Backorder deadline by 60 days — GoDaddy extends

Clients get a little more time to use pre-paid backorder credits.

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) has extended the deadline for clients to use domain backorder credits.

The firm disclosed last August that it was sunsetting its backorder product and gave clients 12 months to use the credits. Today, it disclosed a 60-day extension to October 7.

GoDaddy never competed well with dropcatching services like SnapNames and DropCatch, which utilize numerous registrar credentials to acquire domains. The registrar has primarily focused on direct-transfer backorders, in which domains registered at GoDaddy or its partners are auctioned ahead of they undergo the full deletion process.

Still, backorders were useful due to a technical “loophole” at GoDaddy. For a time, if you placed a backorder the second a domain moved from auctions to closeouts, you could acquire the domain for the backorder fee. That loophole has been closed for years now.

With no other practical use, GoDaddy allows clients to use backorder credits as a discount on bids in GoDaddy Auctions.

I’m not sure that the time extension will assuage clients. It seems that if the firm is no longer going to honor the pre-purchased product, it ought to refund clients, or perhaps provide the value back as store credit toward auctions. It would also help if the credits could be used on closeout domains.