You won the auction! Or not.
A glitch caused a GoDaddy auction bidder to think he’d won an auction, only to end up the runner up.
The bidder sent a screenshot to Domain Name Wire showing that he’d won the auction for OrganicFlowers.com:
But the bidder was in for a surprise. He wrote:
Notice I won the auction fair & square, then someone else won it 5 minutes later, so shortly after I logged into my GoDaddy account to see the 2nd screenshot below and I was absolutely shocked because they were saying I didn’t win the auction, nor did they even give me the opportunity to win the auction AGAIN after I had already won it.
Here’s the second screenshot:
I reached out to GoDaddy to find out what caused this. Aftermarket GM Paul Nicks stated:
We have identified an issue that could cause the auction countdown timer to continue running even though the connection between the user’s computer and the server times out. This can happen from network latency anywhere along the path. Our team is working to resolve the issue now. To be on the safe side, we recommend customers refresh their browsers as auctions are ending. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused to our auction participants.
Especially in major auctions, it seems that refreshing the browser might be a good proactive move until this problem is fixed.
Acro says
GoDaddy’s statement makes no sense in this case. If the clock kept on ticking, that domain belongs to the guy who won it for $9,000 – not the second one. Is there a plan to award it to them?
Consciousone says
I agree and thats what I was saying here in the Namepros post:
The fact is the auction has 2 different end times and legit auctions CANT have 2 different end times and going with the 2nd end time is not only absurd, it’s corrupt.
If GoDaddy sides with the 1st end time, I win. 1st screenshot!
If GoDaddy is corrupt & sides with the 2nd end time, they show their true colors and face the consequences.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-scammed-me-heres-proof.1133996/page-3
Andrew Allemann says
Consciousone, has this happened to you multiple times? I’m curious why you thought to save a screenshot when you won.
Consciousone says
No, this has never happened to me before. However, I have been scammed by GoDaddy in the past where they reversed a domain that I bought from their marketplace after is was paid for.
And as a longtime follower of many domain blogs, I know GoDaddy has a long history of corruption so I would advise anyone conducting business with this company to get proof of all your dealings.
Besides, this is a company that thought it was a good idea to buyout a site that was exposing all their corruption, NoDaddy.com instead of actually doing the right thing. It’s all about reputation & damage control because they are the largest domain registrar and auction house, they think they can get away with scamming people and abusing their power. The auction team is an absolute joke, I sat on the phone for an hour with their 1st level support going back & forth to them instead of actually being able to speak with them.
I finally get Greg Goodrich on the phone for only a couple minutes and this is all he tells me:
“You lost the auction, there’s nothing we can do” instead of having even a sliver of empathy or even caring enough to have a procedure in place to deal with something like this where you would open an investigation, instead you pass it off and completely disrespect you’re customers like nothing happened. Greg Goodrich is heartless!
These people do not care about their customers, they will throw you under the bus, they work only for themselves.
Andrew Allemann says
I honestly don’t believe GoDaddy tried to do something nefarious here. There’s a technical problem somewhere, but I doubt they wanted to screw you out of the domain.
Consciousone says
Andrew,
Are you kidding me?
GoDaddy has been well aware of this problem for a long time now, but since they haven’t done anything to fix it, this is NEGLIGENCE which makes them 100% responsible for these errors because GoDaddy is willingly & knowingly engaging in Auction Fraud which is defined as “wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain” and they continue to operate in this corrupt manner while completely disrespecting their customers in the process.
The GoDaddy Auction deceived me because it provided false & misleading advertising that said I won the domain resulting in financial gain for GoDaddy. Since GoDaddy is incapable of running auctions legitimately, they should be banned from the auction business or all auctions should cease & desist until they can actually fix all the problems affecting their platform and actually take responsibility for their errors instead of leaving their customers “holding the bag.”
go.daddy scam says
I agree the guy who had the winning big at auctions end should be the winner not the one who won from the clock continuing to run from a glitch. The time the auctions end is easily displayed right beside the bids. I smell some BS and as far as Go daddy’s auctions and the 90% of crap domains that always has bids up in the thousands????. It’s not because some people see value in worthless domains. I find that theory very difficuly to fathom don’t you agree.
Mark Thorpe says
I still receive a countdown glitch in my GoDaddy Investor app for Android as well. The app crashes at the 15 minute mark for every domain auction.
David Gruttadaurio says
This has happened to me twice.
Tony says
That bidder should be grateful for the ‘glitch’. Saved him from wasting $9K on a $69 name. How in the world do these people intend to make money when you spend more than what you will ever sell it for. These are end user prices.
Jamie says
No refreshing needed via API bidding…..
Chuck Davidson says
I’d love to see who ‘won’ the auction? Chances are it’s Godaddy! This is a crock, it clearly states he ‘won’, their explanation is just a cover up. Time expired then it changed it does not say ‘your bid is winning’. This is a post transaction edit and I bet it’s to a bidder whom wasn’t in the auction previously. Nothing new for these auction houses been going on since the beginning of the industry. They don’t care about users they care about shareholders, period. No one else sees the conflict of the largest domain portfolio owner in world also being largest registrar and largest auction platform? It’s time to demand transparency & put he heat on them, otherwise we will keep getting screwed.
Brad says
You’re a big fan of Alex Jones, aren’t you? lol
Spike says
This happened to me as well. I suspect it is API bidders sneaking in last second or late bids and some kind of technical glitch that doesn’t show the auction continuing. Our course, some “people” probably are aware of this and/or abusing it. One day we hopefully will find out about all the shenanigans going on with this platform.
Justin Godfrey says
I seen this several weeks ago here: https://www.godaddy.com/community/Domain-Investing/GoDaddy-Domain-Auction-won-then-lost-domain/
Godaddy states its due to the refresh issue
Justin Godfrey says
Correct link: https://www.godaddy.com/community/Domain-Investing/GoDaddy-Domain-Auction-won-then-lost-domain/m-p/133163/highlight/true#M1559
Andrew Allemann says
Thanks for the link. That shows they’ve been aware for three weeks. I hope they move this to the top of their fix queue.
JZ says
I’m not surprised to see this happen but its not godaddy doing anything to try and screw over customers. I sometimes get logged out of the auctions at seemingly random times for no reason. I am not sure if this is my connection’s problem or something to do with godaddy but if you are involved in an auction you really want, continuously make sure you are logged in on another page while bidding and I think that would solve the problem.
Consciousone says
JZ,
I don’t know why you say that, this has absolutely nothing to do with being logged out. That would NOT solve the problem here.
Please read the full story here if you want to know whats really happening here:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-scammed-me-heres-proof.1133996/
JZ says
If you look at this its not an issue of being logged out but rather losing connection. I don’t see why you say godaddy scammed you when they have no reason to make you think you won when you didn’t. It doesn’t benefit them in any way.
https://domaininvesting.com/i-replicated-the-godaddy-auctions-glitch/
joesaba2014 says
I have received fake bids at auctions Godaddy and Flippa, Sedo and Afternic are not angels also make theirs.
What is the legality of the premium domains auctions?
It is worrying because all this has been happening for a long time.
Happy Say. Jose.
Mark Hisel says
Arnt all natural flowers that grow in the ground “organic”. Lol that’s like spending thousands of dollars on “overhead shower” dot com lol!
Consciousone says
NO, most of the flowers people buy are so far from organic, they’re toxic, it’s not even funny. A good majority are grown in Monsanto’s Miracle Gro which a guy in California just won a major lawsuit against because he was able to prove that it caused his cancer so they had to pay him $80 Million.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/03/27/monsanto-roundup-cancer-lawsuit-california-man-awarded-80-million/3293824002/
You’ll be hard pressed to find flowers that are actually organic and grown without toxic chemicals. “Oh they’re so pretty” while at the same time they are contributing to people suffering from diseases such as cancer. But most people only care about looks these days
so they don’t care how it was made, where it was made, or who
made it. If the flowers aren’t organic, they are toxic because the soil is toxic as well as all the chemicals they spray on them. I have seen these places, they wear Hazmat suits to work in these environments.
Flowers are supposed to be good for you, but if the smells are toxic even though it smells good, it will do the exact opposite, decline your indoor air quality instead of improving it.
Remember, we have 5 senses, just because we’re not eating the flowers doesn’t mean we’re not exposing ourselves to their toxicity. Air quality is one of the top causes of disease in the world.
And the biggest problem is instead of supporting small organic family farmers, we support monoculture companies that have no interest in our health & well being.
Mike says
I know a farmer who grew hemp, and his hemp was tested, and was not able to be processed because the toxicity level was to high, the crop grown before on the same land before the hemp were flowers. They spray he heck out of them for insect, and weed control as they are not going to be ingested. Tony is wrong, the name is worth much more than $69, organic flowers are big business with millennials, and such.
CryptoCurrency Tracker says
Godaddy is a shady company
mike j wehmeyer says
On April 24th @ 12:49 pm I received two emails stating that my name BuySolarDirect.com was canceled, right after that I got another email stating my name was sold for $100. I never authorized neither of these actions. I never listed my name for $100 as it is a premium name and I would never sell it for that much. I’ve had it for several years (Creation Date: 2012-07-13T18:45:29Z) with the intention of starting the business for my family in the near future to sell solar panels online.
As you can see I’ve been paying for several years for this domain. And the name was paid until 2021.
And not only buysolardirect.com, but other names of mine were changed for sale for $100 as I noticed after logging in into my account. Not even my family members have access to my account other than GoDaddy. Meaning if I haven’t done any of these changes, so therefore it had to be done internally.
I have contacted GoDaddy within the first few hours of me, finding out that my name was sold from underneath me, several times and was referred to the auction team, and was told to wait up to 72 hours for a reply from them. Below you can see the response I’ve received.
You can expect a response from us within 72 hours. Your Incident ID is 38***-*7 I received a reply Friday 4/26/19 @ 1:28 a.m. ”
Here’s our response to your request.
Discussion Notes
Support Staff Response
Dear Mike,
The domain buysolardirect.com was listed under your account and we have no reason to suspect the listing was not created from you or someone who has access to your account.
I am afraid that at this point we cannot stop the transaction.
For us to send the payment for the sale to you, you will need to update your payee information with the following steps:
1. Log into your Go Daddy Account
2. Click on the “Account Settings” drop-down
3. Click Payees (At the bottom of the list; if you do not see Payees, choose Payment Methods, then repeat steps 2 and 3)
4. Next to the payee “mike wehmeyer “, click the View/Edit link
5. Update the information as needed
6. Click the green Save Changes button at the bottom.
Do not create a new payee account, please update the one mentioned above.
Kind regards,
Kami S.
Aftermarket Support
Tier II
GoDaddy.com, LLC
As you can see, there is a no reply address, there is no phone number to contact and there is no last name of the person that made that decision.
Two days later my domain BuySolarDirect.com is being offered for sale for $50,000 which I find very suspicious.
If I were to go by you’re selling process that states that “Any offer at or above the amount shown may be accepted, rejected or countered by the owner. Offers less than the amount shown will not be submitted. The process may last 5-10 days.”
I was not given that time frame, since I’ve never approved the sale.
I’m hoping your legal team can see, that something is very wrong with this situation and you may resolve this in a timely manner, so I can have my name back ASAP, before it sold again.
Consciousone says
WOW Mike, thanks for sharing your story of how GoDaddy scammed you, I am so sorry to hear. As I have been saying this is an extreme abuse of power and Joe Styler & Paul Nicks are the corrupt heartless individuals running the daycare called GoDaddy Auctions. They are scamming people, destroying peoples lives, this is utterly sick & disgusting. The whole bunch need to be FIRED and a serious investigation needs to occur taking into account all the scams that these CON ARTIST have been doing. It’s starting to sound like we need someone like President Trump to DRAIN THE SWAMP that has become GoDaddy Auctions.
Domain King, I do not know why are inviting these SICK SICK people who prey on others and hide in their dept & make it impossible for people to contact them all the while literally stealing peoples domains, just like they stole this one from me.
These are NOT Domainers, they are EMPLOYEES that are SCAMMING customers, who use & abuse their position of power so that people like YOU think they are domainers. These are NOT people that speak or care about the TRUTH so I don’t know why you would even find value in having them @ the 1st Annual Asheville Professional Domain Investors Meetup?
Law Suit says
Lawsuit.
mike wehmeyer says
Just woke up to this email:
Dear Mike,
I am sorry about the troubles you have been experiencing.
I am afraid that the Auctions department does not provide phone support and we cannot give you a call.
However we have looked into the case and as per my previous reply we have no reason to believe that the listing was not created from you or someone who has access to your account and we cannot revert the transaction at this point.
Kind regards,
Kami S.
Aftermarket Support
Tier II
GoDaddy.com, LLC
Robert McLean says
Godaddy is sleazy. I quit Godaddy as a registrar 10 years ago. Godaddy is Behemoth Bully, with no real fear of consequences of criminal wrong doing.
This fact is well documented and new stories of criminality come as no surprise.
For the most part, every domain name registrar in existence practices predatory, criminal conflict of interest, basic theft of domain name names under the guise of domain name non-renewals.
The whole system is rigged. The domain drop “business” is based on a faulty model, where registrars basically assume ownership of a name that goes past renewal redemption. Criminal conflict of interest rears it’s ugly head when certain actions are taken by registrars to block, disguise, hide and play fast and loose with domain renewal notifications.
I registered my first domain name is 2001 and have invested a great deal of time and money to the study of the domain name business and it just never ends.
The domain name business is a made up of a tiny group of elite, the first to the circa 1995-1999 trough, who registered the entire lot of one word, generic, .com domain names.
They control the business now, as owners of the registrars, aftermarket sites and
domain name reporting agencies and sites.
ICANN is complicit.
Robert McLean
Chris says
I’ve always stayed away from hoe daddy. I have never registered a name with them nor will I ever register a domain name or participate in their stupid auction. The more I hear these stories the more resolute I become. Plenty of other registrars out there I’d rather give my business to.
Shaan says
Well 9000 is a huge amount, I am currently bidding for a domain on Godaddy its less than 100. I am just hoping all goes well and while I am searching on Google if this whole auction thing is real or a scam I end up here. Now what are to odds of a glitch happening again.
joesaba2014 says
@Shaan, The chances of this happening again are many, when and at what time no one knows.
The excuses they give are surreal.
They write about cybersecurity and I believe that each company should have an internal Cybersecurity system that protects all companies, buyers and sellers “Like a black box of an airplane where everything that has happened is registered” in relation to the problem that is written in this post.
J.brown says
They have done it to me taking domains that I purchased only to have it registered with a letter missing. Comeon that’s bullshit I know who to spell. Not only that I always look before I hit submit payment to double check the spelling is correct.
Frank. says
Yea file a lawsuit, you most likely won’t win, but it will at least make godaddy have to shell out some money.