AlwaysWoW! For a Great Great WoW in Life

Thoughts from me about things that are cool, that are WoW, that blow me away. Observations about businesses and people from a wide variety of life. Daily encounters - and thoughts outside the box, inside the box and without any box. New thinking, and challenging old thinking. Passionate about life, about respect, and about integrity.

Monday, August 18, 2003

www.GoDaddy.com: Web Domain Company a bitter disappointment

I am deeply disappointed with a company called www.GoDaddy.com.

The company, amongst others, offers domain hosting services. For those who don't know what this is - a domain name is the address of a company in "internet language" so to speak. Amazon.com is a domain name of the company called Amazon.

Similar, www.yahoo.com, is the address of Yahoo. As such, www.godaddy.com is the address of Godaddy. One can buy such domain names from this company, which also offers other services.

I am owning some domain names, which are currently with a company called Register.com/ Network Solutions and hosts under the name www.register.com. This company is pretty expensive - US$35.00 for a 1-year hostage of one domain name. Godaddy offers the same for below US$10.00. It also offers to assist in the transfer of a domain name from one provider to another. They get some raving reviews on their webpage, and so I decided to transfer some of my domain names.

In the beginning sometimes early this year , I started slowly - was a bit uncertain -, and was quite surprised that everything went smoothly. Register.com sent me an e-mail, asking me if I am okay with the transfer, and sure I was.

As such, I thought I try it with the next one as well. However, something didn't go right. There was no e-mail from Register.com this time. I inquired with GoDaddy.com and they stated, that sometimes, former hosting companies would just ignore such requests, hoping to keep the business. After a while I sent a similar mail, and got the same response from GoDaddy. I was a bit angy with Register.com, but well, since I didn't want to loose the address, I extended the service one more year. I was also a bit surprised. The company earlier appeared pretty professional - very responsive and service oriented. Once, I wanted to let an address expire, and they extended the period automatically and reduced the amount from my credit card. I informed them about the mistake, and without any discussion, they reimbursed me and apologised. Service at its best. May be they changed was what I thought.

Anyway - I wanted to change another web address in the end of July - and initiated it. After a while - still no response or reaction - neither from GoDaddy.com nor Register.com. I send another mail a few weeks later and than, another one, shrtly thereafter. No reaction whatsoever. Now I started to get this feeling of being real pissed off.

I browsed in GoDaddy's webpage and send off another e-mail last week. To their service counter - which, by the way, promises to get back to the inquirer in 8-12 hours, and to their president, a Mr. Parson.

This was last Friday - enough time - despite the power outge in the US that happened over the weekend etc. I am really angry - lesson learned?

1.) Don't trust if there are raving reviews;
2.) Service has its price
3.) It is a best lesson on how to loose a customer. I plan to develop a webpage and woooms - what do you believe? Is there any future business with GoDaddy?
4.) Bad news travels fast - one talks more about bad experiences than about good experiences, right? And this will be a story for years to come!!

I am copying my last e-mail into this review - but will keep my e-mail address out to avoide spyweb to get it and flood my e-mail inbox even more - and will inform GoDaddy and Register.com.

I wonder, if I will get a reply? Or if they do something to the domain address that is still hosted with them? Remember, I was successfully once!!

_______________________________________
Dear Mr. Parson (this is the President of GoDaddy),

I am sorry that I have to bother you with my complain,
but I am developing into a very unhappy customer.
Please allow me to outline the story:
I transferred one domain name to your company, since
it looked efficient, and got some good reviews
elsewhere. But now I am a bit in doubt – as I
actually don’t know, how you define customer
satisfaction or delight.

I have send three mails to your company with regard to
the transfer of a web domain from Network Associates/
Register.com to Godaddy -
www.asiabusinessconsulting.com.

In the statement following the sending of the mail,
your automatice response is that customer service
would get back to me in between 10-12 hours.

I am not sure, but, without wanting to sound rude or
insulting, you should fix your watches!! I am still
waiting for responses from your side!!

I have two reference numbers for two of mails sent:
- 030803 – 000093
- 030806 – 001659

I send the last mail about three days back, but it
might be that I didn’t get a reference number, since I
sent it when I wasn’t logged in.

Over time, I tried to transfer three domain names from
Network Associates/ Register.com. I had no problem
initiating and succeeding with the first one,
hr-asia.com. The second one (brand-u.com) failed.

In this case I inquired with your customer service
about the status, and they appeared to be very
responsive. They stated that they contacted Network
Associates (register.com), but that sometimes, the
former host would just ignore the request for
transfer.

This time around for the third transfer
(asiabusinessconsulting), I didn’t get any response
from you after my inquiry about the status.

Now I am not so sure anymore that Network Associates actually ignored the transfer of the second domain name. Could it be that you just take the money from your potential customers? How do we know? The only thing I know is that Network Associates was very helpful – once, they transferred my cash payment back to me, when they extended a domain name that I didn’t want anymore and they assumed I would like to keep it.


They also asked me if I would agree to the transfer of
hr-asia.com to you. Now – I didn’t get back any
inquiry from them, when I wanted to transfer the
second domain name, only your mails, that you
contacted them. And, to repeat, this third time, I
don’t even get a response from you about the status of the transfer.

I wanted to change to you, because of cost
consideration and your company appeared to be a
reliable company. Can I be THAT wrong? And no, I
didn’t forget to note down my e-mail address or
deleted your response accidentally – just in case that
this is something put forward.

I wonder if you react to this inquiry!! Please send a
response to either _____ (left blank here, intentionally) or
always_wow@yahoo.com.sg

I will be on leave in about 11 days, and after that,
won’t be able to access my e-mail inbox for 3 weeks.

As such, I would hope you expedite the issue.

Best regards,

Andreas Dorn


PS: I will send this mail to your customer service as
well.
___________________________________


So I am waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Any similar experience ? Send something to always_wow@yahoo.com.sg

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