I tried to get a domain name for this blog at GoDaddy yesterday. Despite the fact that Google partners with GoDaddy on Apps for Your Domain to help bloggers get their domain names, GoDaddy’s trick on domain name pricing is no difference from other small players in the domain name business. I went through the step-by-step wizard to buy a .net domain, and after hitting many “next” and “continue” and entering so much personal particulars and billing info, only did I find the total price was not US$9.99 as shown on the page of my step 1.
They had the so-called “ICANN fee of 20 cents per domain name year”. So the total price was actually $9.99 + $0.20. Do they indicate this ICANN fee at any part of the registration process? Yes, they do. But it’s somehow on places I failed to spot. I was not sure whose mistake this was, but I decided to get the domain name with some other companies.
I turned out go to Scicube. The first domain name I bought with this Hong Kong based company is in February 2006. The features and the customer service they provided, as far as I remembered, were not bad (actually they are good if you take the price into account). Hopefully, it’s still great this time.
