For Sale WildWest Joins the Rip-Off the Customer Club

[Duke]

This has been some week I have had with companies in the expiring name field. First I had Pool.com register a name I didn't order and refuse to give a refund (a credit was issued instead):

http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35491&highlight=pool

Then I had Namewinner give not just one but TWO domains I won in open public bidding to someone else (the proof of my high bids is STILL on their website:

http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36104&highlight=namewinner

Now along comes GoDaddy's WildWest division to complete the trifecta. I had a backorder on HOA.net Saturday. They failed to get it (no surprise there) but then they are supposed to return the backorder to your account so you can switch it to something else. Well, they never returned the backorder and now they claim I never had a backorder to begin with so I have no name and no money. You can't show them otherwise because they remove the backorder from your account during the drop.

I asked for feedback from others when the incidents and Pool and Namewinner occurred and found out that these were regular events at those two services. How about this situation at WildWest/GoDaddy - anyone else had that happen?


What I have learned from this is never trust any of these services. I now check my Pool backorder list everyday to make sure they have notadded additionalnames I did not order. I now copy the WildWest backorder page everyday before the drop, so if they steal any more backorders I can show them proof it was there. Namewinner is still a problem - how do you guard again invisible bidders? I am writing the president there for an official company comment and then there will be a story at Domain Name Journal on the situation at NW/Dotster.

 

[Sharpy]

Boy their really out to get you this month Duke!

I had one that disapeared but it was just siting in account waiting to be setup.

Also I thought one was missing from ww but realized it was at godaddy.

Don't think your that goofy Duke but thought I'd pass it along in case.

 

[.com.net.org]

I feel sorry for you Duke.

 

[alia]

GoDaddy has had a problem to refresh the page content completely ever since I had an account there. I thought I had lost some backorders in my account last month, and I wrote them, but the next day everything was back. Try deleting the browser cache and refresh the page.

 

[radioz]

I had the Pool problem too. I must ask WHY they won't give a refund! They made the mistake. Maybe if there are a bunch of us, we could complain emass to the credit card companies. This really isn't much different than Sears putting a $60 camera on your credit card that you didn't buy and then saying, 'well, just pay for it and we'll isssue a credit'. That would be preposterous but it is a great way to build up your cash on hand supply. If I bill eveyone $60 erroneously, can I just keep the money which, of course, I'll let you spend on whatever drops that I get and don't want? I doubt that would work and, frankly, it shouldn't!

No real problems with GD other than no getting much for a while. Then again, Snap Names seems to be about equal to GD with 15 vs. 2 registrar streams and they cost a lot more as we all know.

Good Luck!

Jon

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by Sharpy
Boy their really out to get you this month Duke!

I had one that disapeared but it was just siting in account waiting to be setup.

Also I thought one was missing from ww but realized it was at godaddy.

Don't think your that goofy Duke but thought I'd pass it along in case.

Thanks for the tips Sharpy. I doublechecked. It's not in setup mode and I don't use them from GoDaddy. Not a refresh problem either (except I need to refresh my bank account after losing so much money to these weasels :-D).

I'm starting to think I shouldn't leave the house this week. No...wait, the computer is in the house...I NEED to leave the house!

 

[Ed30]

Originally posted by Duke


I'm starting to think I shouldn't leave the house this week. No...wait, the computer is in the house...I NEED to leave the house!

Get yourself a laptop - then these people can drive you nuts wherever you are :-D

 

[SirSpider]

Originally posted by Ed30
Get yourself a laptop - then these people can drive you nuts wherever you are :-D

Yep - my laptop does have that effect...:-(

 

[Honan]

Here is my logic:
If you are a WWD customer then you are not a godaddy customer.
You are a WWD reseller.
So, presumably, you are buying a backorder from your own reseller interface.
Each transaction that you do with your own reseller interface will send an email with a customer number and a receipt number to the user id that you are using as a customer of yourself.
If you quote that receipt number and customer number, how can they possibly deny it?
Even if they do deny it , your credit card co. would surely charge back?
Regards
Joe

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by anyweb
Here is my logic:
If you are a WWD customer then you are not a godaddy customer.
You are a WWD reseller.
So, presumably, you are buying a backorder from your own reseller interface.
Each transaction that you do with your own reseller interface will send an email with a customer number and a receipt number to the user id that you are using as a customer of yourself.
If you quote that receipt number and customer number, how can they possibly deny it?
Even if they do deny it , your credit card co. would surely charge back?
Regards
Joe

I am not a WWD reseller. I am a customer if a WWD reseller. However I did already ppoint out that they could easily verify what I am saying by looking at home backorders I have purchased, subtract the number of domains I have won and see if the number remaining is the number in my account or is one short (which it is). They ignored that.

For the tiny amount of money involved I am not going to spend additional hours trying to get them to do the right thing. Instead I will just let everyone else know that there is a good chance you will get ripped off if you do not copy your entire backorder list every day before the drop. It always amazes me that these companies will accept tons of bad word of mouth publicity and ill will from customers who have spent a lot of money with them (over $500 on backorders alone for me) rather than correct a $10 mistake.

 

[Sharpy]

Duke, your ww reseller can give you a list of all of your tarnsactions, purchased BO's and names registered. I know it's only $12.30, but ww should return it.

Or have your reseller call ww reseller div. and they can and will look at all of it in real time. As a reseller, I have found the WW suport to be fantastic.

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by Sharpy
Duke, your ww reseller can give you a list of all of your tarnsactions, purchased BO's and names registered. I know it's only $12.30, but ww should return it.

Or have your reseller call ww reseller div. and they can and will look at all of it in real time. As a reseller, I have found the WW suport to be fantastic.

Thanks Sharpy - actually all of that info is available online in everyone's account. I reviewed it this morning and told them the same thing - just look in the transaction history - it shows all BOs purchased and when you subtract the number they registered with BO's it obviously leaves you with the number that should be in your account. Well when I reviewed it again this morning before mailing them - I found I was actually short TWO BO's. I sent them all of the documenation and just a few minutes ago got a note from customer service that they had turned the matter over to a supervisor to look into what is going wrong and would get back to me, so we'll see.

I haven't had my reseller contact them yet - we'll see if they can sort it out on their own first. In the meantime I would warn everyone to keep a VERY close eye on the BO's in your account to make sure they don't disappear - I hadn't even noticed that second was gone until today.