After [thread=406820]this thread[/thread] last year, you might think everything was hunky-dory with me and GoDaddy and the two domains I have registered with them. All they would have to do is send me a billing notice, and I’d renew. No problem.
Sure, Mama Zappa had some complaints about GoDaddy - their stupid anti-spam stuff has blocked legit emails to and from her - but I never had problems.
Until now.
I’m trying to keep out of the Pit, because yes, I should have tracked the expiration dates myself. I just figured a for-profit organization would want a smooth transaction for my next payment. If I was happy I would even have renewed for more than one year, since domain registration prices have been stable lately.
But I am not happy.
I called GD GoDaddy. GD GoDaddy’s claim is that since their system sent me billing emails (which I never saw), my registration has expired. That strikes me as very odd because I got the expiration notices last year with no trouble at all. I had no reason to even think about contacting GD GoDaddy until emails to my domain started bouncing and my web site didn’t come up, so the “grace period” when I could have simply renewed my registration expired as well. Both of my domains have well and truly expired. Luckily for me the one I don’t care about, and the other is a hobby rather than my livelihood.
According to GD GoDaddy, my only immediate recourse its to fork over $90 to unlock the domain. That’s TEN TIMES the renewal price. Nice business model, GD GoDaddy - “lose” the renewal emails, don’t track email bounces on your notices, don’t try alternate contacts in the domain registration, don’t keep alternate contact info on users, don’t have a way to post messages to the users when they sign into your web site, just have the domains go down the memory hole. Then hit the users up for a fee an order of magnitude higher than usual, for your “trouble”. That’s capitalism for you, I suppose.
According to GD GoDaddy, another alternative is for me to pay then to put in a back order for the domain and hope nobody else back ordered it first. Or I can wait for the redemption period to expire and register it before someone else does. Oh, and even though GD GoDaddy can tell me the exact day they sent me the emails I never received, they can’t tell me when the grace period expires. :mad:
Once I’ve recovered my domain (Mama Zappa is putting in a back order for it as I type this), I’d like to move my registration to a less evil registrar.
From my last request to the Dope (the thread I mentioned many, many, words ago), I have these possibilities:
Anyone have any experiences with these folks, or can recommend another registrar less evil than GD GoDaddy or Network Solutions (see previous thread mentioned many ranting words ago)?
I admit GD GoDaddy is not evil like Austin Powers’ Dr. Evil or Futurama’s MOMCorp or Micro$oft or a major Telco, but they’re Diet Coke of Evil enough that I want to move on and not give them any more of my pittance. I’m open to suggestions.
Oh, and another lesson is that Mama Zappa is always right. I don’t know why I have to keep re-learning this after 25 years of marriage, but I do. :smack:
