Desperation: Go Daddy calling customers, begging them to stay

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/12/24/desperation-go-daddy-calling-customers-begging-them-to-stay/?utm_source=HackerNews&utm_medium=share%2Bbutton&utm_content=Desperation%3A%20Go%20Daddy%20calling%20customers%2C%20begging%20them%20to%20stay&utm_campaign=social%2Bmedia

by thatdrew • 15 years ago

172 76 15 years ago

thenextweb.com

zoowar• 15 years ago

Stick to your guns. If you decided to leave, leave. Teach corporations that they must serve customer interest at all times. Let Go Daddy be the example.

robryan• 15 years ago

Yeah I don't think a retraction should change anything, it s clearly a damage control measure I don't for a second think they have suddenly backflipped on a position they have taken up strongly and worked to form the act.

thomasgerbe• 15 years ago

Agreed. It'd be nice if people continued sticking to their guns with other issues. i.e. Net Neutrality and AT&T, but if this is a first step, I will take it.

jayliew• 15 years ago

They called me up too and told me they reversed their SOPA stance and I told them if they have to wait for customer backlash to do their right thing, it's already too late.

On a separate note, I think they're a lightning rod for the anti-SOPA crowd now. GoDaddy is now an example for other SOPA supporters

ChuckMcM• 15 years ago

Its a tough choice. If you stick to your guns then GoDaddy says "Gee it doesn't really matter what we think they left anyway." and go back to their SOPA money. Or people don't leave after they switch and they internalize that they have to be a bit more aware of their customers concerns and get better.

Of course there could be no level of 'customer' rational discourse at all they could just be trying to mitigate the damage and move on. But one would like to believe they could be trained by rewarding them for good behavior.

Just sayin'

viscanti• 15 years ago

It's not really about GoDaddy, or what their future position on SOPA might be. It's that if a company shows that they are clueless, people choose not to deal with them. I don't think many people actually "believe" that GoDaddy changed their official position. They're just not publicly stating that opinion because it hurt their wallet.

It serves as a lesson to other companies in the future. Unless GoDaddy becomes the most outspoken opponent of SOPA, their public opinion on the matter is irrelevant. Some companies need to be reminded that their actions have consequences. It's not much of a lesson if the only consequence of a poor decision is that they have to go delete old blog posts and make a meaningless gesture.

Adaptive2• 15 years ago

This isn't behavioral modification. You don't need to reward GoDaddy for this change in stance after threatening punishment.

Let me state that again: You are under no obligation to pat them on the back so they don't feel sad that customers are still leaving and so go back to their old ways. If it were that easy for them to reverse (again) this decision, do you think they warrant a pat on the back in the first place?

They are engaging in a craven, cynical ploy to retain customers. There are no market-rules you need to play by. If you think that GoDaddy still stinks after this quick shower, walk away.

And I for one think they still stink.

jlarocco• 15 years ago

I think it makes the point even better if people leave anyway.

They may have changed their mind, but they only changed it after their original stupid decision pissed everybody off. If they lose money over it maybe they'll think things through a little better next time.

chris11• 15 years ago

GoDaddy didn't just support this. It has been actively reported that in the current form Sopa would exempt GoDaddy. So GoDaddy realized that the legislation could potentially hurt their business, but decided to support it while it was only used against some competitors. http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/sopa-hearing-wi...

iamandrus2• 15 years ago

There's no reason to use GoDaddy anyway. There are a lot of better domain hosts out there (Namecheap, Name.com, and more).

kennu• 15 years ago

Does Namecheap have automatic credit card billing for renewals nowadays? I wouldn't consider it "better" if it still doesn't.

acabal• 15 years ago

Shockingly, no. A few months ago I started registering new domains with them, and was very surprised that you had to buy credits for your account instead of having an auto-renew.

I went with name.com instead when moving from Godaddy today. Name.com is about the same price as Namecheap, and they do appear to have automatic billing. The only nicer thing about Namecheap was the cheap SSL certs you could get with a domain purchase.

yuhong• 15 years ago

Do anyone has stats on exactly how many domains were transferred so far?

digitalsushi• 15 years ago

I will be looking for a Christmas Plateau on a netcraft report sometime in early February.

rosser• 15 years ago

Plateau or canyon? (Maybe even abyssal trench?)

mythz• 15 years ago

Well to their credit begging is a better PR strategy than "it's not noticeable impacting our business, so we don't give a shit".

Although it appears that GoDaddy were to be exempt from SOPA, so they were just pro-actively pushing a law that would only affect their competitors: http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/sopa-hearing-wi...

Adaptive2• 15 years ago

Do not think for a second that they were unaware of what support for SOPA meant. The lesson for them and others only gets stronger the more continued damage is done. Every registrar and SOPA supporting business watching this should see GoDaddy continue to lose customers despite this superficial about-face.

We're really not this stupid.

dangrossman8• 15 years ago

I know I'm not the first to ask this, but I'm still having trouble figuring out who to move to.

1) Namecheap has been the most recommended on HN. They don't take American Express and they don't offer auto-renew. Going back to manually checking and renewing domains every month after years of not having to do that feels like using rotary phones again. And they'd be my only business expense not on my Amex card.

2) Gandi.net gets mentioned in every thread, but they're in France, people have commented on trouble getting phone support because of a language barrier, and they're expensive. That extra $150 a year it would cost me compared to GoDaddy/Namecheap is a lot to waste.

3) Moniker has some very concerning reviews since some kind of management change, about silent price hikes and lying customer service.

4) Hover.com seems to have a rep here advertising, but I've never heard of them and they're too expensive given that fact.

Is name.com all that's left? That's the only other one I see recommended in these threads, despite some less than ethical practices of their own, like hijacking the * A-record of your domain for ads if you host DNS with them.

abraham2• 15 years ago

Check out https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/. You pay for what you use and they are the most upstanding domain/hosting service I've ever used.

dangrossman8• 15 years ago

Sorry for not being clear, but I'm asking about domain registrars, not hosting services. They're not an accredited domain registrar and I know I'm not the only one that cares about that.

I want to deal with the company that controls my fate in the event of a legal issue, domain theft... or if we lose this battle, responding to SOPA actions. A reseller is a bit powerless to help you with those things.

ThaddeusQuay23• 15 years ago

I use INTERNET.BS, which is in the Bahamas. They are about as cheap as anyone. Their interface is simple, fast, and comprehensive. They give you total, self-serve control over every aspect of your domain, including moving it to another registrar. I've never needed any special support from them. They don't hijack anything. They provide whois privacy for free. They have no hidden fees. They don't charge any tax. The only problem I've had with them is that their DNS sometimes goes out, and my domains become temporarily unreachable. You'll have to use someone else for DNS, as will I, when my domains become more important to me, but as far as registering and maintaining your domains, I honestly don't think that anyone else I've come across is really any better than these guys. I'm saying all this as just another customer. I don't have any other connection to them.

http://internet.bs

Here is a thread where their CEO personally responded to some concerns.

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1081420

Here are some positive comments about their reliability.

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1072054

Here is a thread about using CloudFlare with them, which is something you might want to do when it comes to better DNS.

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1090725

EDIT: They take American Express, they automatically renew, and given that you are concerned about SOPA, you should know, for what it's worth, that your agreement with them will be "governed by the laws of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas".

evandena2• 15 years ago

1) Namecheap supports Google Checkout, so you can pay through Checkout but have it backed by Amex. Pretty sure I've done that in the past with Namecheap

slardat01• 15 years ago

I decided to go with name.com since they didn't have an F rating with the BBB, mainly due to that they responded to all of their complaints (7). You'd be surprised how many companies don't. I am a bit concerned about their $25 lock out fee if there are too many failed logins to your account though.

sneak• 15 years ago

I use joker.com. They're a Swiss company that does both German and English perfectly, and aren't very expensive. They accept AmEx.

ra• 15 years ago

I used to use joker.com about twelve years ago. I liked them a lot; can't remember why I stopped using them.

8ig82• 15 years ago

From what I can tell, the domain registration business is a tough business to be in. Prices are controlled, so you either have to deal with other product/service up-selling or expect to pay more for the privilege of not seeing the clutter of 'related' services.

I don't know if it's possible to have it both ways. The registrar has to make money somehow. Personally I'm at the point where I'd rather pay the premium of $5 per domain per year (an approx. $500 premium in my case) than deal with the nonsense.

ThaddeusQuay23• 15 years ago

I responded (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3388223) to the same person to whom your comment is directed. I recommended INTERNET.BS, and from my experience, what you say doesn't seem to apply to them. Their prices are low, and I have no knowledge of them imposing any related service, or charging for not imposing such. Whatever they are doing differently, to make a profit, is not obvious to me.

twohey• 15 years ago

If you register a lot of domains then I recommend eNom. It took a little while to open our account, but their support has been fantastic on the rare occasion we needed it.

jtchang• 15 years ago

Does anyone register with dreamhost? Their DNS system isn't bad either.

murz• 15 years ago

I usually use 1and1.com and I don't have any complaints.

joelrunyon3• 15 years ago

Related question: When transferring domains (if I have 2-3 years paid through GoDaddy), do those years transfer as well? I'm assuming no and that's the only reason I'm holding back from transferring yet. I'm planning on doing it when the domains are ready to expire. Is this a smart/dumb move? Any advice?

dangrossman8• 15 years ago

Those years transfer, and another year is added, no matter where you go.

atticusfinch• 15 years ago

Regarding item number one: They do have auto-renew. You can enable it in the control panel.

dangrossman8• 15 years ago

Only if you pre-deposit funds with the company. They still won't charge your card each year like everyone else.

http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/...

bbq• 15 years ago

Have you checked out http://domainsite.com

stock_toaster• 15 years ago

Been using dynadot for a couple years now, solely for registrations (so can't speak to any of their other offerings). No problems so far.

adrianbye• 15 years ago

please let us know where you move to. i'm also disappointed by the lack of good options

dangrossman8• 15 years ago

I'm moving to Namecheap. Gandi was my first pick but the advantages are not worth doubling what I spend on domains. Namecheap is big enough (accredited, as many domains in its portfolio as Gandi) that I don't think they'll be going anywhere. I also like how they deal with lawyers trying to shut down domains -- where GoDaddy immediately caves and pulls the domain in response to an abuse complaint, Namecheap has consistently refused to take down domains or uncover privacy-protected WHOIS info without a court order.

That's about the best I can expect from a US-based registrar, they're on top of the PR right now so I'm sure they'll provide good service in case of any problems with the transfers, and their prices are competitive with what GoDaddy was offering.

As for my complaints about payment, I pre-funded my account through Google Checkout. That let me use my American Express card and I put enough on it to cover at least 2 years of auto-renewing my domains.

jemeshsu• 15 years ago

Have been using namecheap for few years already.

thinker• 15 years ago

I've been using Netfirms. About 30 domains over last 7 years or so. Have also used Gandi.net, 1and1.

wwweston2• 15 years ago

Regarding Gandi:

1) They are more expensive, but not that much per domain. Meanwhile, as opposed to helping draft SOPA, take a look at what they support:

https://www.gandi.net/supports/

2) The language barrier and the time difference have made for a slight obstacle on the one or two occasions I've had to contact support in 11 years. It wasn't completely insignificant, but it never made me regret my choice.

dangrossman8• 15 years ago

> They are more expensive, but not that much per domain

With no coupons, .com extension, including ICANN fees:

Gandi: $17.94/year

GoDaddy: $11.62/year

Namecheap: $10.16/year

So Gandi's premium is almost the whole retail price of a domain elsewhere. They're charging more than double what they pay Verisign per domain. It might be worth it, but it is a big difference.

tricolon• 15 years ago

I've used pairnic.com for years. No issues so far. They're delightfully boring and aren't going anywhere any time soon.

dbrannan• 15 years ago

I've had luck with bulkregister.com (they have auto-renew, at least).

mdasen• 15 years ago

I use DreamHost for my registrations (with no hosting account).

They accept Amex and will auto-renew. They're $9.99/yr (or within a few cents of that) and that includes private registration if that's something you're looking for. I've had no problems with them, their interface isn't perfect, but it's a lot nicer than most registrars' systems that I've used.

Now for the bad. They don't offer DNS service without a hosting package. I actually use NameCheap's DNS. NameCheap (being kinda a stand-up company) offers free DNS service to you even if you aren't their customer. And, frankly, their DNS control panel is nice enough that I would switch to them, except for the fact that they don't auto-renew and they charge extra for private registrations.

If you don't need DNS, DreamHost seems to work nicely. Decent control panel to make changes in, private registration included in the fee, auto-renewal, $9.99 price, and accepts Amex. It isn't their primary business, but they are ICANN accredited - and they aren't that small (http://www.dotandco.net/ressources/icann_registrars/details/..., see New Dream Network - not that far off from Name.com or Gandi).

jackowayed2• 15 years ago

I do this, and I actually have DNS. I think it's because what I did is:

* Sign up for a hosting plan one of the times that it was super-cheap (I paid like $9 for a year of hosting and got a free domain for the year.)

* Cancel hosting after cheap period is over

So all of my DNS stuck around, and I can change it and everything like normal. I think I can even buy domains elsewhere and use Dreamhost as my DNS server for them.

The one complaint I have with them is that their forgot password scheme is "email your password in plaintext", which makes me feel a little bit like my domains aren't safe. So if I were to find my ideal registrar (~$10, not evil, decent interface, free DNS), I'd switch for that reason.

wellhellothere• 15 years ago

For language barrier try a uk company...

I use uk2.net and daily.co.uk

Reliable. Don't know of any sopa stance.

fletchowns• 15 years ago

I asked Gandi.net why I should consider them when shopping around, since they are a bit more expensive. Here was the response I got:

It is true, Gandi does charge slightly more for domains than some other registrars. We do feel that we are still affordable, however. The reason we need to charge a small premium is that we have a different business model than other, larger companies, and cannot get by on razor-thin margins. We are a commercial organization, certainly, and we do make money, but we also support the community of innovators in the hosting and domain name management space, and we do not advertise, but rely on word of mouth for our marketing. We do not buy market share with ads, and we do not make empty promises to capture customers. We also include some services (such as a free year of SSL certificates and the ability to obfuscate your whois data) that other registrars tend to charge incrementally for. This is because we believe that your data is yours. We will never sell your private information as some others do, and so we do not have that revenue stream.

We appreciate your willingness to consider Gandi as an ethical, no-bullshit alternative to GoDaddy. Right now a lot of domains are available at $8/yr through the end of 2011. We hope you will join us.

Seemed like a very reasonable response. I've been happy with them for the past few months with a few new domains. Just finished transferring all my existing GoDaddy domain names to Gandi.net.

kalleboo• 15 years ago

If you put funds in your Namecheap account in advance, you can auto-renew just fine. And when you add funds, you can use Amex via Google Checkout or Paypal.

mgkimsal• 15 years ago

i use omnis.com. $8.95/year. They will gently try to sell you hosting and privacy controls - I gently ignore them. With bulk, it's down to $8.70/year IIRC (and lower, I just don't have that many there). The bulk of my domains are there now, and I will probably have all there by next year.

It's not the best interface, but the price/performance is fine, and I don't have to go hunting for coupons every few months. They've not modified prices in the 2+ years I've been there.

nicksergeant• 15 years ago

I love http://dyndns.com -- their customer service is awesome.

sunchild• 15 years ago

I don't disagree with point 1, but I will say that Namecheap has always been very good about warning me if a renewal is coming up. It's hard to miss their warnings if you've got some simple filters on your inbound email.

jackowayed2• 15 years ago

Name.com is pretty bad too http://nathanhammond.com/namedotcom-another-unscrupulous-reg...

Basically: They opt customers in to a "service" where they show ads on any subdomain they haven't setup a DNS record for. Name.com keeps all the money, but the TOS says that you are responsible for making sure that they content that they choose to display on your domain is legal.

jwdunne• 15 years ago

http://www.dynadot.com/

They have .coms at $9.75, accepts Amex and has auto-renew. I've never been let down by this company.

pasbesoin• 15 years ago

Hover came out of TuCows. Perhaps that rep can provide a more detailed description. (Amongst other things, I have a feeling I'm missing an intermediate business name, but it just won't come to me at the moment.) I've noticed his comments here, a few times, and he's never seemed pushy.

I've had a domain registration with TuCows, now Hover, for over a decade. No problems. A bit pricier than Namecheap, where I have some other domain registrations.

As for Namecheap, they've been immediately responsive, the few times I've needed customer support. My problems were nothing difficult, though.

I'm glad Namecheap switched their site to be entirely SSL/TLS, a couple of years ago. (Formerly, they only encrypted the payment process, with obvious implications.)

P.S. DomainDirect. That's the missing name. They were a TuCows company. They turned into or assets were acquired by Hover. Transition was smooth. As far as I know, still Canadian (though with the attendant U.S. baggage associated with .com, .org, .net and such).

andrewflnr2• 15 years ago

So one call was actually reported, and this constitutes "desperation" on GoDaddy's part? Maybe there's more going on (one other person on this thread got called as well), but this story by itself falls far short of its headline.

I'm not familiar with GoDaddy's practices, but couldn't the volume of the transfer alone have triggered the call?

chops• 15 years ago

I tweeted[1] yesterday and today I get a call from Godaddy (I didn't take it, they just left a message). I can't imagine that they are literally calling anyone they can trace back to a name, but hey, maybe they are.

https://twitter.com/#!/jessegumm/status/150134421612265473

andrewflnr2• 15 years ago

But you hadn't actually started to do the transaction yet? Interesting.

ForumRatt• 15 years ago

They didn't learn a thing from the Netflix fiasco, moron's. Spank their asses and leave GoDaddy.

evandena2• 15 years ago

They weren't "begging them to stay", merely asking if there was anything they could do to keep the customer.

kabdib• 15 years ago

Just curious: Why does it cost $10 a year to maintain a database entry?

Does this aggregate into hosting a DNS lookup service (hardware + bandwidth + support staff)? It still seems expensive for what it is.

Desperation: Go Daddy calling customers, begging them to stay

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