GoDaddy Sucks
I’ll be the first to admit that I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing when it comes to building/hosting/publishign websites. This is one of the reasons that RapidWeaver has such appeal to me. It’s a simple to use program with enough in-depth customization options that give me an introduction to design and coding. In theory, I should be able to build my website, purchase my domain and hosting, then upload right from RapidWeaver with a click of my mouse.
I purchased a domain from GoDaddy, partly because it seemed simple enough and partly because I should have done more research. GoDaddy is apparently not compatible with RapidWeaver. I’ve sent countless messages to GoDaddy in the past three of four days without getting a half-decent response, let alone one from a real person. I sent them this today.
Can somebody just tell me how to publish my fucking website? I’ve been trying to get ACTUAL HELP FROM A REAL PERSON FOR THREE GODDAMN DAYS. None of them have been the least bit helpful. I literally cannot wait to transfer everything from GoDaddy to another host. I’ve had enough useless, generic emails from your stupid support. And it doesn’t help that your phone line is long-distance. Otherwise I would just call and bitch to a real person.
I have my files uploaded to your server, just tell me how to TURN THE FUCKING WEBSITE ON. Then, tell me how to update blog posts without re-uploading everything. I used RapidWeaver to build my site, and I’m supposed to be able to upload the site, then just any new files directly to my domain, yet the messages I sent about this get canned answers.
It’s bad enough that I have to try to navigate your overly cluttered site to try and find help (really, how much of that is actually necessary?) and countless links that open up into new windows. Each message that I have sent has been civil, but apparently that doesn’t work.
Yes, I’m new at this. You assholes should be helping me. IT IS YOUR JOB.
The problem is that I don’t want to spend money. I bought the domain for $10 for the year, which included a basic hosting package. I shopped around a bit and found Canadian hosting in the $6-9 per month range, which would be fine and fucking dandy if I could pay it on a monthly basis. I can spare putting a few bucks a month on my credit card, but I can’t put up the $100 up-front sum that the other hosts want.
If anyone happens to have any suggestions, I’m all for it. I’d love to not be dealing with GoDaddy at all, but I’m stuck with them for another couple of months.
This sucks.
A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks
Wow. Just wow. I wish I could say reading your story was an utter shock but unfortunately this reads like a very dark comic strip that’s mass produced and inserted into newspapers worldwide.
I’m only chiming in here because I feel such drive to tell you that there’s a way out and a way to having your domain management be just an absolute carefree experience. But before I get into that, there is a backstory I feel compelled to admit.
I first met a guy named Chris when I was working in radio and so was he (don’t ask me what station or even what city, suffice to say we both worked in one of the top radio stations in one of the top U.S. cities). Being web nerds at heart we both got to talking about our side businesses. He ran a web hosting company and I a web design firm. He told me that his hosting business had been operational since he was in high school and while he was in radio the hosting co. was going to be more of a weekend job that ran itself. A friendship arose because I confided that I was doing a lot of my web design work on my lunch breaks there, otherwise all on the weekend and late nights.
Anyway a few months later he told me he was launching a domain name service platform because he was sick of dealing with the likes of Network Solutions, Register.com and [gah!] Go Daddy, and occasionally Gandi and Enom. He also saw a real business opportunity in moderately priced domain name sales, renewals and transfers with a strong focus on a customer oriented experience. What he said he meant by that is that the customer would and should always feel like they were the reason the business existed. Chris set up sort of a beta platform before going public with this and I put my faith in him to manage my about 150 domains. Now the management thing is where it gets interesting. He said one of the things he wanted to do with his new business is put a simple point and click web self-management interface up, but he also wanted to do the equivalent of managed hosting only with domains. And since I was his beta test dummy I got treated to the first definition of that.
The first thing Chris asked for was a complete list of all of my domains which I admit was daunting because I had been price shopping when purchasing new domains and then many of my older domains were still at what used to be InterNIC now Network Solutions. After I provided my list, he then needed my account usernames and passwords for the various companies. He said I could reset my password so I wasn’t giving him my default password or passwords. With my authorization to do this and with a payment method agreed upon, Chris took over from there. I literally did nothing. Within 4 total days all of my domains were centralized in an account with Chris’s service and I had full access to them in a really intuitive and what I describe as clean web panel.
Many years later, Chris is passionately working with both self-managed clients and those customers that just plain don’t want anything to do with domain names though they recognize the importance of owning them. The business has since been called FYNE.com and he positions FYNE as “Relax, your domains are FYNE”.
Sorry for the diatribe but I hope this brings about some thoughtful consideration, as I think my friend Chris is the solution to your qualms. You’ll work with a stand-up normal guy who’s just like me or you, who understands the frustration and anger you feel when dealing with the major players in the multi-billion dollar domain industry. If nothing else I hope you find solice in the fact that there is someone out there like Chris and a business out there like FYNE. Even if you don’t choose to move domains there or buy new ones there.
Anyway please feel free to email me any follow-up questions or let me know if you’d like me to put you in direct contact with Chris. My email address is cted@jeah.net [since first meeting Chris then being his guinea pig at FYNE for domains, I have also moved my web sites and email to his original web hosting business which explains my public @email address.]