Pixel Induced

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SCAM ALERT!:...Go Daddy.com and my web Domain name that they stole from me...

I am just Stunned that a Company this big with major Commercial Campaigns on National television with Celebrity Endorsers has pulled a dirty trick like this...Here's what they did..A little over a year ago i Purchased a domain name that i came up with from go daddy...levimages.com..I have for over the past year now been passing out cards and posting it here and on facebook and flickr and god knows EVERYTHING just to get it out there...With me so far?...alright..

So i gave them a charge card that they could use in the future to renew the domain name after the TWO year period that i had paid for was up...I gave them a payment in late Nov something 2009 for the use of the name for 2 years...so it's been a year and?....what? 4 months?...Yes..so i still have the use of it for about 8 months right?..Wrong...I just accessed my site last night to upload new photos for sale and sell without a problem...today i try to go there cause a customer that wanted to buy an 11x14 photo has emailed me to say she cannot access my site and google chrome says it cannot connect to the site...the link has been broken and is dead...with me still?...

Now i email Smugmug who get back to very quickly Btw cause they RULE! ( it was like less than 10 minutes and they answered me thank god..I LOVE SmugMug!!..Alright.. they say in the email that the domain name is no longer linked to my sales site and that i need to contact Go Daddy...O.K...lets take a deep breath first...whew...so..

I call the phone # on go daddy's site and i wait about 15 minutes to get a person...Not a big deal in this day and age but they are in the Communication and passing of Info business so i figured it would not take so long but it did..I eventually get an Assistant and i explain my dilemma...he does not sound very sincere but says he's here to help...First thing.. He tells me my name has expired and it has been picked up and being USED by someone else..I ask who and he tells me it's Privileged info..cool i understand..He then puts me on hold for almost ten minutes to do something..what i do not know...at least i had the option of turning the god awful elevator music they were playing on or off...kinda cool... It's cool i'm saying to myself.. i understand..well he finally comes back and i ask him what i can do at this point and he says i will need to pay for another one and it will be $10 dollars for a years use of it...More than the original cost...that was $7.95 for the .com for 2 years use..Follow me?...

So i had to pick another domain name..www.lev-images.com... Not so bad...well right after i paid for the new one with my charge card and he guided me thru an almost ENDLESS trip thru submenu after submenu to apply my new domain name to smugmug cause there "partners" i tried to access levimages.com one last time...know what i got?...Well you try it right now..

www.levimages.com

It redirected me to Go Daddy.com and a page full of other Photography Supply Dealers and Other Photographers and Photography schools and other Advertisers that obviously paid go daddy to post them there!...Oh and here's the BEST part...in the middle of the page it has an official go daddy ad that says...."Would you like to purchase levimages.com?..Go here.."..when you hit the purchase button it goes to another page and they are selling MY old domain name that I Built up for $69.99 plus "Commission" which is $10 dollars...so $79.99 total...What?...Now why did he tell me that the name was being used by someone else and not available to me to get back when in reality Go Daddy was using it to ADVERTISE until it was Bought by someone?...He did not even offer it back to me for ANY Price!...What the Heck?

They Kept info from me to make me get a Different Domain name so that i can make that one worth something also and then they can take it away from me so they can sell it for 80 bucks!!

Does anyone feel my pain?....I am Losing Faith in Humans again...God almighty we are not gonna make it at this pace..And just a few old "friends" say i'm Paranoid...LOL

Be Good to each other people.....Love ya Kids....Chris.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Visage Photography Ⓒ on March 21, 2011 at 10:21am

I see what you mean with the broken links - can you not fix these in your master folder?

Are you aware that you have over 3000 characters in your "meta description" notably just links to other sites? - check between your 'head tags' in your root folder as this kind of site construction makes it unfriendly for search engines to index. I used to place no more than 100 -150 characters.

Another thing i noticed is even on my smaller 24" monitor your top title jpeg is aligned left which makes it look odd with the small centre aligned table below.

You do have an absolutely superb gallery up there although navigating with the broken links and differing layouts made it a bit disjointed - hope you get the links sorted soon..

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Permalink Reply by Chris Levitan on March 21, 2011 at 10:13pm

I do not have much Customization On my site that i can do...the template is quite simple in Design But SmugMug Themselves will have to enter the codes needed to change things..I have left an email but so far after Days and saleslost still No response...Thank you

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Permalink Reply by Varun Patel on March 24, 2011 at 5:32am

well Chirs its really very painful when this happens i mean i own one domain registration and web hosting company and i know that if you register one domain for two years no one i mean no one can take away that domain from you

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Permalink Reply by Chris Levitan on March 24, 2011 at 3:50pm

@ Varun...well they did...and they are telling me to get smugmug to help...now it has been like 3 days since i sent an email to smugmug...I did get a letter back saying they where on it and it would be fixed asap.. my site is still messed up as of today so almost a week of problems...not good...Thank you for the words...

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Permalink Reply by Chris Levitan on March 25, 2011 at 5:19pm

Still not working after 3 Emails to SmugMugger...DagNabit...

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Permalink Reply by Areez Charania on March 26, 2011 at 9:10am

Wow I feel for you. Im starting to worry about going with Go daddy. Not sure if its the wisest thing as yet...... I have my domain from them, but im wondering about the hosting?!!

Any one had experience of their hosting? Any good?

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Permalink Reply by Chris Levitan on March 26, 2011 at 8:41pm

Best of luck...Just keep on your toes about the Expiration date of your Name...It has now been almost 5 days and no change...I wish SmugMug would step up...I do love those guys..never a problem till now..

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Permalink Reply by David Pino on March 27, 2011 at 10:59am

sorry to hear about all this, hopefully it'll get resolved soon? sounds like a GoDaddy problem to me though, not a smugmug problem, IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Levitan on March 27, 2011 at 5:17pm

Well after 3 Emails to Smugmug It Turned out to be a SmugMug Problem in the end..I was told all my Navbar links needed to be re-set...which in my personal settings on my Website are not an Option...all i could change was the Domain Name....I finally got thru to a person there that knew what to do about it...all the links work now...JOY!...Thanks for all of the Comments here...hope this helps anyone who is thinking about giving SmugMug a try which i highly recommend...Peace.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Lawrence on April 12, 2011 at 11:17pm

I am not an attorney so I can't give legal advice.

Here is the thing if you decide you want to take action you need proof that you owned the domain name that you describe. If you have this then I would go back to the contract they have and see if it is for a full year. If they agreed to give you this name for a year they can't change the agreement without your permission. I think it depends on how far you want to take this. I would fire off a complaint to the FTC and the BBB but that doesn't really have teeth anymore. If they have change the contract on you without telling you then they have treated you unfairly. You may have the right to ask for your money back plus any extra costs. I haven't read their contract or terms and conditions which are often long convoluted documents written in such a way as to dissuade the general public from reading it. Another way to say all of this is that they sound like they broke the agreement you had and paid for. I am shooting in the dark here not knowing all the details. You can call the FTC to discuss this case with them and they may have ideas for you. It sounds like if what you say is true that Go Daddy owes you a refund if they did indeed delete your account early and didn't refund you for ending the account early. Just gather you documentation emails or other correspondences, receipts, or anything else you have from Go Daddy so you have evidence to prove your case. I have no idea what you want to do on this and knowing that will help you to direct your focus in the right direction. You may need to see an attorney if you decide to pursue any action against the company or you could just forget it.

I am not an attorney so I can't give legal advice.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Levitan on April 13, 2011 at 3:16pm

Now the Name is Owned by a Company in Texas as told to me by SmugMug...i have to contact them to get the old Domain name from Linking to my Website in any way...it has been a strange Experience with a lot of Run around that i do not want to go thru ever again...Grrr