I was sent the an email the other day from GoDaddy and thought great, they are reminding me to renew and offering me a discount if I renew or purchase $65 worth*. Sounds good to me (note the asterisk).
But no, though it says to use the code and the discount will be applied at Checkout (at which stage; there are 4 check out stages) it never was, and I was never told it wasn't going to be. It apparently just ignored the discount and gave no indication that it had. I assumed it was going to apply at the end of check-out.
So I called Customer Service (on my nickle) and get told I should have known that I was buying "bulk domains", and tat the discount doesn't apply, never mind that the discount also doesn't apply to sale priced domains, which apparently practically everything I purchase is (not sure how I'm supposed to know that though as it seems everything has a "Your Price" or a "Today's Price" but nothing was a "Sale Price. And you don't know what any domain price is until you get to the check out. After no help at all I ask to speak to a supervisor. What a waste of time.
I'm told (by Matthew Richards) that I could have called if I had any questions (sure I could, but I'm sure they don't want everyone calling them but there is no way anyone is going to understand everything they've put on their website unless they call, but then they keep referring to Policies that they wouldn't point me to on their website because "that would be giving you legal advice). But seeing how I have them on the line, I take advantage of their wisdom and they walk me through the process so I can ask questions and point out my problems with understanding along the way (not that they haven't heard them thousands of times before).
I'm told, that I can't get the promiced discount, and that in order to get a refund I'll have to cancel the domains, no matter that I may have previously paid for some of them past the current date. I ask where I can find that policy and all I get is referred to the "Domain Registration Agreement" which says nothing about the claimed policy.
I ask about what "Bulk Domains" are and he explains and I ask where is that definition. He points me to the page where it refers to all clumps (1-5,6-20, etc) as Bulk Registration Pricing (intherwords, according to this page everything is bulk pricing, thus no discount). Every quantity of domain purchases, 1-~, is listed under Bulk Registration Pricing and many "discounts" are applied even on 1-5 purchases (are 1-5 bulk)? No distinction between "Bulk Domain" discounts and "Sale Prices". I can't find a definition of either term any anywhere:
http://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchbulk. Aspx? Isc=gdr0705e&ci=8991
Earlier he told me that I'd have to pay for FREE Privacy for my 6 renewals, but that page said it was free with 6 or more. I spent a great deal of time talking to Matthew and in the end he couldn't answer my significant questions, especially those that requested him pointing me toward the written versions of the policies he kept referring to. Eventually he put me on hold and I gave up.
The next day I called the "Office of the President" (Googling that brings me to the White House). I get the same run around there, with refusals to point me to where I am going to find the definitions of "Bulk Domain, "Sale Price", "Premium Domains", all of these being exceptions to the discount.
Anyone that has dealt with GoDaddy's website and discounts knows they have to watch every move. At one point I simply checked a box (didn't hit enter or "Update Cart") and the next thing I new I was upgraded to a 3,5 or 10 year renewal and if I wasn't watching, I wouldn't have even noticed (very tricky slight of hand).
I'd like to see the deceptive tricky practices stopped, the 20% discount applied, and Privacy offered for free for all my domains. If privacy is supposed to be free with 6 or more domains, it should certainly be free with all the domains I have (at the moment) registered at GoDaddy.
If anyone knows of a straight and honest (ie not deceptive) domain register, one where the "marketing" dept does not try to trick you on every click, I'm looking to switch. I've had enough of having to read the thousands of words on every page just to be sure I'm not signing up for something I don't want.
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