GoDaddy and their Ridiculous License Agreements
GoDaddy hosts most of my websites. Their web hosting is not bad and they have lots of tools to make things easier and to discover new services as you feel more confident. Now, it can be a little intimidating at first, but it didn’t take too much for me to start using them productively.
GoDaddy ordering.
With that said, ordering with GoDaddy has to be the height of turning something simple into a complicated ordeal. For instance, when you try to register a domain name, they click all these additional boxes for services you did not request and they make the button to avoid these extra services very small and inconspicuous.
The whole process makes GoDaddy come across as just a money-grubbing, deceptive operation. When you finally run the gauntlet of deceptive add-ons and unnecessary features, you finally reach checkout. But, guess what? The most important information on the screen, besides the order details, is the license agreement. And yet, the links for these oh-so-important documents appears as simple text links which allow you to simply click a checkbox so you don’t have to read them!
GoDaddy is making sure you are burdened with the most amount of products and services without making the same effort to inform you of the terms of the agreement. Now, this is standard practice in probably every business out there, whether it’s cars, homes, or aspirin. Yet, that doesn’t make it any less sleazy.
Buying a domain name.
Let me give you an idea of how involved buying a domain name is from GoDaddy when you want to know your rights. There are 3 separate agreements you will definitely want to read OR have explained to you. They are…
- the Domain Registration Agreement
- the Universal Terms of Service, and
- the Change of Registrant Agreement
Just one of these is sleep inducing, but all three are a cure for insomnia. The problem is these documents are not written for easy reading or for maximum comprehension. And, to add another layer of difficulty, GoDaddy abandons the formatting, colors, and BIG FONTS they use on their sales pages. Way to go GoDaddy!
In future articles, each of these agreements will be discussed and analyzed to give you help on understanding you rights when dealing with GoDaddy.
Conclusion.
It is standard practice among web hosts and registrars to keep the valuable information away from the customer. It is in their best interests for you to be ignorant of the process when it comes to domain registration, web hosting, and other online services.
To keep things fair, you need to read (or at least get an explanation) of all the agreements you are entering. Following articles will help to explain your rights.
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