Tag Archives: domain names

I Introduce to You Some Link Love and Comment Luv.

You’ve got to love how easy it is to add WordPress plugins with the one click installer.  Strangely I still seem to have a lot of problems getting many working.  I’m close to having as many de-activated non-working plugins than working ones.  I’m theorizing that subconsciously I believe leaving them installed and stewing will somehow fix the problem at some point.  So, lets set failures aside as I wanted to make note of the few plugins I did get working this week.

The first is the most exciting for me.  I finally installed a dofollow plugin that seems to work with everything.  I’m only guessing it works as it is Lucia’s Linky Love, which as you may know, will only start dofollow’ing after the 3rd comment from the same commenter.  The drawback to this is when considering the number of comments to date (not counting illegal porn acts spam caught by Askimet)  I project there won’t be a dofollow link for several years.  I am setting a life goal to last long enough to see at least one person get a dofollow.   Previously I had tried DoFollow, WebGuerrilla Version and Do Follow by Dennis de Bernady.  I liked what they offered but neither worked properly for me.

The second plugin is commentluv.  commentluv is supposed to show a link to the last post from the commentors blog… or so they say.  I’ve seen it working elsewhere but, as with the first plugin I’ll have to see it working here to believe it.  Anyone getting the hint yet?

OK, third and last is Domain Portfolio.  It allows you to list the domain names you have and whether they’re for sale or not.  I’ve actually seen it work here which is a mega bonus for me.  It is still a beta plugin and I’d say it needs a little finishing to get all the features in order.  Serious points for it working though and it was the only domain related plugin that I could find.  You’re free to check it out and make a great offer on any of the listed domains.  You can consider it as helping me test it out, would be very neighbourly of you.  To ensure we’re on the same page – I’m not saying do it as a test, I mean actually buy them.   Sound good?

Finally, for a sort of on topic finish.  I came across an interesting opportunity to try out a new WordPress plugin.  It’s not really up my alley but I thought it was a great idea.  It should be quite interesting to domainers and those of you that are into auto content generation.  I’ll see if I’m allowed to post about it after I’ve done some playing around.

Go Daddy, Whoa Daddy!

I got surprised today! Shocked too! The source? Go Daddy.

The surprise: A nice, polite email telling me how much my auto-renewed domains cost. Not such a good surprise. I prefer gifts with some kind of value, be it monetary, physical, emotional, you know, good stuff. Directed to me of course, not other people.

Yes, it is my fault for not being diligent and luckily it wasn’t too serious. Three domains renewed all with private registration. It wouldn’t have been too bad if I hadn’t just renewed two domains the other night for $2 less per domain. So I was looking at a $6 dollar slap on the hand with a $27 dollar chaser for good measure (the 3 private registrations).

Thoroughly surprised and appalled at such an affront I was out for blood and so I called Go Daddy and I did it quick. Quick and aggressive. I punched those numbers on my phone with determination and a steel heart.

The Shock: After listening to the automated message routing me to who knows where (no shock) I end up talking to Moses in billing. Moses I say! Further, I understand him! This guy is speaking a language I know and he’s doing it better than I am.

Without crying I tell this Moses guy I was just billed for 3 auto-renewals with privacy options and I want it canceled. To add to the shock, Moses is nice and friendly. He tells me my options without even a hint at how I’m a dumb <something> for letting it happen. No preaching at all. He just tells me I can delete the order but the domains would be available for anyone to take.

This Moses guy is way too professional for me. I explain to my friend Moses that I renewed two domains for cheaper just the other day. Unfazed and again without any hint of me being stupid for letting this happen he explains he can’t drop the price after the fact. But we do figure out we can cancel the privacy options and get a refund for that.

Now, I’m pretty certain I could have worked it a bit and had the privacy dropped with a refund and redo the transaction with a discount but Moses was working his magic on me. I figured I’d eat the difference, it served me right. So we agree on this and Moses transfers me to support. Yes, the dreaded transfer.

Take a wild guess what happens next? Next thing you know, I’m talking to Linda. She must be related to Moses because she’s all nice and friendly and I understand her! Me and Linda strike up a great convo after I give her my account number, tell her my name and give her a password.

I’d say she wasn’t exactly sure what I was trying to get across with the cancellation of the privacy option. Either that or she wasn’t sure of the process. Even so, without missing a beat she gets things going. She’s on the ball and arranges it with the supervisor, sets it up and passes to me… and I fumble.

Seems I have to cancel the privacy on domainsbyproxy.com before they can process the refund and like I have any idea what my ID or password is. She helps me a bit by telling me its the same password as my Go Daddy account but a different ID. After that she waits patiently while I don’t find my account info. After fumbling around for a couple of minutes and feeling like a dolt, I ask if I can call back. She’s agreeable and tells me it’s ready and there’s a note in the file, I just need to cancel and let them know.

Things are really rolling now. I find my account details post-haste and do my part like a professional. I get the job done and call back. Now, obviously you know and expect what happens next?

I get in touch with John. John too is part of the same family, he’s all nice and friendly. I tell him once what the deal is and like it’s nothing to him he asks me for a couple minutes to get the job done. So, bing bang boom, with less than two minutes of silence John gets back to me and apologizes for the delay. He tells me it’s done and asks if there’s anything else he can do for me.

Well, shiver-me-timbers, who said customer service was dead? It’s alive and well at Go Daddy! I’m not sure what they’re feeding their support staff but I like it. Considering Go Daddy is well known as a low-cost option for a variety of web services I was not expecting such a pleasant experience. I can’t recall the last time I had such an easy exchange with any kind of support.

So, as much as I hate to push the ‘big-boys’ if this one experience is any indication of what Go Daddy is providing I’m in. I’m in enough to at least pay $2 more per domain!

A couple closing notes:

– Go Daddy can be found at: http://www.godaddy.com/
– Unfortunately their 24/7 support line is not a 1-800 number.
– Fortunately the wait times were quite acceptable. My initial wait time was estimated at 4 minutes, I would say they answered in under 3 mins. When transferred to support another wait estimation of 4 minutes and again I was talking live in under 3. My second call was estimated at 6 minutes and I’d say it was under 4 mins.
– They have a nice option of being on hold with or without music.