I guess this is a cautionary tale.

I was recently having issues with my Gmail account that’s tied to my Epik ( a domain registrar ) account, so when I was supposed to renew my domain, I didn’t receive any e-mails about it. When I decided to randomly check on my website, it seemed to be down. So I checked Epik and a domain that usually cost £15 a year to renew now cost £400 to renew as it was expired.

As a teenager who does not have £400 to spend on a domain, I decided to just wait until the domain fully expired and buy it for a cheaper price.

After some time, the domain fully expired and GoDaddy decided to buy it as soon as it did, and charged me £2,225 to renew the domain. I don’t understand how a price that large is justified, considering that my website gets barely any visitors and I basically only use the domain for hosting stuff. No idea how hiking prices this much is legal

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    97·
    5 months ago

    After some time, the domain fully expired and GoDaddy decided to buy it as soon as it did, and charged me £2,225 to renew the domain. I don’t understand how a price that large is justified, considering that my website gets barely any visitors and I basically only use the domain for hosting stuff. No idea how hiking prices this much is legal

    GoDaddy is known to do that.

    Technically, they’re not hiking the price. GoDaddy bought scalped it after it expired and then is re-selling it at an astronomically higher price. It’s one of the many, many reasons people hate them.

    I’m ashamed to say I still have a couple of domains with GD that I haven’t migrated yet. This post might just light a fire under me to get that done.

  • Joël de Bruijn@lemmy.mlEnglish
    100·
    5 months ago

    Got a work related variant, a 3 letter domain we really liked was registered by a person asking a couple of hundred bucks or so. Which really was a good deal and we were more then happy to pay.

    Our IT department advised guiding the transfer themselves. Instead our marketing department went ahead anyway and just agreed to “you end your subscription and after that we register it” … instead of using transfer codes.

    In the minutes between, a bulk claimer snatched it away.

      • seang96@spgrn.comEnglish
        25·
        5 months ago

        Honestly I believe it. I had a VP of sales / marketing overriding requirements making them more difficult from the CEO after getting screamed at by the CEO who wanted the product (bono project) to be quick and easy for initial release.

        He also ordered IT garbage for a site once (consumer PCs running Windows not server edition)

        And to top it all off went behind supervisors backs in engineering departments asking for daily spreadsheets trackong their time because "if you can go to the bathroom you have time for this.

        All leadership was toxic though like the CEO screaming at him lol.

  • foggy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    5 months ago

    Hahaha. I purposely got a jibberish .xyz domain. If they ever ask for more than the $9.99 a year they can pound sand.

    • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
      6·
      5 months ago

      They don’t really care. They’re fishing for “whales”. Those who forgot to renew their domain or something but desperately need it back. Businesses, likely.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
        3·
        5 months ago

        Or people who use it for email and basically have their online identity tied to them.

    • Perhyte@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      5 months ago

      If you don’t mind using a gibberish .xyz domain, why not an 1.111B class? ([6-9 digits].xyz for $0.99/year)

  • VonReposti@feddit.dkEnglish
    49·
    5 months ago

    I simply don’t get why domain squatting is legal. On my ccTLD it is absolutely illegal meaning you have to forfeit the domain if you don’t use it anymore.

    • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 months ago

      I believe most regulated ccTLDs (not the ones sold to the higher bigger) actually do that.

    • kitnaht@lemmy.worldEnglish
      382·
      5 months ago

      Just because you don’t have a website up at [XYZ].com doesn’t mean you’re not using it. You could have a domain controller on the back end doing file services, or you could be using it for network auth, etc. Not all .coms exist for the purpose of putting up a website.

      • VonReposti@feddit.dkEnglish
        12·
        5 months ago

        Neither do .dk domains, but in order to determine use the courts will have to be involved. I haven’t heard about a lot of those cases, but I’d guess you can prove use against the person who wants to take the domain. If I have a domain called firstnamelastname.dk it’d be pretty easy to show that I got a mail address at contact@firstnamelastname.dk that’s in use.

        • towerful@programming.devEnglish
          10·
          5 months ago

          Other services will be reflected by active DNS records.

          If the only DNS record points to a “Buy this domain” webpage, I think it’s fair to argue that is misuse.
          Doubley so if it turns out many unrelated domains are owned by and point to the same webpage, and it’s just doing a js hostname thing to make it seem relevant to the current address

    • pop@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      I’ve been wanting a ccTLD domain that’s unused for a few years. The registrar suspended the domain (required contacts not updated) and put up a standard suspended notice, but doesn’t release the domain.

      I guess the owner is a domain squatter and keeps paying the bill, so the registrar keeps getting paid. Easy money

  • gencha@lemm.eeEnglish
    35·
    5 months ago

    Buy a different domain. Let them pay for this one until the end of time.

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    74·
    5 months ago

    An .xyz domain? Nothing in that TLD is worth having, xyz domains are blacklisted by half the email providers by default.

  • lazynooblet@lazysoci.alEnglish
    55·
    5 months ago

    I have my dream domain. It was being squatted for a similar amount. I offered £100 and it was declined, I offered £250 and they replied to tell me the domain is easily worth the £2K, well sort after etc. I told them that this is my surname, and I’m not a corporation with unlimited funds and they can take the offer or leave it. 15 minutes later the offer was accepted. I was so happy. Still am chuffed about it.

  • fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    50·
    5 months ago

    Don’t pay this! You just reinforce their predatory practices. How renewals at much higher prices are allowed - no clue!

    Something similar happened to a company I know - it expired and was immediately bought by domain squatters, when they found them they were told that it couldn’t be sold back because the squatter had paid $XXXX for and had big plans (I assume it was BS, just a premise to get paid - no site was ever put on the domain)

    Solution: they bought the .org version and bought the .com back a year later.

    edit:grammar

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.todayEnglish
    4·
    5 months ago

    I had a domain I bought from Namecheap like a decade ago and they’re still emailing me about the one I let expire lmao.

  • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    5 months ago

    After some time, the domain fully expired and GoDaddy decided to buy it as soon as it did,

    Oh yeah, that’s what happens when you pick scammy domain registrars. It is very possible that Epik auctioned your domain (after wall they kept it after the expiry date and payed fees) and then GoDaddy snatched it. This is what usually happens.

    • kautau@lemmy.worldEnglish
      192·
      5 months ago

      Not just scammy

      Epik is an American domain registrar and web hostingcompany known for providing services to alt-tech websites that host far-right, neo-Nazi, and other extremist materials. It has been described as a “safehaven for the extreme right” because of its willingness to provide services to far-right websites that have been denied service by other Internet service providers.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik

      I’m in no way surprised at what they did, and in fact only surprised that it wasn’t them that bought the expired domain, but instead was godaddy

      • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        5 months ago

        You’re missing the point, it wasn’t bought by godaddy. Epik auctioned the domain to godaddy after it expired, it’s common for registrars to sell domains to each other so they don’t get a bad reputation and make people think what you’re thinking.

      • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        32·
        5 months ago

        Great to know, wouldn’t wanna be associated with someone who seems to specialize in far-right businesses.

        Interesting, had to check and see: 4chan is registered with Cloudflare.

        A part of me would rather these baby Hitlers operating in the open in case it’s harder for the FBI to follow them around the dark web. Downside is clearnet makes it easier for low-braincell nazis to communicate. Woulda thought we’d have socially stomped out extremism by now so doing it technologically wouldn’t be necessary…

        Alas.

  • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
    20·
    5 months ago

    Recommendation: Cloudflare, register for 10 years, set to auto-renew every year. If anything goes wrong you get 9 years to fix your credit card info.

    I’m sorry you lost your domain, that really sucks, thanks for sharing your cautionary tale with us all!