DO NOT DEAL WITH GO-DADDY.

GoDaddy just held my Morning Porridge market commentary business to ransom.

At 6 am this morning I discovered my Morning Porridge email was blocked. I spent an hour trying to unblock it, resetting passwords, and trying to trace the problem. I discovered Go-Daddy, the web-site firm, where I originally set up the Morning Porridge Website years ago, was responsible for the block. 5-years ago they told me the Morning Porridge was too large and had too many subscribers for their system to effectively handle. I moved the Morning Porridge website to Word Press.

Somehow the associated email stayed with Go-Daddy. A couple of years ago the same thing happened – the email account was blocked. They promised to resolve the issue after I paid a 1-year subscription to get it sorted, but I’ve just checked and found they’ve been renewing it every year from my accounts. My bad for not checking the transfer had occured. They blocked the account this morning because I’d shifted the Morning Porridge bank account therefore the old debit card didn’t exist form them to dip their sticky fingers into my money.

Go-Daddy made no attempt to contact me over the failed payment. They simply closed the account. When I finally got through their help desk in Malaysia early this morning they offered to reopen my email for a 1-year subscription of £231! They then improved the offer to make it £600 for a three-year contract. I complained. I remonstrated with them. They said they could just close the email-account down completely if I didn’t like it. I was left with no choice to pay.

After I paid, they told me the account will be reopened later today… WHAAAAT? One of my main business accounts blocked for the day. Without an email, the Morning Porridge website is non-functional.

This is the way the modern world works.

Go-Daddy forces me to rent my IP (the Morning Porridge email account being a critical part of my business ecosystem) from them at a monopoly price. That’s monopoly abuse. They should be in jail.

In the last month I’ve discovered three other firms taking subscribtions for services from my accounts I believed I’d cancelled. Only one of them has offered an refund. One of them don’t pick up phones, and there is no way to cancel on their website. The other told me to read my contract. I’ve informed my bank, but they’ve advised me I need to cancel subscriptions via the other party.

Go-Daddy effectively kidnapped and ransomed me back my Morning Porridge business. They are intent on milking me every year. It costs them diddly squat to do so. It’s a Microsoft product they are broking. But because they control it, they control me. I’ve asked how to get it transferred to my control – now they say they can’t do that.

Please pass this email around your kids and chums – if you are thinking about dealing with Go-Daddy. Don’t.

I am going to speak to my lawyer this afternoon. I am going to go for Go-Daddy’s jugular. I checked on Reddit and other customer sites and they are full of similar issues – Go-Daddy is not a service firm, it’s business model is ripping out money from customers for services they simply broke.

Mildly Furious… and I will be revenged in this world or the next….

Bill Blain