GoDaddy canceled my Premium Domain purchase after 1 month

[Tonearm]

I bought a Premium Domain on GoDaddy and it still wasn't transferred to me after a month. I placed several calls to GoDaddy and finally received this via email:

"We regret to inform you, we had to cancel the auction transaction for EXAMPLE.COM, as the seller no longer owns or has possession of the domain name. We have issued you a refund. The seller sold the domain after it had already expired, and failed to remove it from the active listings platform. We have suspended the seller's account for violating the Terms of Service. We apologize for the inconvenience."

This doesn't seem right. It wasn't an auction, it was a straightforward sale labeled by GoDaddy as "Domain Transaction Assured" in my email order receipt. The domain is currently registered at GoDaddy. Is there anything I can do?

[fathom]

Not sure what is right..l if they don't have access to it any ire what can they do?

Give you a millin dollars?

[lucy24]

Never mind what the registrar says. Look up the domain name's history, day by day. Did it, at any time, belong to someone other than what the registrar says it did? Urk. That last sentence came out extremely garbled, but I think it makes sense if you don't read too slowly.

[tangor]

Sounds like both you and GoDaddy are in a bind as the seller/holder did something different. One would have to determine if that domain is that important to expend LEGAL FEES to pursue the issue to obtain, and even then, might fail as GoDaddy (if the report is true) did not fail due a third party's improper action. The fees would be involved in suing that third party and forcing the fourth party to turn over that domain.

Do you really want to go there?

[jmccormac]

Ignore fathom's unhelpful contribution. Lucy has a good point on the ownership. It would seem that from what you have said, the seller was the weak link and had sold the domain but did not update the auction listing. If it was not being exclusively sold on Godaddy's site then it is possible that it was listed on a few sites. As Tangor said above, taking a legal action could get very messy and expensive. Godaddy's TOS will probably cover Godaddy for such events as it is blaming the seller. It is also possible to transfer domains after they expire (there is a grace period in which a registrant can renew a domain or transfer it to a different registrar after it expires). This kind of thing does happen with domain sales.

Regards...jmcc

[Tonearm]

Is there a good site for researching the whois history of a domain?

[fathom]

Domaintools.com

As for helpful... If you acquired the domain yourself and freely handed it over or at least provided an offer, that would be helpful... Short of that ... You posted the same conclusion. With the equally worthless note that "This type of thing does happen with domain sales".

[godaddy.com...]

I'm sure if Godaddy acquired the domain ...you would have it... Although backordering, auction etc., domains isn't a perfect science. Using a premium account is just another way for Godaddy to earn more revenue.

Now I'm even more worthless.

[Tonearm]

I'm having trouble following. GoDaddy is definitely the current registrar. Are you saying GoDaddy must have auctioned it to someone else when it expired even though I had already bought it through them?

[jmccormac]

With the equally worthless note that "This type of thing does happen with domain sales".

Stick to trolling Google threads.

Regards...jmcc

[jmccormac]

I'm having trouble following. GoDaddy is definitely the current registrar. Are you saying GoDaddy must have auctioned it to someone else when it expired even though I had already bought it through them?

It depends on whether it was exclusively listed as an auction or for sale. Some registrars will auction expired domain names. There is a grace period where the registrant of a domain name can still renew the domain name.

This illustrates it:
[archive.icann.org...]

The registrar, in this case, seems irrelevant because it was the registrant who sold it. Godaddy does not indicate, from what you've said, if the sale happened on Godaddy's site. However the domain may have been transferred between accounts on Godaddy with the payment being handled externally.

The original registrant could have received a higher offer. It might have been listed on more than one domain name site. The whole expired domain name auction thing is intended to make more money for the registrars in that they are effectively subverting the normal renewal process by moving expired domain names on to their auction site rather than letting them drop naturally as per the domain life cycle above.

It does look like you "bought" a domain that had already been sold.

Regards...jmcc

[fathom]

It likely never got to an auction.

If Godaddy had originally acquired from another registrar it may have gone through the auction process if there was more than one backorder offer but they likely never snatched the domain away from the original owner whether the original owner renewed it, or sold it privately.

In the end, you were refunded your offer... End of story.

Back to trolling in domain names since jmcc prefers I don't.

[Tonearm]

The actual owner did email me asking for my GoDaddy account number and email address about a week or so after I made the purchase. I check with GoDaddy and they said that was standard operating procedure so I replied with my info. Never heard from him again and then a few weeks later GoDaddy informed me that the domain was not mine after all. It's frustrating. I was assured by GoDaddy in chat and on the phone that the domain was legally mine and there was nothing to worry about when I inquired as to why the transfer was taking so long.

Never mind what the registrar says. Look up the domain name's history, day by day. Did it, at any time, belong to someone other than what the registrar says it did?

Lucy, I'm having trouble retrieving that kind of info. Does it matter? :)

[jmccormac]

Tonearm, I stickymailed you some details that may help find out what happened. The original owner was supposed to push the domain into your Godaddy account.

Regards...jmcc

[lucy24]

Does it matter?

Only if you need to know whether the registrar is accurately representing what happened. (Can't you look up this kind of thing in domaintools or similar, possibly after giving them a little bit of money?) It's only important if #1 there is a whole lot of money involved and #2 you can prove that someone lied to you and #3 someone else benefited by the misrepresentation and #4 ... well, you probably stopped at #1.

[tangor]

GoDaddy account number and email address about a week or so after I made the purchase. I check with GoDaddy and they said that was standard operating procedure so I replied with my info.

I'll just escalate to another hair-pulling tigers and lions and bears oh my kind of thing: The seller got your info. And you did not get the domain. I have to ask, why did you deal with the SELLER when GoDaddy was your point of sale?

At this point I'd be grateful GoDaddy is refunding you, and then I'd get on changing that account info, or locking it down, lickety split!

[Tonearm]

I have to ask, why did you deal with the SELLER when GoDaddy was your point of sale?

I thought it was weird too and I called GoDaddy before providing that info but they said I should provide it and that it was standard operating procedure.

How can I lock down my account besides using a good password?

[fathom]

I think he means locking your DNS profile, obviously once you acquired a domain.

[Tonearm]

I think he means locking your DNS profile, obviously once you acquired a domain.

Is the danger that the "seller" has my account number and could guess my password to get access to my account?

[fathom]

Highly doubtful.

Although if your account password is 123456 or something that simple you open yourself up to unauthorized access which has happened before.

[jmccormac]

How can I lock down my account besides using a good password?

Enable Godaddy's two factor authentication.

[godaddy.com...]

Regards...jmcc

[Tonearm]

Highly doubtful.

Although if your account password is 123456 or something that simple you open yourself up to unauthorized access which has happened before.

OK so where is the new exposure or attack vector that should lead me to lock down my account?

[fathom]

What jmccormac linked to.

[vendortools]

you are the same things with me and i dont know how to get back my domain

[iwrconsultancy]

"The seller sold the domain after it had already expired" It's a fact that a domain which is in arrears for payment cannot be transferred by the person in arrears. Though, you would think that GoDaddy, as a registrar, should have been able to identify that situation before allowing the auction.

[fathom]

"The seller sold the domain after it had already expired" It's a fact that a domain which is in arrears for payment cannot be transferred by the person in arrears. Though, you would think that GoDaddy, as a registrar, should have been able to identify that situation before allowing the auction.

This isn't conpletely true.

The domain can be renewed by the original owner up to 12 days after it expires. Godaddy doesn't care who's credit card or Paypal account provides the funds for the domain so I can let a domain go, find a buyer, add their credit details to my account, pay for the domain then push that domain to their account, all without any interference from Godaddy.