How Is This Legal? Domain Related

Yes, they basically own the domain now and can charge whatever they want.

Believe it or not $80 could be a steal depending on if the domain gets traffic, has backlinks, or if the name is desirable.

You wouldn't believe what some of the domains that were not renewed with no traffic go for over there. Then again there are a lot that just get dropped when no one is interested.

Check out the auctions section over there sometime - it's a real eye opener.

Lee

Hello,
if you need the domain pay the money,if you wait for it to expire you can wait for quite
awhile until it is released back to the public.
Lou

i think the best thing to do is pay the money i could be worse you know

Of course it's legal. The age old quote, "You snooze, you lose" applies. They give you a lot of opportunity past the expire date to renew it at the normal price.

It's a classic sales ploy, sell it cheap upfront and then charge more for renewl knowing that the owner may not want to run the risk of letting it expire and have someone else purchase it. I avoid go daddy like the plague, it's cheap at first but the renewl costs are crazy

Something that has bothered me about Godaddy is the fact that you can only register a domain for up to eight years. That's a little odd considering the fact that other companies allow you to easily register domains for ten years. Its a tough call as it relates to your predicament. If the domains are popular you might want to consider paying the $80 to prevent others from snatching them out from under you and cashing in on all of your hard work. I use godaddy myself. And while I can't speak for their hosting, as I merely forward domains to my blog and affiliate sites. I can say that in my experience customer service has been good (not great) but could have used some improvement. You may e-mail them about something and get different responses back from several different people but they have always resolved whatever issues I have had . But they can forward a domain pretty quickly (within an hour or so) as opposed to some smaller companies that may take up to 72 hours to forward domains, and on top of that charge twice what Godaddy charges for .com's for everything across the board.

Thanks for the replies.

As I said, I don't really care about it that much. Not enough to pay $80 for it. It was just a domain I bought last year and never did anything with. Shocker, I know.

I think godaddy puts expired domains into their auction. I just purchased one there that had expired through godaddy as the registrar, for $9.

Despite what people say, this DOES stink, and amounts to extortion. And NO, godaddy does NOT own the domain unless they pay for it!!!! I'm unsure about the exact happenings behind the scenes, but they have about 5 days before they have to pay for it again. The cost is likely somewhere around $6(for .com. Others may be more or less). Maybe THIS is part of their business model.

Selling ONLY domains as many seemed to imply, would likely lead them to bankruptcy, they just never charged that much. The startup costs WERE, and may still be, VERY high, and are paid BEFORE they are approved. That is why MOST don't become a registrar at the level of godaddy. Don't forget, they DO pay the respective registries for the domain names. But their hosting services, though they APPEAR cheap, really aren't(Just look at bandwidth, etc...). They have the private registration service which is expensive and PURE PROFIT, and just THAT makes domain names as a loss leader seem to be a good business model.

They THEN "park" expired domain names on a page that makes some money, and sells their products.

They probably pay the $6, or whatever, because they figure YOU probably worked to drive traffic, and the parked page makes money.

Heck, many registrars that really don't register the name directly, but use another service(like wwD, godaddy, enom, directi, etc...) do the SAME, and you KNOW they have no special abilities. Anyone remember how namezero was? http://www.net4tv.com/voice/Story.cfm?storyID=2536

Still, I have heard horror stories about them providing arbitrary quotes, and many were around $250. $80 is CHEAP by comparison. C'est la vie.

Steve

GoDaddy isn't even the most expensive registrar when it comes to redemption. 000domains charges $100 to renew late. I figured I'd let it expire and then just buy it again, but someone else beat me to it. You could try that, but be prepared to lose it at the same time. If you really want to keep it, you better pay the fee.

Sure it seems ridiculous. And there is some regulation, though some folks don't
think it's probably enough.

First, refer to the link below to understand a domain name's "life cycle" that is
mandated by ICANN:

ICANN | Life Cycle of a Typical gTLD Domain Name

Except for "extenuating circumstances" like legal disputes, all registrars follow
that. Especially if it's a .com.

Next, registrars pay the Registries a higher fee to redeem a domain name than
renewing them when expired. I should know as I worked with a registrar in my
previous life.

Also, credit card companies charge a finance fee if you pay late, car vendors
charge for every hour or day you don't return the car on time, some libraries
have a fee for returning a book late, etc. Is any of that extortion as some folk
seem to conveniently believe?

Why the seeming resent?

This is normal and all registrars do it, not just GoDaddy.

It's annoying but once it's not been renewed and has slipped into the redemption zone, a mid-high $xx fee is regulation.

Just the way it is I guess.

To add on to what David said, NameCheap is the ONLY domain registrar company that treats people right, in my opinion. I think because it was started by a domain speculator -- so he knows what sucks and what doesn't. =

I've been saved by NC a few times when I didn't have my reminder set up right -- and was still able to get back the domain name for ~$9 a couple weeks after it expired.

Jay Jennings

Honestly, this is what happens when you're not on top of your stuff. GoDaddy is doing nothing wrong, this happens with ALL registrars, not just GoDaddy.

If a domain is really important to you, you should have all of the information for it be up to date, if you don't, that is on you and nobody else.

I've lost domains like this, and it is was my own fault.

Stay on top of your expiration dates next time. It is the same with hosting, people let it lapse and then are mad that their website went offline, they should look in the mirror before blowing up at the service provider.

James

Namecheap isn't even a registar by the way, they are a reseller for enom.

James

I have many domain servers. One of them went belly up a couple of years ago (forgot the name) and I lost about 10 domains, but that is very rare. Those domains were pretty much throwaways except for a couple. Funny thing is that I am the mailing list for two of them that were bought up and I still get emails from my old domains! LOL

I've had pretty good service from GoDaddy and NameCheap. Had a hassle with another one, but I won't mention it because I think everyone has problems. Otherwise it's been a good server so far.

Frankly, I think if the domain in question here was a really good one, it would never have been allowed to expire by the owner, but even that would not surprise me either. I am glad that not too many of my domains renewed when I spent two weeks in the hospital a few years ago.

Now about eBay, don't get me started.