I have a friend who has basically disappeared. I am working on trying to get his website restored at the moment. I found out a few things about him a few years ago but I still respect him - nothing bad (did a few drugs etc) but he always helps people on the message boards (mainly Frontpage). Anyway, one of his domain names comes up in about three days. I called GoDaddy to see if I could pay it for him but they could not get access to the account without a PIN. Anyone have any ideas / contacts that could potentially help? Again, I only want to pay for the domain name, I do not want to try to get the domain name in my name. His domain name expires in a couple of days so I am trying to rush unfortunately They did give me a an email address, but his domain expires on the 18th so I am just trying to cover more bases.
After the name expires, it should stay with GoDaddy for another 30 days or so....it won't be added back into availability yet. You might want to send a certified letter to GoDaddy naming yourself as the Administartive Contact and request the name be transferred into your name, they will send an email to the email as listed under ownership of the domain, if there is no response, they will transfer into your name. This is a story I just got from the administrator of our name when I was concerned about what wouldhappen if anything happened to him, would we loose the name if it wasn't transferred into our ownership. This was the scenario he gave me, he said he does it all the time.....???? Haven't tried it yet though. You should however have approx. 30 days from the date as listed as expiration on a WHOIS report to reinstate the name/ account before they offer it back into the system as available. Hope this helps you some....Good Luck NorthBoard.com
Thanks SuperChicken - I'll try it. I mean, it cannot hurt and if he is in the hospital, I would hate for him to lose the domain name.
To protect it, you could back order it just in case it does get released. GoDaddy does have a back order service where they will try and register it for you as soon as it becomes available. Last I checked the service was $18.50 and if they can't register that name I think you can change it. This is just a last resort to protect it if you can't get the password or pin.
also make sure you monitor TDNAM as the domain names that expire at Go Daddy go there first and if noone buys them they go to the backordering
Of course, that would be committing fraud... I wouldn't recommend going that route. I understand that you want to help your friend Corey and that you're a good guy but for all you know he doesn't want the domain anymore or has it on auto-renew anyway. He's an adult, he's responsible for his own affairs.
Auto-renew - totally forgot about that. Thanks! I just checked and the domain name is at least in his name for another year. That is one good thing.
FYI, Go Daddy's "grace period" for expired names is 12 days: http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?se=+&pageid=REG_SA Should people question why so possibly "short", it's a business decision. After all, registrars do pay costs to retain expired names before pulling the plug or possibly getting them auctioned.