Information About “Repossessed by Go Daddy” Registrant

I read an article on DomainGang.com about a domain name that appeared to have been repossessed by its registrar, Go Daddy. The registrant showed up as  “Repossessed by Go Daddy,” and according to a DomainTools email search, just under 50,000 domain names are registered to the email address associated with this particular account.

I reached out to GoDaddy to ask four questions about the repossessed account maintained by the company, and I received a reply from Go Daddy’s Chief Financial Officer Michael Zimmerman (the questions and answers weren’t specific to the domain name in the DomainGang article). Learn about how domain names go into the “Repossessed by GoDaddy” account.

Why would a domain name be repossessed?

“Go Daddy’s Payment Verification Office reviews every transaction through our system using either an automated or manual review process.

Products and services can be repossessed during this process if a payment is suspected to be fraudulent. In addition, domain names are repossessed when a chargeback is processed on a payment.

If a payment is fradulent or charged back within the first five days after a domain name is purchased, the domain name is returned to the registry.”

How can a domain owner get a name out of that account?

“If a product or service is repossessed due to suspected payment fraud or chargeback, the account holder can work with the Payment Verification Office to resolve the matter.”

When did Go Daddy institute this account/policy?

“Go Daddy has always implemented payment verification and chargeback policies, with minimal changes to the procedures over the years.”

How many names are repossessed?

“While specific numbers of repossessed domain names cannot be discussed, it is around one-tenth of a percent of our entire portfolio.

Go Daddy has a 24/7 team available to work with any customer to resolve a repossession.”

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

20 COMMENTS

  1. Great coverage, guys 🙂 Jamie brought the issue up at his block, DomainGang tackled the cybersquatting aspect of it and Elliot reached out to GoDaddy for the dirty details.

  2. The explanation provided does not ring true. If the domain names in question were “returned to the registry” as suggested then why do they have a godaddy email associated with them. They should be available to register by another party. Better yet how does gd explain the fact that these names are being monetized in favor of themselves?

    • @ Doubting

      If the names were repossessed because of payment failure and Go Daddy couldn’t return them to the Registry because it’s past the point of deletion (I think it’s a 7 day window), why shouldn’t they be able to monetize them (TM names aside)?

      Let’s say I buy NashvilleDogWalker.com from Godaddy and a week and a half later, I call American Express and order a chargeback. If for some reason AmEx doesn’t pay Godaddy, I would guess that Godaddy is stuck with the name since it can’t be deleted right now. Why should they not monetize or try to sell this?

      Assuming the credit card bounced or whatever within the deletion period, GD wouldn’t really lose since they can delete it.

      Of course, I don’t think they should ever monetize trademark names, but I also think it’s pretty difficult to avoid ALL trademarks without having someone individually look at each name, and that’s not cost effective.

    • their fing crooks i used alegitimate card and my real name and they stole my domain just because it had history before it suck dont use go dady they suck their fing crooks from that crppy state of arizona

  3. Godaddy and anyone else for that matter can delete a domain name at any time. True if it is past the five day mark GD would not be eligible for reimbursement. Thats what they call a cost of doing business. To suggest that it is not cost effective to monitor for tm abuse is a moot really. All individuals and corps are on call to honor and respect trademarks and when the company in question is able to pay 10 million for super bowl adds over the past few years its hard to suggest they can not afford to pay a person or persons to for tms. Given their means the cost should be managable for them at least. I think the point is that Zimmerman claims the names are returned to the registry when in fact they are not returned at all but rather absorbed, monetized and sometimes sold by GD which is not in keeping with their CFOs suggestions.

  4. I suspect that GD takes names that have been put into their search engine and auctions off the ones that may be good moneymakers. I searched for a domain name 3 weeks ago and it was available.
    Today, it was up for auction. I called customer support and was told that it was a repossessed domain name that was sold 2 years ago. I know for a fact that’s not true.

  5. bought a name whilst on vacation, they demanded various paperwork scanned which i didnt have with me, explained all this to them and they didn’t care and repo’d the name. they declined my offer to send the paperwork as soon as i was back home. the icing on the cake was that they said the refund would take a month. I had bought around 100 names from them before on my business account / cc this one was for my personal use and on a $2 coupon.

  6. Godaddy is terrible. They reposessed my domain name without warning. I am losing sales on my website. It is unacceptable that a registrar can just take a website hostage like that. I spend hours on the phone and email with customer support and in the end they tell me to log in and upload my ID. Guess what? I can’t log in because the incompetent a-holes froze my account. So we are back at square one. Worst customer service ever.

  7. i am surprised you were able to get a hold of anyone at godaddy. they are so secretive. i registered a domain for 99 cents with a coupon code i saw on onmyminddailycom the domain name was a very nice one and I was planning to use it – there is no way i would chargeback 99 cents – that would be silly and frankly, it did not happen – so i tried to log in to my godaddy account and nothing – i then saw the whois said: repossessed by godaddy – in the past godaddy has also been known for deleting domains and my friend joel had a domain suspended and godaddy told him “we will give this domain back to you, but the fee is $385 dollars.

  8. I want to do a class action lawsuit.
    they have taken my .99 cent domain after i put weeks of work into developing it.
    They have over 134k and are auctioning the best ones it would seem.
    Pure scam.

    • ill join in we need to sue that fatt bastrd parsons hes crook i had do they same thing crying i used a fraudenlant card when itas my calif business card

  9. If you are serious about domaining, you stay away from GoDaddy. They are expensive, bad customer service and complicated admin panel..

    They repossessed a couple of domains I purchased using coupons and since that day I don’t buy from them anymore. And I am transferring out all the domains I had with them.

    GoDaddy is a waste of time.

  10. anyone please dont use go dady they have 197,000 stolen domains the fkers need to be shut down 1 n 1 has never done this to me ever

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