Important Update to .ME Auction Platform

[anatoly]

this just came in the mail....

Dear Auction Participant,

This notice is to inform you of an upcoming update in the behavior of the auction platform that will take effect at approximately 16:00 UTC on 11 August 2008.

The update is being made to comply with .ME Registry auction rules regarding Lead Changes, which state that "Any lead changes in the last 24 hours result in an automatic 24-hour extension of the auction."

With the update, the auction platform will no longer consider as a lead change bids placed that are higher than the current price but lower than the current leader's maximum bid.

For example, if the current auction price is $100, and the leader's maximum bid is $1,000 and another bidder places a bid for $105, the system will automatically update the auction price to $110 by applying the leader's proxy bid, thereby maintaining the same leader. This will no longer be considered a "Lead Change." If a bidder places a bid higher than $1,000 then a "Lead Change" will occur and the auction will be extended (if such a bid takes place in the last 24 hours of the auction).

The minimum bid increment of $5.00 will not change and this update is no guarantee that an auction will end sooner. This update is being done to better align the auction platform behavior with the auction rules and we thank the participants who brought this to our attention. There has been no evidence of fraud by any participant and this update will not affect the status of any closed auctions or those that began prior to the update.

[musicdotmobi]

Yea this is after I sent them legal notice that they were in violation of their TOS / rules. I have been a leader for a whole week and had some guy bidding small increments each time. I guess they respond if they have a lawyer contact them andhave my big mouth running once again.

I am getting tired of scandalous registry auctions and their BS. First sedo with the .mobi's last December and then this. Rest assured I do not sit around and have these guys bully us around.

Here is what was said:


Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: Your Auctions in Violation of TOS - .me
From: Constantine
To: support@auctions.domain.me


Actually,

You are wrong. Each time a bid is placed the LEAD DOES NOT CHANGE. The bid changes and the auction price changes, but the lead does not.

"You are bidding to take the lead again" means nothing and is not per your TOS and rules. I have asked 20 different people who agree with me. Your process is fraudulent and designed to keep money in your accounts to collect interest.

If I bid $100000 and another person bis $100 and then puts $5 each day, then the auction will go on for years. This is just unacceptable and a violation.

Noone agress with your interpretation. This is not what is said in your contract. Me and many other bidders are fed up with bidding on names for over a week. We are considering taking legal action because not only are you wasting our times, you violate your own OBVIOUS tos.

Costa

P.S Even one of your employees told me he agreed with me over the phone and that he would investigate this further, even asked me to email you outlining the issues at hand.

----- Original Message -----
From: support@auctions.domain.me
To: Constantine
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 10:52 AM
Subject: RE: Your Auctions in Violation of TOS - .me


Dear Sir/Madam,

Each time a bid is placed, the lead has changed. The high bidder is not based on who
has the highest 'proxy bid', it is based on who has the highest current bid. When our
system auto bids for you, you are bidding to take the lead again. This results in the
24 hour auto extension.

Regards,
Nicole B.
.ME Domain Auction Support
support@auctions.domain.me

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Your Auctions in Violation of TOS - .me
From: Constantine
Date: Sat, August 02, 2008 9:32 am
To: <support@auctions.domain.me>

I have read your TOS at: http://www.domain.me/index.php?page=21

Here they are:

Bidding in an auction:

a. Applicants may place a maximum bid and a proxy service will automatically bid for them.

b. Alternatively, applicants may place a fixed bid in real time at the next bid increment level.

c. Any lead changes in the last 24 hours results in an automatic 24-hour extension of the auction

I have been the leader for OVER 24hrs countless times. I have taken screenshots to verify this. Seems your system is in violation of your terms of service. I really am very disappointed with the way .me has been allocating their domains. The first issue was with GoDaddy telling me I did not win the names I paid for and was told I won. Then I am sitting around for days bidding for days on auctions that get extended for an additional 24hrs while I have been the leader for over 24hrs and have not been surpassed for 24hrs.

I seriously am demanding I get the domain I am auctioning for. If this process happens again tomorrow (i.e auction gets extended for another 24hrs with me being the leader, expect me to have a serious talk with my lawyers).

I know investors and bidders are very upset at this violation of your terms of service and auction rules. This is obviously illegal. Why on earth can't you guys have real, reputable auctions that are done the traditional way? In other words like TDNAM (a Godaddy company!) does it? The answer is obvious. Because the goal is to get the bidders frustrated, extending auctions for DAYS. This is not how customers and bidders should be treated. Which online company conducts auctions like this? eBay? No. Afternic? No. This is just unheard of and like i said earlier - it is illegal.

I should have had the domain name i bid for already. If I get another extension tomorrow and I am still the leader, i will certainly take the necessary action to get the domain at the price I am supposed to get it for. I am not interested in paying extra and spend days every day checking the auction because .me has a system in place that violates its own Auction rules and enables micro-bidding to extend auctions for 24hrs when the counter bid is negligible in size.

I was invited to join a class lawsuit for the Godaddy debacle but chose not to participate since I have had enough of lawsuits against registries. But this is so obvious and documented amongst the .me community that it is a time bomb waiting to happen. Hey, I will do my part to do the right thing and bring fairness to all the bidders. Where is the transparency in your system? It is nowhere. How do we know some Godaddy employee isnt monitoring the bids and increasing them (yes, we all heard the TDNAM story about godaddy employes bidding on domains and having insider information but let us not talk about that).


I suggest you have the .me domain I have been a leader in for days in my account. You can track the history of the domain. Actually I was a leader for OVER 24hrs in the past many times. If i dont get the domain name, I am requesting the auction bidding history of this domain with the bidding times and this be solved amicably. You will see I have won this domain multiple times as an over-24hr leader.

I suggest you fix your system ASAP to comply to your rules.


Sincerely,

Constantine

[Meridian66]

Thanks for keeping up the pressure on these guys.

[musicdotmobi]

Thanks for keeping up the pressure on these guys.

I am glad they responded to my requests. I spoke to many on here that were wondering the same thing. I am glad this issue is fixed but I am sad that once again only a threat of legal action gets GoDaddy/.me to act upon their TOS/rules.

Best wishes,

Constantine


P.S. I hope they have more transparency in their upcoming premium auctions. I can certainly see loopholes where godaddy/.me can play with the system and be unnoticed. I know sedo now is requiring any large bidder to submit verifications. I was hoping there would be more transparency. Do we know if some of the bidding is for real? Afterall, .me and godaddy knows all our proxy bids.

[clipper]

So, what of all the fraudulent auctions that have ended?

[musicdotmobi]

So, what of all the fraudulent auctions that have ended?

That is a GREAT question. I was wondering the same thing. I know for sure that the domains I bid for, I was a clearcut 24hr+ lead winner many times and in many cases overpaid. I agreed to the payment so it is what it is.

I am in the same boat as everyone. I registered domains with GoDaddy in the landrush, won them then got an email saying that they failed to register 75% of the names. I did pay them and they did keep my monies in their accounts. The interest might not be much on that but picture this. Thousands of similar landrush "winners" (who in actuality were losers) all had monies refunded days later. However I am sure Godaddy / .me is still accruing interest on the monies we paid them to do the preregistrations. I am sure we will get the refunds on those after the end of the auctions?

Everything is suspect here. Maybe someone needs to pull that earing from Parson's ear. I used to like the guy but it seems he is quite the unethical businessman. Yet another black eye in the domain auction world. Auctions in my opinion should be open with full transparency. In other words, we know the bidders, that they are for real and we are not getting scammed.

The question is whether there has been foul play. I will leave that to everyone's imagination. Why can't we have some clean auctions.

P.S Why is Toyota.me being auctioned? That is quite a trademark to be bidding on. That is trademark infringement written over it. And who is bidding on Facebook.me? Godaddy is not protecting trademark holders (but yet Mr. Parsons reserved parsons.me for himself). I am sure godaddy has heard of Toyota and Facebook yet they auction those names out. I guess theyll be profiting on trademarked name auctions. Amazing times we live in.

[anatoly]

Something doesn't smell right about these auctions. I wonder if any of the GoDaddy employees having access to costumers data are shill bidding.....

is there any kind of third party oversight to this, or are they basically doing whatever they want ?

[PVFARKAS]

Funny, after reading the OP, I was going to send you the info..

[musicdotmobi]

Something doesn't smell right about these auctions. I wonder if any of the GoDaddy employees having access to costumers data are shill bidding.....

is there any kind of third party oversight to this, or are they basically doing whatever they want ?

I am willing to bet that they are basically doing whatever they want. I think there will be a huge problem with the premium auctions if they keep the existing system in place. They have NO credibility as an auctioneer and makes you wonder why Godaddy does not use TDNAM for these auctions. The why is quite an interesting question.

Can they say the proxy bids? Yes. Can their employees bid as well? I am sure given their history of employees bidding on domains. Wait isn't the VP of godaddy the owner of this site DNFORUM?

Then you wonder why Godaddy never went public. Parsons is making way too much money privately to even consider going public. If i remember well they were going to but decided not to. Again I wonder why?

[justacoder]

Change "...and this update will not affect the status of any closed auctions or those that began prior to the update"

to

"...and this update will not affect the status of any closed auctions"

Even though emails are still being sent out with the, at this point, all too familiar

"Important: Your auction has been extended",

...do not believe it. The rules have changed for all auctions, even those in-progress.

[PRED]