advice Help me outsmart GoDaddy

[Interestedparty]

I swear these people are running a racket -- and I want to know if this has happened to other people.

GoDaddy sold me a domain and then could not get the "codes" to transfer it to me. I followed up a couple of times -- they said they were working on it.

Then, it was canceled out from under me -- even though it was never transferred. This was like two months later. I called them and Loose-Lips-Sink-GoDaddy Customer Rep Mark called the auctions office and told me that the domain was about to expire -- at that time, I had no idea what that meant. He said the domain would go to auction if it was not renewed and "they could not get in contact with the woman" who owns the domains. (Though a five-minute search in whois can dump all of her information out???)

It was "escalated" to a Tier II -- and I received an email that said I would receive a reply in 1-3 days.

Nothing.

I logged in today and saw that it was put in pending delete status -- so I looked that up and saw exactly what THAT entails. It has three days left before the auction and they're trying to charge people to backorder it. I called customer service and this time the woman said -- literally -- that she had no WAY TO CALL AUCTIONS -- even though every single person I've ever talked to there tells me that they can get to auctions. She said the domain name was "nowhere -- not available" and that I would have to email again.

Go Daddy is the registrar for this domain.

I smell a rat. This is a .com and a hella good one. Niche, but I was willing to pay four figures for it. Are they trying to make sure that I don't register with a service to beat them out? Is it worth this much to them to try to get me into the backorder auction for the small fee?

What's happening here? The clock is ticking.

 

[Keith]

They sold you a domain how? Codes for what? If godaddy is the registrar, as you say, they would just move the name into your account.

 

[Interestedparty]

The woman who holds the domain (until the redemption period is up, presumably), either would not or could not provide the codes to GoDaddy. According to the new customer rep I'm on the phone with -- who suddenly knows EVERYTHING about this, even though three others were clueless -- even though it reads pending delete, it's not going to go into that "8" status until AFTER Feb 23, which is listed as the expiration date (though things I have read have said the delete happens 5 days after it is listed in that state) -- that could be wrong.

The weird thing is, though, that ON the date that it entered pending delete, I started getting spammed by these other people, who, are --presumably -- my brand new bidding adversaries.

If it is correct that it is in pending delete, is it possible that GoDaddy could have expedited the drop as a response to a repo, due to my purchase? And that they're NOT telling me that it's about to go to auction -- so that they can reprice it close to what I already paid?

 

[Keith]

I have no idea what you're saying.

Where is the domain registered?
What is the actual expiration date?
Did you buy it at Godaddy or just bid?

 

[NameOmnia]

Go Daddy is the registrar for this domain.

If they are the registrar of the domain then it will be pushed you your GD account without any code needed.
Maybe we missed something?

 

[Interestedparty]

It's a crazy mystery -- you're missing something because no one knows what's up.

See if you can tease anything out just from this:

The ICANN database says it doesn't exist -- literally -- that domain name does not exist.

Go Daddy is the registrar -- listed for them it says that it is pending Delete status. They told me that when I bought it, while they were waiting for "codes" to transfer it, the person who owns it DELETED IT THEMSELVES???? (IKR) -- and once it was deleted -- there was a period where it slipped into some other weird status -- then, that person lost it and apparently cannot now redeem it. GoDaddy claims they cannot just transfer it to me -- that ICANN has it and it will be auctioned off to the public.

But ICANN says it doesn't exist. All Whois places says it's already registered to the person they claim deleted it.

One site had a prior status listing of:

clientDeleteProhibited
clientRenewProhibited
clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited

Can you tell me anything from that?

 

[NameOmnia]

Well if the domain doesn't exist it can't certainly be transferred. Maybe you can try to see if it's available for registration?
Also without knowing what the name is it is a bit hard to even try to give you some advice

 

[Keith]

Just PM me the domain and I'll tell you in a few minutes what's up.

 

[forge]

Often when a domain is in the final phases of pending delete status, the Whois record will in fact state "domain not found in database" or something to that effect. I have seen it recently with my own dropping names. The domain most definitely does exist.

What I don't understand is, how were you able initially to purchase the domain from GoDaddy? How was it listed?