What The F*** Is Going On With Tdnam/godaddy?

[Gerry]

Today I recieved a series of emails from TDNAM within 30 minutes of each other that raise serious suspicions of sales or serious improprieties after winning four different auctions recently. To get the full gist of the issue, please read all emails as well as my response.
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support@GoDaddy.com wrote:

Your question has been received. You should expect a response within 24 hours.

This is your Incident ID: 1532282

Thanks,
GoDaddy.com
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Please do not reply to this email. Emails sent to this address will not be answered.
© 2007 GoDaddy.com. All rights reserved.

Our support staff has responded to your request, details of which are described below:

Discussion Notes
Support Staff Response
Dear (name),

Thank you for using The Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM). Unfortunately, FOSSIL.INFO and NEAR.INFO was listed as Expired Name Auctions in error. This transaction has been cancelled and you will be refunded for your payment. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Regards,
The Domain Name Aftermarket Team
support@tdnam.com


If you need further assistance with this matter, please reply to this email or contact customer service at (480) 505-8877 and reference [Incident ID: 1532282].

Thanks,
GoDaddy.com
© 2007 GoDaddy.com. All rights reserved.
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My response to TDNAM/GoDaddy

How is it even REMOTELY possible for TDNAM, which is solely owned by GoDaddy, to list two expired domain names in "error"?

It is also VERY SUSPICIOUS being that I first get an email stating MY QUESTION HAS BEEN RECIEVED (incident 1532282) when an inquiry was never submitted by me which was timed at 113 pm. This was followed by a response in less than 30 minutes at 132 pm INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR SUPPORT REQUEST outlining that an error has been made. I do not believe for one minute that my account has been compromised but rather believe I that something else is going on and someone is attempting to cover up their actions at my expense.

Why is it just now coming to your attention, and then to my attention, more than a month after the domain name expired and was won by me in auction? According to WHOIS information, the new expiration date is December 1, 2007 which indicates that the previous expiration date in "error" was December 1, 2006. Who actually initiated the inquiry and where did the inquiry originate from? Was it internal?

As a whole owned entity of GoDaddy, TDNAM sole purpose of being is to auction off expired and expiring domain names of and for GoDaddy. It is impossible for me to imagine how an "error" like this could possibly occur.

Also on the same day, today, I received notification of two domains that I recently won were reclaimed by their owner. They are CMR.INFO and GGW.INFO which, remarkably, are owned by the same individual listed in the WHOIS database as the person who now owns FOSSIL.INFO and NEAR.INFO.

Yet, no such email was sent regarding FOSSIL.INFO and NEAR.INFO, which supposedly expired more than a month ago, was sent as a courtesy notification.

Surprisingly, the domain name is now registered to the same person as GGW.INFO and CMR.INFO. Even more surprisingly, the domain names are now in the possession of someone who has transferred them to the registrar service of MONIKER.

How is it even possible for GoDaddy to auction domain names that are at MONIKER when MONIKER has their own auction service, and to the best of my knowledge, a totally separate entity and with no affiliation to GoDaddy?

I think a further explanation other than "in error" is needed as this is a little more than a curious as to how this possibly could have happened.

To say that I have questions and suspicions as to how this happened or could even possibly happened is an understatement. I will be looking into this matter and bringing to the attention of sources from outside of GoDaddy/TDNAM as well as explore the possible legal avenues that I have regarding this "error".

Regards,

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This is so far fetched. My response was sent to disputes@godaddy.com, disputes@tdnam.com, disputes@moniker.com, legal@godaddy.com, legal@tdnam.com, and legal@moniker.com.

I have serious suspicions that there was some deal making going on after the close of the auctions, perhaps to a larger customer than I who gets preferential treatment. I realize that these are serious allegations. But when 1+1+1+1=3, then something is not adding up.

I have saved all the WHOIS information as it is currently registered should someone get the bright idea to make this info private.

Naturally, TDNAM/GoDaddy has refunded all the auction fees and registration fees associated with these four domain names but this is of little consequece under these circumstances.

Paranoid? No. An expired domain name is an expired domain name and it does not all of a sudden end up at another registrar with a new registrant more than a month after I won it at auction.

And the alledged letters sent and responded to by TDNAM today are purely bogus, especially when they are personally addressed to me and to the email that TDNAM has on file.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Focus]

Very shady company...I won a bunch of BIG typos in the past very cheap (like some high ovt myspace typos) and was later informed they were ALL renewed by the original owners only to then see them go to a private whois and point to new parking pages..lol

[Gerry]

Very shady company...I won a bunch of BIG typos in the past very cheap (like some high ovt myspace typos) and was later informed they were ALL renewed by the original owners only to then see them go to a private whois and point to new parking pages..lol

BINGO!

How can a TDNAM/GoDaddy mistake or a reclaimed domain actually be at Moniker's? When bidding on and winning TDNAM domains, you pay the auction price and a renewal fee to GoDaddy.

I would not have been so supicious with the two I just won last week (the LLL.info's) but more than a month later an error has been made with the other two? And now all four in question are regged to the same person and at monikers? Total BS and a bogus claim in my opinion.

I think there were some serious after the auction deals going on.

By the way, good to hear from you Mocus.

[JuniperPark]

I actually got them to take action on this. Full explanation here:

http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.ph...ighlight=tdnam

[Gerry]

I actually got them to take action on this. Full explanation here:

http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.ph...ighlight=tdnam

Gee, thanks for those comforting words of encouragment!

I try to keep up with all the domains but sometime I do, mistakenly, rely on them to notify me when the domain has been placed into my account.

Now I think my selling and buying days on TDnam seem to be winding to a close. And, I think I may be looking for another registrar. It is a very expensive proposition to move as many domains as I have. I may do it on a limited basis as they come up for renewal.

I have no intention of buying Bob Parsons another carat diamond stud for his ear.

OH, BY THE WAY...

I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THERE HAS NOW BEEN 5 DOMAINS SUPPOSEDLY RECLAIMED, ALL NOW REGGED TO THE SAME PERSON, AND ALL AT MONIKERS.

The fifth is adds.info

I forgot to mention this between all the back and forth with folks at TDNAM and a few others that have gotten involved.

It appears this matter has gotten the attention of who needs to be invovled on that end. Here is the latest...-----------------------------

(name), allow me to introduce myself. I'm (name), the original project manager and development manager for the TDNAM site. I'm copied on all emails sent to disputes at TDNAM.com.

I typically sit back and ensure issues are being processed correctly and don't get directly involved with customer issues. I know from your earlier emails that you are a very good customer of TDNAM and freely share your feedback to the team.

I'm troubled by the issues you raised in your emails today. I believe you understand the domain industry and how expirations\re-assignments work and how TDNAM is designed to work.

I will get my key staff and DBAs on your issues in the morning to research what happened and why.

Look for an update from me tomorrow.

Thanks for your candid feedback on how we are doing.
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I will keep all updated as I am updated.

I appreciate the input from all of you as these matters do impact all of us. It is not my livelihood like a great many on this forum, but nevertheless, it is an expense and timeconsuming endeavor.

[Onward]

I actually got them to take action on this. Full explanation here:

http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.ph...ighlight=tdnam

WOW. I am sure I have been screwed...need to waist a few hours on this one.

[dvdrip]

There is a very simple explanation.

I had the domains at GoDaddy.
I transfered the domains to moniker just before expiration.
Godaddy never removed the domains from their database(domains were showing as
expired in my account 2 or 3 weeks after I had transfered them) and they put
the names up for auction in tdnam.
When they fixed their database the domains were already sold at tdnam.

This database problems are present in various registrars such as godaddy, enom
etc.

Thanks
Konstantinos (I am the "same person")

[Gerry]

There is a very simple explanation.

I had the domains at GoDaddy.
I transfered the domains to moniker just before expiration.
Godaddy never removed the domains from their database(domains were showing as
expired in my account 2 or 3 weeks after I had transfered them) and they put
the names up for auction in tdnam.
When they fixed their database the domains were already sold at tdnam.

This database problems are present in various registrars such as godaddy, enom
etc.

Thanks
Konstantinos (I am the "same person")

Again, thank you for the explanation.

There is still no excuse for GoDaddy/TDNAM to allow these to run for weeks. As I explained in a PM to you, they have penalized me and fined me "administrative fees" for the exact same occurance as this, time after time.

Plus, when I transferred a domain name that I have while listed on TDNAM, their servers automatically detected a change in the contact information and immediately pulled it off the selling list. This is all detected and done without any intervention on my part.

And they can't do this with their own service?

And they allowed me and several others to bid on your domains when they had been not only renewed but transferred to another service?

And they allowed this for weeks? And they did not inform me for weeks? And they fabricated an email as if I contacted them?

And not to mention the money tied up for weeks thinking the domains were won.

Inexcusable and pathetic service. Bob Parsons needs to refocus his eyes away from boobs and redirect his attention on his own service.

And thanks for explaining this far and above the piss poor effort and assurances offered by GoDaddy/TDNAM.

[JuniperPark]

UPDATE:

1) Yesterday, I lost yet another domain to this 'situation', this time it was a different previous owner and the domain was at a different registrar.

2) Got a call last night from Tim Ruiz, a VP at GoDaddy. He apologized for the problems, and gave me a $100 credit. He started to tell me that it was a problem discovered only recently, but I cut him off and informed him that I repeatedly filed support tickets in early/mid December, and only the domain I referenced each time was fixed, and nobody got a clue that there was a huge problem at TDNAM.

I also reminded him that I detailed for his staff what caused the problem -- the new web interface forced upon us in November was full of bugs, one of them being a failure to handle 20% of all transfer requests. These domains NEVER appeared on the panel for approval, yet the transfer would go through after 7 days and the domain would STAY in the panel then drift over into the TDNAM auction. I layed this out for them in December, and they ignored it.

So... he told me he has taken a lot of notes from our conversation and will be talking to the development staff.

[TimR]

Simply put, we updated some code but the logic that detected transfers of expired names for TDNAM got messed up. We corrected it as soon as we figured out what was going on and it is no longer a problem. No doubt we could have caught it sooner, and it certainly should never have happened in the first place.

FWIW, we have refunded any money collected for the affected auctions. We have personally called everyone affected that we could reach. And we have conducted an internal post-mortem of the problem to identify where we need to fix our internal communications and information flow.

We understand that this problem has shaken your confidence in TDNAM. What I can say is that we remain committed to making TDNAM a reliable and leading edge site for expired name auctions. We appreciate your past patronage and we hope we will have the opportunity to continue serving your needs.

Tim Ruiz
VP, GoDaddy.com

[Dave Zan]

Welcome aboard, Tim. And thanks for the explanation.

What took you so long before you decided to join the party?

If any of you folks still have problems with Go Daddy, then take it up with 'em.