I called and emailed GoDaddy several times and eventually agreed to disagree. Next time I’ll try the president too! Well done, Editor, for your perseverance on this issue.

They make you renew your domain prior to a transfer, this is a violation according to ICANN. This question is posted at the ICANN website;

http://www.icann.org/compliance/

My domain name has just expired. Can my registrar require me to pay for a renewal before I can transfer to a new registrar?

No. Your new registrar of choice can initiate a transfer request on an expired domain name once they receive the required authorization from you. Expiration or nonrenewal of a domain name is not a valid reason for denial of a transfer request.

Note that if the registrar has already begun the deletion process on the domain name and its status shows it to be within a 30-day Redemption Grace Period, the name must be .restored. by your current registrar before it can be transferred.

Registrars MUST place a domain in active status if the registrant chooses to transfer, even after a domain is expired.

http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-18jan06.htm

One person actually complained to ICANN about this. A few days later, someone from GD apologized to the customer for the “mistake”, and told him to resume moving out.

GD and other registrars may “force” registrants to agree to whatever’s stated in their service agreements. But ICANN still has the final say.

With regards to GoDaddy’s size, being big doesn’t relieve you from your duty to serve your customers fairly.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of GoDaddy and have over 100 domains there. But I think this issue needs to be addressed. I’ll try to get to the bottom of it at Domain Roundtable next week since reps of both ICANN and GoDaddy will be there.

ICANN Transfer Policy Section 3. Obligations of the Registrar of Record

A domain name is in the first 60 days of an initial registration period.

To me, that means whenever you update the registration information (whois, contact information, whatever you want to call it), it starts a new initial registration period. Because you are essentially creating a new registrant for the domain. Maybe the big question is… What is your interpretation of initial registration? It is just after registering a new domain, renewals and transfer completions? Maybe the big contention is whenever you update the registrant contact type, it starts it over. For example, when there is a change of account push of a domain from one account to another. It is a change of registrant and would invoke that policy. What do you all think of this?

From the Go Daddy Group Side (GD+WWD), they have the most domain registrations. Could the domain manager system really be smart enough to determine whether a small change in the whois was drastic enought to warrant Evidence of fraud or Reasonable dispute over the identity of the Registered Name Holder or Administrative Contact? It could be hard to program that. So it is up to them to have a humans look at each whois that is changed at the whims of the domain owner to verify such a thing? Basically, the domain managing system can’t be everything to everyone. When that whois is updated. Boom! New 60 day period. To protect the customer from losing the domain or hinder them from moving away? It is all your point of view. I do not find that transfers are too hard away from GD and WWD. They are one of the few registrars that actually let you accept/deny the transfer yourself earlier to expedite it rather than wait for the 5-7 day autoaccept. I hope to see some more POVs!