GoDaddy expired domain name auctions now guarantee delivery but you still have to wait 7 days

GoDaddy changed their renewal/expiry domain name policy and owners now have 30 days after the expiration date to renew their domains.

At that time the domain name is already in an expired domain name auction that starts at day 25 after the expiration.

So after day 30 any domain name that receives a bid is put into a GoDaddy holding account so they can ensure delivery to the winning bidder.

Domains that go into this holding account show these details:

Registrant Name: Expiry Assignment Service
Registrant Organization: Afternic, LLC – On Behalf of Domain Owner
Registrant Street: c/o GoDaddy Redemption Services

The date when this change was going to happen was initially December 4 but due to some development problems the date became December 5.

So from December 5 any domain name that receives a bid and is more than 30 days after the expiration date is moved to this holding account.

To make it simpler, any domain that expired on November 5 and on-wards is guaranteed delivery. These are domain name auctions that ended or are ending on December 10 2017 and later.

It is not possible for a domain name owner to renew these domains and thus the auction refunds problem ends here.

The problem that remains is the delivery date. Expired domain name auctions end on day 35 after expiration. Even though the owner can’t renew these domains when you pay for a domain name you do not currently see it immediately in your account. You will receive the domain name on day 42. That is exactly as before with the significant difference that you are now guaranteed delivery of this domain name. GoDaddy is working on fixing this and have the domain delivered on payment.

Paul Nicks, VP & GM GoDaddy Aftermarket, said that “Part of the release problems was the launch of instant-xfer for bought domains, so we rolled that part back and are still working on making it work correctly. So, for now, all names bought will be delivered on day 42 post-expiry.”.

Finally you might notice that domains that are in expired domain name auctions display a blank white page. Type any expired domain name you are bidding on and you will be redirected to a blank white page with a url that looks like this: http://www.******.***/RVjQZ/.

The webpage only has a javascript that is possibly tracking traffic. GoDaddy said this is a bug they are trying to fix.