What’s wrong with GoDaddy?

This post is a no-brainer. And some parts of this rant I’ve now started finding popping up around the internet.

GoDaddy’s initial pitch seems fantastic. Buy any .com domain for $8 or so and have a website with your name.

Who doesn’t want to pay $8.19 (or sometimes even as low as $0.99) for a domain?  That sounds like a wild opportunity.

Wrong. WRONG. And WRONG!

My Story with GoDaddy

I was one of those morons. I purchased a domain with them and I thought I had lucked out. Marks Angry Review is a pretty good name!

With a few minutes of research though, I realized that I was an idiot, and thankfully I now have a website with which to focus all of my rage.

Two words: DOMAIN RENEWAL

It turns out that the money you save on the first year, you pay in excess every other year. What should cost no more than $10 a year (with namecheap for example), costs $25 a year with GoDaddy.

GoDaddy effectively give you free entry to a party, and then once inside, charge you an arm and leg to buy some beer.

You’re probably thinking. Big deal. $15 extra. Get over it.

Firstly, get lost. I don’t want your wise-crack opinion. My money is precious. I work hard for my money. I deserve to enjoy it. Keep your overly righteous opinion where it belongs. ARGGH.

Secondly, go away. Just, go away. I didn’t ask you.

Thirdly, it’s the principal. It’s about the ethics.

Fourthly, there are people that really have gotten hurt by this scam: The businesses that own hundreds of domains.

Back when domain-names were all the rage, and before the dot-com bubble burst, there were people buying domains like they were play-stations in ’90s. Think about a small time buyer with only 100 garbage domains. Think about his renewal cost. This small-time investor with a bunch of domains on his hands is about to find himself slapped with $2,500 to keep a domain that he already purchased.

(Please don’t get me talking about renewal fees. That’s a total scam.)

My Summary of GoDaddy

What really gets my blood boiling is how the entire scam is presented.

Some people already know that it costs $8 a year, but most people aren’t even aware that this is a continual cost. GoDaddy present the cost as a one time sale. This is how they get them. See screenshot here:

The average uneducated consumer, like I initially was, has no idea that this is a yearly tax. Who would assume that they had to pay a yearly levy on something that they already own?

And so a year later when they’re threatened with the “Renew or lose it” they find themselves angry as they dish out 250% more than they initially paid for the first year…

Besides, their homepage is more complex than a fighter pilot cockpit.

I’m angry, and that’s how I hope I leave you.

Goodbye and go away. Leave some anger below.