What's Wrong With (Go)Daddy?

January 4, 2009 1:17 PM

In August, I registered a domain name for a friend with Godaddy.com. Then, for technical reasons, the friend decided that she wanted to move from Godaddy, so we figured we should delete the account and then rebuy it through another domain registrar. Simple, right? No.

This was in early December. The domain name has indeed been deleted from my friend's Godaddy account, but the name is not up for sale - Godaddy is apparently the owner of it until August 2010. So in effect, my friend has paid money to Godaddy so that Godaddy can own a domain. How can I get my domain name back? Any suggestions gratefully received.

posted by Holly to computers & internet (8 comments total)

You should have transfered it. Domains usually expire when they are not renewed, not when you delete them from your registrars control panel.

Contact Go Daddy and try to settle this with them. Otherwise, you will have to wait to 2010 and maybe even fight for it along with other people.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:29 PM on January 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

Godaddy is the registrar devil, sadly, so you might have some trouble.

Call the new registrar, and setup a new account. Tell them you want to transfer a domain, they'll walk you through whatever they need on their end.

Call GoDaddy. Tell them you had meant to transfer the domain to Registrar-X, and ask them very nicely to walk you through it or re-add it to your control panel so you can do it.

Now, to be clear -- when you are talking about domains, you're talking about two different things.

1: Domain Registration. Where is your domain registered? This is where you perform administrative functions for the domain name itself.
2: Domain Hosting. Where do you go to update your actual website? This is not necessarily the same place as your host. My websites are all registered with Dotster, but they're all hosted at Dreamhost.

If what you actually want is to host your websites elsewhere, then what you want to do is call GoDaddy, tell them you accidentally deleted it and please re-add it to your control panel. Then you would take the DNS Server Addressess from your new host, and input those into your GoDaddy Control Panel for that domain name. This will make GoDaddy point to your new host.

...but as I said, GoDaddy is the devil, so they might just tell you 'no', in which case you've bought GoDaddy a domain and you're SOL.
posted by Jairus at 1:30 PM on January 4 [2 favorites has favorites]

You can transfer the domain to any registrar, no reason to delete it and re-register. In fact it can't be deleted unless it's within a few days of when it's first registered. The minimum registration period is one year.

I'd expect that the domain is still registered to your friend. Your friend can transfer it to any registrar that deals with that TLD (e.g. any registrar that handles .com names, if it's a .com). The registrar you want to transfer it to can probably best advise you on how to achieve this (and if they can't, it's probably a good indication that they;re not the registrar you want to use)
posted by winston at 1:33 PM on January 4

Write to Godaddy and ask them to reinstate the name to her. She may have to pay again.

Registering a name, then cancelling it to register it elsewhere is like having a baby in hospital A, then after the birth deciding you actually wanted the baby in hospital B, so you go to hospital B but waddyaknow, no baby comes out! Ring Godaddy and ask them to give you back your baby.

You normally have to wait 60 days after registering a domain with one registrar before you can transfer it to another registrar.
posted by Kerasia at 1:33 PM on January 4

Contact GoDaddy. For future reference, there's a specific transfer procedure all domain registrars typically use.

Basically, letting go of a domain's account with one register does not invalidate the domain itself. On the registrar's side, they're making a small investment that, if you want this domain badly enough, will pay off.

I would definitely not enter negotiations expecting to get your domain back for the same amount you paid prior. GoDaddy have full ownership.
posted by trotter at 1:35 PM on January 4

In order to transfer a domain (usually .com) you need a transfer-ID. Its a code of some sort which is usually a combination of letters (and numbers?) from GoDaddy in order to be allowed to transfer the domain from them. If they wont give you the transfer-ID your friend would have to wait until year 2010 - if they release it.

I had a .com domain which was registered with a danish webhosting company. They had registered the .com domain from a german company. So the danish company went bankrupt and I had to contact the german company in order to get the transfer-ID, so I could be allowed to move it to another registrar.

I think that your friend have to do the same. Contact GoDaddy and ask for that id. I hope they give it to your friend. In case they dont... then there isnt anything your friend can do I guess.
posted by madcow20 at 1:42 PM on January 4

Thanks, everyone. Depressingly non-simple, but great answers! Case closed.
posted by Holly at 1:44 PM on January 4

Call GoDaddy and don't tell them that you are going to transfer the domain to some where else. (If they know u r doing that they have no incentive to help you, coz anyway they are loosing u as a customer).
Just call and act dumb. Say your non-technical friend deleted his account by mistake. Then finally every thing gets resolved, wait for the mandatory minimum wait period to pass and go through the proper domain name transfer process.
posted by WizKid at 2:06 PM on January 5