OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
In the past 4 months I have been refunded $3,000 from Go Daddy from failed New gTLD EAP pre-orders. I was refunded $2,850 back in March and $150 just a couple of days ago. The EAP fee is the Early Access Program that is only offered for Donuts New gTLDs. EAP prices start at about $12,500 and are lowered within the course of the week until they reach the regular registration cost after the 7 day period.
In these 4 months I have found 20 New gTLD EAP pre-orders that had a problem. (20 x $150 = $3,000) The problem is that Go Daddy was not refunding the EAP day 5 fee, and maybe earlier day fees as well, that is $150 or more. They were only making a partial refund for the registration/renewal fee only. I think that somehow someone thought that the fee was “not refundable” as I have this written on a few pre-order receipts. But of course the EAP fee is refundable.
It has been all these months and I have made 3 posts about this problem and I have yet to find someone else with the same problem. I can only think of 4 explanations:
- Go Daddy fixed the issue and refunded all funds to the affected customers. In this case though, someone would have noticed the refund email from Go Daddy and the refund on their credit card or paypal account.
- No one has taken the time to double check all their orders and refunds at Go Daddy.
- No one is using Go Daddy for EAP pre-orders. I doubt this. See below.
- No one had the same problem as me. I doubt this too as Go Daddy told me that other customers were affected too.
- They don’t read my blog.
So please if you have made an EAP pre-order at Go Daddy in the past few months take the time to log in to your Go Daddy account. Go to “payments” and then at “order history”. Now make sure that your EAP pre-order refunds (the orders with R at the end of the order number) all include the “Day X Early Registration Fee”.
If you find any missing refunds then you would need to contact Go Daddy and ask for a refund. If they say that the fee is not refundable then tell them they are wrong and that you want to speak with the “Office of the CEO – GoDaddy”. They know about this problem.
Please report here if you are missing any refunds.
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Thanks for the heads up.
I did check, and everything checked out fine. You may have experienced a GoDaddy glitch.
But I did discover how to check my order history, so it’s always good to know these things.
🙂
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Life is so much simpler without worrying about what domains are available for the latest new TLD launch. 🙂 Selling domains in existing TLDs is hard enough and I cannot seem to find buyers with fat wallets. Ten years from now things may change but for now I just see the new TLDs as a waste of money for most investors (partly because the best keywords are reserved or having premium pricing / renewals and of course buyers prefer .COM).
I moved all my domains from Godaddy to Namecheap a year ago.
I always felt disgust at Godaddy when I was bombarding with their ads, when had to be careful not to register a domain for 5 years instead of one or other stupid service etc.They set everywhere traps for their customers.
I see they have even removed recently chat `submit a ticket` service.
It was a great decision I wish I had done that earlier.
Ads it the least of their problems.
Yes, email support has stopped. They only offer chat and phone support now.
I do not think chat is still available because people were complaining about that recently.
Chat is available. Email is not.
I have spoken to GD rep today and she told me they removed chat.
It seems that other people cannot find too
http://wptavern.com/godaddy-removes-ticketing-and-email-support-in-favor-of-phone-and-live-chat
I am 100% sure the chat is not available for me.
The link says they still offer live chat. They removed email support.
I had the same problem with a .tips EAP for about $1250. They eventually refunded after I complained, but they certainly didn’t offer the refund voluntarily.
Was it a day 3 EAP pre-order?
Yes, it was. The GoDaddy landing page where I placed the order said all fees were refundable, but the small print on the homepage said the EAP fee would not be refunded. Fortunately I managed to get screens shots when I placed the order and they eventually refunded it. If they get a dozen orders for the same domain they make a nice amount of money, and they may not even get the domain.
Hi KZ. No refunds issued cuz no one else has been buying them. Waste of money.
Actually there have been thousands EAP pre-orders.
godaddy sucks, i had the same problem with many pre-orders and there were lots of missing refunds, i checked on all and i called them to refund my money. guess what, i checked with them 1 by 1 of each of my domains which were credit into my account and which i should be refunded for. there were many !! they thought i won’t check on my refunds, i told them i am very detailed.
the main point is the partial refund of pre-orders, i told them i MUST have full refund as stated in your refund policy and i read the refund policy for them from their own website. it was a BIGGGGGGGGG problem and it took days and hours over the phone. till i got my refunds ALL.
I think that the biggest problem is the slow response to existing and known problems.
I posted about this in March. I can’t believe that it is July and I am still getting it and I still have to explain to support
what is going on and they still have to talk to OCEO to resolve this.
I got a much faster response than you did but…
My question now is: Was my refund processed faster because I am a blogger?
my refunds were processed in a week maximum because i called them daily. anyway your problem was with different timing of different gtlds of different pre-orders timing.
i was mad at godaddy actually and their stupid support. they think they are smart and simply can play hide and seek not to make refunds.
their system is the most stupid ever, not showing you which domain exactly is refunded and which is not. so you got to check 1 by 1 for each receipt and refunded receipt . or you get lost and they will just play fool.
oh do NOT forget to ask godaddy to refund your money to your card or paypal account. NOT to hold your money on your godaddy account balance.
you did not give permission for them. so they have no right to keep your money. ask for a REFUND.
Yes, all my refunds went to my credit card and my paypal account.
Well the Godaddy chat,and NO email doesn’t work for me,as I’m based in Thailand,so fine to chat if you live in the USA,but costs an arm and a leg to call them from here.
This is the text based chat I am talking about. Not the phone support.
I am also based overseas so I can’t call them. I am in Greece.
same problem, if you can’t get them on the phone, it will take months. just find a software to call usa free like i did with a subscription on skype so i could call for hours..
if i used emails and chat, i would not get my refund fast.
by the way, they will say they will call you. they will not !!