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The GoDaddy Saga Continues
First time accepted submitter wbr1 writes "Domain registrar Namecheap is accusing GoDaddy of violating ICANN rules and hindering domain owners from moving their domains to another registrar. They are allegedly doing this by submitting incomplete information to the new registrar, making it difficult to process the move."
Adds user bs0d3: "Godaddy has responded to these allegations today and insist that their practice of rate limiting Whois queries is standard practice to combat Whois abuse. Furthermore, they accuse Namecheap of playing foul because they released a statement before ever contacting godaddy directly to resolve these issues."
by playing fair.
If they create artificial means so that their customers would have trouble moving away from them, that would mean more customers, more publicity, a more tech-savvy image, robustness and.. Oh wait...
I have used many registrars and Namecheap has always been the best one. Their interface is also super clean and efficient. Their prices are one of the most competitive ones, they offer free private registration, dns hosting and everything you need. And did I say their interface is super clean? You get everything done easily and quickly, without them trying to shove extra services as premium prices down to you. If you have ever tried to register domain with GoDaddy you know what I'm talking about - the whole registration process itself is pain in the ass and you need to keep unticking all those extra services they try to offer you.
With my years of experience and managing over hundred domains, I can only recommend Namecheap.
As whory as a whore can be. With all due respect and reference to the whores.
That is not something new godaddy started doing just recently. They had the habit of pulling such shit for close to a decade now. the only provider that is FAR worse, is 1&1 in all its incarnations. I had to bail out numerous clients out of their hands - both godaddy and 1&1. some, i wasnt able to bail out, and these were generally those with 1&1.
The array of problems they cause ? it ranges from what you read here, to locking your domain down, preventing you from paying for renewal and sending you to collections over $9-10 a year. Just google it.
Read radical news here
I've heard a lot of great things about Namecheap from customers and third party reviewers. I'm considering moving one of my domains there to give them a try.
I've heard a lot of bad things about GoDaddy from customers and third party reviewers. I'd never consider giving them business - however, I do use them to find if a domain I want is already registered because their domain search is faster than a lot of other sites. I also used to work for a company that purchased SSL certificates from GoDaddy. Using their website is not fun and their customer service less so.
All things considered, I'd have to believe Namecheap over GoDaddy, regardless of how hot Danica Patrick is.
When submitted this I had not looked at recent submissions and bs03d had submitted a story on the same subject, using the same title! I voted his up, but for some reason mine was accepted with additions from him.
But yeah! I got my first accepted submission on my first try. (Sarcastic self-congratulatory pack pat ensues).
I thought this was interesting for many reasons, but I can attest that incomplete information can hinder things very much. I have never worked directly with name registrations, but I used to process DNS records about 13 years ago, and it was painful when I would get an incomplete request.
Silence is a state of mime.
I seem to have a vague memory of there being another mass exodus from godaddy a few years ago. Does anyone remember what the issue was?
"Dear GoDaddy. You openly supported something that revokes our rights and would give you more power to abuse us with while others in your position openly opposed it. Fuck you. Die."
No tears from us. Go Namecheap!
So now they've broken out a bazooka.
Seriously, they piss their customers off with their handling of SOPA. After that, their plan is... technical incompetence? Mishandling of accounts? Their lousy customer service is now in the spotlight because of this, and it's going to make their problems even worse because people remember a reputation for bad service long after they've forgotten all about SOPA.
You can't fix that with more ads from a second rate race car driver.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Didn't plan on doing all this extra work during Christmas holidays. I just migrated 16 domains from GoDaddy to NameCheap. Wow I wish I knew they existed before hand. The interface is clean. NO endless checkboxes to uncheck. Thank you GoDaddy for introducing me to NameCheap. I am now GoDaddy-free and it feels really good. use SOPAsucks to get a discount. awesome.
I'd never heard of Namecheep before this debacle and I found it curious how there were so very many references to it on Slashdot and the other new site forums. It was so dominant that my cynical side was wondering if it wasn't an astroturfing campaign.
Now we have these accusations. Frankly, at first blush, it sounds like dramatization on the part of Namecheep and standard incompetence excuses from GoDaddy. But, I also notice that only Namecheep is complaining. I don't see the same complaints from Network Solutions or Register et al, so I'm again wondering if this is some form of astroturfing because I am positive that GoDaddy has not targeting Namecheep exclusively.
Godaddy limits whois queries as is their limited right to do so. However, the ability to meter queries does not apply to the transfer of domains which must be a transparent process. The problem is that Godaddy can easily transfer bulk transfer out requests but they are getting stuck by their stupid registrant query limit.
The fact that Icann let them get away with this bs for so long is ineptitude. Remove this dumbass query limit and all is well.
Please, don't compare GoDaddy to prostitutes. At least the services prostitutes offer are honest.
I am not sure all prostitutes offer honest service, but I have yet to meet one who prevented you from pulling out when you wanted!
Silence is a state of mime.
I moved to Namecheap a few months ago after becoming sick and tired of GoDaddy's shitty business practices. I decided to move to Namecheap shortly before my registrations with GoDaddy expired.
Before allowing me to transfer my domains, I was informed that I had to update my Whois info to make sure that it was accurate. There was no way to *not* do this. I could not begin the transfer process until this was done. I had done it a few months prior when ICANN requires yearly updates. This was something new.
Upon being forced to update my information (none of which was actually changed), my domains were forced into "locked" status, and thus prevented from being transferred for *two* months. Despite the fact that ICANN has released numerous statements saying that this behavior is not allowed, GoDaddy enforced this policy, despite me calling and talking to ten or fifteen different individuals.
I eventually had to renew each domain with GoDaddy, wait the two months, and then attempt the transfer to Namecheap again.
GoDaddy is a shit company, and I sincerely hope that an elephant tramples Bob Parsons.
For anyone who doesn't believe GoDaddy is now just explicitly blocking transfers - I've tried for two days now to move a single GoDaddy domain I have (that I bought through Google) to EasyDNS and GoDaddy is just blocking the transfer (see message below). I don't know if I'm more upset with GoDaddy or Google at this point (who continues to resell GoDaddy and provides no help here). Note that the (obscured) link to GoDaddy for support below points to a page with a PIN, with no information on where the PIN is obtained. Calling GoDaddy goes into an infinite black hole on support lines.
REGISTRAR TRANSFER DENIED
Dear Registration Private,
The transfer of x from Google Apps to another registrar could not be completed for the following reason(s):
Express written objection to the transfer from the Transfer Contact. (e.g. - email, fax, paper document or other processes by which the Transfer Contact has expressly and voluntarily objected through opt-in means).
If you believe that this domain name does not fit the situation described above, go to x for assistance.
Regards,
Domain Services
Google Apps
We were using GoDaddy to host some of our corporate servers. Due to their stubbornness and inflexibility on small points we ended up losing a lot of important business email. When I tried to go up the chain of command to get the issue addressed they flatly refused to allow me to talk to anyone higher up. I made many efforts to go around them to no avail. We ended up dropping use of them. We will never do business with that company!
I think GoDaddy sucks large avian eggs on a variety of levels (morally and technically); I try hard to convince any client who comes to me with domains or hosting there to switch to something else - anything else. (I usually recommend Pairnic.com as a registrar and Pair.com for hosting, but other great options exist.)
</disclosure>
That said, I transferred a client's domain from GoDaddy just last night (to Pairnic) and the process was exceedingly quick and smooth. Since GoDaddy allows you to log in an "approve" a transfer in process, the whole thing was done in 20 minutes from start to finish. Never had one go that fast, so I have to give credit to GoDaddy where it's due here. At least in this case, they were not putting up any roadblocks.
But yes, I'm glad to be almost completely rid of them. Even if Danica is smokin' hot.
I transferred an expiring domain to Namecheap last week for reasons unrelated to GoDaddy's asshattery, but I saw a blog post (that I can no longer find, alas) pointing out something in Namecheap's TOS that bothers the hell out of me. Specifically:
You agree that Namecheap, in its sole discretion and without liability to you, may refuse to accept the registration of any domain name. Namecheap also may in its sole discretion and without liability to you delete the registration of any domain name during the first thirty (30) days after registration has taken place. Namecheap may also cancel the registration of a domain name, after thirty (30) days, if that name is being used, as determined by Namecheap in its sole discretion, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities (as well as any activities set forth in Section 4 above). Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to 1) activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties; 2) activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which you conduct business; 3) activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography; 4) activities that are tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; activities designed to impersonate the identity of a third party; 5) and activities designed to harm or use unethically minors in any way.
Note the part about "Namecheap in its sole discretion" and imagine that the guy answering the "abuse@" email is having a bad day. Suppose I have a blog on a domain registered through them and I:
1) Embarrass a local politician.
2) Get AdSense revenue from a post saying that the Egyptian government sucks.
3) Say I think it's OK for someone to smoke pot, even if it's illegal where they live.
4) Say something that someone, somewhere, thinks is vulgar or obscene.
5) Make fun of Justin Bieber.
Namecheap could decide in its sole discretion that any of those is sufficient to delete my domain from the registry. Frankly, that's bullshit. I know that Namecheap is unlikely to do something so boneheaded, but I'm utterly against them having the right to yank me off the Internet just because they don't like what I've said. And although I'm talking here about Namecheap specifically, I recognize that a lot of other registrars have similar terms. Does anyone use a more freedom-respecting registrar that they would recommend?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Agreed - I thought 1&1 was fine, although overpriced (they gradually jacked up the price as time went on, presumably thinking it'd be too big a hassle for me to leave at that point). The problem was they decided I still owed them money after I had cancelled. Not only did they not inform me of this bogus charge, they sent it to a collection agency so I had to find out on my credit report. 1&1 - I give you money, you give me service. I stop, you stop. End of transaction. Please do not give these crooks any of your money! That said, GoDaddy sucks too and they made it very difficult for me to leave (it was a year long-process for me). I agree with the other folks who mentioned Namecheap - I manage all my domains through them and have been very happy thus far. Haven't tried to transfer any domains away from them yet, so I can't speak to that. Hopefully they don't pull the same shenanigans as the aforementioned scam artists.