godaddy auto billed Internet

I loved #godaddy when they first started. Sadly, the service has deteriorated over the past 5 years as they have grown. I want to report two specific issues relative to using godaddy. Both of which contain legal implications against their conduct as a business entity.

First,  I purchased domain, web builder & email last yr and specifically un-ticked auto renew in my account. I was billed $137 without consent despite this indication one year later the very day it was due to expire. I have a screenshot displaying that it had been un-ticked for this year's auto-renewal & auto-billing.

I called customer service & the wait was over 5 minutes which did not used to be the case. The customer service rep with whom I spoke had no explanation - they saw it in my account as well. My money was refunded. For people operating on a narrow-margin budget within a designated account, this can be particularly harrowing as the money must be withdrawn and redeposited, first. This can wreak havoc on new small businesses. Sadly, opting out is a ploy to bill people who are not reading their account regularly and thus, may be billed without consent despite opting out of auto renew/bill.

In offering the opt out, GODADDY has described and set their own legal terms and are bound by law to uphold that business-end agreement with their customer/s. As such, unless customers repeatedly investigate and report this issue, GODADDY will continue to dishonor their own B2B contract. Glorbally, this is legally concerning as it is using fraud to conduct business as well as destabilizing their user-end web domain trust.

Secondly, all my web content was to be gone as per customer service rep "David" upon my refund. Further, I was advised by customer service I would have to pay an additional $150 if I wanted to reinstate that information through go daddy as my host. The commission of fraud through unauthorized renewal billing is compounded by customer service (in a metric driven bottom line at any cost) environment -utilizing scripted "thug speak" smacking of soft, implied extortion. Extortion is extortion no matter the method.

In summary - Godaddy is damaging to everyone's business including their own, when trust and compliance has been violated financially and as described herein. It is time to stand up and reveal fraudulent business practices and demand restitution on behalf of harmed customers.