

GoDaddy VP Caught Bidding Against Customers in Domain Auctions - tortilla
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/06/20/expired-domain-services-let-employees-bid-against-customers/

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cliff
Domain auctions are always a voodoo science.

Especially when you're talking about domain sniping, and the subsequent silent
auctions where you don't really know if you're bidding against ANYONE, but you
still have to put in a maximum bid just in case, and you don't get any
feedback on whether you've bid enough money or not until after the auction is
over.

There's so little visibility that no one really knows what's going on or if
they're inflating prices or using fake people to auction against you or
anything.

What do you guys think about a true registry-level wait list policy? Maybe
combined with open auctions if there's more than one person waiting. Then we
wouldn't have these companies with hundreds of fake registrars constantly
pinging the registry getting away with all this stuff.

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goodkarma
The guy runs <http://dnforum.com> \- he is a very well known domainer. He just
took the job not too long ago. There was a thread about it on DNForum.

GoDaddy knew this - it is probably why they hired him. By doing that they
probably knew that he would continue his domaining business activities. (Which
could, at some point in the future, create a conflict of interest.)

That said.. I don't think this is that big of a deal. So the guy won a few
domain auctions - if he wasn't there someone else would have won them. He just
happens to be the person that won in this case.

~~~
tortilla
The problem is there's a huge conflict of interest. He could easily bid up
auctions he had no intention of winning, thus inflating prices. Another is he
might be able to see the bids or domain watchlists of other bidders, which
gives him a huge advantage.

~~~
goodkarma
I don't understand.. why would he specifically want to bid up auctions? To
boost GoDaddy's revenue?

If GoDaddy wanted to do that, why do they need him - couldn't they already
have been doing that, before they hired him??

~~~
tortilla
I'm not saying he specifically bid up auctions, but there's a possibility. So
it weakens trust with all parties involved. All the other major companies have
some policy against this (not all). I would also figure that his compensation
is tied to the performance of his division (domain auctions).

It's almost like saying, "I don't see the problem with that figure skater also
judging the event."

:)

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tortilla
I've already transferred 80% of my domains away from GoDaddy. This last breach
of goodwill and trust has motivated me to move the rest.

~~~
noor420
yeah dude, I would have done the same lol

Time for other companies to get ready with additional servers for massive
switching haha

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TweedHeads
That's just unacceptable behavior.

If we were really a force as internet consumers, we should drop them in mass
to show them not to fuck up with us.

And every wrongdoer after them.

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noor420
Auction rigging to generate bigger revenues eh

Could this company be sued for this?

