Another reason to DropGoDaddy.com

Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6432

Not a good day, courtesy of GoDaddy.

One of my popular domains has been registered with GoDaddy for several years. With auto-renewal, I had nothing to worry about - right?

WRONG.

Some jerk steals some credit card numbers, so the company cancels my card and sends a new one. The cancelled card is, of course, the one used to auto-renew with GoDaddy. I've had cancelled cards before (all, by the way, were caused by OFFLINE fraud), but have received the Item Expiration Notice (unable to auto-renew) message several days before the actual expiration. No problem.

Why was today special? Because of a "policy change to process auto-renewals on the day of expiration". No big deal, right? I have time to renew the domain today. Oh nooooo - they can't force you to do that, but they can (and did) change the DNS servers on the domain to point to their advertising page. Of course, I switched it back, then manually renewed the domain. Since this particular domain was .org, it took several hours to effect the change.

Why didn't I get a notice of this policy change? "Not sure." I've had this domain with GoDaddy for over 6 years - a lifetime in Internet years, and I have almost 90 other domains registered there (at least for now!). Doesn't that matter? "....."

When recommending GoDaddy in the past (ONLY for domain registration), I often said that the user interface and ease of registration and renewal made it the best choice, even if it was a little more expensive than other alternatives. This forced me to look elsewhere (possibly another registrar - where I have another 20 domains, most of which were less expensive and have free private registration - less whois spam is a good thing).

...Stepping down off the soap box, looking for refreshment.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

Ouch and double ouch!

I have always used and recommend [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] .

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:48 am

I have used [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] for quite a long time, mainly because I needed to sell domains.
Some time ago they stopped allowing account top-ups using PayPal and as I do not use 'plastic' my long standing business with them came to an abrupt halt. I am now using Moniker.com for my personal domains but it's too early for me to offer a recommendation for them.

New Member Joined: Nov 06, 2005 Posts: 12

I am also having probs with these idiots. a friend asked me to help him setup his site, so i uploaded raven nuke, went to the most confusing control panel ever. created database , edited the config.php and all i get is this
MySQL Database Connectivity Test Results
config.php file found!
I was unable to reach your MySQL server using the MySQL connection settings in your nuke config.php file. The exact error that MySQL reported is:
MySQL Error # 2 = Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10061)

when i run the installSQL.php from the site. ive tried creating different databases, etc... nothing , same crap. i highly recommend going with a host that knows what they are doing, with less confusion and user friendly control panel. and can anyone suggest how i can solve this problem?

Regular Joined: Apr 09, 2004 Posts: 87 Location: UK

I agree godaddy is a pain. I had (have) a couple of domains with them and when I went through some shocking renewal issues, a friend recommended that I go over to Registerfly. Believe it or not, my two domains are still stuck at Godaddy (long story).

Anyway, I find registerfly's webpage/server slow but the other domains I have with them seem to perform OK. No recommendations here yet though.

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:29 am

Raven, I checked out instapro.net - they appear to be a reseller for GoDaddy!

stretcher66, your database name, user and / or password settings in config.php may be incorrect.

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 10:59 am

ok here is something i noticed in phpmyadmin ive never had to deal with before. where it has always said "localhost" it says "Server: 10.6.166.114 via TCP/IP" i believe this may be the issue, and what should i put in the config.php where i have always used "localhost" ?

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 11:55 am

Try using localhost.

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:04 pm

Quote:

Raven, I checked out instapro.net - they appear to be a reseller for GoDaddy!

That is news to me. Regardless, I have been dealing with them since 2002 or 2003 and have never, ever, had one issue. I have recommended hundreds of people to them and have never heard one complaint. If they are a reseller they are definitely more reputable than their source.

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:15 pm

ive tried localhost and thats where i got the original error from

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:20 pm

Try "10.6.166.114:10061"

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 5:04 pm

Getting back on topic...

Maybe instapro has different policies for renewals than does GoDaddy - that's my most significant complaint (insufficient time to deal with expired credit cards on automatic renewals). Either way, I'd be careful just the same...

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:05 am

Well, I have an issue as well thinking that my autorenewal was working, but alas for some reason I got notifications instead. Then, because I was on the road and didn't have my home computer with me, I couldn't login because well, my domain expired and the renewal pointed to the primary email address of that now grabbed up primary domain. This created a circle jerk where GoDaddy insisted on my emailing a copy of my drivers license, etc.. with an affidavit stating where to point the email.... This lead to them not accepting it because they didn't like my Vermont (non-photo) drivers license.

So, while they have my credit card info (that I can confirm numbers of etc...), my home address, my phone numbers, etc... I can't get into my account.

Believe it or not, most of this came to a head when I CALLED them.

They were able to do everything (umm... almost) over the phone by having me confirm credit card info, etc... They then pointed the email to my gmail account where I was able to reset my password and get in. I then asked to have Godaddy Legal Trademarks Department file an official complaint and request my immediate requisition of 64bit.us under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act as my domain is a Trademark of my company, 64BIT Development.

This is in process, but I am confident that I will get my domain back specifically because it is Trademarked.

I guess I'll find out soon eh?

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:37 pm

Very frustrating... I wish you the best of luck for a speedy recovery!

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:02 pm

My site [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] is a Wild West Domains reseller site. Wild West is sister to GoDaddy. When reseller accounts expire all clients are moved to their inhouse reseller account "Domains Priced Right".

I found that is is a bad idea to do auto renewal and/or keep your credit card data on any site.

My home computer, which I have my [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] on is actually more powerful than their servers. However, I found that my upload speed, which client experiences when downloading files, is terrible because of my ISP package.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 4:46 pm

Thanks, bobbyg, but we're not talking about GoDaddy's hosting services.

As for not keeping CC data on any site, I don't have time to manually remove every domain (over 100) when it's up for renewal. And, given the problems we've discussed even WITH auto-renewal, it would be much worse WITHOUT it. My CC data has never (knock on wood) been compromised online - but it's been lost MANY times offline. That doesn't mean I don't check for SSL, etc. before entering it, constantly monitor transactions, etc. You can practice safe buying on the Internet just as you would at bricks & mortar locations.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:01 pm

As with kguske, I have 24 (I think) domains and I depend on auto-renewal and fortunately, from what has been said here, I have never had so much as a glitch. Running servers out of your house can work for low volume sites. If you have a business package it can work for high volume sites but is dependent on many other factors. And, I have a residential package but have opted to pay a few more kaching!

$ and have a highspeed ul/dl broadband connection. But, running a server (actually several) from my house, which I started with years ago, quickly became more of a liability than an asset. I don't have access to burst speed, monitors, 1-2 hour hardware replacement, etc. For recreational/personal use it is usually sufficient. But not much beyond that.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:31 pm

The biggest problem I had was whenever my cc expired. This presented problems when trying to update the information; primarily because of extra security put in place and trying to remember what I used for that site (each site should be different).

As far as the renewal notices from GoDaddy or Wild West, I have never had a problem. As a matter of fact, I just did a renewal yesterday that had an expiration date of Feb 6, 2008; and you have a 30 day grace period to renew "domain names" after that date, before anyone can grab your domain name. You have a control panel to add, change, and monitor your account. It is the client's responsibility to maintain that information, not godaddy or wild west or any other provider.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:05 pm

Agreed, but changing policies without sufficient notification isn't acceptable. 1. GoDaddy changed its policy of renewing several days prior to expiration to renewing on the day of expiration. 2. GoDaddy changed its policy of letting the domain expire and changed the DNS on my domain on the day it expired, only 6 hours after notifying me that my CC wasn't authorized. For a domain that's been registered with GoDaddy for more than 5 years, one of over 90 in the account - none of which have ever expired and are automatically renewed. That's unacceptable.

Steph had a similar problem - GoDaddy gave him the runaround when he tried to reestablish his account after his domain expired. I'm sure he was a long-time customer, as well.

In both cases, changing the DNS to point to GoDaddy's ad page, requiring several hours to correct, without notification of this policy, is unacceptable.

Caveat GoDaddy emptor.

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:41 pm

They had some real problems with their documentation. When I first set up bobbygs.org I printed out the instruction to point to my ip address by changing the setting under the Total DNS control. That should never have worked, but it did. The problem was that everytime my ip changed my website was parked by my own reseller account and google picked up the parked links. They changed the documentation but did not send out notices to anyone, probably assuming that everyone's account was setup correctly. The 2 NS servernames setting should have been changed.

kguske wrote:

In both cases, changing the DNS to point to GoDaddy's ad page, requiring several hours to correct, without notification of this policy, is unacceptable.

Caveat GoDaddy emptor.

Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:13 pm

You know....there are two particular sites I really hate. Networksolutions and godaddy. One of the reasons I hate Godaddy is that the control panel and finding your way around the site makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging out in a rest home. I also hate the fact that there are about 1.3 millions ads and offers on every single page. GRRRRR.

A company that I have stood by strongly over the years is [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] Powweb is really freaking awesome. There aren't any ads that I know of or offers within the control panel. Everything makes perfect sense. You don't have to choose between a linux or a windows setup....both work. (A big plus) They also have a very, very cool install central place in the control panel. (Two clicks to get there in control panel) and it has just about every single freeware/shareware program you can think of. Such as PHPNuke, OS-Commerce, Free Realty and about 500 others. You just click on it. Fill in username stuff and choose the directory and hit install. Done.

The affiliate side is cool too. Every person I refer to get hosting - I get paid $77.77 And usually the people only pay around 47 for a year of hosting and a free years domain.

Check it out. I assure you it is really freaking awesome and extremely simple. Plus you get more than Godaddy gives you in terms of databases, emails, email storage, bandwidth, storage, etc.

I can't even express how much I loathe GoDaddy. It is the epitome of Corporate America. Oh and you even get a secure certificate with hosting at Powweb. you don't have to buy anything extra.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:42 am

Raven does not allow the advertisement of other hosting services on his boards, but since this wasn't really intended to be an "advertisement" per se, I am not moving it. Just wanted to take the opportunity to remind folks of his Forum Rules.

I will let Raven decide how he wants to address this post.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:06 am

I'm sorry. I saw references to other hosting names on this post, so I figured I wouldn't be crossing any lines. I'm not trying to bring business to Powweb. I'm actually trying to just get people away from GoDaddy. GRRRRR I hate that company. I'm sorry though if I messed up.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:27 am

No worries. I see references to domain name registrar's and then personal domains, not actual hosting companies.