Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

rentzsch.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 124 posts

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#21

Post by hughesdan »

Was start date of the renewal term synced to the end date of the expiring term? If so it doesn't sound so shady to me. It seems logical that they would notify you and confirm your desire for a renewal prior to the end of the previous term rather than wait until the absolute last moment, especially with something like an SSL cert.

I'm not saying GoDaddy isn't shady. And they certainly are aggressive with their auto-renew policies. Heck how do you think they afford Superbowl ads and Danica Patrick at the prices they charge :) But the experience you described doesn't sound like a scam to me.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#22

Post by ineedtosleep »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #18
RyanKearney wrote: post #8

>I called GoDaddy Support this Sunday afternoon. While it was a long distance call, I only had to wait about a minute to reach a person in their Billing Department. They were happy to refund me the $49.99 after I deleted the cert and sent me the instructions to disable auto-renewals I linked to above. This times 1000 I experienced this exact same issue. I was pretty pissed to say the least but I called, got a human i…

> I see no problem here. Really, you don't see a problem with their "better ask forgiveness than permission" tactic?

Not many people will see a problem in this as other people's money usually rank below one's own.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#23

Post by dpapathanasiou »

ilikepi wrote: post #15

Timely... At work we use RapidSSL (a division of GeoTrust) for a handful of certs. Last night I received an email with a banner warning me, "Your certificate is ABOUT TO EXPIRE". The email goes on to list the expiration date as "Oct 12, 2011". Four months is certainly generous notice, but I've always taken this as a simple marketing attempt to maintain customer loyalty. Usually I take these emails as tickler reminder…

You might be interested to know they're even cheaper when purchased through a reseller, e.g.: http://www.namecheap.com/ssl-certificates/geotrust-ssl-certi...

I suppose they think that since you're visiting their site directly, you wouldn't think (or know) to visit one of their reseller partners instead.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#24

Post by vidyesh »

Never liked GoDaddy's service. There are several reasons why. So moved to namecheap.

But the point here is GoDaddy by default puts all your services on auto-renewal. I am a bit paranoid over what goes on in my accounts ( especially PayPal) so i had disabled the auto renew when i saw it.

Talking about price hike, thats a marketing strategy. You usually don't get coupon codes for renewals ( if you do get, those are usually for bulk renewals ). These service providers always lure you to register at special prices so you stick with them forever and in this case it auto renewed :\

About the cert. expiration, that seems a bit odd but better talk to GoDaddy Support, they would help you out.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#25

Post by lamnk »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #18
RyanKearney wrote: post #8

>I called GoDaddy Support this Sunday afternoon. While it was a long distance call, I only had to wait about a minute to reach a person in their Billing Department. They were happy to refund me the $49.99 after I deleted the cert and sent me the instructions to disable auto-renewals I linked to above. This times 1000 I experienced this exact same issue. I was pretty pissed to say the least but I called, got a human i…

> I see no problem here. Really, you don't see a problem with their "better ask forgiveness than permission" tactic?

I'm playing devil advocate here: You should do research before you buy things. And it seems that the author knew Godaddy is notorious for shady practices.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#27

Post by citricsquid »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #18
RyanKearney wrote: post #8

>I called GoDaddy Support this Sunday afternoon. While it was a long distance call, I only had to wait about a minute to reach a person in their Billing Department. They were happy to refund me the $49.99 after I deleted the cert and sent me the instructions to disable auto-renewals I linked to above. This times 1000 I experienced this exact same issue. I was pretty pissed to say the least but I called, got a human i…

> I see no problem here. Really, you don't see a problem with their "better ask forgiveness than permission" tactic?

> Really, you don't see a problem with their "better ask forgiveness than permission" tactic?

uh, isn't that what PG and all the other people here constantly say is what you should do in business?

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#30

Post by pavel_lishin »

citricsquid wrote: post #27
pavel_lishin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I see no problem here. Really, you don't see a problem with their "better ask forgiveness than permission" tactic?

> Really, you don't see a problem with their "better ask forgiveness than permission" tactic? uh, isn't that what PG and all the other people here constantly say is what you should do in business?

To be honest, I have no interest in running a startup, so I avoid business-oriented threads. But I don't really believe that they advocate overcharging customers like this, with no warning.

If I'm wrong, please include a few citations and I'll admit it.

Post reply on HN