Sam Brown

GoDaddy. Experience fail.

#313 17th July 2008 at 11pm Notes 6 Comments

People have been harping on about how good Go Daddy are for the longest time but I have steered clear for one simple reason; I go to a Domain Registrar to buy a domain, I don’t want to be cornered into buying hosting, additional email accounts, multiple variations of said domain, a certified domain seal or any of their other crap, I just want the domain. I loved this upon visiting their homepage for the first time:

“New to Go Daddy? Not sure where to begin?”

Understatement of the year! I was so confused and lost with information overload I figured I’d best just follow their Product Advisor / personal guide, only to get half way through the process and find out the country code extension I wanted wasn’t available through it! 30 solid minutes, multiple failed credit card attempts, emptying and re-adding the domain to my shopping cart and countless forms later I was able to get the domain I wanted. Domain purchasing shouldn’t be like this.

Granted I am sure a veteran GoDaddy registrant may be able to whiz through the process in no time at all, but for a new customer it’s ranked right up there as one of my worst expereinces I have ever had purchasing something online. My next personal project? Start a domain registrar and do it right!

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Comments

Mike Robinson 18 July 2008, 00:41 #1

I just posted this morning about the joke that was the .me sales yesterday. GoDaddy really buggered that up!

I have to agree with you that their site is really confusing. Even after getting to the page that confirms your order has been placed is a mess. There is a tiny bit of text about it being completed, then a huge table of extras that I have absolutely no interest in. At the bottom of this is a button that says “Add these to my order”, which left me completely confused. That button suggested my order hadn’t been placed, but there was no other button to say “Not interested, just place my damn order!”. I had to double check the text and my email before I closed that tab. Absolutely appalling.

Jayson 18 July 2008, 03:32 #2

Sam you have a point for the newbie trying to purchase a domain from godaddy it’s very confusing. I have over 30 domains with godaddy and I will tell you this they have been the lowest cost in the business for years that’s why I stay with them. True it’s confusing because after every window they try and hit you with the upsell, but I would guess that is where they get the most revenue in the upsell.

Thanks for the post.

Jayson

Muhammad Haris 18 July 2008, 22:51 #3

I think there’s no point in re-inveting the wheel when there is a hassle-free solution delivered by Namecheap. I hope you’ve heard of them. :)

Chris 19 July 2008, 18:55 #4

I agree! GoDaddy, known best for its cheap domain names, ruin the customer’s experience by having soo many hurdles before the final checkout. I know, they need to upsale to make a profit, but does it have to be so painful? There has to be a better way to do this! Their checkout experience is awful.

Wade M 20 July 2008, 03:13 #5

Hi Sam,

GoDaddy are totally messed up. They have a horrible interface, and are extremely sneaky in how they try rope extra services in.

They are also really horrible when it comes to protecting the rights of a domain owner. GoDaddy are in bed with the government, and will pull any domain name, and lock/disable it at any government request. No warrants/court cases needed, just a request.

http://gandi.net is who I use now. Plain, Simple. Their philosophy, which they uphold very well is “Remain open and transparent”.

Peace,

Wade

Pat 21 July 2008, 00:24 #6

Gone! I’ve looked for that website for 3-6 sec. Can’t stand any longer. My eyes!

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Hi, I'm a UI designer developer based in Edinburgh Scotland working as lead web designer at foursquare in NY.

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