As a daily participant in the Godaddy.com expired domain auctions, I run into the same situation several times a week and it brings out what makes this auction house one of the best in the industry, yet at the same time one of the most frustrating.

The situation arises when you are the second highest bidder on a domain at an expired Godaddy auction.

To Godaddy’s credit, if you are the second highest bidder and the winning bidder defaults, Godaddy sends you an e-mail telling you that the winning bidder defaulted, and they offer you as the second highest bidder, the item at your minimum bid, disregarding the defaulting bidders bid.

So lets say you bid $10 for domain 1234.com and put in a proxy bid for $1,000.  Bidder two comes along and bids $1,005 and fails to pay.  Godaddy then will send you an e-mail as the second highest bidder offering the domain to you, disregarding the defaulting bidders, bid or $10 in my example.

Again to their credit, no other auction house, to my knowledge does this.

Namejet.com is such a case will re-auction the domain allowing those in the original auction only to bid, basically a re-do.

Snapnames.com in the case of a non-paying high bidder, simply sends out an e-mail saying they are going to re-run the auction to all those in the original auction.

Now here is the frustrating part.

You don’t automatically get the domain.

Once you get the notice from Godaddy that the winning bidder defaulted and you can get the domain for your next highest bid, you have to call Godaddy at the number provided in the e-mail.

You only have 48 hours from the time they send the notice out to get a hold of someone at the “Special Department” that handles this defaulting auctions, which is only opened for several hours a day, Arizona Time.

Even though someone always answers the phone at Godaddy, no one other than this special department can get the domain pushed into your account.  Its a manual process that takes around 15 minutes to get done, if the department is opened.

Why does it take so long?

One reason is that the phone number listed in the e-mail Godaddy sends you does not go to that “special department”.  Instead the number listed in the e-mail goes to Godaddy customer service which usually has you on hold for a while, due to customer volume (although you do get a choice to hold with or without music).  Once your call get answered, you need your customer number, and your pin number (which sometime changes without notice, like today).  Then you have to explain to someone at Godaddy, which really doesn’t know what you talking about, why your calling.   After several minutes they figure out who they have to transfer you to (that “Special Department”) and of course if that “Special Department” is closed its a no go.

Godaddy, I love that you lead the industry by giving the second highest bidder the domain if the top bidder defaults, but can’t you figure out maybe an automated process for this?

After all you are a technology company and you do have people answering the phone 24/7.

Ok I feel better now.