Current developments with ongoing service and financial complications with godaddy.com need to be shared, if only to further advise other consumers. Godaddy.com was contacted by me patiently several times through email prior to this morning — when I opted to telephone them because they are not responding to the emails — and it’s about the interesting conversation and ongoing foolishness that resulted from that phone call I’d like to write.
I wrote previously, this:
GODADDY.COM MANIPULATES CHARGES
To recap the incident/s, I approached the godaddy.com website on September 15, 2006 for purposes of possibly transferring an existing, registered domain name, seeking a year’s registration after transfer and to park the domain. No features, nothing associated, just keep the domain name currently registered and moved to godaddy.com only because I am already using them for other domains (and I wanted to group all my domains at one registrar for sake of ease). The cost isn’t the issue so much as I like to be organized and then work with organizations and other individuals I find to be reliable over time, and I discontinue same with those I find are not those, much as most people.
Godaddy.com offered me at that time, and still does, the following terms:
.COM Transfers $6.95*/yr
Includes FREE 1-year extension!
FREE with every domain:
Quick Blog, Hosting with Web site builder,
Complete Email & More!***
Select the images above for a full-size version.
My interests were limited to a .com domain transfer and to ensure ongoing registration fees paid for this same domain, but to park it (no hosting, no additional services, nothing, just transfer it, continue registration, park it).
Selecting that feature activity area on their site (quoted above, also visible in the screen captures here, as is the asterick-referencing as to terms) leads you to secondary screens (several) on which you are offered add-ons and features at additional prices (nothing “FREE”), all of which I declined (I recall a total of four additional option pages that followed, which included three feature pages for add-ons with charges associated followed by an account page at which I was asked to confirm my account information and provide my payment option information) before I arrived at the final, last “Checkout” page, where it was announced that my credit card had been charged “$14.40″ by godaddy.com, which included a WHOIS fee of “$0.50.”
Select the images above for a full-size version.
Fine, alright, but no explanation of what the $14.40 represented, no opportunity for me to accept the charges before they charged my credit card (provided to them with anticipation that I’d find an acceptance or declination page, but I did not), just the total charge after declining all those add-ons and confirming my credit card number and account name.
So, I contacted godaddy.com at their only “contact us” option on their site. I asked them what the $14.40 was for and where my “FREE” registration was (“additional year”). I received a total of four “donotreply@godaddy.com” responses and one from an actual person. The one from an actual person, a “customer service representative” told me that I “paid for two years’ registration” for the domain.
I read a friendly email from a reader who explains that he THINKS the $14.40 charges involve a transfer fee of $6.95 and a year’s registration of $6.95, plus that WHOIS .50 fee (that would be “$14.10″ total, however).
However, the one and one only response I received from “customer service representative” at godaddy.com informs me I have “paid for two years’ registration” and does not mention any transfer fee.
In response, I asked godaddy.com (in several emails that remain unresponded to by godaddy.com) why I was charged for the “two years registration” — or any term at all — since I was at no time asked to select ANY configuration of registration (there was no option to select any length of years’, neither five, nor two, nor ten, nor one, nothing, and as a trusting customer I worked my way through the progressing screens in anticipation of that being asked of me, which never was by the time the “Checkout” total charge was announced to me).
Thus, I have confirmation from godaddy.com only that I “paid for two years’ registration” but when I asked them (several times in my emails and again this morning when I called them), “where is the ‘FREE’ additional year’s registration,” they didn’t respond (on the phone) and the emails I received were ongoing “donotreply@godaddy.com” form letters acknowledging they’d received my request for service, they were “sorry that (I) was not happy with (their) services…and…(to please let them know if there was anything else they could ‘help’ me with).”
Meaning, no resolution, no response to my questions, just no meaningful information.
So, this morning I called them (at my expense, since they do not have an 800 number).
I got a fellow who politely understood the issues but could not explain the issues involved as to solving any of the as-yet undecideds (what about that “free” “one year extension” which implies A CONTINUATION OF REGISTRATION, thus also identifying the “$6.99″ fee for “.COM Transfers” as a registration fee, not a transfer fee).
I explained my positions to this fellow and that was that I consider their site misleading in statements and process — all told, all the emails afterward without even responding to my specific questions, the fees charged without option to decline them before charge, the fees sprung on me without too much if any detail as to what they represent.
Eventually, finding the clock ticking, me with other demands of far greater importance pending my attention this morning, the issue dangling on and on and on and…I asked the fellow for a refund, to cancel the request to transfer and just refund the money. Either correct the account (I never asked for “two years’ registration” and where’s the ["extension"] ‘FREE’ registration) or refund the amount they charged me. But their ongoing elaborations here were the “final straw” and ultimately just irritating to me as a customer.
Hold, three different, intermittent times: he returned — hold — he returned — hold — he returned again, said he was “still checking a few things” and another hold, that went on for about ten minutes.
Followed by the fellow saying that he wanted to “give (me) an email address to use” and asking me to “write to this email address” and he gave me the “President” of godaddy.com, saying that “he would like to hear about your concerns.”
So, all this is now about twenty-minutes into the phone call and I am now even more irritated with godaddy.com and responded to this fellow: “no, I’m not interested in spending any more time helping your organization straighten out it’s issues…if your President was ‘interested’ in my account, he’d have had someone respond to my emails with specificity to my explanations, and, he would have presented me with straightforward purchase options on the website.”
I was writing down the “President”‘s email address (as asked to do, even then I was trying to be compliant with this guy) when again I was placed on hold.
Another fellow then got on the line and said that he was “transferring (me) to another department so hold on…” I again blurted out (the guy was in the process of placing me on hold again) that I wanted a refund, just wanted to close this request with godaddy.com, was not interested in assisting their customer service, whatever, just refund the money…” and to “what department” he thought I “need(ed) to speak” and he said, “I’m transferring you to the department who can help you with this request” and proceeded to place me again on hold before I could say anything else, literally nterrupting my questions.
I already asked for a refund and a cancellation of this request with godaddy.com, and in fact, asked the first fellow about three, four times for such.
So, again, after more ongoing holding, the second fellow returned to the call and I asked him as demonstratively as possible inorder to get my question answered, “WHAT department are you transferring me to and why? I’ve asked you already, what, six, seven times for a refund and I am not interested in any further time and effort about this issue…”
The second fellow said that I was being “transferred to the President and he’s the only one who can help you with this account.”
“This account?” This account?! The domain that I’d asked to be transferred to them (from melbourneit.com to godaddy.com, both so-called legitimate registrars) is a harmless, meaningless, originally-hosted-but-never-used-on-yahoo.com (no email, no website, no publishing of the URL, nothing). And suddenly “only” the “President” of godaddy.com can issue refunds? Can “help” with “this account”?
I never knew I was so important. Certainly one tiny .com domain should never cause so much uproar, particularly if the domain itself was to be stated here (think of silly-dot-com or similar). My bills are paid without incident at godaddy.com, I have registered something like six domains with them and never so much as “dared” to ask a question about any of that. Suddenly “the President’ “has to” talk with me? He can’t manage his business on his own? Hey, send me a paycheck because otherwise, I think I’ve already spent far more money on godaddy.com’s “business” issues than should ever have to be.
The domain I requested be transferred was originally purchased from yahoo.com webhosting as a lark but I never used it (created no website, sent no mail, never published the URL) and after maintaining it there at yahoo.com for nearly a year (paying the monthly fees), I eventually just closed the hosting account associated with it and then it took me another several months afterward to even ask yahoo.com for a domain key so I could manage the registration (that I’d already purchased/paid for).
So, there it has set at melbourneit.com for a full year, unused. I am a bit fond of the domain name for amusement purposes so I thought I’d both renew it before it is set to expire (09/22/06) and also move it to godaddy.com where I also have five other domains registered, for the organizational purposes I explained earlier here.
So suddenly “the President” “must” “discuss” this domain (“this account”) with me and at my own expense at that. The guy has my email address, he has employees, if he’d be “concerned” with “this account” before this, he’d have had employees respond to “this account” before this and straighten it out. He hasn’t. His site created the confusion, he can very easily correct any misleading statements on his website, he has lots of options available to him before problems like this grow into customers (me) being frustrated and irritated enough to now conclude I’d be happier elsewhere (and I am sure that I will be).
I read that yahoo.com is experiencing problems but they have an excellent online process for domain signup and registration, and, they are reliable as to billing. Two sites I have hosted with them have never failed, not even so much as once, so Yahoo excels at hosting reliability and performance. Their only difficulty is that Yahoo fails with the telephone and email “customer support” areas (I’ve read so many others with similar experiences to mine in this regard but feel free to go read about it yourself).
But what I conclude as a consumer about godaddy.com, after this experience, is that if they’re going to canoodle and manipulate their way into extra six and ten dollars here and there, what ELSE are they going to be misleading about? Not that I know they will or would but that based upon my experience so far, I’m not comfortable relying on them for any longer and would feel bettter just moving my business to other merchants who I know to be reliable (and that does not include godaddy.com).
I mentioned yahoo.com earlier here only because they fail at online and telephone customer service but they certainly have never presented me with any irregular billing nor do they confound the domain registration process but make it very, very simple (and thus, I highly suggest yahoo.com for hosting and domain registration but I do not suggest godaddy.com unless you’re a bulk buyer who isn’t concerned with a budget).
All that for an overcharge of $14.40. I don’t care if they do or do not lose or gain any business but I do care that I never have to contact godaddy.com again nor wade through ridiculously empty “customer service” emails that explain as little as possible and ignore the rest. And the “President” (of godaddy.com) can figure out his business all by himself. If he “has to” correspond with me, he can send an email.
The pending result: I paid for the lengthy call to godaddy.com, I devoted several hours to what should have been a simple .com domain transfer, I was overcharged (and/or charged for unexplained, “surprise” additions) by godaddy.com, underserved by godaddy.com (they never have provided me with any of those “free” things, and I am now no longer even potentially interested), they have not complied with my request for a refund, they say that “only the President can” provide me with a refund (has anyone EVER heard of such a thing — I know I haven’t), and, they lose my business. If it costs me $14.40 to lose godaddy.com from my days, fine, I’m set. However, if not refunded, they still owe me some sort of performance for the costs they’ve charged me, and I’m still waiting…
UPDATE:
I have had to close commenting and trackbacks because of the onslaught of massive amounts of comment spam targeting the two threads on this site that reference ‘godaddy.com.’ It seems even mentioning that domain is to bring the vengeance down upon another by vengeful spammers. I perceive a connection here.
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