GNSO Council approves changes to domain transfer blocks.
One of GoDaddy’s most complained about policies is that it blocks transfers of domain names that have had certain changes to their whois information within the past 60 days.
In September 2007 ICANN began working on an advisory that targeted transfer blocks like this. After ICANN finalized its advisory this past April I was happy to report that GoDaddy appeared to be allowing transfers even if changes were made to the whois information.
Alas, other people have told me they still get transfers blocked at GoDaddy. I tested it today and found that if you make any changes to the registrant name or organization name, GoDaddy indeed requires you to agree to a 60 day lock:
For security purposes I authorize the rejection of all transfer requests for all selected domain names for a period of 60 days from the date of this Registrant Name Change. I have read the Domain Name Change Registrant Agreement and agree to its terms for all selected domain names.
When I asked GoDaddy Vice President of Corporate Development & Policy Tim Ruiz about this in April, he said in a statement “Go Daddy always has and will continue to comply with ICANN rules and regulations.â€
Ruiz told the truth but dodged the question. Technically the 60 day lock issue isn’t an ICANN “rule” or “regulation”. Yet. It was an advisory that had a couple more steps to go. There was a comment period and then a couple changes to how it was written, and today the GNSO Council voted to approve the changes. Now it’s hopefully off to the board for approval and then implementation. In a perfect world it is only a few more months before the rule change is fully implemented.
One person helping to push through the changes is Internet Commerce Association Executive Director Michael Collins.
So the writing is on the wall for the transfer policy at GoDaddy. It’s just taking a bit longer than domain owners would like.
This is great news! I’ve also heard that if GD is blocking your transfer you can call them up and have them allow the transfer through, not sure if this is true or not. Front line customer service likely can’t and won’t do this but if you can get past them you might have success.
If you really need the transfer to go through or want to prove a point you can also have a TDRP filed against GD for denying the transfer however this process takes awhile.
Yes, I believe if you email [email protected] they’ll take care of it for you. But you shouldn’t have to do that to transfer a domain name.
You don’t have to email anyone really. Just call your Executive Account Manager, they will do it for you. If you do not have an Executive Account Manager you should! I get better pricing and tips regarding changes in the industry etc. I have saved a lot of time and money since working with my rep at Go Daddy! (Thanks Deb!)
Robert
Jason, isn’t the TDRP intended, much more used, to resolve unauthorized transfers?
ALL registrars adhere to this 60 day delay procedure.
What you should be wary of is how and where your ACTUAL whois information resides.
Companies like Network Solutions used to void valid email adresses, and I would end up with [email protected] and to change this I would have to submit to the 60 days procedure.
Funny thing is that this always happened less than two months before the domain name expired forcing me to stay with Network Solutions.
At least GoDaddy does not apply this dirty trick (yet). The day they do I move to another registrar.
Milton, GoDaddy and Network Solutions are the only major registrars that do this.
I just got a mesasge from ICANN official [email protected] about these complaints that I have been filing for more than 5 years:
“Shut up ….Go bother someone else.”
he used to write articles about how bad ICANN is so they hired him and now he gets all the free trips. Suddenly, all the domain owners are wrong and he is right. read his post about someone who complained aboit ICANN compliance:
http://www.circleid.com/posts/icann_contract_compliance_enforcement/