Godaddy Domains Privacy Scam Alert
 

This has been an interesting morning. I've wasted a couple of hours trying to resolve a surprise, un-authorized charge by Godaddy.com

I was charged for the amount of $20.00 that I wasn't aware of so I contacted godaddy customer service and they said that charge was by their sister company Domains By Proxy for an "Administrative Fee". There was a law firm that wanted to dispute a domain name so their inquired for my personal information with no success.

Domains By Proxy just asked to be included in the initial email communication and they were. All my Whois information is correct on GoDaddy.com.

So the customer service at GoDaddy.com said that he would be able to help me, nor did he have detailed information on why the charge had taken place. They wouldn't provide me with a phone number where I could call someone at Domains By Proxy by resolve this issue. All they provided me with is an email address.

The charge on my statement provided me with contact information on GoDaddy.com. So I got off the phone with GoDaddy.com with no resolution. How could GoDaddy charge my credit card they had on file, yet don't know why I was charged OR to be able to assist me with this on authorized charge.

They didn't send me a notification for this charge either. When you're checking out a domain from their you are offered to use their Domains By Proxy feature for FREE for one year. FREE means no unexpected, unauthorized charges with no notification.

Anyhow, I had to call my card company for a dispute and based on the information I provided them, they did a charge back and gave a refund on the spot.

GoDaddy.com is shady and tries to pull "quick ones" on their clients. I ended up removing all my payment information they had on file, accept a prepaid card I had on there with no funds.

I own thousands of domains with them and I WILL NOT buy anymore domains from them.

Fuck Bob Parson and their shady practices.

And people here still wonder why GoDaddy sucks. I've always said, it's not a matter of IF they will screw you, but WHEN.

those 1$ domains must cum from somewhere and Bob sold gd

I'm more surprised that any webmaster with experience uses godaddy. That blows my mind. Godaddy preys on clueless newbies. Veterans should know better.

Most common excuse is "i didn't have any problem with them for years"or "they have good support".Fuck register which disable your domain for having a wrong capital letter in your whois.

I regged a nice domain with godaddy a few days ago and they removed it from my account.. They took the money from my bank account so I made a support ticket and they then refunded me saying the domain was already regged...

More BS from godaddy...

Use NAMECHEAP .......

Yup, namecheap is the way to go, moniker is pretty good too :thumbsup

Not defending Godaddy or shady practices....focusing on what I highlighted in your post:

Isn't that the exact same thing that porn sites do with free trial memberships? Free for xx days? So do mainstream companies (other than GoDaddy), Netflix recently gave me a two weeks free; Gamefly offered us 7 days free; Rhapsody has given me two weeks free countless times. But in every instance, unless I cancel within that time period, I get billed.

I don't care what the product or service, or if it's something offered as a bonus to something I'm currently purchasing, I always look for the fine print about being charged if not canceled, or just cancel the addition thing anyway.

While I do agree that a reminder email would have been a good courtesy effort from Godaddy, that flies in the face of what most adult webmasters on here say. I think DVTimes once posted about reminding customers that their memberships were coming up for renewal, and he got flamed; reason being, "don't remind a customer to cancel something they don't really want. Let them figure it out on their own and collect the $$ until they do."

So, while I sympathize with your situation, that's the plight of most customers of adult websites, and it's sort of funny to see someone complaining about it on an adult webmaster forum.

Say fuck you and transfer your 1000's of domains to Moniker

No this is not comparable, this fee wasn't for subscribing to the privacy service nor was it up for renewal which deems your point invalid.

I had nice shopping card filled with free domains, i started payment process and domains were unavailable.. happened to me a few times at GoDaddy.. i moved to Namecheap and they have been great for me for many years now..

fully agree. There are a lot better registrars out there. Godaddy sucks in the newbies with dollar domains and flashy commercials.

yes, their Domains by Proxy "free" stuff is the most usual scam they play, they got me too, and I know a couple people who got these secret charges, they just hope you don't realize it and since they have hundreds of millions domains, you can bet they make some nice chunk of money with this scam. It's also true that FOR WHAT I KNOW, if you dispute the charge they'll back off, but if you don't notice it... bam, you're fucked :2 cents:

i like godaddy because you cant really beat 7.99 domains + free first year of privacy

anyone else offer something like that? ive never had a problem with them in like 8 years of using them, but ive heard the horror stories

not if but when .. hope it doesn't end up costing you a buck or two of savings every year.