question I bid on a domain with a huge premium renewal at GD auction, by mistake.

[Primary Names]

I mostly am busy with my day work and engage in some domaining mostly in the evenings or early mornings for about half an hour so the whole exercise is pretty hasty in that sense I like the domains that appear at auctions at GD. Generally I just put my highest bid and forget about it. I lose most of the domains ( mostly to HD ) but do get decent domains some times. The other day I was going through the process faster than usual and I was on the phone due to office affair and also in a tense conversation with my wife so eventually I ended up bidding on a non dotcom domain with premium renewal of a whopping $3XXX. Obviously, I did not notice the premium renewal while putting the bid. Slapped my forehead and have been shaking my head over it since.

GD is expensive but I really like the domains that appear at their auctions so I would not want to close my account there any time soon. Despite it being an honest mistake if I was forced to pay I was mentally prepared to pay the sum only because I could afford the loss this time since I had a sale of lower mid $XXXXX, just last month. I am calling it a loss because I would certainly not be paying the absurd "premium" renewal fee that I would not be paying next year. Additionally I am from India so there was added GST of 13% added to the price along with the renewal fee. So basically it would have hurt my economics but fortunately someone else bid higher. I just hope it is not a domainer like me who missed the "premium" renewal written right there somewhere. As I said......... I am still shaking my head over the whole thing since ....... I thougt I got such a stupid rookie mistake after all these years.

There was around two days left for the auction to end when I wrote to [email protected] and started a private conversation with GD handle here at NP telling them that it was an honest mistake. Despite being a time sensitive matter. I am still hearing crickets. No surprise there but I would not blame GD if they wont forgive the mistake and they "had to stand" by their "policy". Also I don't think they keep much from the massive renewal amount which obviously would go to the registry. It is extremely expensive to call US from where I stay, but I still tried calling up on the phone and it did not just go through probably because my network was not optimal.

I do have more than a few domains stuck there but even if I did not I would not have run away from GD just out of principle. Note that I would not mind paying higher $XXXX for the domain if the renewal cost were normal because then I could hold it all my life. Holding onto a "premium" renewal is absolutely not my thing.

I was just wondering if anyone has been in such situation earlier ( regardless of the platform ) and if you could share with us if things worked out or not. Or did you end up paying a heart breaking sum due to their "policy" ? Do you think GD would have forgiven the mistake ? How was your experience ? What is the usual response from the registrar in such case ?

Not my case but here is tweet from Elliot I saw yesterday.. with somewhat similar concern.

 

[Bannen]

I almost did the same thing a couple weeks ago, with an XYZ that had about a $1600 renewal fee. I caught it at the very last moment just before clicking the 'bid' button at auction.

I think we often get 'renewal fee tagline' blindness... we no longer even pay attention to the renewal fee tag just below the domain name. And as a measure against such mistakes, I would recommend that Godaddy auctions implement a final warning window that pops up when you confirm your max bid.

The warning windows could be activated whenever a renewal fee is greater than, say, $50. It could give a message/warning saying: "Careful: you are bidding for a domain whose renewal fee is $-------! If you are aware of this and would like to continue, please click CONFIRM'."

In other words, I feel it would be an important service for them to not just include the renewal fee as a tagline, but to create a whole separate window just to acknowledge that premium renewal fee and that you are confirming you realize this.

 

[bmugford]

I am not a fan of domains with "premium" renewals.

While this could just be dismissed as a "buyer beware" type situation, it is not like Joe Blow is expecting a multi-thousand dollar renewal when they bid on a domain.

I think the registrars share some blame on this if they are going to sell these "premium" domains. GoDaddy for instance should probably have more than that little line of text that doesn't stand out at all.

How about putting some obvious disclaimer, or the font in a different color text or something.

It is something that is easy to overlook. It needs to be more obvious.

Brad

 

[Samer]

“Premium” renewals are absolute garbage.

God Bless .com!! .com is Best. Thank you.

 

[algofox]

I have completely skipped the auction cycles ; ) Interesting way you put it...

 

[Primary Names]

I almost did the same thing a couple weeks ago, with an XYZ that had about a $1600 renewal fee. I caught it at the very last moment just before clicking the 'bid' button at auction.

I think we often get 'renewal fee tagline' blindness... we no longer even pay attention to the renewal fee tag just below the domain name. And as a measure against such mistakes, I would recommend that Godaddy auctions implement a final warning window that pops up when you confirm your max bid.

The warning windows could be activated whenever a renewal fee is greater than, say, $50. It could give a message/warning saying: "Careful: you are bidding for a domain whose renewal fee is $-------! If you are aware of this and would like to continue, please click CONFIRM'."

In other words, I feel it would be an important service for them to not just include the renewal fee as a tagline, but to create a whole separate window just to acknowledge that premium renewal fee and that you are confirming you realize this.

Absolutely agreed.

I think the registrars share some blame on this if they are going to sell these "premium" domains. GoDaddy for instance should probably have more than that little line of text that doesn't stand out at all.

How about putting some obvious disclaimer, or the font in a different color text or something.

@GoDaddy Will it be possible to implement any of the suggested ideas ? Pretty sure this happens time and again. Most probably will happen for 888.xyz as well. How do you generally resolve such cases ? This is not a bad situation for a good GD customer, if you care for your customer you certainly have an idea what to do so why not just do it ? If not the obvious choice for most people is to just abandon GD and you know it right ?

 

[GoDaddy]

Hi @Primary Names
Thanks for reaching out to us via DM.

When we began adding premium renewal domain names to GoDaddy Auctions, visibility of the renewal fee within the design was important for us.

That's why, before completing your bid, you will always see the renewal price indicated. There are multiple ways to bid through GoDaddy Auctions, and in all scenarios you will see the renewal price before completing your bid. In the example above, it's located right below the current bid fee. Elliot correctly saw the domain's renewal fee.

User feedback is always valuable, though, and we'll share this with our UX team for future consideration.

 

[pb]

User feedback is always valuable, though, and we'll share this with our UX team for future consideration.

How about make it more prominent for premium renewals, like different colour (red?) and bolder.
As said above, when bidding on many domains it's easy to overlook it, so it needs to be more explicit.

 

[Jannes]

Elliot correctly saw the domain's renewal fee.

He saw $10,999.99 /yr. Why am I seeing these renewal fees if I change my region? Is there a correct one and was it the same when the auction started? (EUR and GBP prices are about $20,000)

 

[DomainNature]

This UI design is intentional, the practice is seen on many websites!
The BID should be with small font but Renewal with big and red, blue or Gold color, to empha-size the important price factor. IMO

 

[Primary Names]

Hi @Primary Names
Thanks for reaching out to us via DM.

When we began adding premium renewal domain names to GoDaddy Auctions, visibility of the renewal fee within the design was important for us.

That's why, before completing your bid, you will always see the renewal price indicated. There are multiple ways to bid through GoDaddy Auctions, and in all scenarios you will see the renewal price before completing your bid. In the example above, it's located right below the current bid fee. Elliot correctly saw the domain's renewal fee.

User feedback is always valuable, though, and we'll share this with our UX team for future consideration.

I reached out to you on Saturday. It was a time sensitive matter. I appreciate that your response but such sloooooooww response is totally useless at this point. If you really want to help us please ask you UX team to at least display such renewal amounts in red. PS - Not that it matters at this point bu I still have not gotten any response from [email protected].

 

[DomainRecap]

User feedback is always valuable, though, and we'll share this with our UX team for future consideration.

The "User Feedback' is that the $60 bid price font is HUGE and in BOLD while the massive $10,999 renewal fee font is tiny and standard.

It certainly makes it look like you're trying to hide the "big number" and even if you're not, it's quite obvious from this thread your 'solution' is not working and people are missing it.

The very least you can do is BOLD the premium renewal price.

 

[Bannen]

Hi @Primary Names
Thanks for reaching out to us via DM.

When we began adding premium renewal domain names to GoDaddy Auctions, visibility of the renewal fee within the design was important for us.

That's why, before completing your bid, you will always see the renewal price indicated. There are multiple ways to bid through GoDaddy Auctions, and in all scenarios you will see the renewal price before completing your bid. In the example above, it's located right below the current bid fee. Elliot correctly saw the domain's renewal fee.

User feedback is always valuable, though, and we'll share this with our UX team for future consideration.

Thanks; please mention to the UX team that perhaps it is more efficient to not just 'see the renewal price indicated', but to actually REQUIRE AN ACTION so the bidder sees, in a whole new window, that the domain has a premium renewal price. And the bidder must actually click a button in that new window, or even an action on their main bidding page, acknowledging that they are aware of the premium renewal.

If you force the bidder to confirm an actual action, before they continue bidding for the domain, this will get rid almost entirely of this mistake happening.

What we're trying to clarify is:

1 - obviously bidders are still making the mistake of bidding, without noticing the premium removal. Which means:
2 - despite having the renewal price on the bidding page, it's not obvious enough. Which means:
3 - it's best for GD to listen to that and improve correct it. And the best improvement/correction would be:
4 - to create a whole separate action needed by the bidder, an action solely to confirm that they are aware of the premium renewal price. And to do that, you must:
5 - create the action so the bidder MUST COMPLETE THAT SEPARATE ACTION, BEFORE THEY CAN BID ON THAT DOMAIN.

Since your present system still allows for a lot of bidding mistakes, by simply 'making the renewal fee visible', that means you must go beyond the present system and enforce a separate and dedicated action to acknowledge that the bidder knows about the feel.

There, I've said it in a few different ways. Hope your people can do something along those lines

Thanks

 

[Lord Antares]

The reason for the premium renewal's existence is because registries figured out they can be the domainers instead of selling domains to domainers.



As for the small text for renewals, I don't know what that accomplishes other abandoned carts and failed auctions.



Nobody's gonna say "hmmm $10 000 reneweal for a $50? Alright, nevermind, I'll still pay."

 

[Samer]

Another way to say “Premium Renewal” is “Premium scam”

 

[Casey L]

this has happened to me before. i ultimately just didn't pay and was removed from the auctions platform until i paid a small fee to regain access.

 

[Samer]

What makes me sadder are the people who pay. Get .com folks! Bid .com; .com no “premium fee”

 

[JB Lions]

With renewals like that I would add fireworks gifs next to them, or at least bold it with a different color text like red. It needs to pop

 

[Primary Names]

@Samer I like dotcoms as well but I made most of the bigger sales with nondotcoms. Dotcoms move to slooow for me. Maybe this is how things are specific to me.

@Casey L Thanks for sharing. So this does happen. Happy to know that you regained access.

I was thinking .... GD really do not have a lot to gain by keeping the renewal price not apparent/obvious/visible enough as most of the amount must be going to the registry anyways. Apart from possibly having good members banned and abandoned carts and failed auctions as mentioned by @Lord Antares

@GoDaddy You can see that there is a great number of people aware of the issue. And some who actually fell victim ( probably lot more out there ). People are not going to pay for such honest mistakes anyways. As I said I would not have paid either if I did not have the money. Most people would not even if they have though. So it is just another rift between GD and its customer. Kindly implement the change.

 

[Primary Names]

UPDATE
Just received an email response from auctions@gd on the matter. Mistake or not, the bid is legally binding and the bidder is obligated to pay and there is no recourse. In my case the winner seem to have already paid for the domain so probably an end user. All this ended alright for me. Let this be a BIG warning for everyone.

 

[sashilover]

Just don't pay it, and let the account banned, then register another account, problem resolved.

 

[DomainNature]

Some free design ideas.
They can make 2 separate horizontal squares.
First one will show BID price the second will display Renewal, based on renewal price they can make to display a message Warning above 1K renewal, Important below 1K renewal, Safe standard renewal.
Same thing can be done with Bid price.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

The "renewal fee" as a term presents some ambiguity.

So, if you are buying a domain for the first time, is this charge actually mandatory up front? Isn't it, effectively, your initial registration fee?

And if the auction price is actually your bid AND a mandatory registration fee (i.e. "renewal"), why not make this explicit? Add both for the initial bid, for full transparency. Why create ambiguity, potentially angering and losing any customer who felt mislead and "won" an auction they likely never would have bid on in the first place?

If the "renewal fee" only reflects that the final auction bid does not require that you pay that fee up front, but that next year will be costly, why not make that clear as well? One would buy the domain and likely try to resell it before the year is up.

Selling domains at auction no doubt can be profitable. GD, please consider that keeping auction customers happy will likely ultimately be even more profitable.

P.S. I like the @JB Lions solution best! Nice fireworks!

 

[pb]

The reason for the premium renewal's existence is because registries figured out they can be the domainers instead of selling domains to domainers.

No, no, no. "Domainer registries" sold the initial batch of "premium" domains at auctions and made the rest available at high registration prices, but allowed for normal priced renewals. The geniuses who invented "premium renewals" are just petty grifters.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

No, no, no. "Domainer registries" sold the initial batch of "premium" domains at auctions and made the rest available at high registration prices, but allowed for normal priced renewals. The geniuses who invented "premium renewals" are just petty grifters.

Well, if the actual pricing upfront is abundantly clear on any domain selling site, including renewal costs, the market will help to keep prices fair and reasonable?

Then, no "grifting" need be a concern, as eventually the prices would likely be lowered to make sales happen?