Angry, frustrated and I’m not going to stand for it!
I have about had it with both Wordpress and GoDaddy! I pay to renew my domain name for my blog and they still allow someone else to purchase it - both are pointing fingers at the other refusing to acknowledge where the error occurred and all the while someone else is posting to my blog!
Ok, let me back up. I have been posting to my blog Everyday Public Relations since 2005 when I created it for a class project. I started it on Blogger and after a year or so migrated to Wordpress since I liked the options they provided. I owned the domain EveryDayPublicRelations.com right from the start however in 2008 - apparently a billing error (which GoDaddy admitted to) that occurred while I was moving my accounts from Wordpress to GoDaddy on the advice of a blogger friend (who swore up and down that GoDaddy had great customer service and would handle the hosting in a much more professional manner )caused me to lose my domain. I was furious but managed to purchase the domain Everydaypublicrelations.org and still keep publishing my blog with only a few bumps in readership. GoDaddy admitted that a billing error had caused the problem - that when transitioning it had appeared that I let my domain expire, allowing someone else to purchase the domain. (that person later tried to sell it back to me for $2500 - I declined).
I went on posting - using Wordpress as my hosting site while GoDaddy manages my domains (since I own several) and also two non-blog websites. Everything was fine until just recently. My blogs and websites are set to auto-renew. I got an email from wordpress that stated I needed to check on my domain mapping fee & renew because it appeared my credit card on file had expired. I logged in and paid. I received the confirmation and went on my way, renewed until 2013. I got a similar email from GoDaddy about renewing my domains - logged in, paid got the email confirmation.
So I was pretty shocked when I got a post from Everyday Public Relations in my inbox written by somebody else. I went to my site and sure enough my blog is gone. I logged into my dashboard and everything looks fine, but when I try to post, it just disappears. I check my settings and there in black and white it says yep my domain is renewed until 2013. WTF? I send an email to Wordpress about the situation and they send me back an email telling me that yes I own the domain - through GoDaddy, that they just map it and everything is fine on their end. I check my GoDaddy dashboard and there is no record of my domain - it has disappeared! I email their support and still have received no answer. Did they once again give my domain away? As for wordpress, how can things be fine on their end? Where are they mapping it to? How can I be accessing my dashboard which tells my my primary domain is Everydaypublicrelations.org if I can’t post to it?
Since I can’t seem to get a straight answer from them I went on the blog that has hi-jacked my site and left this comment:
“How is it that i own the domain for this blog - http://everydaypublicrelations.org - have owned it since 2008 and yet you have apparently hi-jacked it? I logged into my dashboard today to write a post and was surprised when my post disappeared. Yet your post came to my email today - as if I had subscribed to the drivel you are writing. (no offense but I am pretty pissed off about this.) I have worked a long time on this blog and it is like my baby so I don’t appreciate it being stolen. I have a confirmation on my renewals each year - and have contacted wordpress (which handles my hosting) and GoDaddy(which handles my actual domain). So again - how did you come to start posting here? Please immediately cease your activity or be prepared for legal action. I hope we can settle this amicably, considering I have both documentation to show my years of ownership as well as all my readers who have begun to contact me wondering what is going on. I would appreciate a quick response. “
Hopefully I will get some sort of response. But bloggers and web designers beware! Wordpress and GoDaddy have awful customer service and make errors that affect your livelihood and simply don’t care. I will be removing/migrating my products and will never use their services again.
Had to explain what a tumblr was this morning…found myself at a loss for words…uh, it’s a thing, like a blog, but shorter, but longer than a tweet, but uh like a blog on crack or something…
I think she got it.
:)
