GoDaddy.com Business Registration Scam
GoDaddy.com Invoice
Recently I received the e-mail seen on the right from GoDaddy.com announcing that they had automatically renewed the “Business Registration” for several URL’s that I own. At first I was thinking that this was an automatic renewal for my domain names but this was not the case. In fact GoDaddy.com had bill me for a service I had never requested.
I immediately called GoDaddy customer service and asked for an explanation! The customer service agent told me that I had “chosen” to receive this renewal. At which point I about blew a gasket! B#&%$HIT! I never proactively requested any such service! It may have been that I missed unchecking a prechecked box but that’s totally diffierent then me making a choice. It’s possible that GoDaddy slipped this by me when I originally purchased the URL’s, as was the case with this guy. Nevertheless, I never would have actively chosen to participate.
So I continued with the customer service agent asking, “What exactly is Business Registration anyway?” It turns out that GoDaddy.com Business Registration is nothing more then a business listing service. By Compete.com’s accounting the GoDaddy service halls in a paltry average of 23K+ visitor a month. Perhaps that might seem like a lot to some but when you compare this to Yahoo’s Directory average of 50K or Google’s directory with 160K, or The Open Directory Projects 1.2 million or Business.com with 5.4 million visitors you begin to realize that even a $5 fee is a complete rip-off! Not to mention the unscrupulous practice of billing me first and begging forgiveness afterwords.
I guess that’s what pisses me off the most! They reached into my wallet and took the money and then told me about it, almost as an afterthought. GoDaddy’s customer service kept telling me this was “my” decision, my choice, not theirs. Funny thing is that they didn’t automatically renew my domains, so why automatically charge me for this service? Their customer service agent wasn’t the least bit apologetic. How many folks do you suppose receive this e-mail and just accept it or confuse it for the domain renewal? Far too many I’m afraid. If you want to be a part of a real directory at no cost then get listed in The Open Source Directory for FREE!
In the end I got my refund, but I can’t help but wonder Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Danica Patrick or Canice Michelle endorse these types of business practices. It’s all a little bit sleezy to me, but I guess that’s all a part of their brand strategy and they are remaining true to their core values.