I don't usually write about services that I use and often see people ranting about things rather than helping you and saying this is a good service. So, today I had a great experience with a US based company called GoDaddy. I needed to register three domain names, a variation on the same domain (with and without hyphens) and also wanted to be able to do what is now called private registration. This consists of using alias information for the whois record that without going for a more commercial explanation allows me to hide email and address information from the spammers that be!
Well, although I found that there a few extra pages in the registration process than I would have liked to see the process was fairly straight forward and easy to understand what was on offer. The final summary page with the ability to remove unwanted services that may have slipped in must be done with AJAX because it was very simple to use (without the page refreshing).
I then got an email about my domain name registration, another about the private registration service and a third from GoDaddy (himself ;))
Next step: logging in and checking the DNS data about the domain name. This is where I got an error message: no account like that could be found ! I tried copying it again as blank spaces sometimes slip in and are considered part of the account number. No, no luck.
Well I'm in France so I thought since I can call the US for free let's give them a call. After choosing 'domain name support' I was asked to key in my account number. This time I got a message saying that the account number had not been recognised ! Anyway the call carried on and I was told it would be about 4 minutes wait. I thought just enough time to make a cup of tea. Anyway just over a minute later I got a GoDaddy support person welcoming me ! Good job and I hadn't left to make the cup of tea, but a nice surprise.
I explained the issue and he asked me if I was sure about the password and to be honest I wasn't actually.
I don't know how you create your passwords. Hopefully you don't use your children’s names or pets names or your own. The number of times when I set up computers for people and I ask them what password they want to use and they'll say "Err what about: Fred?" And I say "And what about something a bit longer and with some numbers ?"
Anyway when you try to get clever you can end up forgetting the password like I had done. Also wasting time for the GoDaddy Support guys (and maybe girls ?!). Hey I just spoke to Daniel but there may be women other than the pretty ones wearing T-Shirts on the home page LOL !
Anyway the support guy was kind, helpful and even asked me if I could help me with anything else. Well you may think that is normal but over here in France it is just not normal. You're often lucky if you get a smile in the supermarket. When my mother in England asked for 1000 tea bags at the local Asda supermarket, the person actually took her to the area in the supermarket and then got some guy to fetch a box to put them in. Here in France they'd say "Go down there it's after the cereals", don't even dream about them showing you, let alone helping you out.
So anyway it was refreshing and a nice experience, on top of the fact that I was the one that created the problem in the first place.
And to top it all I got a great deal. Three domains privately registered for 21.60 dollars. A special offer since I would have paid $26.95 for the domain names plus $26.97 for the private registrations (since I bought three this amount was dropped) normally/separately. You'll have to check if the deal is still on, I don't know how long it will last !
Now that I have reset the password courtesy of Daniel the support guy I have also been able to login so all is well that ends well. There are a lot of options and functions... Wow !