*** Here Is A List Of Some Of The Best Domain Name Resources Available ***NEW YORK, NY – Let me begin by saying I am a big fan of GoDaddy.com and have been doing business with them since I began working on the Internet. I’m also a Wild West Domains reseller and believe it or not, I may not have even found this fantastic industry if it were not for Godaddy’s “Website Tonight” product which is now called “Website Builder” as it resulted in me building my very first website. In my opinion, GoDaddy.com is one of the best registrars for domains and I have used them for a very long time, not for all my domains, but for a great deal of them. I even met Bob Parsons in person back in 2011 at the Wild West Domains Reseller Conference in Arizona.
With that said, you could imagine it would take a great deal of frustration for me to vent about something with Godaddy, but an issue I am having, specifically with the Aftermarket, fairly consistently I might add (three times), seems to be a larger issue likely effecting a wide range of domainers; I’m curious just how large an issue it actually is.
Here is how the situation plays out.
You list a domain name in the Godaddy Aftermarket called “Godaddy Auctions”, if you’re lucky, you will eventually receive an email like this one below received (1/4/2017) which indicates a domain name listed for sale has in fact, sold.
Very shortly after this email arrived (1/4/2017), the next one was a follow up, to be expected; by Escrow.com, sending the initiating transaction.
A second email then comes, again, from Escrow (1/4/2017), indicating the buyer has agreed to the terms.
Things are looking good; seems like a motivated buyer; this transaction should move right along – or will it? Let me go see how much the domain sold for because now I am expecting the transaction to follow-through; the buyer seems to know his or her way away around the process and is moving the transaction right along, so it seems.
Now I will go check inside Godaddy to see what the sale price was.
Great; looks like a good one. I will just wait for my cool $45,000.00 to be delivered, less any escrow fees of-coerce.
Now, the last couple of times this happened, it was a non-paying bidder. That couldn’t possibly happen again because that was about a year or so ago. Just to be proactive though, I’m going to call in to Godaddy.com and see if they can tell me the buyers account looks like an active one and ask if they can tell me the likely hood of the transaction being completed. It is 45 grand…. So, I’d like to at least take a minute and check on it. Based on the last few that did not follow through and complete I’d like to see what I can find out about this one.
While we’re at it, this is what the sold notification looked like last time (4/9/2015).
This is what it looked like when it was determined to be a non-paying bidder on 4/19/2015.
Actually couldn’t believe it back then because it was the second time it happened. Again, we’re up to three times now. This was later on 4/19/2015 where I basically was asking WTF? This was reiterating that it was the second time.
They explained that they took action against the account and that’s all they could do.
An improvement I notice from the process today verses the process in the past seems to be they changed the email alert from saying that the “domain sold” to the domain is being “processed for sale”. That’s a start.
Anyway, so this time I call in and I cannot find out anything about the buyer or the transaction. The customer support person says I should just wait on Escrow.com and see what happens, so I politely remind them I had a few transactions not go through on the marketplace and it would really be a turnoff to the whole Godaddy Aftermarket if this is just another nonpaying bidder again. He acknowledges my concern and mentioned that the best thing I could do would be to wright-in to the auctions support people.
Meanwhile, let’s examine another classic Godaddy Auctions response from 11/3/14. This happens to be on a different domain (now sold already), but this one suggests I just go ahead and list the domain again; fantastic.
So that is exactly what I do. I’m thinking, yep, this is probably going to be the same old Godaddy go-nowhere sale. So I look up the last transaction that failed to go through and I open up the support discussion with that other Incident ID because Godaddy and myself had a lot of back and forth about it, what it meant for the marketplace’ reputation and how it was not very good that the last two deals died and went nowhere, so I revive the discussion now that I have a new transaction to work with and ask about.
Here is my Aftermarket Inquiry for this new transaction which is again, now the second time this particular domain name has been purchased on the venue (my third time total for non-paying bidders). This email support ticket was sent in on the day of the transaction 1/4/2017.
Meanwhile the transaction does in fact just sit there at this point with no updates from Escrow on buyer making payment.
The next day Godaddy Auctions responds and they agree with me this time. They ‘agree something needs to change’ the system needs improvements which are supposedly ‘already underway’.
But again, the last two transactions that failed to go-through were near two years ago now that I look at the date.
Seems weird, although they do agree with me and suggest I list the domain in another way, as a “Premium Domain”. I suppose I could try that in the future, but this is now the third time I’ve sold a domain on the Godaddy Aftermarket only to find out the buyer was another non-paying bidder [Sort of spoils the entire motivation to even list anything there at all]. Checking the Year to Date Sales Charts at DNJournal shows just two sales attributed to Godaddy.com, and just one of those to the actual Auctions Marketplace.
Here is another response I received yesterday, 1/7/2016
So although I feel it really has nothing to do with Escrow at this point, as the purchase was facilitated at Godaddy.com, not at Escrow.com, I did follow their recommendation and check with Escrow.com just to see what they would say and according to Escrow.com, since this transaction was created from partner GoDaddy, there is no time-frame for the transaction to go inactive. All I can do is wait and if it never closes – that I should contact Godaddy.com directly to cancel the transaction for me, as it was created on their end and I have no way of cancelling it myself.
Here is all I see in Escrow (this will like just sit like this till the end of time – or until Godaddy.com cancels the transaction):
Fantastic system they have here. I will just wait… 🙂
So, in order to round-up this semi-quasi investigation-venting of the Godaddy Marketplace experience and scanning through all of my past emails to catch up on what an unreliable mess Godaddy Auctions has been through the years, I was able to find one successful Godaddy.com auctions transaction where I was actually the seller. The rest of all of the transactions I could find are from me purchasing domains and all of those look to have gone through pretty well (except for one), but as a seller, just one time I was actually paid for a domain name through the sale via the Godaddy Auctions platform, so I can’t say that it has never-ever happened, but it sure does not happen often.
Here is what one of those looks like from 2013 when the service actually probably worked well.
So what has been your experience with Godaddy Auctions?
Is this the reason I don’t see Godaddy Auctions much on the list of venues responsible for selling domain names on the Year to Date Sales Charts at DNJournal? Let me know about your experience. Maybe this is just a freak-thing with a few bad apples trolling the auctions place. I’d like to still use the venue if it still works for other domainers; just need good reason to do so. I’ve kind-of written-the-place-off for now as an Ebay-type venue when it comes to domains, with no real action and just a bunch of dreamers. I tend to follow a fairly simple rule: Three-Strikes-Your-Out. What do you think? Anyone actually make any good transactions happen at the Godaddy Auctions Marketplace? I read that Godaddy Acquired Afternic in 2013 and I would assume that would have improved the venue by now, not made it worse. What say you?
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a ‘how to’ book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®
We’ve had a couple of similar issues but most of the time, things go really smoothly.
GoDaddy doesn’t release sales data to DNJournal anymore. Even without customer sales, they would likely be one of the largest sellers, just with sales from their NameFind portfolio.
Sorry to hear about your experience with these deadbeat buyers – it’s both time consuming and frustrating. Sort of the reverse of your situation, I bought (at asking price) a domain listed on Afternic. Deposited the funds. When it came time for the seller to transfer the domain, he refused. Afternic were supportive/responsive, but could really do nothing more than cancel his account and remove his domains listed for sale.
Without pre-qualifying buyers, there is always the risk of default. It would be useful if a list could be published of buyers who renege. But that in itself is risky because of identity theft, fake accounts, etc.
My recent godaddy auctions experience:
I was the buyer of godaddy auction.
I live in the USA but was traveling overseas and had little access to a desktop computer so i was on my iphone trying to buy a domain from godaddy auctions but every time i click on godaddy auctions link, it would go back to my godaddy account page…so basically i could not access godaddy auctions…so i called godaddy and told them to place a bid but they said they couldn’t do that…they tried to solve this issue but could not after talking to them for 2 hours….they said it is my browser but i tried couple different browsers and still no luck…could not access godaddy auctions.
Then next day, I logged onto desktop and it worked perfect…also i found a solution by myself…if you use an iPhone or any mobile phone, just download the godaddy app and access godaddy auctions and it works perfect…anyways so i placed a bid on GoDaddy auctions and won 2 domains and paid for them both…then after couple days, godaddy emailed me and said the owner renewed the domains and we will refund you.
This happened on both godaddy auction domains…so as a buyer, i had bad experience with godaddy auctions…namejet is much better…as a registrar, GoDaddy is still the best, but godaddy auction needs improvement.
Sorry for the long story but that’s my experience!!!
Two hours on the phone and they didn’t tell you about the app?
I’ve had 2 of these “abandoned deals” over the years.
There are 2 problems I see with the current system at GD on higher dollar transactions
1. A broken and cumbersome process. It ain’t easy buying domains. The 2 step process of “buying at GD” and then completing the deal elsewhere is going to create a large amount of “abandoned transactions”. Imagine, you want to buy something at GD and it’s got a high price tag. First you have to trust GD. That’s not as easy as it sounds but GD has spent all those ad dollars for a reason : to brand themselves and earn your trust. Now you bought something and you trust them and they dump you over to an Escrow service to complete the deal? Nah. It’s not going to work that way. . . . not every time at least. It’s like if you bought something from Amazon at a high dollar price tag and then they sent you over to another site to pay. Many customers wouldn’t put up with that. . . . especially a relative (to most) unknown entitiy like Escrow.com
2. Lack of follow-through and customer support/oversight. Ok so the process sucks but the easy fix is to have an agent handle the transaction , reach out the buyer and walk them through the process. Get that card charged or wire sent before minds get changed. When the transaction gets dumped from Godaddy to Escrow, you’d expect this right ? It doesn’t happen that way from what I can tell. Customers at this level need to be shown how to do things and the GD team needs to EARN their commission by holding their hands. They don’t. Plain and simple. It’s automated and it’s a bad customer experience. Among the other things a domain platform should accomplish in order to desreve a commission, closing a sale and helping the customer through the process seems tops on the list.
It’s really simple if your bidding on GD names as a buyer you should get a non-refundable deposit of 5k with the other side or GD. Make it a requirement for everyone. IF transaction goes bad you keep the escrow money. It should be 20% down non-refundable. Any names that is being bid on above 10k should require a deposit to even make a bid. So if name was 10k you keep 2k in deposit with them.
When you buy a house you put down escrow if you fail to follow throw the escrow goes to owner.
If a deal goes bad with a company buy-out, guess what GD a break up fee is involved.
This is how you solve it. You get the losers and deadbeats out of making BS offers. Again “Require a Deposit”
I have just solved this for you Godaddy now go implement this. This took me 3 minutes to solve and your on year 10 trying to figure this out. People like to screw around and make fake bids you can’t stop it. But you can stop it with money. And I don’t want to hear about people complaining GD will make interest because your bank is at near 0 percent right now for interest earnings.
DonnyM
Have you tried Uniregistry.com ?
I also have a problem with deadbeat sellers. After a price is negotiated, the seller doesn’t follow through in delivering the name.
I had very similar experience with GoDaddy, when I accepted $85,000 offer, but the Buyer newer paid to Escrow.com and we were not able to cancel the transaction without GD. And I sold the domain through GD Premium listing for $60,000 week later. My concern was this may be the same buyer who changed his / her mind about the offer and simply contacted a GD associate in China to make me a lower offer via email and instructed me to set up “Buy it now” price at GD for immediate purchase as the buyer’s condition. I will newer know if I was “played” because GD never reveal the info of the person who never paid for it.
We’ve had the same experience with a high priced name I have no idea why GoDaddy doesn’t simply take a non refundable deposit from all buyers immediately upon acceptance of their offer.
Oh-Yes it is getting quite difficult with all of these deadbeat buyers.
WOW DonnyM hit it on the head of the nail. You get a deposit that is an incredible idea and should be required going forward. That would solve it, but will Godaddy and the rest do it? NOOOOOO
I had kind of similar issue but not with godaddy but sedo.
The domain not closed in the first request. But in the second request, the buyer offered for $2k+ but I open for auction.
And he won the auction with no other bidders at around $3k.
But after several weeks. No payment received.
I wonder why 😉
But when i asked one of the domain expert, he said the domain worth much more than $3k though.
Yes but most domains sales on Godaddy and SEDO.
I have 1-2 broke deals for 5-6 k but 99% pay without a problem.
But Sedo is pathetic , offer with 1-3k, mostly not pay , I don’t why but sedo rly sux these days
I had a bizarre experience with GD last month. I received a check for $250.00 from them with a domain name I owned printed in the memo portion of the check.
I had registered the name through GD, but I had never offered it for sale.
When I checked on the ownership status, sure enough, it had been transferred out of my name and into the name of someone else. I tried to access info via my account at Go Daddy, but couldn’t gain access to all of my account. I called Go-Daddy and was told that they had no record of any transaction, or payment from a buyer, or to me, for any domain names in the last year.
The whole thing pissed me off because I hadn’t wanted to sell the domain. I hadn’t received any of the correspondence or alerts you seem to get at any time either.
The domain name that was taken from me was TRUMPTARDS.COM, and the check I received was for $250.00.
If you have any advice, I welcome it. I dont even know how to pursue any possible remedy on this, or even if there is one. The whole thing was pretty hokey.
That sounds very strange. According to the WhoIs records the domain was first registered in March of Last year (2016) so it would not have even come up for renewal yet and couldn’t possible have expired or been purchased before a drop. I would look into it further than. There should be a paper trail on how the domain was initiated for transfer or some sort of email alerts. Maybe you could find out where the authorization code was emailed. It must have gone somewhere. Sounds like the domain was stolen to me or someone had, at some point, access to your account.
Excellent write-up, thank you. Four years after your original post, and it seems now Go-Daddy owns the registration and hosting internet. I too, have been using GoDaddy for ages (Wildwest) It is interesting to note that when I decided to go with a third party service to sell some domains (auctions.godadduy) The service person I talked to said to make sure I list “Premium”, as mentioned in your post. I guess this reduces problems. I have not been through the whole process through GoDaddy but your post helps a person understand more of the process. The time you spent cutting out graphics and writing is appreciated.