Why all the GoDaddy haters?

77 replies
I've read many posts regarding domain names in which people have dogged GoDaddy. I've seen them described with such terms as "toxic" and "evil", yet no one ever quantifies those statements. Personally, I've used GoDaddy for years and have never had a problem.

Some people have mentioned the upsells they present you with, but that's 3 simple "no thank you" clicks.

If some of you GoDaddy haters would like to elaborate on why they are such a bad company, I'd be very interested in hearing your feedback.
#godaddy #haters
  • Profile picture of the author TurnKey Internet
    I'm interested in this too. As a rival hosting company, we have had many customers switch over to us from GoDaddy. One of the primary complaints is a lack of immediate customer support.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
      Originally Posted by TurnKey Internet View Post

      I'm interested in this too. As a rival hosting company, we have had many customers switch over to us from GoDaddy. One of the primary complaints is a lack of immediate customer support.
      If you call them, you have immediate customer support. They have great customer service. If you email them, it may take 24 hours, but I think thats the same with anyone?
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexander CPA
    For domains, GoDaddy is fine, but for hosting, I'd stay well, well away. I've got no problems with them personally, but I've heard horror stories about their web hosting services, I mean you think because they are a known name in the domain biz, they'd be great for hosting too - That really isn't the case with GoDaddy.
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    • Profile picture of the author donhx
      Originally Posted by Alex Brooks View Post

      For domains, GoDaddy is fine, but for hosting, I'd stay well, well away. I've got no problems with them personally, but I've heard horror stories about their web hosting services, I mean you think because they are a known name in the domain biz, they'd be great for hosting too - That really isn't the case with GoDaddy.

      This is my advice too. Some of their servers there seem old and slow. I have counted 200 sites on one server and that can lead to balancing problems, and potential security problems too.

      Plus, there is all the hype and up-sell. I never advise that anyone ever use GoDaddy for hosting. It may be fine for hobby hosting, but rough if you are trying to run a business on their servers.
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    • Profile picture of the author Brandon Jones
      Originally Posted by Alex Brooks View Post

      For domains, GoDaddy is fine, but for hosting, I'd stay well, well away. I've got no problems with them personally, but I've heard horror stories about their web hosting services, I mean you think because they are a known name in the domain biz, they'd be great for hosting too - That really isn't the case with GoDaddy.
      Totally agree!

      As far as you're buying domains from Godaddy everything's ok. If you host with them... suddenly problems start to pop.
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  • Profile picture of the author TurnKey Internet
    What problems have you heard about with their hosting? Any specific examples?
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I have a couple of hundred domains with them and never had a problem. In fact, they are one of the few registrars that allows refunds on a domain name within 5 days of purchase and have used it without problems.

    Upsells ... I scroll to the bottom and click on no thanks. Easy enough.
    The site nodaddy .... some of those domains that were held hostage were because of the domain owner using them to spam, which is against Godaddy TOS. There are 2 sides to every story.

    Always had great, fast, polite customer service and never had to wait long to get them on the phone.
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    The upsells are extremely annoying making it take much longer to register a domain.... but I don't hate them so much for domain registration, I hate them for hosting.

    Why?

    They make it incredibly difficult to do even the most simple tasks. Their interface is not intuitive at all and it takes forever for anything to "happen".

    For example, on most hosting, you install wordpress with a script called fantastico (comes with the hosting) You click the button, fill in the fields and wordpress is immediately installed. You can use it right away.

    On godaddy (they also have a script bit it's not fantastico) you click the button, fill out the fields and come back the next day because that's almost how long it takes for wordpress to actually start working on your domain.

    It's not just wordpress, almost anything you want to do - change domain servers, add an ftp client - anything takes hours for the change to take effect.

    Who has that kind of time?

    Also, I have heard they are not very forgiving when it comes to scripts, cron jobs and other things internet marketers might want to run on their hosting but have no direct experience with that since I do not use them for hosting.

    Lee
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by cashcow View Post

      The upsells are extremely annoying making it take much longer to register a domain.... but I don't hate them so much for domain registration, I hate them for hosting.
      Agree with that. I'd never buy their hosting, but have no problems with their domain registration.

      It's never a good idea to host where you register either. Keep them separate.
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      • Profile picture of the author John McNally
        Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

        It's never a good idea to host where you register either. Keep them separate.
        Any particular reason for this? I register and host with 1and1, it makes everything easy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Oxbloom
    I avoid them entirely because I loathe doing business with anybody who insists on beating me into submission with forced upsells before I can complete a simple transaction.

    They're simply not worth compromising my peace of mind for when there are alternatives in the same price ballpark who don't aggravate me.

    Choose, click, buy, get 'er up and running. That's all I look for in hosting/domainery. All the other little "bonuses" are simply drawbacks in disguise.
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      You almost never hear from those with no complaints about GoDaddy, as is with just about any company.
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      • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
        I've used Godaddy for years for domain registration. Never used them for hosting. I did use them once for a company email (250 mail boxes) which didn't work out so well. I think their servers are just too overloaded.

        For registration I wouldn't use anything else.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    No complaints here.

    All of my domains are registered with godaddy and I have 5 hosting accounts with them as well.

    My only gripe, they don't offer reseller accounts. This is the only reason I am moving my sites away from them to another host... no, it's not hostgator.
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  • Profile picture of the author CaesarSEO
    I started on goddady, changed in the first week.

    Reason: Godaddy horror stories. Try to googly it.

    Whether they are real or not, I just wanted to be safe.

    Namecheap is fantastic anyway with 1 year whois privacy free.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanlucht
    Probably because John Chow just wrote a post complaining about GoDaddy
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      I've been a GoDaddy customer for over 2 years and have maybe 30 domain-names there.

      I find their sales process irritating and unpleasant, and use them only to register .info domain-names (I buy everything else at Namecheap) because they sell them for about $1 each with a year's free privacy protection when you buy 5+ in one transaction, and they do provide me with all I need for redirecting domains. When they're close to expiry, I then transfer them to Namecheap (getting more free privacy protection in the process). I suppose it saves me about $60 a year, or something like that, but I'm increasingly uncertain whether it's really worth it.

      I find some of their routine business procedures "sharp" to the point of being "borderline unethical".

      I wouldn't touch their hosting with a barge-pole, after what I've read about them.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    You can find complaints about every company. Typically, the bigger the company or the longer they've been around, the more complaints.

    I haven't seen much of a difference between any of the mega hosts when it comes to their budget hosting plans. It's going run slower and your site is crammed in with 100+ other sites. If $5 a month is your hosting budget, you get what you pay for.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Probably because John Chow just wrote a post complaining about GoDaddy
    And he also pimps hostgator along with his affiliate code. Don't be sheep. He didn't get rich for being stupid. If another hosting company gave him a better deal he'd be pimping them ASAP.
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    • Profile picture of the author donhx
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      And he also pimps hostgator along with his affiliate code. Don't be sheep. He didn't get rich for being stupid. If another hosting company gave him a better deal he'd be pimping them ASAP.


      Yes, but who pimps GoDaddy? Most people hate them or, alternatively, have never experienced really good hosting and support.
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      • Profile picture of the author hometutor
        For hosting I understand they don't have a cpanel. I dealt with one other host that didn't have one and it was very difficult to get around.

        For transferring your domain to another host they make it a much bigger pain in the okole than any other host with which I've worked. You have to call them to get the epp code so they can try to talk you out of it of course. Here in the middle of the Pacific it's tough getting a hold of people on the mainland.

        Aloha,
        Rick
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      • Profile picture of the author Laurie Rogers
        This past year, I've transferred almost every single one of my domains to namecheap, because of a domain hostage situtation that I would rather not get into atm. And in all of my 13 years of internet marketing, you seriously couldn't pay me enough to host one single site on a godaddy server. In fact, I couldn't name one respected internet marketer (and I know a lot) that would use godaddy as a host. In fact some are laughing right now at the prospect of this, as I reposted this link on my FB page. A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to set up a site on his godaddy hosting plan and it was a total nightmare, I walked after about an hour.

        The other thing is, a lot of you are only looking at this from an "experienced" marketers perspective, not a newbie perspective in lieu of buying domains and hosting. For newbies those upsells are a complete and utter nightmare, everything needs to be simplistic and for them this is the worst place anyone could possibly send them. Yeah sure they might have some great discounts with coupons etc. but ask yourself, is it really worth it to save a few bucks to compromise quality and the possibility of getting your domain held hostage? (happens a lot more than you think)... Your domain gets held hostage, that means your business does too ... some thoughts to ponder.
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        • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
          Originally Posted by Laurie Rogers View Post

          This past year, I've transferred almost every single one of my domains to namecheap, because of a domain hostage situtation that I would rather not get into atm. And in all of my 13 years of internet marketing, you seriously couldn't pay me enough to host one single site on a godaddy server. In fact, I couldn't name one respected internet marketer (and I know a lot) that would use godaddy as a host. In fact some are laughing right now at the prospect of this, as I reposted this link on my FB page. A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to set up a site on his godaddy hosting plan and it was a total nightmare, I walked after about an hour.

          The other thing is, a lot of you are only looking at this from an "experienced" marketers perspective, not a newbie perspective in lieu of buying domains and hosting. For newbies those upsells are a complete and utter nightmare, everything needs to be simplistic and for them this is the worst place anyone could possibly send them. Yeah sure they might have some great discounts with coupons etc. but ask yourself, is it really worth it to save a few bucks to compromise quality and the possibility of getting your domain held hostage? (happens a lot more than you think)... Your domain gets held hostage, that means your business does too ... some thoughts to ponder.
          What rules do you have to break to get your domain held hostage? Things like this usually do not just happen because they decide to pick on you...
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          • Profile picture of the author Laurie Rogers
            Originally Posted by Steve Wells View Post

            What rules do you have to break to get your domain held hostage? Things like this usually do not just happen because they decide to pick on you...
            Why do you automatically "assume" that someone has to break rules in order for something like that to happen? Godaddy has been known for years not to always inform you of renewals, you don't get the reminder, therefore you don't renew, they hold your name hostage for an unreasonable amount of money. They've done that to many people, just for simply not renewing right away and I am talking one or two days, not weeks.
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            • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
              Originally Posted by Laurie Rogers View Post

              Why do you automatically "assume" that someone has to break rules in order for something like that to happen? Godaddy has been known for years not to always inform you of renewals, you don't get the reminder, therefore you don't renew, they hold your name hostage for an unreasonable amount of money. They've done that to many people, just for simply not renewing right away and I am talking one or two days, not weeks.
              Hmmmm, thats not their fault from that scenario you responded with. I think they probably do that to everyone that this happen to.

              If you use the automatic renewal system, then there should be no problems.

              I did not assume anything at all. I asked, but either way, it was not an attack on you from Godaddy, it was most likely just the way they handle all peoples accounts who forget to renew them. They are not obligated to remind you, thats just a courtesy from my viewpoint, although its nice and helps lots. But either way, I still use the automatic renewal system.

              If they alert me of a renewing domain, I will many times go get a coupon and renew it for waay less.

              But it would be my fault and not theirs if my domain name went unrenewed, because thats my resposibility.
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              • Profile picture of the author AEC
                I still have some domains listed with Go-daddy but I started purchasing from Name-Cheap because the transaction was so much faster.
                Go-daddy's site uses more bandwidth and works very slow on a slow country server like mine.
                I am like someone else here that said they like to click buy, pay and get out. All of the up-sell pages take time if your connection speed is slow.
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              • Profile picture of the author Laurie Rogers
                Originally Posted by Steve Wells View Post

                Hmmmm, thats not their fault from that scenario you responded with. I think they probably do that to everyone that this happen to.

                If you use the automatic renewal system, then there should be no problems.

                I did not assume anything at all. I asked, but either way, it was not an attack on you from Godaddy, it was most likely just the way they handle all peoples accounts who forget to renew them. They are not obligated to remind you, thats just a courtesy from my viewpoint, although its nice and helps lots. But either way, I still use the automatic renewal system.

                If they alert me of a renewing domain, I will many times go get a coupon and renew it for waay less.

                But it would be my fault and not theirs if my domain name went unrenewed, because thats my resposibility.
                Obviously it's my fault, but you're going to tell me that justify's holding my domain hostage after a day or two of not renewing and asking for an unjustifiable amount of money in order to do so? Give me a break! Any domain registrar I've used has given me a courtesy of one week, same would apply to hosting. And courtesy? If I'm paying you a fee for business, you're not giving me courtesy, you're not living up to your end of the sale. Our business THRIVES on repeat customers and that is definitely NOT a way to get them.
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          • Profile picture of the author Robert Puddy
            Originally Posted by Steve Wells View Post

            What rules do you have to break to get your domain held hostage? Things like this usually do not just happen because they decide to pick on you...
            try reading this thread
            http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ny-advice.html
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by jasonmorgan View Post

      He didn't get rich for being stupid. If another hosting company gave him a better deal he'd be pimping them ASAP.
      Let's not put too fine a point on it, okay?

      I am an affiliate for GoDaddy, NameCheap, HostGator, BlueHost, AWeber, GetResponse, and ImnicaMail.

      Some of these pay more than others. But you know what?

      They all pay something, and if I don't pimp the affiiliate link, they pay nothing.

      So I pimp all of them. I have my recommendations; domains at GoDaddy, hosting at HostGator, autoresponder at AWeber. But the rest of them are perfectly good places to get those things, too.

      And I don't care who pays more or which one converts better. Because no matter what happens, you're going to get domains and hosting and an autoresponder, and if you do it through my link it will put money in my pocket. I don't care which one you pick or why.
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  • Profile picture of the author JackPowers
    Namecheap beats Godaddy into submission on everything. I don't care about saving a few cents or even dollars on a domain name, when forced to go trough as much nonsense as Godaddy uses.

    Namecheap also comes with free privacy protection which is easily a better deal than Godaddys 0.99 domains once in a blue moon.
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    • Profile picture of the author Juan Esteban
      Originally Posted by JackPowers View Post


      Namecheap also comes with free privacy protection which is easily a better deal than Godaddys 0.99 domains once in a blue moon.
      This, and the superior customer support is what makes me an extremely happy NameCheap customer.

      They don't upsell you like GoDaddy does, which is annoying to me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Izaya
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
      Originally Posted by Izaya View Post

      Been with godaddy for about 2 years and regret every second of it, overall it's their terrible service that get's to me. I had constant errors with hosting ranging from numerous errors with their hosting ( not my fault) if you use godaddy and WordPress please please use linux hosting not windows hosting. If you choose windows hosting with godaddy and use WordPress you're so screwed its not even funny.

      Use Hostgator or Bluehost anyone and anything is better then Godaddy.

      Wordpress wasn't written for IIS (Windows web server), it was written for Apache/Linux. If you are going to host on a Windows server you should use Blogengine.net.

      Hosting WP on a Windows server is just begging for troubles and aggravation.
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      • Profile picture of the author rusty1027
        Originally Posted by ronc0011 View Post

        Wordpress wasn't written for IIS (Windows web server), it was written for Apache/Linux. If you are going to host on a Windows server you should use Blogengine.net.

        Hosting WP on a Windows server is just begging for troubles and aggravation.
        The PHP code that runs WordPress is the same on the Windows platform as it is on Linux - I currently run about 20 blogs on a Windows hosting environment and have had zero problems.
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  • Profile picture of the author cherry_b
    I did web design for a few years and had one client who we built a site on Joomla using Godaddy hosting. His site was insanely slow and no matter what we did to try to speed it up, nothing worked.

    I sold my business to another company over the summer and a couple of weeks ago I spoke with the owner who told me that particular site was running fine now.....it was Godaddy's hosting which was the issue. This guy is really technically oriented and told me to stay away from Godaddy's hosting.
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  • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
    I've been with GoDaddy for years. I own close to 200 domains registered and hosted through them. Yes, their interface is terrible. That said, I have never had a single problem with support or service.

    I use WP almost exclusively and yes, their WP installs do take quite a while. However, virtually every install I've ever performed through their interface has taken less than 30 minutes to complete (nowhere near a day as previously mentioned).
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  • Profile picture of the author marketwarrior06
    Banned
    yes there are problems with the hosting but i think domain is ok. i also don't like them at all because they are too much slow. like an old PC processor.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
      I use GD to register my domain names. I don't use Namecheap becasue I don't like the interface. I find it as difficult to navigate as the yahoo home page.

      I don't look too much for things that give me a bargain for the first year, like 99 cent infos at GD or one year privacy at Namecheap because i always wonder how much it is going to be the next year and I usually plan projects for the long term.

      GD is the king of upsells and their process seems to work pretty well in that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by rusty1027 View Post

    I've read many posts regarding domain names in which people have dogged GoDaddy. I've seen them described with such terms as "toxic" and "evil", yet no one ever quantifies those statements. Personally, I've used GoDaddy for years and have never had a problem.

    Some people have mentioned the upsells they present you with, but that's 3 simple "no thank you" clicks.

    If some of you GoDaddy haters would like to elaborate on why they are such a bad company, I'd be very interested in hearing your feedback.
    The upsells don't bother me one bit (heck, I'm a marketer, I've got teflon skin when it comes to that).

    Why I hate Godaddy: ever since Godaddy took over one of our domains and shut us off for a completely made up spam accusation I vowed never to use them again. If you read their entire Terms Of Service agreement, granted it will take a long time, you'll find that their policies as well as their infrastructure really did not make sense for any of our websites.

    If you want a hosting company that has 24/7 customer service and will actually LISTEN to you when you get a complaint, BlueDomino.com is the way to go if you're just starting out and don't need a dedicated server. You can also do an easy one-step install of Wordpress (yes, they have tutorials on how to do this or you can chat with them online and they will assist you).

    RoD
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    A lot of people like to complain about the upsells on Godaddy even though scrolling down and clicking No Thanks is a pretty simple solution. The thing is, Godaddy offers a lot of coupon codes, some with quite a nice discount.

    Namecheap does not offer big discount coupons. Their discounts are pretty small. Someone started a thread about Namecheap and they had contacted Namecheap for a bulk purchase and wanted to know if there was a discount for bulk purchasing.

    Namecheap's response was ...
    We don't push a bunch of upsells to make money, so we don't offer the discounts.

    I personally like Namecheap and Godaddy, but often I get a great price at Godaddy due to a promotion or coupon being offered. That combined with the great service I've had with Godaddy, I'll continue to use them. I use both Godaddy and Namecheap for domain registration.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by rusty1027 View Post

    Personally, I've used GoDaddy for years and have never had a problem.
    Me too. I think GoDaddy has that odd sort of positioning where they put up the "cool" front which attracts fast-and-loose players, but underneath it all they're a fairly rigid and inflexible corporate business.

    That violates people's expectations, and they get very upset about it because they feel misled.

    But if you chose the company based on structure instead of image, it doesn't even register as an issue.
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  • Profile picture of the author Silviu
    I've also heard horror-stories of people searching for a potentially valuable domain name on GoDaddy, not purchasing it, and coming back the next day to see that it has been registered by GoDaddy and they will resell it to you for about $500. I forget what this is called, but there was quite a long thread about it on WF not too long ago.
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    • Profile picture of the author 2mdoty
      Originally Posted by Silviu View Post

      I've also heard horror-stories of people searching for a potentially valuable domain name on GoDaddy, not purchasing it, and coming back the next day to see that it has been registered by GoDaddy and they will resell it to you for about $500. I forget what this is called, but there was quite a long thread about it on WF not too long ago.
      I wondered about this myself, guessed the term for it would be "front running" like in stocks - it is, and the company I do whois searches at, Network Solutions, is known to have done it, per a Wikipedia article and the following post at sevenmilesearch . The forum won't let me post links so article follows:


      February 3, 2010

      If you are searching for a good domain name, be careful who you use to do searches.
      In the past, it has been confirmed that certain registrars would analyze domain searches. If they decided enough searches had been made for a domain name, they would register it themselves.
      The purpose of this is to resell the popular domain to the user who searched for it, or auction it to all users. This greatly increased the cost of domain registration for popular domain names.
      This is called front-running.
      Definition.

      From Wikipedia,
      Domain name front running is the practice whereby a domain name registrar uses insider information to register domains for the purpose of re-selling them or earning revenue via ads placed on the domain's landing page. By registering the domains, the registrar locks out other potential registrars from selling the domain to a customer. The registrar typically takes advantage of the 5-day "domain tasting" trial period, where the domain can be locked without payment.
      The term was created by domain investor and retired stockbroker Daniel Stager who likened the practice to front running, when a stockbroker illegally puts their own financial interests above that of their clients. ICANN has since picked up on the practice [1]
      In January 2008 it was reported that Network Solutions uses data collected from their web-based WHOIS search to register every domain that users check for availability.[2] Although the practice forces users to register the searched-for domains from Network Solutions, Network Solutions defends the practice, claiming that "This protection measure provides our customers the opportunity to register domains they have previously searched without the fear that the name will be already taken through Front Running."[3] However, during the 4 day period the domain is still up for sale to the general public solely through Network Solutions and is not, in fact, reserved for a specific person at all.
      In June 2008, Network Solutions proposed a small fee for domain tasting, in part to end the practice of domain name front running.
      Domain name lookup to avoid.

      It has been claimed that GoDaddy does this. They will register a domain name that has been searched and then offer it for resale as a premium domain name. Of course, Network Solutions does this.
      As far as I know, NameCheap doesn't do this. But, if you ever do a domain name search, and later discover the name you wanted is taken, you may be a victim of front-running.
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    • Profile picture of the author zanbrok
      This happened to me with at least 20 domains i was planning on making 6 figures a year from. THEY STEAL YOUR DOMAIN IDEAS. NEVER EVER SEARCH DOMAINS ON GODADDY!!!

      Originally Posted by Silviu View Post

      I've also heard horror-stories of people searching for a potentially valuable domain name on GoDaddy, not purchasing it, and coming back the next day to see that it has been registered by GoDaddy and they will resell it to you for about $500. I forget what this is called, but there was quite a long thread about it on WF not too long ago.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Puddy
    when you get your domain held to ransom unless you pay godaddy $200 to get it back you will understand. all it takes is one spurious spam complaint

    And it doesnt matter you prove it wasnt spam either...In fact unless you can prove it was a spurious spam complaint you wont get the domain back at all

    Then when you do prove to their satisfaction it wasnt spam, they then insist you pay the ransom on the domain or lose it anyway
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    • Profile picture of the author rickdearr
      Originally Posted by Robert Puddy View Post

      when you get your domain held to ransom unless you pay godaddy $200 to get it back you will understand. all it takes is one spurious spam complaint

      And it doesnt matter you prove it wasnt spam either...In fact unless you can prove it was a spurious spam complaint you wont get the domain back at all

      Then when you do prove to their satisfaction it wasnt spam, they then insist you pay the ransom on the domain or lose it anyway
      Read this article by Mike Filsaime - it happened to him, cost thousands.
      Web Hosting

      I heard the story firsthand from Mike.

      Rick Dearr
      "it's all fun and games till somebody gets hurt!"
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Yes, but who pimps GoDaddy? Most people hate them or, alternatively, have never experienced really good hosting and support.
    Most?

    Sources for this statistic?

    Really good hosting and support means I never have to deal with support. I've never had to deal with godaddy support. It just works. It's like windows, I don't know what everybody else is doing wrong because my gear never crashes.

    I suspect a lot of it is due to PEBKAC and PICNIC errors.

    I have had crap hosting but I don't feel the need to come here and cry about how awful they were. I simply no longer do business with that company.

    Besides, this entire thread is full of I heard if from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another godaddy was messing around.

    Like I said before, I still have 5 hosting accounts with godaddy and so many domains registered with them I've lost count and I've never had a serious problem.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by John McNally View Post

      Any particular reason for this? I register and host with 1and1, it makes everything easy.
      The main reason you don't really want to register and host with the same company is safety. With a big company like 1and1, it may not be as much of a concern, but the possibility is there.

      Scenario #1:

      You get into a billing dispute with your hosting company. They freeze your account. If the hosting company controls the domain and the hosting, you're screwed. They slap a parking page on your domain name and hold you hostage until you see things their way. If your domains are registered elsewhere, you simply redirect them to a backup site on another host.

      Scenario #2:

      Similar to #1, but this time, instead of a billing dispute, the hosting company goes belly up. Again, if they have both the domain and the hosting, you're hosed.

      I could come up with more possible scenarios, but this should illustrate why I believe in keeping the two separated...
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  • Profile picture of the author Bojan_Djordjevic
    I agree with Jhon, I prefer my DNS separated, because of the reasons mentioned above. I broke this rule with siteground.com, but they offered insanely cheap deal for 1 year plan, so they bought me.

    But just imagine, your business goes huge and you become a victim of your hosting company. Definitively not worth it.
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  • Profile picture of the author candoit2
    Originally Posted by rusty1027 View Post

    I've read many posts regarding domain names in which people have dogged GoDaddy. I've seen them described with such terms as "toxic" and "evil", yet no one ever quantifies those statements. Personally, I've used GoDaddy for years and have never had a problem.

    Some people have mentioned the upsells they present you with, but that's 3 simple "no thank you" clicks.

    If some of you GoDaddy haters would like to elaborate on why they are such a bad company, I'd be very interested in hearing your feedback.
    Read this if you want to know why some don't like godaddy. http://NoDaddy.com
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    • Profile picture of the author grafen
      I buy sometimes domains at Godaddy but I try to change them asap to namecheap. Why, because the privacy is much cheaper. Namecheap $1
      Godaddy about $5 p/y

      I don't like the emails from GD, too much
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  • Profile picture of the author Palusko
    I don't have any horror story, nor I personally know anyone who does. I use godaddy for registration, like many here, but other company (dreamhost) for hosting. The reason I use godaddy for registration is the price, and the reason I do not use it for anything else is the navigation. I just always get lost when trying to navigate through the stuff in my account.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
      Originally Posted by Palusko View Post

      I don't have any horror story, nor I personally know anyone who does. I use godaddy for registration, like many here, but other company (dreamhost) for hosting. The reason I use godaddy for registration is the price, and the reason I do not use it for anything else is the navigation. I just always get lost when trying to navigate through the stuff in my account.
      The navigation has improved for sure, compared to 2 years ago..... thankfully.

      But I was completely new to everything. I didn't know my URL from my FTP at that time, so anything would have confused me......
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
    I have about 40 domains throught them and about 15 websites hosted with them, all under there deluxe hosting account, which costs me 6.99 per month.

    Its shared hosting I believe, but I have never had any issues with them.

    Speed is fine, not really any downtime that I have noticed.

    Over the past 6 months they have made some major upgrades, and made the use of the site even more asthetically pleasing to the eye and I guess easier. But just like anything, you have to learn your way around.

    My biggest issue, would be that you may have to wait upto an hour once a mysql database is created for it to actually be live. When you activate your domain name, it can take upto a 1/2 hour at times. I am not sure why it takes so long for either to become activated.

    But either way, they have served me well for over 2 years now. I still plan on using hostgator at some point, unless something better comes up, for a reseller account.

    I believe that in the past, many IM have had bad experiences with godaddy and godaddy has changed and improved and those who have had a bad experience still hold on to that experience and pass it on to others, when in reality it does not exist anymore.
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    I buy my domains there, go to the botom of the page and click no thanks to all the up sells, and check out. I don't buy the hosting as GoDaddy sucks as a host. I like HostGator, so why would I bother with them for hosting? Simple as that.
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    Tim Pears

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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Wells
      Originally Posted by timpears View Post

      I buy my domains there, go to the botom of the page and click no thanks to all the up sells, and check out. I don't buy the hosting as GoDaddy sucks as a host. I like HostGator, so why would I bother with them for hosting? Simple as that.
      Just curious as to what it is about their hosting that sucks? I think that is what the OP is wanting to know, no one is being specific at all.
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    • Profile picture of the author smartlazy
      Banned
      I don't understand why some people complain about Godaddy's upsells, but won't hesitate to do such tactics on their own customers/clients.

      Just saying...
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  • Profile picture of the author WebsiteManagers
    Their domain prices and domain support are fine. The hosting section needs serious help though. I called them for support after reading through their knowledge base and they read the web page to me. So I asked for a supervisor, who read the page to me that I was already on.

    Once I told him I already read that and did not get an answer to my question, he started reading from the top of the page again. I hung up, vowing never to deal with them again. Instead, we have our clients contact support when it is something beyond our control.
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  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    Robert Puddy touched on the complaint I have heard before from those marketing from the dark side, if they receive complains about the conduct of a site, a $200 or so investigation fee is charged to resolve the issue, guess the free support has limits, the GD Girls have to be paid. As some put it, namecheap or better yet some off shore registrars can't be bothered with such complaints.
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  • Profile picture of the author tgeo
    I stay away just by virtue of all the issues posted here and things I've heard in the past,
    glad I have better choices for hosting.

    TP
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  • Profile picture of the author BXPS
    Never had issues with them!
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  • Profile picture of the author johntig
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Devid Farah
      Personally I've not had a major problem with Goddady having used them for just over two years.

      I just ignore the upsells.

      I use Godaddy exclusively for domain names,not hosting.
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  • Profile picture of the author iw433
    The upsells are extremely annoying making it take much longer to register a domain....
    I avoid them entirely because I loathe doing business with anybody who insists on beating me into submission with forced upsells before I can complete a simple transaction......
    Namecheap beats Godaddy into submission on everything. I don't care about saving a few cents or even dollars on a domain name, when forced to go trough as much nonsense as Godaddy uses.......
    Namecheap also comes with free privacy protection which is easily a better deal than Godaddys 0.99 domains once in a blue moon..........
    Agree, I love how godaddy tries to stuff 50 products down your throat when your trying to buy something, makes buying stuff from godaddy a fun experience doesn't it.


    ALL OF THE ABOVE.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dean Jackson
    I skipped most of the comments here to make this as easy as possible.

    There are only 2 services you need to get going:

    Namecheap and Hostgator.

    Can't recommend them enough - I can register a domain on Namecheap, point my DNS to Hostgator, and have a wordpress install done within 10 minutes. I don't know how or why it's so fast. I thought there was a wait time to get the servers propogated or something, but I'm not a techy so I don't care.

    All I know is that Namecheap and Hostgator work like magic.

    Dean
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    I register all of my domains with godaddy, no hate here

    Their cheap hosting options I've found to be about on par with all of the other cheap hosting options, hit and miss and you get what you pay for.

    Why all the GoDaddy haters?
    Because you always have somebody who hates something and takes every change they have to jump on a soap box to cry about it.

    Internet marketers complaining about upsells... seriously? Give me a break.
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  • Profile picture of the author TomB1977
    Just had to deal with Godaddy support yesterday in regards to a problem with my auctions acct- I was shuffled along to three or four different phone operators and put on hold for a total of 25 minutes throughout the process.

    I lost it when they told me that I must email the auctions dept. because they can't figure out why I could not login to my acct. I was on the phone with the auctions dept...DISTURBING! I still have not heard back from them.

    Of course, the auction for the domain that I wanted to purchase has ended & I lost out on a good opportunity that would have easily netted me a few hundred bucks.

    Does that answer your question? I switched to namecheap for domain purchasing & only work with them for auction purchases. I think it's time for me to switch to buying expired domains from other registrars as well!!
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    Just had to deal with Godaddy support yesterday in regards to a problem with my auctions acct- I was shuffled along to three or four different phone operators and put on hold for a total of 25 minutes throughout the process.
    Funny, I had a problem the other day (wanted to cancel a purchase), contacted support by email, had a reply with instruction within 3 hours and had my money back in less than 24 hours.

    Completely smooth and pain free process.
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  • Profile picture of the author pmbrent
    I have their hosting and I must admit that it can be frustrating at times. To add folders/files it takes a long time for that to be available. The upselling does get old afterwhile especially if you buy alot of products from them.
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  • Profile picture of the author monsur
    Some information is available at nodaddy.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Beatrice
    The fact that Godaddy CEO Bob Parson goes Elephant shooting in Africa can't be doing their PR image any good
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    • Profile picture of the author ladywriter
      I dislike them for a different reason. The whole "GoDaddy Girls" thing disgusts me. I'm looking for a domain registar or a hosting company, not hot chicks. I get it, their customers are mostly men, but yuck!

      And now, after the elephant thing, I'm fairly certain I will never use them for anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author DanMurray
    Toxic and Evil is definetley taking it too far and have bought a small number of domains there, but my problem is for me at least, the user interface sucks and i had a bad experience with customer support when i was a newbie when i asked a very polite question to support and got rudely told to see FAQ, with no link, so i use namecheap and bluehost along with a VPS from a small company, there certainly not my favourite company but "Toxic" idon't think so.

    Just My opinion,

    Danny
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  • Profile picture of the author DanMurray
    On another note Bob Parsons is a complete idiot who i hope at least comes back as an elephant, and there is someone as stupid as him on the world

    Danny
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  • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
    Yeah...crazy about the GoDaddy CEO, right?

    This all came out right around 4/1/11 and I was just SURE it was an April Fool's joke. We call GoDaddy every week to order domains (It's annoying I can't order/pay only when overseas...grrr) and I was asking the reps about it. They played it down, were dismissive of it, and mentioned several times that he'd responded on his blog and we should check it out. Those reps went through some serious damage control training, I'm sure!
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  • Profile picture of the author retsek
    Their Website annoys the crap out of me.
    I like Namecheap, clean, simple, great support and cheap!

    And use Hostgator for hosting. NEVER host a domain at the same place you registered it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Drewry_Media
    Wow. Alot of folks had things to say. I'm just listening with an open ear
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