Godaddy: all ads and no service?

I recently had my first (and probably my last) experience with godaddy services.  The interaction left me with a taste nasty enough that I thought I’d blog about it.
So I wanted to get a certificate so I can do all traffic through https (in my continuing effort to be more secure).  I researched things and saw that godaddy’s certs were significantly less expensive than the competition.  It said their certs were compatible with 99% of the web browsers, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

What they didn’t say is that they’re not compatible with the virtual hosting solution my hosting company uses (cpanel).  After finding out (by talking tech support for my hosting company, liquidweb.com) that I couldn’t make the two work together, I asked godaddy for a refund.  Godaddy said they would refund my money, but that it would be minus a $15 “administration fee.”

It’s an automated service!  What kind of administration fee could there be?  I complained, but to no avail.  That’s what you get when you buy things from godaddy.  You get sexy super bowl ads but not much customer service.

Turns out Liquid Web will go get and install a cert for me for only $50.  Did I mention I like these guys and how they roll? They have been nothing but help to me in this attempt to secure my web server better. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Summary: cpanel + godaddy = you lose.  And if whatever you buy from godaddy isn’t what you thought it was going to be, they’ll refund it “minus an administration fee.”  I can only hope that someone googling on this in the future will find this post and choose to send their money somewhere else.

Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston), four-time O'Reilly author, and host of The Backup Wrap-up podcast. I am now the Technology Evangelist at Sullivan Strickler, which helps companies manage their legacy data

1 comment
  • I am moving away from godaddy also. All ads, all upsell, the phone service isn’t half bad but I hate the fact that I have to call at all. The website is a horrible confusing mess. I can never figure out where anything is. If I want to update what nameservers are authoritative for my domain it is always hidden away somewhere new and bizarre.