legal Namejet and enomcentral stealing domains

[MarkWWW]

On the 11th of May I won an auction of an expired domain on NameJet and my card was billed automatically and the domain was pushed to my EnomCentral account the same day.

Two days later I get contacted by NameJet:

We regret to inform you that a domain you recently purchased through a pre-release auction has been cancelled by the Registrar of record, as allowed by the NameJet Agreement. Unfortunately this domain was listed in error and was not available for sale. All efforts will be made to assure this does not occur again.

I never agreed on cancelling this transaction, and I told them that they just can't cancel a complete transaction and take the domain back. On the same day, I was also contacted by the owner of the previous domain offering to buy it back, and since it was an organization I offered help by selling it for a low $xxxx and changing the nameservers to theirs so that their website will not stop working, my communication with them went nowhere at some point..

I just accessed my enomcentral.com account and it looks like the domain was taken from my account without my permission!

This is VERY serious, meaning that NameJet can auction a domain and sell it for $10k, but if they receive a higher offer from a 3rd party who did not even participate in the auction, they will just claim it was a mistake, refund the transaction and take the domain back.

 

[Johnn]

Call them and find out what is going on.
This happens a lot and I think it may be a mistake like they said?

Resellers often listed their names everywhere but they do not update when the name is sold from another venue.

 

[MarkWWW]

This is not a case in which a reseller didn't update their portfolio and listed a domain that they no longer own, but rather a case in which a domain was auctioned probably because it lapsed.

I had full control over the domain and it was actually in my Enom account, but now it is not. It appears that Enom decided to get into my account without my permission and take the domain away.

 

[DigiNames]

If they have your money and you have the name then it sounds like a done deal. It definitely doesn't sound right that they would remove it from your account after the fact.

Have you had any other communication with them other than the notice that you received?

 

[MarkWWW]

Here is what they had to say back in the day:

The process has already been completed and the transaction has already been refunded at this time. I apologize for the inconvenience, however the domain auction had to be cancelled as informed by the Registrar of record to which we complied. This process has also been outlined in our Terms of Service which you agreed to when you signed up for you account.

I asked where does it say, in their TOS, that they can cancel transactions, issue refunds and take back domains without their buyers' consent, their response:

this is in the TOS since you asked, it's under Section 4 at the end: You also agree that NameJet shall have the right in its sole discretion to suspend, cancel, or restart any auction (Public, Private or Advance) prior to commencement of, during, or after completion of, the auction.
We truly understand that is not ideal, and it seldom happens. Unfortunately the Registrar requested the domain auction be cancelled, as it should not have been listed. We have to abide by the request of Register.com. Typically there is a legal, or other situation that should have prohibited them sending us the domain to auction in an automated batch, and they need to recover the domain. Hence we cancel the auction and refunded you in full for the order that processed two days ago.

 

[MarkWWW]

Duplicate reply.

 

[Jack Gordon]

Theft is a serious accusation, and it does not sound like this is theft.

Unless you are accusing them of lying too?

I would seriously consider if/how you have been harmed. Inconvenienced, maybe. But if it was never theirs to sell, it was never yours to lose.

Pick yourself up, take a deep breath, get over your indignation, and move on to the next opportunity. That's life sometimes.

 

[MarkWWW]

Don't you think they should have provided documents that back their claims? Not just a support ticket saying there was an error and cancelling the transaction.

If I sell you a domain and we get the deal done, days later I get back to you saying that there was an error and refund your payment without even asking you, and then the domain disappears from your account, what would you call this?

I was not harmed in any way, this thread is more about professionalism and work ethics.

 

[Jack Gordon]

Don't you think they should have provided documents that back their claims? Not just a support ticket saying there was an error and cancelling the transaction.

No, not necessarily. You agreed to their terms, and they invoked a clause in those terms. They owe you nothing more and nothing less that you got.

I was not harmed in any way, this thread is more about professionalism and work ethics.

Exactly. Which is why the alarmist accusation in the thread title is uncalled for.

 

[MarkWWW]

You chose not to answer my question, because if you did your statements would have been controversy.

I was not harmed, but I could have easily made a good profit reselling the domain.

 

[Jack Gordon]

I didn't answer your question because it isn't really relevant.

The facts:
1) You bid and won a domain in their auction
2) They awarded you the domain
3) They canceled the auction and rescinded the domain
4) They had the right to do what they did, based on the contract clause you agreed to

I would call that business. They didn't have the right to sell you the domain, and they covered that possibility in the contract. It sucks for you, but they invoked that clause and there is nothing inherently unethical or illegal about it.

They might have a claim against you for libel though. I would use caution when making serious accusations you can't back up.

 

[MarkWWW]

You did not answer the question because the answer is stealing. Please stop posting this non-sense here, calling this business and thinking they might have a claim against me, joke of the day.

 

[Jack Gordon]

You did not answer the question because the answer is stealing. Please stop posting this non-sense here, calling this business and thinking they might have a claim against me, joke of the day.

Are you being serious?

Time to grow up. They stole nothing from you. They refunded your money and took back their merchandise.

It is unfortunate, but not unethical or illegal. Unlike, for instance, libel.

 

[Cartoonz]

You're not looking at this the right way...

In order to be able to operate platforms like NameJet for expiring names rather than have them actually delete at the Registry level, the Registrar MUST provide the same length of time to the Registrant as the ICANN mandated Redemption Period allows.

That is exactly what happened here. This protects the actual Registrant, they must be afforded the opportunity to recover THEIR domain name - and it was THEIR domain name, not yours. Yeah, I get it that you paid for it, it was in your account, blah blah... but it isnt like this was months or even weeks later, this was within the time afforded. It went back to the ORIGINAL Registrant, it didn't get sold to some other party.

I'm sure you don't want to accept the above explanation, but that doesn't change things. Perhaps you might want to consider that this same policy protects YOU and your domains, should you ever find yourself in the other position as a Registrant. The Registrar has a duty to protect the Registrant and afford them all the benefits that the standard Deletion Cycle would. If you were that Registrant, you would be afforded and expect the same protections. In reality, if this transaction was not reversed and eNom/NameJet had let you keep the domain and kept the money you gave them - THAT would be actual theft, from the REGISTRANT. In your situation, you were refunded, the transaction was reversed, and everybody is made whole.

 

[MarkWWW]

Please note that I mentioned it was an expired domain, that was an assumption since they mostly deal with expired domains, NameJet said the listing was an error, but if it was just an invalid listing, how would the domain be moved to my account.