Very frustrated with this new GoDaddy trick

[cocobongo]

So GoDaddy is pulling a new trick (well, new for me, maybe it's not new for others). 1 year ago I registered a quite big bulk of domains. At that time, I don't remember exactly how, they offered me a private registration FOR FREE. Well, how cool, I agreed to it NOT BEFORE READING THE TERMS. Absolutely nothing about any trick I'd expect, so I agreed to it. I didn't fill any other form, I didn't get any other message by anyone other than GoDaddy

Renewal time. I went to renew my domains, and once I went to logout, I've noticed my order $$$ was quite bigger than expected. And I mean more than 100%. So I checked what was going on and I noticed now they were charging me the FREE privacy thingy. I said to myself "no big deal, I'll disallow it".... and there came the surprises. When I tried to disallow it, it led me to a site I never heard of called domainsbyproxy.com which asked for an username and passsword. Since it obviously belongs to GoDaddy, I entered my GoDaddy info but it didn't work.

So I contacted GoDaddy support and they told me to ask for my customer number following the steps on domainsbyproxy page. I did that, and it said "your info was sent to the email on your account". Remember: I never signed with that site, so it's weird that I've a mail registered with them. However, I was naive and assumed they'd be sending it to my Godaddy mail account. Nothing. Tried again 3 times on a 2/3 days span. Nothing.

Contacted GoDaddy support again explaining what was going on and why it's impossible to solve it since they ask me for something I never had or even knew I could have. And made very clear I won't pay for a thing that I never asked for and they offered me for FREE. Nothing.

Contacted GoDaddy "support" AND domainsbyproxy "support" again. Nothing.

Contacted GoDaddy "support" AND domainsbyproxy "support" again. Nothing. (it's not a mistake: it's the 3rd time and still no answer. This was like 4 days ago)

Contacted GoDaddy "support" AND domainsbyproxy "support" again. 4th time. Nothing.

So, at this point I assume I'll lose all my domains if I don't pay the "blackmail fee" since it's impossible to do anything and support doesn't even answer. So just letting other naive people like me know about this GoDaddy trick, if they offer you ANYTHING, no matter how free it looks, SAY NO. And move away from them, they aren't worth the risk of losing part (or all) of your domains.

And yes, I'm moving everything out of GoDaddy fwiw. If I've to pay a couple bucks more, so be it. And if anyone knows of a good, trustable, no trick registrar with good prices, please lmk, I'm moving a few hundreds

 

[stock_post]

contact Adam and there are Godaddy reps on this forum.
Adam is a big player there so, you may get some help.

Next time don't fall for tricks.

 

[Victor Lugo]

contact Adam and there are Godaddy reps on this forum.
Adam is a big player there so, you may get some help.

Next time don't fall for tricks.

Would you mind telling me who here represents GoDaddy?
I too am in a similar situation, and would like to get a hold of someone, as support tickets are being ignored.

Thanks!

 

[cocobongo]

contact Adam and there are Godaddy reps on this forum.
Adam is a big player there so, you may get some help.

Next time don't fall for tricks.

thanx stock_post, I sent a last support ticket a few hours ago, and if it keeps ignored (as usual) I'll contact Adam

 

[myst woman]

to be fair I have had a lot (a ton) of problems with godaddy but i simmered my temper too fast and high to let the solution work out. Contact Adam NOW and find out asap what help he can or can't offer.

who is your account rep? hall of shame. yes the dmains by proxy is confusing. it's like when godaddy cant function unless you call and blurt out your name, pin, domain name and account number so anybody within a three mile cellular or hearing radius just heard all your "secure" info.

PS you might try emailing customer support at least then u have a written report of what help they did or did not give you.

i would also advise checking your email from the date of the domain buy for that cute little domainproxy "click here " blah blah blah email.

also, if your webmail was never set up, if you set it up now (per domain) and make it a catchall wouldnt any historic email that should have been sent to it be bottled in the email queue on the server and newly "arrive"? try it. the catchall will catch supposedly any domains by proxy communications.


But assuming this problem happens to a lot of people, wouldn;t you think domains by proxy would have an sos 800 number to help ther peeps out?

 

[cocobongo]

to be fair I have had a lot (a ton) of problems with godaddy but i simmered my temper too fast and high to let the solution work out. Contact Adam NOW and find out asap what help he can or can't offer.

who is your account rep? hall of shame. yes the dmains by proxy is confusing. it's like when godaddy cant function unless you call and blurt out your name, pin, domain name and account number so anybody within a three mile cellular or hearing radius just heard all your "secure" info.

PS you might try emailing customer support at least then u have a written report of what help they did or did not give you.

i would also advise checking your email from the date of the domain buy for that cute little domainproxy "click here " blah blah blah email.

also, if your webmail was never set up, if you set it up now (per domain) and make it a catchall wouldnt any historic email that should have been sent to it be bottled in the email queue on the server and newly "arrive"? try it. the catchall will catch supposedly any domains by proxy communications.


But assuming this problem happens to a lot of people, wouldn;t you think domains by proxy would have an sos 800 number to help ther peeps out?

Hi Myst Woman, I tried everything you said exception made of the phone since my English is quite poor and I wanted to be very clear on the point. The last time I spoke with GoDaddy (international call) they put me on hold for more than an hour (after countless tries with nothing but a recorder voice for 15-20 mins) and then when finally someone had the time to take my call they did.... nothing. They didn't even know what to do.

Anyway, finally they answered me this time.... with the same useless template mail they always send no matter what are you asking. Anyway, since contacting "support" is absolutely useless, I'll contact this guy Adam and see what happens, thanx for your suggestions, although, to be honest, I don't feel like this will get to good port.

 

[David G]

Nothing unusual offering something free or lower cost the first year as a marketing technique and then charging regular price at renewal time. It's commonly done at a lot of firms in many different businesses.

My question is, why im the world would you agree to the high privacy fees during the long checkout process when GD asks you to confirm the order and then expect to get a refund later on?

 

[Eraser]

Never accept anything that is FREE! Whenever someone say free, I say NOOOOOOOOOOO.

I have a bank account with HDFC and they offer me FREE credit card. I never asked for any such card but still they are offering it to me. I said NO to them at least 30 times but still they keep calling me and offering me the same. I am closing the account soon.

IMO, you should do same with Godaddy account.

 

[Nomzo]

Create a new GoDaddy account and push all the domains to the new account, that should automatically remove the privacy.

 

[petrosc]

^smart

 

[Biggie]

you shouldn't have to call or pm adam to get a resolution at gd

that's the bs part of their system

why do you have to contact a vp at the company for what should be a trivial matter?



also, why get whois privacy anyway?

unless you're trying to hide something, it only makes it harder for a potential buyer to reach you

i've never put a domain on privacy and the majority of sales have come thru whois contact info

imo...

 

[A D]

I am on this thread, cocobongo please pm me your account number and I will have a rep call you today.

-=DCG=-

 

[stock_post]

Adam - It is nice to see you stick around.

 

[cocobongo]

Nothing unusual offering something free or lower cost the first year as a marketing technique and then charging regular price at renewal time. It's commonly done at a lot of firms in many different businesses.

My question is, why im the world would you agree to the high privacy fees during the long checkout process when GD asks you to confirm the order and then expect to get a refund later on?

it's IMPOSSIBLE to check off that, there's no way to do it. That's just a little tiny part of the problem and the main part Godaddy support is avoiding. Anyway, thanx to this thread someone contacted me, so hope this solve

Create a new GoDaddy account and push all the domains to the new account, that should automatically remove the privacy.

cool idea. However, in this 2 weeks span going back and forth, the names expired today thanx to GoDaddy "support", so I can't transfer then. Wish I had knew what you say before :worried: Anyway, thanx for the tip, maybe other people with the same problem could learn somehting

 

[David G]

So are you saying there is no way to opt-out of privacy at GD during the ordering and check-out process? That seems real odd they can force you to buy it, especially considering its high cost.

 

[bobovia]

TINSTAAFL: there is no such thing as a free lunch

 

[mjreine]

Recently I was selling a domain I had privacy turned on and had to log in to the DomainsByProxy panel to turn off privacy but it wouldnt allow it. I had to call in to support and do a lot to get it turned off. In the end it wasnt that bad.

I wouldnt say Godaddy is tricking anyone.. they are a great company in my opinion. They probably gave you a free year of privacy.. thats like giving someone a free month of hosting and then in the print of the ad it explains that you will be billed for the months after. Nothing wrong with that.

The burden is always on the domainer to go in and turn off those services before renewal time. I agree it would be nice if while checking out it would just have a checkbox next to the line item i.e.

Your purchase today....
MyGreatNewdomain.com $8
[x]Privacy option $8

etc.. and then allow you to uncheck the privacy option so it would be turned off for next year. That would be great but I think godaddy has a very good system the way it is. There is always something that could be improved though.

 

[cocobongo]

So are you saying there is no way to opt-out of privacy at GD during the ordering and check-out process? That seems real odd they can force you to buy it, especially considering its high cost.

no, there isn't.

Recently I was selling a domain I had privacy turned on and had to log in to the DomainsByProxy panel to turn off privacy but it wouldnt allow it. I had to call in to support and do a lot to get it turned off. In the end it wasnt that bad.

I wouldnt say Godaddy is tricking anyone.. they are a great company in my opinion. They probably gave you a free year of privacy.. thats like giving someone a free month of hosting and then in the print of the ad it explains that you will be billed for the months after. Nothing wrong with that.

The burden is always on the domainer to go in and turn off those services before renewal time. I agree it would be nice if while checking out it would just have a checkbox next to the line item i.e.

Your purchase today....
MyGreatNewdomain.com $8
[x]Privacy option $8

etc.. and then allow you to uncheck the privacy option so it would be turned off for next year. That would be great but I think godaddy has a very good system the way it is. There is always something that could be improved though.

I tried to renew more than 15 days before expiration, which is more than enough time on any serious company, be it a domain registrar or whatever. The fact that both involved companies "support" (GoDaddy and Domainsbyproxy) doesn't even answer their support tickets and when they do (2/5 of the times for Go Daddy, 0/4 for domainsbyproxy) they won't answer what you asked, should make you think. To the very least. Besides, they always, always, ALWAYS send a template mail and you have to pray that they send the correct template. In my case, it didn't happen, not even close.

So, the thing is that thanks to DNF someone asked me via PM for a phone number to contact me, which I sent. So far, no one contacted me, but crossing fingers. Either way, if they had REAL support and MOST IMPORTANT, if they weren't trying these tricks and impossible to delete upsells, this wouldn't be happening.

 

[John Baron]

my father allwyas use to tell me " there is nothing free in this world "

 

[cocobongo]

yes, I know there's nothing free. But honest businesses give you a chance to unlock undesired upsells. Just saying.

As an update, nobody called me, but someone form support from both GoDaddy and Domainsbyproxy contacted me. DbP sent me the same nonsensical template unrelated to my question. Godaddy "support" told me that they're totally unrelated to DbP (go figure, I never signed with DbP, only with Godaddy) and therefore they can't do absolutely anything. However, they'll gladly take my money for that "totally unrelated" company!

OK, in short, and as expected, I'll lose my domains. No big deal, they'll lose more than me. Not that it will hurt them at all, I'm just a small fish, but at least some people will know about this scam. Yes, I said it: SCAM.