GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam • Hacker News Board

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#91

Post by RexRollman » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 7:52 PM UTC

Shenglong wrote: post #47

gst wrote: post #38

I never understood why GoDaddy has such a monopoly-like status - even in the startup scene. I've only used their services once (because someone transfered a domain to me and prefered to do this as GoDaddy-internal transfer), but the first thing I did was transfering the domain to another registrar (the one that I typically also use for my other domains). Reasons why I wouldn't use GoDaddy: GoDaddy is not really one o…

What's cheaper than GoDaddy? All my .com and .net domains end up costing me $7.49. I'd love to know...

GoDaddy might be cheaper but they have a history of fucking people. I prefer Gandi.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#92

Post by jeromeparadis » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 7:58 PM UTC

I also use GoDady because they are cheap and it does the job. For DNS, I use DNS Made Easy because it's never a good idea to have your DNSes at your registrar (if you ever need to move).

The trick with GoDaddy, don't check the box to leave your credit card with them. You'll then have to manually renew all services and you never run into the risk of forgetting to uncheck some auto-renew option...

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#93

Post by randomstring » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 8:36 PM UTC

sandaru1 wrote: post #14

Any recommendations on where to buy a good ssl certificate?

Digicert https://www.digicert.com/

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#94

Post by fightingmonk » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 8:45 PM UTC

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?

Just run the arbitrage between 200+% incremental revenue on one side and % of customers lost + cost of customer service calls for customers who talk them back down to the original price. I'm pretty sure that the former will win for a business like GoDaddy. Let's face it -- their entire checkout process is designed to generate incremental revenue and it's been optimized to balance vs. abandoned checkouts. Doesn't exactly reek of high regard for the customer. Reeks of maximizing revenue.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#95

Post by smountcastle » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 8:48 PM UTC

jeffbozek wrote: post #82

CoffeeDregs wrote: post #32

Okay, I use godaddy for domains and DNS. Never had a problem with them. But these 'godaddy sucks' posts and the godaddy buyout are starting to worry me. Who would you recommend as a replacement for registration and DNS?

Shameless plug. My new startup Coffee & Domains does domain registration, free private whois, and DNS control for $10 per year. https://www.coffeeanddomains.com

So is Coffee & Domains a reseller for GoDaddy (or another registrar) or did you put up the escrow money with the registries to become a full-fledged registrar?

EDIT: I see you answered this already in another comment (Key-Systems): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2752284

BTW, I live 3 blocks away from you in Herndon. Pretty small world!

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#96

Post by Metapony » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 9:16 PM UTC

I know people who work for GoDaddy and the confusing website is part of the upsell. That GoDaddy would screw people with SSL certificates is no surprise.

My requirements for hosting are always 'Anyone but godaddy."

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#97

Post by lsc » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 9:59 PM UTC

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?

Yes. But, if you want me as a customer, you better hope that all your competition has similar business practices... otherwise you won't get me as a customer. It wouldn't surprise me if PG felt the same way when buying services; he just prefers to invest in companies with sharp business practices.

But, I guess that makes me a bad customer from the point of view of an investor. There are plenty of people who will just take it, and I can certainly see why investors would prefer to focus on those people.

It's also important to note that not everyone in the community shares similar standards. Hell, over time the same person might not even have similar standards.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#98

Post by kleevr » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 10:36 PM UTC

gst wrote: post #38

I never understood why GoDaddy has such a monopoly-like status - even in the startup scene. I've only used their services once (because someone transfered a domain to me and prefered to do this as GoDaddy-internal transfer), but the first thing I did was transfering the domain to another registrar (the one that I typically also use for my other domains). Reasons why I wouldn't use GoDaddy: GoDaddy is not really one o…

Every so often I have to do some minor maintenance work on a GoDaddy account, I can't stand their interface.

I may have said it elsewhere, but I'm a big fan of DirectNIC even though they are double GoDaddy's price. There interfaces are really clean, and any time I've transferred or sold a domain it has been an absolute breeze. And back in the day, when all the major registrars were shutting down their web-based WHOIS tools (NetSol et al), DirectNIC always kept their WHOIS tool open which always bought them a lot of good will in my book. (I wasn't aware of command line tools like 'whois' and 'nslookup' yet...)

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#99

Post by plasma » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 11:06 PM UTC

Another "scam" I associate with GoDaddy is that when you pick to pay for the Whois Privacy protection, you also get a 'Business Registration' fee added (like $5/year or something trivial).

All this fee does is list your domain name or something similar in a GoDaddy ran business directory -- useless.

It's an extra charge they hope you don't notice, and it's only added to your cart when you add Whois Privacy protection.

You need to remove it from your cart afterwards.

Re: GoDaddy SSL Cert Scam

#100

Post by zokier » Mon, Jul 11, 2011, 11:34 PM UTC

aneth wrote: post #46

Godaddy is he only place I've found "Extended Validation" certs at a reasonable price - $99 instead of $499+. I hate their website and crosselling, but I do appreciate as the author points out that they have people you can call - how many registrars have that? Are there any alternatives for EV certs that are not a ripoff?

What's the point of EV certs?