When I win an auction for a domain name that is registered at a registrar I use on an irregular basis, I tend to transfer the domain name to GoDaddy. Having many registrar accounts with few domain names is a good way to lose track of inventory, and my preferred registrar is GoDaddy. I have run into a bug transferring domain names, and it has not been fixed so I am going to report it here.
I recently won LeadershipAndStrength.com at NameJet. The domain name is registered at Register.com, so I attempted to transfer it to GoDaddy. My initial transfer attempt to GoDaddy failed, so I ensured the domain name was unlocked at Register.com and attempted the transfer again. When I re-initiated the transfer, I encountered an erroneous error message at GoDaddy:
As you can see, GoDaddy shows an error message that says the “Domain is already registered here.” This is incorrect, as a current Whois record shows (along with the fact that I did not receive the approval email from Register.com or the transfer completed email from GoDaddy).
Because of this error, I am unable to re-start the domain transfer to GoDaddy on my own. Instead, I have had to reach out to my account manager to get the transfer completed on my behalf, and I hate putting in a transfer request like this because I am sure he is busy with other things.
This is not the first time I have encountered this error. Not only did it happen a week ago, but in looking through my email account for the phrase ” Domain is already registered here,” I can see it was reported by me as far back as August of 2019.
My preference is to report bugs and issues in private. I have seen this issue for well over a year, and it needs to be addressed. I am sure others have had the same issue, and while it is annoying for me, it likely also annoys GoDaddy’s support teams.
Update:
GoDaddy Support replied to me on Twitter and shared how I can proceed with the transfers without needing intervention from my account manager. The on-site messaging needs to change, but it looks like I can manage the transfer on my own by following this instruction:
Hi Elliot. If you encounter this issue when trying to update a transfer that did not complete, you should be able to visit https://t.co/MIjTRlu9UT and follow the steps to update the transfer. Feel free to DM to discuss specifics. ^G https://t.co/rYq25s2Pfj
— GoDaddy Help (@GoDaddyHelp) January 6, 2021
