Hi,
This letter is to tell you a personal experience and to seek advice and if you could give your opinions I would be grateful.

I had a domain name registered with luckyregisters which is a sister concern of godaddy. I also signed up for domains by proxy.

One of my domains names was suspended for spam. Let me make it clear I am not a spammer. Well I think I am not anyway. If people are interest to take a look at the site in question than let me know will post it.

The site which was suspended was a collection of good sites on the internet. And to that end I did google searches to find good websites and emailed them asking them if they would like to join my site. I probably emailed about 500 webmasters over a period of 2 months.

One of the webmasters complained and abuse@godaddy.com email me and told me I had been reported for scamming. I wrote back explained to them what I was doing.

They than said that I should pay $199 and they would forget the matter or $50 if I just wanted to stop using their services and go elsewhere.

I found this quiet unresonable and did not pay them anything I am informed that the domain name in question will remain suspended till my subcription to it expires.

An individual like me searching for good sites to add would need to spend quiet a long time searching google even to find just 100 websites. Well anyway my site got suspended for a fraction of their charges I have registered another domain name.

I felt they were harsh and unfair in their approach.

Your comments and views would be most appreaciated.

Godaddy sucks, stay away from them. It seems you can bring down sites in a matter of minutes by reporting them to abuse@godaddy.com. Are they serious? They put down domain names just for some stupid s(p|c)am complaint? How can anyone run hosting biz with policy like that? I hope other registrars are not doing this...

Could anybody list domain sellers who have no connection to godaddy and it sister companies as I want to make sure I donot buy anything from godaddy and its sisters companies.
Also are there other companies offering domains by proxy not affialiated to godaddy.

Included the site in the signature. I have since changed the domain name and got it from a different company.

Namecheap.com, moniker.com, etc... I dont know but i think they wont delete domains because of some stupid complaint like godaddey and yahoo do. Every successful/popular site gets complaints and most of them have no grounds.

There are probabably several reasons to stay away from GoDaddy, but this must be the biggest reason of all. Charging you $199/$50 on somebody else's say-so. I can see the reasoning on their part... they have to investigate the complaint, but what if you are innocent of the charges? They don't seem to care. It's almost amounts to blackmail, imho.

This is becoming a daily site here with Godaddy. Use them but be cautious if you must

Godaddy is consistently getting worse. The larger they get the more we can expect this.

jack111, you have just become a statistic in the unending number of people who
are slapped with that. Short of suing them in Court, unfortunately you've no choice
but to pay them the fees and transfer out ASAP.

They seem to be very happy to forget all complaints if you pay them $199.

Looking like a money making scam to me.

Though I did not pay them a penny as for the same amount I could register at least 10 domain names.

Godaddy has 10 million names, They probably get 1000-2000 Spam complaints EACH DAY. $199.00 x 2000 = Almost 40,000 a day they can make. How do you think they pay for the superbowl ads :)

Think about that next time you use them :)

Godaddy has 10 million names, They probably get 1000-2000 Spam complaints EACH DAY. $199.00 x 2000 = Almost 40,000 a day they can make. How do you think they pay for the superbowl ads :)

That's 2000x365 = 730,000/yr. About 3/4 of 1%, which make me vulnerable to about 7-10 spam/phishing complaints a year :( Time to move on, me thinks :)

Think about that next time you use them :)

I do. It give me a warm fuzzy feeling :)

And on another note... I don't think there is any defence against a spammer discovering one of your domains and using it to their heart's content.

You have to realize the bigger picture that Godaddy has truly mastered monetizing ALL aspects of a domain name, from domain parking(ala Google), auctions, fines/complaints etc. They can afford to be a loss leader on registrations(1.99/ea) since they will sock it to ya on the back end somehow.

I admire them for that.

If you spam you do deserve to be shut down. I do not feel any sympathy for them.

If you spam you do deserve to be shut down. I do not feel any sympathy for them.

But what if that person really didn't spam, yet got punished for it?

that's why I've come to the realisation that I've gotta move my domains away from GoDaddy. I've haven't yet been penalised but the potential is there all the time, thru no fault of my own actions. I have accepted all their other irritating foibles, but that realisation is what broke the camel's back for me.

hi technanny
Totally agree with you. If you spam you deserve to be shut down.

Couple of things though.

1] Godaddy does not shut you down, for $199 everything if forgotten.

2] If you host a website you must have atleast once contact a webmaster on a different site using an email provided. Now if you have done that you have spammed. As you sent an unsolicited email that is you had no prior permission to contact them. If you do want to contact a webmaster you have to first get their consent. And than even that email you sent will be spam as you did not have prior consent to ask consent. Those are their rules.

3] I was not given a warning to stop. They informed me I had spammed and I had to either given $199 or the site would be suspended.

I was not given a warning to stop. They informed me I had spammed and I had to either given $199 or the site would be suspended.

That's precisely the problem with GoDaddy. I don't know how other registrars handle it.

GoDaddy normally offer you an alternative. $50 and take your business elsewhere.

I've got about 10 domains on godaddy.com, huh, still no problems or any issues like spam or something like that. Support is good. Everything works fine except my VPS today, seems they have problems with AboveNet...

:lovewht:

$199 and they forget the mattter?
what happens when you get another complaint on the same domain?

It's another $199. Nice game, innit? :)

i guess they don't forget then

If they don't forget, then I think you'd at some point be told, thanks but no thanks. Politely, of course :)

Let me make it clear I am not a spammer.

That is what all spammers say.

Technically it probably wasn't spamming, since it was a hand selected list, not anonymous or forged, and with a specific proposal for each recipient. From the viewpoint of the email recipient, the distinction might not be so obvious.

But what if that person really didn't spam, yet got punished for it?

If they did not originate the spam and they have been penalized I would think it would be unjust. I would presume that Godaddy would do a thorough investigation prior to them taking such action.

That's the problem. They probably don't and just accept the word of the complainant. They won't discuss what investigation they do, but it looks like, not much.

For me what you did is abusing the webmasters :) I am with GoDaddy since I started buying domain names and I have more than 250 domain registered with them and none of them in the spam list.

I did spam once to promote one of my website, really just once :) and even that website is not in the spam list.

What godaddy did to you absolutely doesn't seem logical thou. It insane to shutdown everyhting just for spamming.

...One of the webmasters complained and abuse@godaddy.com email me and told me I had been reported for scamming. I wrote back explained to them what I was doing...
Except reporting every report should include the message headers of the spam email and the content as well. So, they have the proof spam email was sent from your domain name and/or your web hosing account. You should not use your property to spam or allow third parties to use it. GoDaddy have done the right thing.