Fighting GoDaddy
The trick I previously described for working around GoDaddy’s galling bait-and-switch scam on private registrations no longer works. I tried to remove privacy on an expiring domain and then renew it, adding private registration, and GoDaddy’s interface allows me to specify privacy in the lead-up to the checkout but on getting there there is no privacy in my cart and no apparent way to add it.
Updated workaround
- Search Google for 'godaddy "promo code"'.
- Remove privacy on the domain to be renewed.
- Renew it using a promo code. Today I was able to get a 10% discount by entering
HASH3 (found here); so that’s a one-year dot-com renewal for US$7.20, including the ICANN fee.
- After renewal is complete, add privacy again as a separate transaction; this will work. Again, try to find the best promo code you can; today I got 10% off using
SAVENOW (found on the same page), yielding private registration for US$4.49, all inclusive.
Drawbacks
- The total renewal price with privacy is still too high (US$11.69) but still better than the ridiculous US$18.19 that GoDaddy wanted to charge.
- The workaround requires you to perform two transactions instead of one.
- Given that the workaround involves two separate transactions, your personal information is exposed in the public WHOIS database for a longer period of time; still only a number of minutes, but annoying nonetheless. An additional annoyance was that during the period of vulnerability GoDaddy/Domains by Proxy provided an out-of-date email address in the WHOIS registry (a real account, not a spam honey-pot address); I have no idea why they published this information, seeing as I updated that email address with both GoDaddy/Domans by Proxy long ago.
HASH3 (found here); so that’s a one-year dot-com renewal for US$7.20, including the ICANN fee.SAVENOW (found on the same page), yielding private registration for US$4.49, all inclusive.- The total renewal price with privacy is still too high (US$11.69) but still better than the ridiculous US$18.19 that GoDaddy wanted to charge.
- The workaround requires you to perform two transactions instead of one.
- Given that the workaround involves two separate transactions, your personal information is exposed in the public WHOIS database for a longer period of time; still only a number of minutes, but annoying nonetheless. An additional annoyance was that during the period of vulnerability GoDaddy/Domains by Proxy provided an out-of-date email address in the WHOIS registry (a real account, not a spam honey-pot address); I have no idea why they published this information, seeing as I updated that email address with both GoDaddy/Domans by Proxy long ago.