BUYING a DOMAIN, has anyone experienced a similar situation ?

**polish_aristocrat** · 09-08-2005, 05:04 AM

I email some guy about a domain, he agrees to sell it, we negotiate a price etc - in summary about 15 emails sent from both sides. I bought lots of domains in the past but the seller looks like one of the most serious and honest ppl that I've dealt so far. So we agree on using Escrow, I send the wire transfer to them.. and the problems start, cuase Escrow changes accounts in the meantime and the wire gets returned to me after 2 weeks, then I have to resend it, so overall there's a 1 month delay with securing the payment by Escrow.

So I email the guy saying that the payment finally arrived to Escrow and we can move on, and this is his reply from August 10th.

Hello,

I will be out of my office until Monday, August 15th. Although I can check email from other computers, it would not be wise for me to use other computers to access my password protected accounts. With all the risks of hackers these days I would feel much better finalizing this transaction on my own computer when I get back to my office. I request that we wait until Monday to complete the domain sale. Is that OK with you?

Regards,
Greg

So after waiting 1 month, I agree to wait 5 more days.

*** > Since then I submitted the transfer request, he didnt confirm it, so I sent 5 emails asking if he's back and what's going on, Escrow also emailed him twice, and left two voice messages on his two different phone number, and still there's complete silence from the seller's side.

But again, he sounded so serious and honest and we exchanged so many emails that I can't believe, he backed out of the deal for some reason, because in that case - he would just let it know to me or Escrow - he spent so much time on the correspondence with me before that he simply wouldnt behave like that ( ignoring us ).

He said he's occupied with an offline biz ( so that's been the reason why he didnt develop the domain name I am buying ), but I can't imagine him being so busy with it suddenly for 3-4 weeks so that he cant even get online, as he promissed he will do on August 15th.

I've spent hours searching for the guy on the web, tried to contact him few days ago through the Secretary of an Florida organisation where he is a member to, but no reply.

Overall, buying this domain is priority for me now, so don't tell me to stop wasting my time with it, especially since domains are things that I spend my time on anyway.

This guy can be dead ( I even searched some online obituaries recently lol ), or f.e having some family tragedy, car accident or whatever and that would explain his silence.

Other than that - even if he got a better offer for this domain suddenly ( althoguh unlikely since he's been having it 8 years and I am basically paying his asking price for it ) he would notify me, and withdraw from Escrow ( that's quite unfair though, but as someones case from few months ago showed - unfortunately possible).

Anyway, I spent days thinking about it, but maybe I missed sth, so any serious person with some serious theories why he isnt replying or innovative ideas how to contact him in some alternate way - appreciated

**Dale Hubbard** · 09-08-2005, 10:19 AM

Sorry to hear you have been so messed around. PM me the domain name and the guy's email address(es) and I'll see what can be done through research. There may be a clue via the whois/DNS entry, and I'll ask admins to see if the email address is in the database with a member name here.

**fab** · 09-08-2005, 11:48 AM

Numerous things could have happened.
1. hospitalised,
2. computer died,

Have you done a full people search. You should be able to locate him somehow, get his home phone, address, etc.

**mmkrulz** · 09-08-2005, 03:08 PM

If this was done through escrow, then should'nt escrow have information on the guy?

**adill420** · 09-08-2005, 07:31 PM

you know..i am/was in a similar situation..unfortunately the domain holder was out of country but yea lol i have done alerts with news sites for his name...it sucks..i am trying to get over it but every day i check to see if there is something new :(

anyhow good luck

**polish_aristocrat** · 10-04-2005, 07:40 AM

problem solved

dude simply decided to ignore me the day after Escrow secured my $15k payment

he ignored me all the time since then but he was so serious about selling before and Escrow also confirmed he was their customer with several succesfull transactions that i really believed that sth happened to him and couldnt understand that he would ignore me

it took lots of research, to get some phone numbers of his family etc, and then to contact him, he replied with some obvious and stupid lies with the conclusion that he doesnt want to sell anymore

he'll possibly pay the price for it though, Im not used to such behavior towards myself

**Rhesus** · 10-06-2005, 01:08 AM

Originally Posted by mmkrulz

If this was done through escrow, then should'nt escrow have information on the guy?

Escrow.com doesn't seem to care one bit. A simple cancellation email is all it takes to stop the transaction at any point, however binding the agreement is. In the meanwhile the buyer pays all the fees. Their service may look nice, but the legal side is a joke.

**seeker** · 10-06-2005, 03:16 AM

reading your first post. I wonder if the escrow payment was not screwed up the first time (and thus resulting in the big delay), would you now have the domain? probably.