Are Afternic and Tucows running "Tasting" Auctions?

[steveatvillas]

Hello all:

Any insight on this one:

A domain is posted on Afternic as available, the auction starts on June 27th.

I check WHOIS, and yes, the domain expired 17th May.

I pre-order it with the minimum required to qualify, and this pre-order is considered a bid, so says Afternic in several places on the site. They also send me several emails stating that my pre-order is lodged, and I do not have to do anything more, unless of course, I am outbid once the auction starts. Then, I can continue bidding. Fair enough.

The auction starts on July 27th, right on schedule.

The auction ends on July 2nd, right on schedule. I am the only and winning bidder.

So why hasn't the name transferred? I've got plenty of money on file, and with my CC details in my Afternic membership.

After two emails to support, the first response is that they are experiencing a technical issue and they will solve it shortly.

Finally today, the 9th--a week after the auction closed--I get another response telling me that the owner renewed the name during the pre-order phase, the auction wasn't really an auction, and my pre-order wasn't really a bid. Huh? That's not what it says on the Afternic site.

Checking the WHOIS record a few minutes ago, I see that nothing has changed, the name is still expired on 17th May, 2008.

This is the second time in as many weeks when Tucows kites a domain, I place a bid, then the name is withdrawn...in this current case, with an outright lie. What a shame that Afternic seems complicit as well.

It seems they want to test the water, pull the name and then offer it for more in a BIN sale.

Oh yeah, they gave me a free year's membership for my inconvenience. Wowee!

Anyone else experiencing Auctioneer "Tasting" or "Kiting"?

[draggar]

I've had a suspicion for a while that a lot of the drop-catch services do this, they bulk register domains regardless of if someone backordered it with them and sort out who wanted it and put the rest to "auction" (coincidentally the "auctions" always last 5 days).

Afternic was down this weekend (I am pretty sure it was) and they came back on Monday (I think), so it may take a few days for them to get it to you. I think we can write your situation down as "bad timing" with a downtime and a holiday weekend.

[steveatvillas]

Nope, they definitely said that the "owner" renewed prior to the auction start. So why did the auction go for 5 days and close with me as the winning bid?

Why is the WHOIS record unchanged? Internic ain't down. I've regged 20 names in last week, and WHOIS is refreshed in minutes with my names.

Even if Afternic went down this past weekend, the auction was finished well before this.

Doesn't jive.

But, thanks for your insight.

[draggar]

Ah, I missed where you said it was renewed before the auction started. It seems like they are jumping the gun a little too soon with some of these auctions.

It's frustrating, yes, but if it was still during the redemption period where the registrar (Tucows in this case?) allowed them to renew it this late.

[Mediamarket]

If owner renewed however it should be displaying the previous owners whois??

[steveatvillas]

That's my point. The WHOIS shows the domain is still expired, i.e., not renewed.

[Mediamarket]

Thats unfortunate that their support isn't providing more. My only thoughts would be:

- The previous owner has 'requested' a renewal and they are still processing payment or for some other reason have not pushed out the thick/full whois yet.
- The whois has been cached where you are doing the query and so you are not yet seeing the updated whois.
- They like the name and are therefore keeping for themselves and will
transfer to to another entity.

I guess checking the whois over the next few days will determine. They should only be able to renew up to the last day of the RGP at the latest. IMO they should auction until owners have no option to renew but that isn't feasible for the registrars when auctioning their own names. Good luck!

[steveatvillas]

Thanks for that.

I've checked the WHOIS through 4 or 5 different sources... it the same.

And I'd agree with you. I don't think I'll be pre-ordering any more names. I'll wait until the last day.

Perhaps the "owner" saw my pre-order and figured he could get more from me later. That won't be happening.

Plenty more fish in the sea where that one came from.

[nameslave]

Yes, those so-called pre-ordering/auctions sucks. I'm not sure who is the first person to think of such waste of time and effort (for all parties).

But to be fair, I don't think a company such as Tucows DARE to cheat on a single domain, be it of 5-figure value or more. My guess is that because the expired domain is now in REDEMPTION, it will take a bit longer for the original owner to "recover" the domain.

Please keep us updated. As a Tucows reseller myself, I am very interested to know.

[steveatvillas]

I always try and give the benefit of the doubt, but I've had a run of bad luck with names held by Tucows. This isn't the first time.

It would be a real shame if tasting permeates into auctions as well.

But, there are two sides of every coin. Who knows?

Ockham's razor.

I will keep you posted.

[Yofie]

Does the Registrant look anything like this?

Registrant:
Contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA

With Name Servers like this?

PARKING2.MDNSSERVICE.COM
PARKING1.MDNSSERVICE.COM

[steveatvillas]

I wish I could tell you.... all registrant info hidden.

Only shows Registrar, that would be Tucows.

[Onward]

Hmm...look at my post here...I am thinking Tucows is still up to their tricks and now doing it with Afternic.

http://www.dnforum.com/f31/tucows-ag...ml#post1498982

[Mediamarket]

What is the domains' registry status? (Redemption?)

By hidden ownership information do you mean w/ a whois privacy profile or hidden as in blank?

It should be displaying both the registry whois information (thin) and the ownership/admin/tech whois information (thick) unless it is in a redemption status.

[nameslave]

Allow me to add some info here.

I have a domain in Redemption at Tucows right now, and their whois does NOT show anything else but only pulls directly from the registry. Apparently, this is what they usually do with domains during redemption.

[steveatvillas]

Onward: Oh, man, I got the same email today...WORD FOR F'in WORD! Starting to smell a bit fishy.

"Dear *******,

You have recently placed a preorder for *********.com on Afternic. Unfortunately, the name is no longer available for sale on Afternic and has been removed from the site. For this inconvenience, we are automatically extending your membership for one year."

MediaMarket: Doesn't say anything, IN RE contact info, as in blank. Does state it's in redemption period. No mention of any privacy service.