I used to like GoDaddy. More than any other single company, they pulled down the cost of domains. I appreciated their aggressive debut into the domain market and bought most of my domains through them. Basically they were the first good alternative to that spawn of satan, Network Solutions.
But these days I can’t stand them. I can’t stand their web site design, I can’t stand their ugly girls with whom they try to appeal to the NASCAR crowd, I can’t stand their nickel-and-diming on every conceivable add-on, nor their misleading pricing.
I also can’t stand their egomaniac CEO Bob Parsons, the earring-bedecked bald fuckwit whose blog is so utterly soaked in sickening self-congratulation that anyone glancing at it for more than a few seconds is possessed by an irresistable desire to run the diminuitive poser over with a truck. His name, by the way, is featured not once but TWICE on the company’s current home page – a level of onanistic chutzpah exceeding any other example I can think of.
They made a deal with Microsoft to change their domain parking servers over to IIS, thus providing MS with a massive artificial boost of IIS market share. They’ve been implicated time and again in breach of privacy cases, and totally ignore the free-speech rights of their customers as they fold effortlessly to the smallest request from practically anyone to pull any domain anytime. Basically I don’t trust them at all.
I hate their logo, that stupid guy with the hair and sunglasses. I hate their slow, over-complicated, website, and the fact that it’s served by ASP. I hate how every second sentence of worthless tripe on that site ends with an exclamation mark. I hate how they try to sell you their worthless “guides” whenever you try to buy anything. I hate their product “Website Tonight” – anyone who cannot understand how to build a web site, or pay someone who does to do it for them, does not fucking deserve to have a web site.
I could go on for hours, but what’s the bottom line? They are ugly, greedy, unreliable, untrustworthy, irresponsible, egotistical, mercenary bastards who do not deserve my – or your – money.
January 4th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Like you, I started off liking GoDaddy, principally motivated by their sub-$10 domains (compared with Network Solutions $35 daylight robbery). All the negative points that you list also bugged me, but they weren’t enough to make me turn my back on GoDaddy’s best-in-the-market prices.
But as time has gone by I have become increasingly dissatisfied with GoDaddy’s bait-and-switch “price gouge” renewal scams, especially with respect to private registrations:
http://wincent.com/a/about/wincent/weblog/archives/2005/05/godaddy_vs_netw.php
http://wincent.com/a/about/wincent/weblog/archives/2006/05/godaddys_renewa.php
http://wincent.com/a/about/wincent/weblog/archives/2006/07/godaddy_scam.php
http://wincent.com/a/about/wincent/weblog/archives/2006/11/fighting_godadd.php
As a result of GoDaddy’s underhanded tactics I have been gradually allowing more and more domains that I had registered with them to expire. I originally had almost 40 domains registered with them. Now when they expire I “vote with my wallet” by letting the non-critical ones expire; GoDaddy won’t be getting any more money from me for them. In the end I’ll probably be left with about 10 critical domains that I can’t afford to let go.
I hope the market produces a reasonable alternative soon. Currently Joker.com looks to be like the best option, but their prices still need to drop a little before they’ll become attractive enough to switch:
https://joker.com/index.joker?mode=page&page=pricing
January 4th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Ah, one more link I forgot to add:
http://wincent.com/a/about/wincent/weblog/archives/2006/08/darn_godaddy.php
January 4th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Well as you probably remember I have a special hatred reserved in my heart for NetSol, namely their fucked domain renewal procedure which cost me mosr.net – basically they refused to allow me to renew my domain because my email address had changed (an old ISP account I lost access to) and insisted I fax them all sorts of documentation to be allowed to give them my money. They then ignored, or lost, that documentation, until it was too late and some domain squatting motherfucker bought it out from under me.
Yes, GoDaddy’s underhanded price rises for “private registration” has pissed me off in the past, too. I don’t bother to use private registration anymore unless I really want my identity to remain a secret – not that I have any faith at all in GD not to cave in instantly to anyone making the most casual of enquiries.
Like you, I still have a number of domains with GD (25!), some of them important, such as this one. I’m also allowing non-essential domains to expire, ignoring their torrent of reminders (I generally get one every couple of days!).
Ah, I remember joker.com – they’ve been around a long time. I think I once used them to register SonyDrive.com, then letting it expire of course. God I’ve wasted a lot of money on silly domains!
I don’t like them though. I don’t like their web page, or their name. These days I use Value-Domain, though I doubt you’ll find them a viable alternative, since their page is only in japanese .. but they have a good system, fast and reliable. Prices are comparable to GD (.com = USD$6.60 vs USD$8.95 at GD), and in some cases much lower (GD’s price for a .jp domain – an insane USD$99.99, at VD – USD$30.23!!). Check them out if you can stomach the 日本語.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Disappointing that in a competitive marketplace with so many options there still really isn’t an attractive alternative for those who are sick of GoDaddy… unless you speak Japanese of course, which I unfortunately don’t.
I also get incessant reminders from GoDaddy about the domains I’m letting expire. I currently have 24 left, and looking at the list there are at least 6 that will be expiring in 2007 and that I won’t be renewing. If there was an easy feedback link in such reminders I’d send them a message, “I’m letting this expire because your renewal prices for private registrations are unacceptably high; you’ve lost my business and any domains I register in the future will be with other registrars.” The only sad part is that they probably don’t care seeing as they are now the most popular register and chances are that if someone else wants to snap those domains up it is most likely going to be GoDaddy that gets the sale.
January 6th, 2007 at 4:08 am
Couldn’t agree more.
BTW sorry about the false positives on some previous comments, my anti-spam system was too aggresive and didn’t like the link-laden comments. I’ve dialed up the limits now – most spammers don’t include too many links anyway.
January 6th, 2010 at 4:07 am
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