Okay, so I know it’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to post anything here, but this one just really set me off and I had to say something.

This has happened to me no less than three times in under two years now, and it’s unbelievable to me that it’s not illegal, and hasn’t been traced by top registrars like GoDaddy.

Yesterday I was considering purchasing a new domain, so I did what I always do and went to GoDaddy (they’re the cheapest and best out there) and punched in my dream .com name. It was available, so I set up my cart to include a hosting package for it, as well as the renewal of 4 soon-to-expire domains.

I punch in my super-duper-discount code and realize that I should probably check my accounts, and see what bills are coming in and which are going out. Of course I get distracted as usual, and a couple hours later return to GoDaddy to finish up the sale.

I go through everything again, as some of it was released from my cart due to the span of time, and it still lets me go through and complete the sale.

I get a receipt in my email.

I get the obligatory “here’s how to set up your hosting” email.

Then, I get an email saying that they couldn’t register the domain in my name, it’s already registered. (And paid for by me, of course.)

So I check whois and see that the domain had been registered the same day, by some other company in Holland.

I call GoDaddy and they actually admit to me that it’s entirely possible that someone’s monitoring the domain check search, and registering names prior to the searcher, in an attempt to later upcharge to give it up. What are they doing about this? Absolutely nothing. No monitoring, no upgrading of their search feature to include privacy and enhanced security to prevent squatters like this… absolutely nothing.

Can I tell you that this is the first time in 11 years I’ve been beyond disappointed with GoDaddy? I mean, I’ve been registering and hosting with them for that long, and have only ONCE had a problem with downtime (it was for one hour, and ran across thousands of sites, but was restored at lightning speed comparably, and all affected were issued a small monetary credit to their account). I’ve fought in forums and chat rooms for this company.

And now I find that they don’t care enough about my business or anyone else’s to protect their search feature from prying eyes?

Now, before you go thinking I’m insane and overreacting, and tell me things like, “Hey, thousands of sites get registered every day… this is just a coincidence!” Please understand that it’s happened three times, and all three times were the ONLY times I didn’t buy immediately. GoDaddy also admitted that this was likely what was happening.

Yes, the definition of cybersquatting is when someone purchases a domain that’s already been registered or trademarked to another company in an attempt to upcharge that company later on to hand it over. For example, if I were to go and register the domain “iDog.com” and purposely waited for Apple to create an “iDog”, and then even went so far as to insult Apple on the site and take out pay-per-click ads, in an attempt to get Apple to pay me off, then yes, that would be illegal. But apparently, pulling searches out from a domain search and jumping on things before the person who had an actual PURPOSE for the domain could get it, in an attempt to upcharge them if they realllllly wanted it that bad, are perfectly fine.

What if I had already registered this domain as a business name? Purchased a DBA or got a trademark? Then, and only then, would I have a course for legal action. But why would I do that if I weren’t sure that I could obtain the domain name?

Anyway, I just had to rant about this, because it just seems so stupid that people can do this sort of thing and get away with it. It’s like some kind of blackmail or something, isn’t it? “Let’s see how bad they really want this domain… Maybe we’ll get ten grand for it! Wheee!”

Oye. My head hurts.

Moral of the story: If you want a certain domain, even for a breath of a second, buy it as soon as you check it. It’s $9 you can afford to part with now for avoiding having it taken out from under you later.

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