GoDaddy Horror Story - Lost My Domain - Need Serious Advice

[Amaresh]

Hello everyone,

The past 3 months have been tragic for me. I used to run a fairly popular site (20-25k Uniques daily), now the domain was registered on 12 May, 2005, by a friend of mine. It was a .co.uk domain, so it was registered for 2 years.

Now, that person left all online activities about a year or so ago. So when the domain was near expiry, I wasn't aware since the GoDaddy account held his email address and I'd been careless enough not to change it to mine.

So May 12,2007 came and nothing happened. Not that we were aware of anything was going to happen. In all likelihood, the domain expired and went into the redemption (grace) period.

Then one day in August, I tried to change nameservers, but it wouldnt work. On doing a whois, it said our domain had expired on the 12th of May itself, and the registration was suspended, however whois did have our details.

Immediately GoDaddy was contacted, and we paid the renewal fees for two years. Then amazingly the domain vanished from our GoDaddy account, only to return a week later. Somehow, our new nameservers still weren't working.

GoDaddy told us that Nominet had suspended our domain until September, as this was the normal procedure. September came to an end and October began, there was still no sign of our domain.

We tried to contact Nominet directly, they said contact Key Systems, for whom Godaddy resells for. On contacting Key Systems, we are again told to contact GoDaddy.

Numerous phonecalls to GoDaddy were of no avail. To my horror, on the 18th of October, on doing a whois, I see a new owner of the domain, a domain that was 2 years old, a PR 4, and has over 7000 backlinks on Google.

On calling GoDaddy, they said there's nothing they can do about it and have refunded the money I paid them for renewal.

Godaddy told me that in the United States there is a law that would guarantee the domain name to be put back into our possesion. We never gave the domain up. We were trying to renew it and Godaddy contacted Key Systems about the issue numerous times.

They told Key Systems that the domain was in our account and it was active. However, Key Systems never sent the positive renewal request towards Nominet. Basically, Key Systems, the German company, dropped the ball on this issue. They had two months to process a simple renewal and they failed to do so. It's essentially theft and fraud.

We paid, the domain was in our account and Godaddy contacted Key Systems to renew it. I was told by Godaddy that their legal team can give me the access to the logs of their Higher Tech staff talking back and forth with Key Systems and that show that we were the owners, had been the owners, and desired to continue to be the owners.

I am really looking forward to your suggestions now, as to what action I could possibly take.

Thanks in advance.

[TheWatcher]

Get your own lawyer to take this issue seriously. At this time, I wish you all the best.

Regards.

[domainer111]

I would contact Nominet directly by phone again. You can renew domains directly with Nominet, they always send out an invoice to the postal address on the domain.

But they ultimately hold the keys. Should be no need for lawyers.

[scrsteven]

The domain is already in a new party's hands? Contacting them and seeing if they are willing to part with it may be the best first step, but this sounds like an issue for a real attorney, which I am not.

[Foxo]

boohoo.... I'm sorry, but it's by your own carelessness that you lost your domain. Forgive me if I have no sympathy.

[Dr Nump]

Yes , you should act fast than just wait and see. If I have a domain that have 20-25k uniques daily , I will renew it until 2010 at least !

[Focus]

I wish you the best in business and with getting your name back, but you should have paid more attention to the most important aspect of your site...the DOMAIN! duh

[domainah]

you can really only hope for an understanding new owner. Tell him your dilemma and avoid saying that it is "your" domain because its not. You were careless and let it expire.

[DomainMagnate]

Sounds horrible, wish you luck in getting the domain back!
Indeed seek for professional advice and be sure to consult a lawyer before contacting the new owner.

~MG

[wael]

Take legal action, but in the meantime get yourself a new domain - something similar and catchy - and let all your readers know that the website's domain name has changed. Within a few weeks you may be back up to normal traffic levels. Of course you will have lost all the backlinks, but you can get to work re-building that.

[aZooZa]

It will have been in "suspended" state at Nominet for 99 days after the renewal was required. Now that it has been "caught" by someone else it appears you have little redress. Had it been less than 99 days you could probably have got it back directly from Nominet.

[sdsinc]

Even if gd has been negligent (failed to renew as appropriate) compensation is likely to be limited to actual cost of registration... which has been refunded. Check their TOS carefully before you even seek legal advice on this.

[jberryhill]

I wasn't aware since the GoDaddy account held his email address and I'd been careless enough not to change it to mine.

Translation: I was in breach of the registration contract.

[Brett Lewis]

First, if you have not already, follow Wael's advice, register a new domain and notify your users of it. Others who have been through similar situations have maintained their Web traffic if the situation is handled correctly.

Second, despite the fact that the renewal was mishandled, I would bet that the governing terms of use terminate your rights upon expiration of the domain name and disclaim responsibility for any errors in the renewal process.

Given that, your best options would be either to negotiate a purchase of the domain name, or failing that, seek recourse through Nominet. Nominet offers a Dispute Resolution Service, available to remedy what it calls "abusive registrations." If your site was receiving twenty to twenty five thousand unique visitors per day, and depending on how your domain name was used in commerce or branded, you may have trademark rights that you can enforce in a DRS proceeding. As I do not know most of the relevant facts, I am not commenting on the merits of your particular claim, only pointing out that you may have one. If the current registrant is unwilling to reach an amicable resolution with you, you may still have recourse.

I would also refrain from further discussing the issue in public, as your statements may constitute admissions in a DRS proceeding.

[Dave Zan]

Originally Posted by jberryhill

Translation: I was in breach of the registration contract.

Which won't be a surprise if the OP didn't bother reading it. The rest of you
who haven't, start reading.

[Thor King]

So true about registering for minimum 5 years foward if your domain name traffic is making $$$.

I had a similar situation with Godaddy. I found my domain had expired and and I renewed it in time before I lost it, but I found it up for auction at Impressive Domains. I called Godaddy. They told me they couldn't do anything for me.

I contacted Impressive Domains. They would not respond.
So I followed a DNer's advice and entered a bid. I received a response by Impressive Domains after that. They sent a very Nasty E-mail ordering me not to bid on my own Domain name that was for sale.

I explained the situation and they denied entering the domain on their auction for a pretty price as it was now under my name with Godaddy.

Godaddy has so many resellers that they must provide expiring domain names to. I don't understand how it works with these guys, but I smell fish in the air.