There were quite a few of us who noticed that when the .info whois was updated, Go
Daddy submissions seemed to be missing. In fact, they appeared in the whois a day
or two later, and other people agreed with me at the time that statistically Go Daddy's
successful submissions were much lower than other registrars.
People started to
wonder if they had gone out of business, or did not have enough money to register
the names, as the Afilias round robin rules stated that the registrar had to have
the funds in their bank for a successful application.One explanation for their
delayed inclusion in the whois and the statistically very poor application success
rate is that they (for whatever reason) waited until after the landrush and then
submitted the names at the very beginning of the live period. This means if there
was a second application for the name through another registrar, it would be successful
over the Go Daddy app.
Perhaps this is not true. It is just a theory, but unfortunately
in this culture of 'non-communication' and corruption we have no way of finding out
whether foulplay has occurred. Of course we will think the worst if no-one will stand
up and explain things that don't seem to add up.
But even if they did keep a load
of prereg fees without submitting the apps, is there anything anyone can do anyway?
Obviously there is no point in metioning it to ICANN, as it is not part of their
agenda. Is there another department which supposedly looks into alleged cons?
Is
it really the case that the American government offers its citizens no consumer protection?
What can Americans do when they've been ripped off by a registrar trading in their
own land? Is the only option a private court case? No help or protection from their
government?