Last night, I noticed I had a domain name on hold in my Afternic account, but the domain name did not appear in my GoDaddy account. I know that GoDaddy pulls domain names from accounts when they are pending sale, but the disconcerting thing was that I could not find a purchase receipt or any ownership record for this domain name.
I called the Premier Services team at GoDaddy, and I was able to put a few things together. The domain name that is pending sale was hand registered by me in January of 2025. Because I registered it in a bulk purchase, the domain name was not included in the purchase receipt I received. It was also renewed in bulk on the first anniversary, so I did not have a renewal email either. These are standard records I generally have quick access to in my email history. In addition, new registrations have Whois privacy at GoDaddy, so a Whois record didn’t confirm my ownership of the domain name.
What helped is that the creation date matched the date it was added to my Afternic account, and the Premier Services account manager I spoke with on the phone confirmed ownership and forwarded me the purchase receipt. That still did not include the domain name, but I could click through to the full receipt within my GoDaddy account.
This is not the first time I called GoDaddy about an “on hold” domain name not being in my GoDaddy account. I am sure plenty of other people have had the same issue and called GoDaddy to confirm they still own a domain name that is pending sale but removed from their account while on hold.
I assume GoDaddy pulls domain names that are pending sale because the company wants to prevent people from transferring their domain names away from GoDaddy while the sale is pending. Perhaps they also do it so sellers can’t adjust their nameservers to avoid being penalized for not using GoDaddy-associated nameservers prior to a sale.
I think this can be alarming for customers who want to confirm ownership of a domain name. With the potential for others to accidentally authorize an Afternic listing, that could continue a chain of errors and cause an errant transfer and sale. Notably, a few years ago, I made a typo on an Afternic listing, and I only caught it when I saw the domain name was pending sale for ~$1k and I did not own the domain name that was sold. That was the first and hopefully the last time that ever happens.
I think the better thing would be for GoDaddy to keep “on hold” domain names in the seller’s account under a transfer lock. This would prevent a seller from moving the domain name away from GoDaddy while a deal is pending, and it would allow the seller to confirm ownership of the domain name. It doesn’t make sense to pull it from a seller’s account while a deal is pending.
I had the same scare. Suddenly, about 1 year ago, I received an email from Afternic about a buyer’s payment. I have not found a single email about that domain being sold, or moved out of my account. I called Afternic and GoDaddy and they told me something worth of a massive class action lawsuit – somehow thieves managed to add my domain to their Afternic account, and made a fake LTO sale. Then, GoDaddy moved the domain out of my account without any notice, it was not in my Afternic sales list. So, they were essentially renting the domain a very low price. What happened is that GoDaddy often sends me emails to authorize domains – it doesn’t tell me which Afternic account I authorize – you authorize Afternic as a whole! So, anybody who managed to add the domain to their account, can steal it from you! After I did some investigation, I found several other domains stolen from me the same way. GoDaddy returned to me. Recently, I had the same scare, Now that I monitor my portfolio with the API for domain removals, I noticed one domain was gone. There was no email, no other indication of the domain’s removal from my portfolio. Digging deeper, it was in my portfolio but with a “oh hold” status, because of a pending Afternic sale. Well, guess what, that’s incorrect as you say! The domain should not be touched before the payment is cleared. GoDaddy and Afternic behave like they own your domains and they can do whatever they want without bothering to even send you a single email! And I know why they do it – because they profit from it! Many people with some technical and billing issues have had their domains removed from their accounts and they didn’t even know. Now, GoDaddy sends tons of emails, because I’m pretty sure they finally realize that the legal risk of class actions lawsuits could erase all their profits from auctioning your domains or blackmailing you with redemption fees, etc. Yet, their low-tech Afternic arm and their integration is outdated (Afternic doesn’t even offer an API unlike all other domain aftermakets), they’ve realized the huge security hole that allows domains to be stolen from you without a trace, but they simply don’t have the capacity to fix their stinky pile of code! Instead of making Dan.com their only aftermarket, which was high-tech and innovative, they shut all down, and put all their eggs into the Afternic basket, leaving room for Spaceship, Atom, Dynadot, and many other faster-moving competitors to grow. I am not even mentioning the huge Afternic commission and the arm-twisting to use GoDaddy name servers. When I make an inquiry to Afternic to acquire a domain, sometimes they respond to me in weeks. The whole process could take a month. They also don’t give you access to the analytics they collect. The way they are successful is because when people search for domains to register it gives them an option to negotiate and buy them – that’s all. But it’s not because of merit, it’s because of the leading share of GoDaddy in domain registrations and peripheral services. But Afternic cannot continue to be this bad as it will affect GoDaddy with its outdated code base and arrogance of being a pioneer. I was forced to launch my own storefront as I many domain sales were getting stuck due to Afternic policies or the slowness of the process and potential buyers picking alternative domain names from other marketplaces.