Beginning 11/15/08 until at least 12/6/08 Godaddy has been advertising on their web site "$6.99 for domain transfers" which includes a "Free 1 year extension."

This means that in addition to the 1 year of domain registration $6.99 you should get a FREE 1 year extension or 2 years for $6.99, but when I called their "Transfer Concierge" I got the run around.

First I was told that the $6.99 was just the cost of transferring my domain to them and the "FREE 1 year domain registration extension" was to extend my domain name registration for one year. (This kind of idiocy is intended to frustrate and confuse people.) I politely asked the girl, "do you normally charge a fee just for transferring a domain and then charge another fee for registration or are they both included in the same fee? Because everyone else charges a fee for domain name registration and the transfer is included because registrars have to perfom the transfer in order to get paid!"

HELLO!!!

She replied, "No we don't normally charge a fee just for process of transferring a domain." I said, "Then nothing is 'FREE' because the $6.99 I'm paying you is for 1 year of domain name registration--right?"

She said, "Ya, if you want to look at that way I guess you're right." I responded, "If I'm missing something tell me what it is? What is it exactly that is 'FREE'?"

This put her into a communication lag and when she didn't respond I said, "There's nothing 'FREE' here, is there? Your home page advertises a 'FREE 1 year extension' but there no 'FREE extension' is there?" She finally responded "No. Is there anything else I can help you with?" My Response was, "No."

I only have one question: does Godaddy really think people are this stupid? Does Godaddy think we can't add and subtract? I mean really. Ok, that was two questions.

I experience this kind of cavalier attitude more and more as I deal with companies in the US. I can't believe we've gotten to the point where so many American companies are this inept.