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Report: #373830

Complaint Review: GoDaddy - Internet

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Murfreesboro Tennessee
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • GoDaddy http://www.godaddy.com Internet U.S.A.

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For those of you who have had an issue with GoDaddy and the auto renewal scam please read on.

Like you, I have had a string of email conversations with limited success. They (GoDaddy) obviously have a corporate policy on how they respond to this issue.

Here is my story. I signed up for a couple feature services in early January. They were three month listings. Apparently, without any notification, these particular services are automatically signed up for auto renewal. You are not given the option at purchase as you may for other types of services. After the three month listing expired I was charged again through their auto-renewal. Unfortunately, I don't review my credit card statement as I probably should and didn't notice this problem until I was charged a third time. I have been charged about $118 total over what I initially expected. Of course, I have been told that it is my responsibility to turn off the auto-renewal. I was also told that "When you purchase the featured items, they are setup to automatically renewal. Notices for renewals are sent out 15 days prior to expiration of the item to the email address on file." I pressed further by saying I was NEVER notified via email 15 days prior to the expiration date. This is the response I received, "TDNAM products with the exception of domain name listing, we will not send email notifications prior to the auto renewal date. Most of our products have the auto renew feature enabled. It is the customer responsibility to turn this off if they intend not to renew the product(s) in question."

THIS IS NOT RIGHT! How can they legally set you up to charge your account without notice, then not inform you when you are set to be charged again?

I am just sick about this and am looking for others who may have a similar situation and wish to join a class-action suit. Any takers?

Jkubly
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 09/17/2008 12:15 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/godaddy/internet/godaddy-auto-renewal-class-action-scottsdale-az-373830. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
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#6 General Comment

Expired credit card

AUTHOR: Kraneman - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, March 03, 2012

Using a close to expiring credit card does not work with these godaddy ripoffs My card was expired at the time of their auto renewal that I was scammed into. Instead of contacting me to update the card (which I would not have done) they went ahead and some how changed the experation date untill the card went through with some kind of isurance charges. This company is criminal and must be stopped.

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#5 Consumer Comment

auto-renewal hidden purposely

AUTHOR: mindwarpmedia - (United States of America)

POSTED: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Godaddy's upsell process has evolved over the years to become one of the best in the industry to get people to pay for what they never wanted in the first place. I give them props for that, but in this case, it's borderline criminal how they hide this function... not only with a well paced area that the majority will never see, but in how you won't be able to change your mind at the end of the checkout process.

Around the 5th step in the process of adding your domain name to the cart, past the first set of offers and where they try and get you to buy into 5 year service, there is a 1 point font line below the main text that states:

Includes FREE Auto-Renew Protection (note how it does not state you are automatically set to renew charges every year... Oh looksie... I get this great protection for FREEEEEE), and then has a small text link, not a check mark, which should I add NOT be selected by default, but a text link which allows you to turn this feature off.

Of course, you are now followed by up to 10 more upsell steps before getting to your final receipt on what you are paying for. Now Under "unit price", NOT "your price" or "total price", you will see the small text of recurring, which of course has no link to turn it back to manual I might add.

You are now set to pay each year on the same credit card, that price point. WooHoo!

Let's face it... the majority of the population does NOT want to be deceived like this. We DO like you to warn us when our domain is going to expire, which you DO in fact do even when set to manual.

If it is now a no-no for banks to automatically enroll us in their automatic overdraft program, then it should be the same here. Nuff said. This company is run by MLM'ers for a reason... they know how to screw you out of your money.

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#4 Consumer Comment

I've had the same problem with 'auto-renew'

AUTHOR: Justwantjustice - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, December 22, 2008

I have also had a problem with the auto-renew feature not turning off. That is, over time, either godaddy.com automatically turns auto renew OFF (obviously illegally) or their auto renew feature is 'legitimately' malfunctioning. I think the former option is most likely, and not the latter.

I have 23 domains with godaddy (regret it now) and had around 15 of them set to auto-renew OFF. That was over a year ago... now apparently all the domains auto-renewed, w/o my approval, and with me going in there to the settings and turning auto-renew off. I think they assume most people, IF THEY DO notice they have extra charges on their credit card, won't bother filing a claim with their CC company, or, just won't notice the extra charges because of the auto-renewal defaulting back to ON.

In any case, this seems to be a common complaint from lots of godaddy customers. I know I didn't appreciate realizing that I still had 23 domains, and expected to have about 15 of them no longer in my possession. Godaddy simply assumes (and doens't care, with their mega million $ lawyers) that most people will see this major problem and go, "EH, that's not good, but... oh well."

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#3 Consumer Comment

I'm very sorry I had my domain registered with godaddy, they are terrible!

AUTHOR: Jen - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, November 05, 2008

They did the auto renewal with me too, and I had explicitly turned that function off!

Oh, and God forbid you want to renew your website and do it manually, then they start double charging you! I paid for some fee to renew it (after the domain expired) for 18.00, so I pay it. I later get charged 5 dollars for some fee (that isn't explained) for the domain renewal. This is charged AFTER I had paid (I thought) for everything else.

I just paid it, since it's not worth doing a billing dispute with the cc company. I think that's why they add another small fee on, they figure most people won't go to the trouble of disputing it.

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#2 Consumer Suggestion

Auto-renew does not turn off

AUTHOR: Josephal - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, October 05, 2008

I have purchased GoDaddy products. I had specifically turned all auto-renew features off. Somehow, they were turned back on without my knowledge, and no one else can access my account. I am the only person. ANd I verified that it was off every few months.

The suggestion I can offer is this: if you have one, use a credit card that is close to expiration. If somehow the auto-renew is either not turned off or in my case turned back on by GoDaddy, they will send you a message stating your card is expired and you need to pay for the services. At least then you will know. (I am not saying refuse to pay, just make sure they can't charge without your knowledge).

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#1 Consumer Suggestion

auto renew

AUTHOR: Nancy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Why do you think they call it "auto-renew".? So they don't ahve tos end you a notice. this is what it says on the godaddy web page. MIGHT be a good idea if you actuall READ it.

Auto Renew automatically renews your products and services before they expire. You set up automatic renewals so that when your expiration dates approach, we automatically renew your accounts and charge the credit card you have on file. If you do not set up automatic renewals for your products and services, you must manually renew them. You can disable Auto Renew at any time.

To Enable or Disable Auto Renew
Log in to your Account Manager.
Click the Renewals & Upgrades heading to expand the section.
Click Payments & Renewing Items.
Use the checkboxes to select the items for which you want to enable or disable Auto Renew.
NOTE: To select all of the products and services on the page, select the checkbox in the header at the top of the list. This selects all of the items listed on the current page but not all the products and services listed in your account.

Click Auto Renew.
Select one of the following:
Auto Renew
Sets the selected items to automatically renew upon expiration.
Disable Auto Renew
Removes the automatic renewal option from the selected items. You can manually renew these items to prevent them from expiring.
Click Save Changes.
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