Dear GoDaddy, Signed “a Loyal but Annoyed Customer”

godady-superbowl-commercial.jpgBright and early this morning my email managed to do something that I’m sure everyone’s email does on occasion; it pissed me off.

The culprit this beautiful Saturday was the following notice from the domain registrar GoDaddy. (I have truncated the notice for brevity and security reasons)

On 6/7/08 3:55 AM, “support@godaddy.com” <support@godaddy.com> wrote:

Dear Oliver Starr,
The item(s) listed below have expired or are at risk of expiring:
Product NameNext Attempt Date Deluxe Plus Hosting with CGI – Renewal6/17/2008
Billing for 05/28/2008. HELLOINC.NET
Bandwidth Renewal6/17/2008 Bandwidth/Diskspace for 05/28/2008. HELLOINC.NET You are at risk of losing ownership and control of the domain name(s) or
product(s) listed above.

My response to this message is copied below. It will become evident in just a moment why I am taking such exception to this email but let it suffice to say that I find it hard to believe that GoDaddy is so inefficient that two weeks after I intentionally cancel a service I have had for several years I get a reminder to resubscribe for that same service even though it is clear that not only have I canceled the service I no longer even own the domain in question having transferred it to a third party the same day as I canceled the service. The only thing they could do which would be smarmier (and it is possible they do this but since I am the only contact GoDaddy has for my domains it wouldn’t be evident to me) would be to send renewal notices to other individuals named on the account aside from the one on record as having initiated a cancellation of a service.

So I did what I frequently do in situations like this. I replied to the email. Perhaps someone from GoDaddy will read this and realize that I’m not the only one whos about had it with the way this company conducts business.

Dear GoDaddy Employee,

This service has been intentionally cancelled. Why am I being solicited to renew a service that I explicitly cancelled with one of Godaddy’s service representatives?

Also, why have I been double billed – for roughly $127.95 twice in the same day for the same domains with the same transaction number yet the amount appears TWICE on my most recent credit card statement?

I would also love to know how it is that Godaddy managed to force through a credit card payment when the card on file at Godaddy had expired and had intentionally not been renewed. As a result of this action, my credit card company believed that the activity was fraudulent (actually it was since I had not authorized use of the card for this purpose once the one you had on file had expired) and as a result my card was turned off on me in the middle of a business trip over some $247 in charges from Godaddy, most of which I had intentionally left to expire in the first place.

I’ve been a customer for a long time. I have purchased hundreds of domains and thousands of dollars worth of other services from Godaddy. I have endured your annoying efforts to up-sell me crap that I don’t want or need with ever transaction, I have deleted thousands of your email offers with coupons that are never offering discounts on the things I actually buy or which magically seem to arrive a week after I could have saved 25%. I have even been pleasant to the people from GoDaddy who call me without any indication on my part that I wish to be contacted in any manner different from the one in which I choose to contact you which is principally via email unless one of the aforementioned significant problems transpires in which case a phone call seems warranted.

A phone call is NOT warranted to ask me how I’m doing with my domains or whether I need to sign up for other services. If I have a domain that is current with you, clearly I don’t need help there and if I can’t figure out what a service you offer does or how to sign up for it, get it running and make use of it then a phone call isn’t going to help me anyway. Thus, I cannot see any conceivable reason why anyone from GoDaddy would ever be calling me unless it was in response to this particular letter in which case I would hope it’s a “C” level employee and their reason for calling is to apologize…

Sincerely,

A Loyal but Annoyed Customer (who with continued treatment of this sort will become a lot less loyal in a hurry)

About Oliver

Oliver Starr is a well known blogger, speaker and serial entrepreneur. His current blogging is focused on mobile technology and applications, green (eco-protective) technologies, and entrepreneurs and their companies. He is currently engaged as the Community Evangelist for Pearltrees.com, a new social curation tool. Oliver was also a professional cyclist and six time member of the US National Cycling Team.
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One Response to Dear GoDaddy, Signed “a Loyal but Annoyed Customer”

  1. Pingback: Been Cheated By … ??? » Blog Archive » GoDaddy

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