In all my years as a webmaster I have previously never backordered a domain. My understanding of backordering a domain was that someone already has it and if I backorder it for $18.95 the owner will release the domain and give it to me. After 1 hour of waiting for the domain name to appear on my cpanel it was clear to me that something is not going the way I thought it will. So after a little googling I found out that the backordering process is a little more complex. To make a long story short... I have backordered a domain, that will only be released on April 2009 and looks like its more of a lottery if I get the domain at all...even after I paid $18.95 for the backorder. I haven't read the faq and was mistaken. I though a backorder will get me the domain instantly...but as you could assume, I need the domain now and not almost a year later. What can I do? Can I get my money back? I backordered with godaddy.
It is really up to GoDaddy whether they refund you or not. I imagine legally they can refuse to give you your $18.95 back, but if you contact their support and explain what you have here, they might refund you out of goodwill.
Even if you did wait till April of next year, there is absolutely no guarantee that the current registrant would allow the name to expire. Even if the current registrant allowed it to expire, there is no guarantee that you are the only one waiting on that name...could be others that will backorder it as well. I think the above two posts offer good advice. If I were in your shoes, I would first contact customer support and see if they will work with you in spite of their policy (I'm assuming that they typically issue a credit rather than a refund). There is usually a person/people in every company who has discretion over things like these. They may, they may not. As for the domain, you are better off: 1) Contacting the current registrant to see if they are interested in selling. 2) Waiting till April to see if that backorder pans out 3) Searching for the next best alternative name that is available to register or up for sale. The longest lasting lessons are those learned the hard way. .
Sure! Right now they said that I need to cancel my order and then they will review me if I am eligible for a refund. It may take up to 5 days, so I'll let you know as soon as I get an answer.