I happened to run into an interesting little story over at NamePros.com .
The story is interesting in two ways…
1.) The OP stated they were in a bidding war with 6-7 bidders and they won the auction for $1,050. He wasn’t able to pay for the auction in time and his Godaddy Auctions account was suspended. The other buyers happened to pass on the domain name as well and nobody actually ended up paying for the domain name.
The domain name goes through the PendingDelete process and the domain name drops.
The original winner who bid $1,050 for the domain name and didn’t make payment and was banned, ended up Hand Registering the domain name toady for $20. (.tv domain). So he saved himself $1,030 and still got the domain name he wanted! A heck of a savings I would say.
So clearly that is an interesting story…
2.) Another part of the OP’s story, as he stated:
I paid $20 to recover back my auction account and 1 month later found out the domain was actually unregistered.
This is a little disturbing to me. "I paid $20 to Recover back my auction account" What? You get banned for a reason, but you can pay $20 and things are "OK" again? Now I didn’t read through the TOS, nor have I ever been banned at Godaddy for anything, but if you ask me… paying $20 isn’t OK in my book to be allowed back using a service you have been banned from for being a non-paying bidder! Yes Godaddy get’s some more money, but it doesn’t help it’s members!
Non-paying bidders are a big problem in the domain industry and allowing them to pay $20 to get back in the game just doesn’t seem right to me!
I was never aware that somebody could even do this and be reinstated! After doing a Google search, I did find one other story that a past member (banned) from 2007 was asked to pay $40 to get there account back. So in the past 3 years, not only does it appear you can buy your way back in, it also appears the price has dropped by 50% to get your account active again if you were banned.
Banned = Banned if you ask me. Sure somebody can try and create another account but filters need to be put in place to prevent that, but simply taking MONEY and saying things are "OK" doesn’t seem right to me.
TriCounty
I can see what you are saying Jamie but out of thousands of auctions I have participated in over the years it has only happened to me three times.
I got one domain for $20 that went over $600.
Another, recently……I bid a domain up to over $800 and another bidder beat me but I got the domain for a litte over $500 since the original bidder backed out and GD claimed that there were other bidders and the last non-paying bidder jumped in after my $500 + bid.
Anyhow, I think if this was rampant then they would definitely need to not allow a return, but as of now I think it is nominal how often this happens….IMHO.
UDRPtalk
I agree with you completely.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if what GoDaddy is doing is illegal since they have a responsibility to not allow deadbeat bidders.
This practice has been discussed before:
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/09/16/deadbeat-bidder-at-namejet-just-pay-ten-bucks/
Ms Domainer
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On that thread, I gave that jerk a piece of my mind, too.
I think he realized that he overbid on a crappy domain and decided to let it slide. I notice that he didn’t reveal the domain, except to say that it was a .tv.
I once acquired a domain (at a GREAT price) because a deadbeat bidder didn’t pay up. My aftermarket purchases aren’t all that extensive, so I suspect the deadbeat problem is more rampant than you might think. More alarming is the very real possibility that some deadbeat bidders might actually be shill bidders, which is why I tend to shy away from auctions of non-deleting domains.
I predict that, eventually, bidders (on all auction platforms) will have to pay a deposit or have a valid card on file before being able to bid. Should they renege on payment, the deposit or restocking fee becomes non-refundable. That will cut down on the pranksters and the shill bidders.
Then these deadbeats should be banned for three to six months and then have to pay a substantial reinstatement fee.
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advalorem
Money talks. $20 is $20. Domaining isn’t church choir.
TriCounty
@Ms. Domainer…..my buying on GD is extensive. I’ve bought thousands and thousands of domains and it has only happened three times with me.
Anyhow…..nobody likes a deadbeat bidder so I can see how folks could be mad.