It appears that Godaddy.com charges its customers $50 one of their domains get hit with a UDRP.
One customer is complaining on his own blog.
Daniel Paden tells his tale on the blog Atheiststoday.com, in a post entitled, Stop Using Godaddy, including all the emails he exchanged with Godaddy.com complaining about a $50 fee charged to Mr. Paden credit card when a UDRP was filed against one of his domain names.
“I purchased a domain name to use on a project I was working on. Someone had a problem with me owning the domain name because they thought it would negatively effect them. Whether that is true or not isn’t important really. This person filed a complaint with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) over the right to the domain name which they have the right to do if they wish.”
“Godaddy charges me $50 because of the dispute. Keep in mind no guilt had been proven to exist it had simply been a case of someone accusing me of being guilty. It could have been someone who had no real interest in the domain whatsoever. Godaddy and DomainsByProxy.com had no factual data on which to base their actions. The dispute should have had no effect on me except that my domain became locked to prevent it from being transferred to another party or evidence being destroyed.:
The only reason godaddy could automatically take $50 from my bank account was because I had auto payments set up to renew my webhosting accounts with godaddy. Those hosting accounts were for domains completely unconnected to the the domain name in dispute.”:
The post goes on to show Godaddy.com response:
“Thank you for contacting us. The domain name B*******.NET has been named in a domain dispute filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO.int). As a result, the domain name has been placed on registrar-lock and will remain locked until we are directed otherwise by WIPO.
We have also charged a $50 fee for processing the legal dispute. You may wish to review our Registration Agreement for more information regarding administrative fees at
http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?se=%2B&pageid=REG%5FSA
This fee is refundable only if the decision is found in your favor.
Kindest Regards,
David Castano
Disputes Administrator
GoDaddy”"
After several back and forth email’s Godaddy refunded the $50 to Mr. Paden
In Godaddy’s defense the other issue that really seemed to upset the domain owner is that once the UDRP was filed the DomainsbyProxy privacy service was lifted to reveal the owner of the domain.…
