Afternic screwed me - AGAIN !

[airwave]

If you listed a domain which is not yours, Afternic should cancel your account immediately which I still believe they will do.

Never did that. I already removed all my listings @ afternic.
If they would do this to you, they would do it to me.
Not worth it.

Again, sorry you didn't get your name but I think you need to look @ your orginal post and look where you were coming from.

I am done with this thread.

Goodbye and good luck.

[denny007]

Never did that.

Huh ? You have had never a domain listed which was not yours ? How come than when I bought it you claimed you do not own the domain anymore. better do not comment on my photo next time but rather on your brain. It will be more fun...

[gingeman]

Very interesting read indeed, I hope it doesn't have to get any more bickery as that is not necessary, but I do sympathise with both parties as I too have experienced both sides to the coin. It is very difficult if you buy and sell names on a daily basis to keep all records of your portfolio up to date at all related sites where you sell them, but it is also extremely frustrating when you think you have found a bargain and it turns out to not be the case. I think afternic is at fault. The fact is, anything bought at BIN is sold, regardless, as this is the nature of BIN, but if the name was sold elsewhere previously and not updated on afternic there's little to be done.
As a professional platform for domain name transactions, afternic clearly needs to do two things, or consider them:-

1.Not take people's money upfront and then hold it for xx days, before transferring it back to their afternic account.

2. Consider monitoring whois details, and if it appears contact details have changed on a domain listed with them - send an email to make sure the name is still for sale. I realise this would take up a lot of resources and probably a lot of proxies to do the queries, but I am sure it is possible- perhaps do a weekly check or something- it would prevent this from happening again. I am trying to work this into one of my own domain-brokerage sites after similar episodes...

[denny007]

I would not be so pissed if - 1. Afternic would not force me to pay unconfirmed sale and 2. if the seller would come immediately after domain sold and tell "sorry domain is not available", that would do.

But as (the seller claims) she stopped using email on file with Afternic, and everyone was waiting for almost 2 weeks for her response, she is also to blame. I am still keeping redirects from emails I was using last time 5 years ago, if someone stops using email and has no redirects after just 8 month - it would be quite strange domainer, a lot of domains can have i.e. forgotten old whois email.
And just for the record: I believe she still DOES own the domain...

[dvdrip]

I had an account with afternic for 1 year. I never renewed after that.
2 years later I am still getting emails from them saying my account is up for renewal. I have asked them 3 or 4 times to stop sending me emails and delete my account.
A couple of months ago I got an offer about one of my domains I had listed there 2 years ago. Of course I never replied. The same would have happened if I had a BIN price set.

[PeterMan]

I just went into Afternic after reading this thread and I took down all of my listings. I liked them for parking when I first started and didn't mind paying the $9.95 to have an account, especially after I had a referral and earned $9.95, but when the price went up to $20 I decided not to renew, I never had an offer there and why pay them when I can use countless other services for free? And if I do not renew my account why would they continue to list my domains? Seems like a half assed move... Also stories like these always seem to be about Afternic so I say why bother with them...

[JuniperPark]

This is a rather amusing thread!

Here we have 2 people all crying 'unfair' over a failing transaction to buy a typo of Google's trademarked name. One person openly admits he wanted to buy because the trademark would generate traffic AND the price was likely a mistake. The other person admits dealing in Google's trademark names, and admits to have entered a contract to sell with Afternic, but failed to cancel the listing AND failed to keep the contact email current, yet still blames Afternic for this problem. And Afternic took buyer's money in violation of their own step-by-step escrow procedure.

Bottom line: Everyone involved was 'dealing dirty', which enough bad karma to be shared by all.

[Creature]

Denny, I think you have an unfair advantage in any argument due to your smiling avatar. Please can you change it to something more horrific .

On the more serious point, do Afternic ever comment in here. They seem to be losing customers.

[denny007]

This is a rather amusing thread!

Here we have 2 people all crying 'unfair' over a failing transaction to buy a typo of Google's trademarked name. One person openly admits he wanted to buy because the trademark would generate traffic AND the price was likely a mistake. The other person admits dealing in Google's trademark names, and admits to have entered a contract to sell with Afternic, but failed to cancel the listing AND failed to keep the contact email current, yet still blames Afternic for this problem. And Afternic took buyer's money in violation of their own step-by-step escrow procedure.

Bottom line: Everyone involved was 'dealing dirty', which enough bad karma to be shared by all.

I wanted to buy it so I can give it to Google.

On the more serious point, do Afternic ever comment in here. They seem to be losing customers.

They commented within the Escrow so here it is:

Greetings Buyer and Seller:

Thank you for using Afternic. We are sorry to see the way things have unfolded on the DNForum. Please allow me to clarify the details of this transaction.

When an Afternic member's membership expires, the domain listings will be removed. When an Afternic member's email address changes, that does not mean that previous domain listings become void, nor does it mean that their domain listing will be removed. It just means that, unless the member is active on Afternic, or if they don't update their Afternic email address, the member will become unaware of bids on their domains.

The reason why you received the email that the seller accepted your bid, was because you bid the Asking price of the domain. When buyers and sellers sign up as a member, they agree to the rules of the site. One rule is that if a buyers offer is accepted within 7 days of it being placed, or if the buyer meets the "Buy Now" asking price, then both parties have entered into a legally binding contract. (This particular contract was void, of course, because the seller doesn't own the domain any longer - as we cannot expect someone to sell something that isn't theirs).

The seller had an old email on the account, which is why they didn't login at Afternic to inform you that they no longer own the domain. After I spoke with the seller on Friday, they informed me that they don't own the domain and that they have a new email address, that isn't on the Afternic account.

The reason we ask Buyer's to submit payment, regardless of Step 1 being complete, is because some seller's don't complete Step 1 until the end of the Escrow Transaction. If we don't have the buyer's payment, then we can't instruct the seller to transfer the domain. Therefore, we send collection notices to the buyer to complete Steps 2 and/or 3 (unless the seller has informed us that they don't own the domain). We expect that sellers will have updated portfolios, which is why we require buyers to be submitting payment after winning the domain. In this Escrow transaction, had the seller still owned the domain, then it was in the buyer's interest that we have payment for the domain, as we could have sped up the transaction after contacting the seller and updating their Afternic portfolio.

Had the seller owned the domain and not transferred, or had the seller been a repeat offender of not keeping their portfolio updated, then we would have canceled their membership. However, as it was their first offense, we gave them a warning.

As far as the funds for this domain are concerned, the Escrow Manager has already issued you a refund to your PayPal account. The reason that I stated that we would hold the funds in your account was because you previously request us to do so, "If this escrow does fall through do NOT return the money keep it here I will sooner or later buy something."

Again, we are sorry for any inconvenience. We are trying to look out for the safety and protection of all our members. We will be canceling this Escrow transaction now. We do hope that both of you will stay with Afternic.

If you have any other questions, comments or concerns, please contact us. Have a great day!

[JuniperPark]

I wanted to buy it so I can give it to Google.

Now THAT was funny... I appreciate your sense of humor!

[ColdGin]

Well...Google needs our help after paying 1.6 billions for YouTube

[Acro]

Google's stock closed at $480, a jump of $21 in one day. They don't need our help at all.

[denny007]

Google's stock closed at $480, a jump of $21 in one day. They don't need our help at all.

If is it so I will keep all my G typos then...

[stu]

"Much better" ? earth-google.com gets about 20K uniques/month

I'm interested to know how you find out these statics for any domain?

I have to agree with gingeman. I think their systems need to be tightened up to try to alleviate problems like these.

Personally, I've been quite happy with Afternic. I have the same domains listed on both Afternic and sedo. I've sold dozens of domains on Afternic, but none on sedo. YMMV.

[bdss]

The root cause is afternic here
1 system not updated.
2. taking money from Denny without confirming the deal with Airwave.
3. afternic revolve the money taken from buyer in their system. Yes they keep it in the users account, but it is actually increasing the cash flow in their system.
People here buy domains everyday. If one deal dose not go through, you go out to look for a second one and want the cash in your hand and not in afternic account where you have to wait for withdrawal.

Denny awesome sense of humor u got there....way to go lol

[denny007]

I'm interested to know how you find out these statics for any domain?

Experience. Seller confirmed I was about right.

[namestrands]

Just picking up on this..

AfterNIC really should change their policy and not request a buyer to hand over the cash until such times as the seller confirms the sale.

I recently had a similar situation, I sold a domain a day before and actually forgot to remove it from my portfolio, which is easy enough when you have thousands of domains.

Even though I told afternic about this 2 minutes after the escrow service started they carried on telling the buyer where to transfer funds, they also told me that I had to cancel the domain sale with other seller and proceed with the afternic sale.

Its a flawed concept, both parties should agree. PERIOD and when informed they should not keep asking the buyer for the cash. It just aint gravy.

[Manolete]

I miss denny007 and Acroplex threads