruining that business model will eventually ruin all their name and business!

[aww]

Probably won't help you to know there is a $4.95 .US
and $1.00 .INFO code as well for this month.

Also don't forget that they are selling $7.65 .com and more through their BlueRazor outlet which can push domains back and forth between regular GoDaddy retail accounts, until WWD.

[trader]

Originally Posted by ForumDomains

Yesterday (11/4/2004) Go Daddy sent promotional offer for .BIZ at $3.95 per year to all business customers of all WWD resellers!!! Enough is enough!

1. They have lowered all their retail prices below the minimum allowed price for WWD resellers. The only exception is .COM.
2. They are offering .INFO at lower than $2 per year while their resellers are not allowed to sell below $8.75?!
3. Positioning themselves all the way down the last month, yesterday they have taken steps to collect the most profitable business accounts of their resellers by sending promo emails directly to the resellers' customers! It is really a disaster.
4. They claim it is a technical error and suggested compensation but refused to offer that same promotion to be available to their resellers?! It is a massive blow!
How would you explain all that, Dear Bob Parsons?

Not surprised at all when you say they are doing that as they started that trend of under-cutting their many resellers with special deals and lower prices a few mos ago when they offered only select high volume resellers (i.e. this forum and also a member I know of), com prices which were below the lowest price permitted by most all other resellers.

[Acro]

Business must be hurting. I only use GD if I buy a domain that's already there.

[clemzonguy]

Originally Posted by aww

Probably won't help you to know there is a $4.95 .US
and $1.00 .INFO code as well for this month.

CAn you please provide this code!!! Really would like it.

Also I clicked on the $3.95 link but was unable to get the card to change from $4.95 and then it added that freaking iCANN fee. Anyone else having problems?

[aww]

Originally Posted by clemzonguy

CAn you please provide this code!!! Really would like it.

Also I clicked on the $3.95 link but was unable to get the card to change from $4.95 and then it added that freaking iCANN fee. Anyone else having problems?

Well the mods can remove this if not appropriate
(none of these are affiliate codes, at least not mine!)

$7.95 .com - pick one:
a) GoDaddy $7.95 .com promo
b) GoDaddy $7.95 .com promo
c) GoDaddy $7.95 .com promo

$4.95 .us - pick one:
a) GoDaddy $4.95 .us promo
b) GoDaddy $4.95 .us promo


$3.95 .biz - pick one:
a) GoDaddy $3.95 .biz promo
b) GoDaddy $3.95 .biz promo
c) GoDaddy $3.95 .biz promo


$1 info - pick one:
a) GoDaddy $1.00 .info promo
b) GoDaddy $1.00 .info promo
c) GoDaddy $1.00 .info promo


.US codes may have just went dead after midnight.

Note the codes also work at BlueRazor:
BlueRazor $6.50 .com promo

[mole]

Doesn't make sense to sell names anymore, does it? Margins can't even pay for the bandwidth.

Originally Posted by ForumDomains

4. They claim it is a technical error and suggested compensation but refused to offer that same promotion to be available to their resellers?!

LOL, what will GoDaddy stoop to next now they are blatent liars.

[Acro]

It only makes sense if one has a large volume of registrations due to a related business, e.g. web hosting.

[adoptabledomains]

Not a lot different than enom registering free info names for reseller clients, putting them at sipence where the retail prices are lower than even some of the resellers pricing.

[wonder]

I agree with mediahound that Godaddy is free to set their own pricing, but sending promotional emails to their resellers' clients is unethical. Afterall, the resellers make money for them too. They pay for the annual reseller fees, API fees, plus share their hard-earned profits. Godaddy should be fair to them!

[MissFlora]

I agree with wonder. They make money by selling to reseller which in return look for more customers. If Godaddy is unhappy about its little share of the cake, it can literally takeup the whole chunk and remove all its resellers - small yet proportionally large (which it is trying to suggest through the above, I guess). That way, Godaddy will have all the customers they want and its resellers will not have to tolerate such actions which make them earn nothing at all. Isn't that a better idea than to go around the bush like this?

[JuniperPark]

Originally Posted by mole

LOL, what will GoDaddy stoop to next now they are blatent liars.

This question was answered for me today.... they now charge $9.95 for account-to-account PUSH within BlueRazor! I just started a new thread on that.

[ForumDomains]

Originally Posted by wonder

I agree with mediahound that Godaddy is free to set their own pricing, but sending promotional emails to their resellers' clients is unethical. Afterall, the resellers make money for them too. They pay for the annual reseller fees, API fees, plus share their hard-earned profits. Godaddy should be fair to them!

1. I disagree that Godaddy is free to set their own pricing. Formally speaking, yes it is but from a business point of view it is not, because 90% of their success comes from their WWD reselling model. Several thousands resellers can be wiser than several hundreds of Go Daddy employees when it comes to finding cheaper methods of advertising. This was the base of their success!
2. Sending offers directly to resellers' customers is not only unethical. It is illegal! You have to read WWD reseller agreement where marketing rights are treated!

[HardwareGeeks]

Well if GoDaddy Intentionally did this. You guys are able to sue them for any customers you may loose.

[acts837ad]

They won't be able to sue. GoDaddy has done this before to WWD resellers. They solicited resellers customers with GoDaddy promos.

[HardwareGeeks]

But didn't GoDaddy sue verisign in the past for doing something similar?

[ForumDomains]

It is not possible for a single reseller.
I am thinking about a site where WWD resellers can join for a legal case.
These actions from GoDaddy should not be tolerated anymore!
Obviously, there is a shift in GoDaddy's policy against their own resellers.