Christopher bought web-hosting and email from godaddy.com, who host this blog. To make life interesting, that’s completely separate from the organisation from whom he bought the icyjumbo domain name, which is 1and1. I don’t know why he did it that way – he did explain but it made no sense to me at the time. The domain name was due to expire the month after he died, so I spent ages on the phone to them two years ago getting the domain put into my name. Which reminds me – it must be due up for renewal again this month, so I had better check the credit card hasn’t expired, or the blog will vanish!
GoDaddy had a major DDOS attack on Monday, which brought down their server and meant that I couldn’t access my email. It also probably took this blog off-line for the duration. Today I got an email from them, apologising profusely, and offering me some credit off my renewal fees – except that the email was addressed to Christopher, not me. And I do hate it when I still get emails and letters addressed to “Dear Christopher Booth”. My heart sank, as I realised that I hadn’t updated GoDaddy after his death, nor got the account – and payment details – moved into my name.
So this evening I’ve spent nearly an hour on the phone to GoDaddy customer support in the USA, trying to resolve the problem. The first attempt completely failed – the IT support person directed me to a form to fill in that wouldn’t actually accept the information I needed to give it – it complained that the domain name wasn’t registered with them, which is true, but not the point. I phoned back (fortunately this time I found a UK number which redirected to the States, so it shouldn’t cost as much as a transatlantic call) and got someone else who said that I didn’t need that form anyway, he could talk me through it all online. So I’ve been juggling Christopher’s iPad (which was getting the support and password reset emails from the GoDaddy support staff), my laptop (where I had a browser open filling in the new details, but can’t pick up his emails) and the phone on loudspeaker, as I attempted to get it all moved into my name and redeem the credit.
I think I’ve got it all sorted out now, but I’ve got a thumping headache! Which wasn’t helped by the first of the tech support staff suggesting that the easiest thing would be for me to ask Christopher Booth for help, as he had clearly set it up for me in the first place and would presumably know the account details. At which point I pointed out that he was DEAD and that his ashes weren’t being very communicative! Honestly, you would think that they’d never come across a widow before……
