HostGator.com, Joshua Martin Director of Customer Service Hostgator.com failed to renew my domain and I lost my website. They did not notify me, just sold it via auction. Houston Texas

Hostgator.com claims "automatic domain renewal" for any domain transferred to its hosting site. Hostgator.com failed to renew my domain, did not contact me to notify me of this, and sold my domain via auction. 

Joshua Martin is the director of customer service. He did correspond with me promptly and cordially, but failed to take responsibility for this incident. 

Since the site was sold at auction to a "squatter" service it cannot be returned to me unless bought for a high price. Hostgator.com has refused to reacquire my site and return it to me and instead offered to host another site for me, free of charge. However, this was unacceptable retribution to me since my site name involved my company brand and there were many years of branding associated with it. 

Beware of their site claims and do not trust them to handle domain renewal.