One of the domains was sold through Afternic’s Fast Transfer.
A pro se litigant has sued (pdf) GoDaddy, alleging that it improperly transferred domain names from his account.
Jason Nash alleges that two of his domains were improperly transferred.
PanacheWineCellars.com was transferred to a former business partner of Nash. It’s not clear from the lawsuit if the business partner requested the transfer.
ReplacementPoolCovers.com sold through Afternic and automatically transferred to the buyer. According to exhibits Nash attached to the lawsuit, Afternic said the domain was opted in to GoDaddy’s Premium Listing service, which was replaced by Afternic listings.
Nash is asking for $1.75 million.
While this could all be due to a partnership issue and a forgotten listing, a support person in GoDaddy’s CEO office sent an email stating, “We recognize that we made a mistake when your accounts were transferred in error…”
One change I’ve argued GoDaddy should make with domains listed for sale on Afternic through the GoDaddy interface is to send an annual reminder to customers about their listings. I suspect many customers list their domains for sale, forget about the listings, and later put the domain to use. This could prevent issues like what happened with the second domain.
Shocker.
Unfortunately, GoDaddy is going to move to dismiss on the basis of their dispute policy which requires you to only move when they say “Simon says”, and to wear red underpants on Wednesdays.
…ah, I didn’t realize he filed in the District of Puerto Rico, despite the registration agreement requiring venue in Arizona (and that’s setting aside the whole “send us a letter and wait a month before filing for arbitration).
Not a chance here.