As you know, GoDaddy is shutting down Dan.com in October. Yesterday, Afternic and Dan launched a “Migration center” to help domain name sellers move domain names to Afternic and archive account data before October 15. Buyers were also emailed about the migration process.
I have heard from many domain investors who sell on Dan, but I had not heard from any buyers until yesterday.
I have two active LTO deals remaining on Dan.com. One of the buyers reached out to me to let me know he submitted the remaining 5 monthly payments (approximately $3k) ahead of schedule. He did this because he wanted to avoid dealing with the transition to GoDaddy.
I asked him if he could share any communication he received from Dan.com regarding the migration, and he sent me the email he received, which I posted it below. Perhaps other sellers will also have their LTO deals paid off early since it is one of the suggestions made in the email to avoid transitioning payments to GoDaddy.
I guess there’s a small silver lining to the Dan shutdown. Hopefully others will experience a similar outcome for their active LTO deals.
Dear [Buyer],
We’ve got an important update about your Lease to Own (LTO) domain agreement with Dan.com.
As you might know, Dan.com joined the GoDaddy family in July 2022. To enhance your experience, we’ll transition your Lease to Own agreement to GoDaddy starting in November. This transition will happen automatically following your November payment, so you won’t need to do a thing.If you’d prefer not to make the switch, you’ve got two options to choose from before the due date of your November payment:
1. Pay off the remaining balance of your Lease to Own agreement to take full control of your domain name immediately.
2. Cancel the transaction or miss the November payment by its due date, which means forfeiting the domain name and past payments.Should you choose to proceed with the transition, your existing payment terms will remain unchanged, though some may notice adjustments in currency or tax as we switch to GoDaddy’s Terms of Service and GoDaddy’s Domain Name Registration Agreement. For further details, you can refer to our Buyer FAQs. For most though, nothing else about your transaction will change – except now, you’ll get access to more products and services with GoDaddy.
If you have any questions, we’re here to help.
Best regards,
Dan.com
I don’t have any LTO on DAN, but this number 2 option is crazy.
Upon first reading that email it gives the impression that you have to pay it off or lose the domain, the next paragraph does however state you can still pay by instalments, typical snake oil tactical wording from GoDaddy
Correct. The email prominent shows options designated 1 or 2, and does not as prominently indicate that option 3 is to do nothing. It would likely be preferable overall for buyers to pick 1 or 2, because there are some contractual issues with the “we” in the phrase “as we switch to GoDaddy’s Terms of Service and GoDaddy’s Domain Name Registration Agreement” – i.e. as “we, not including you” unilaterally assign the contract.
When you have a new landlord you get new rules like higher rent and they can do whatever they want…..that why it is called land..lord
But you can move your domains to whoever appreciates your domains
It would behoove any LTO buyer who saved a copy of the terms to which they agreed to review those terms carefully. There may indeed be a silver lining lurking in there.
Could a “silver lining” in the TOS for buyers impact sellers negatively?
When this service was launched, I had tried to find a consistent set of terms to which the sellers and buyers had agreed, in order to answer some questions I had received from clients. My conclusion at that time, based on what I had been able to find, was that the service seemed premised on the assumption/hope that not too many unusual events would occur and that, as long as GoDaddy was protected from any liability the agreements were “good enough” despite what appeared to be some problems. But, if you have a copy of “what the buyer agreed to” and “what the seller agreed to” for any of these deals, I would still be curious to have a look, since I’m not entirely sure the things I had reviewed previously reflect what ended up being the final product.
Nobody likes changes like this LTD.
GD is notorious for drastic changes as we all know
I’m pretty sure most people will see the words “you’ve got two options to choose from” but just glance over the part that says “If you’d prefer not to make the switch”
Godaddy would likely prefer to get these deals off of their books, since they consume ongoing administrative costs, and I can’t recall off the top of my head whether their commission dribbles in with each payment or is front-loaded. From their perspective, “pay the balance or ghost the seller” is probably a better set of options to close out a low-volume, low-margin, high-touch service.
I’d like to know the bin for dan.com domain
Godaddy is this domain for sale in future?
I can’t help wondering how GD remains in business in view of their unfair business practices.
It’s quite obvious they don’t give a darn about “Unfair Business Practice” consequences.
On the other hand, no one has done anything for that matter.
As far as I’m concerned, they are crooks with a license to steal.