Advice needed quick

[O.C.]

Hey every one, long time no post.


A buyer sent me an email saying that some one else grabbed the name he bought and feels it is my fault because I gave him the wrong expiration date in an email once (I accidently added a year to the date).


He also said the wrong expiration date was in our contract, but the contract specifically mentions no expiration date and at one point says, "This agreement sets forth the entire understanding of the parties and supersedes an and all prior or contemperaneous, written or oral agreements with respect to the subject matter hereof."


Here's a snippet of the email I sent him the same day I sent him the contract:

Remember! As all domain names, _______ has a registration expiration date. _____.com registration expires _____ 2003 and it is the owners' responsibility to renew it.

Write the expiration date down some where (every where) you will remember it. NameScout does not send out renewal notices by mail, so always update your email.

To prevent the domain name from expiring and some one else registering it: Always remember to update your email address on file whenever your email address changes.

Legally, I'm pretty sure I'm in the clear.

Should I give him his money back?!! I'm sure if he updated his email, he received lots nagging emails from NameScout


Please don't quote this message when replying to. I may need to edit it.

 

[crabby]

How much money is involved?

 

[O.C.]

Just $500 or so.

I'd rather not give it away, of course

 

[drname]

It's hard to image that the guy lost the domain name he bought due to not renewing it. If he was a serious business man to use the domain name, he should at least check the whois before and after the buy and know the expiration date clearly in his mind.

He should blame himselft, not the seller.

Originally posted by O.C.
Hey every one, long time no post.


A buyer sent me an email saying that some one else grabbed the name he bought and feels it is my fault because I gave him the wrong expiration date in an email once (I accidently added a year to the date).


He also said the wrong expiration date was in our contract, but the contract specifically mentions no expiration date and at one point says, "This agreement sets forth the entire understanding of the parties and supersedes an and all prior or contemperaneous, written or oral agreements with respect to the subject matter hereof."


Here's a snippet of the email I sent him the same day I sent him the contract:



Legally, I'm pretty sure I'm in the clear.

Should I give him his money back?!! I'm sure if he updated his email, he received lots nagging emails from NameScout


Please don't quote this message when replying to. I may need to edit it.

 

[Cartoonz]

Remember! As all domain names, _______ has a registration expiration date. _____.com registration expires _____ 2003 and it is the owners' responsibility to renew it.
------------------------------------------

If you expect to "edit" that part of your message, that would be understandable. Also unethical.

If this WAS what you sent him (with the 2003 date) then he would seem to be rightfully pissed if the name was deleted.

just my .02

 

[Kid Kool]

well i agree that the buyer was ignorant in that he failed to bother to check the whois when buying the name.

Who doesn't check the whois to see if their info resolves after buying a name anyway?

However, i would say you are still ultimately responsible since
you gave him false information. The sale could be considered null since there was no "meeting of the minds", and in essence he didn't get what he was promised.

seems like the ethical thing would be to give the money back or at least try to cut some sort of deal.

 

[Silverwire]

Originally posted by drname
It's hard to image that the guy lost the domain name he bought due to not renewing it. If he was a serious business man to use the domain name, he should at least check the whois before and after the buy and know the expiration date clearly in his mind.

He should blame himselft, not the seller.

It's not hard to imagine. I've only sold several names. One $200 name the buyer let expire shortly after the purchase and after I went out of my way to warn him several times. Another $1000 was purchased in order to redirect to a full time business of a related theme, and it would have expired had I not shot off a warning e-mail to the company owner literally on the eve of expiration (his assistant was handling it and she thought she had it transferred to another registrar but it never went through.)

O.C., you say you sent him on the day of the contract. I take that to mean it was NOT PART of the contract. If that's the case, then legally (and I'm no lawyer) I think you're in the clear. However, from a ethical customer service standpoint, you may want to take some responsibility, but certainly not 100%, maybe not even 50%. But its probably a legal question whether you are admitting fault and putting yourself on the hook for the whole thing if you refund part. Then again, if you kick him back $150-200 bucks, chances are he will not sue you for the difference (imho).

 

[adoptabledomains]

I never list or show the expiration date in a transfer transaction. I refer them to look at the whois record for the date, and to verify that ALL information in that record is correct BEFORE changing the password or transferring to another registrar or registry account or accepting the transfer as complete. That way it's in their ballpark, and part of their own "due diligence" in the transaction.

A few years ago, I transferred a domain that was at NSI, and stated in the ad that registration was paid up for 3 years (which it was). The new registrant found in his TOS on the transfer that NSI does not honor previously paid time on a transfer and He had to pay new registration fees as if a new domain. Although it was unknown to me, the buyer was upset and I refunded him the amount of 1 year NSI registration and enough to transfer and pay two more years at a less expensive registrar. He agreed to move it and accept that, and I immediately transferred ALL my domains away from NSI and never gave them business again. That's when I quit mentioning registration length or expiration dates, and refer them to registrar TOS and Whois info.

 

[O.C.]

Thanks all. I'll have a talk w/ him and see what he has in mind.


Cartoonz, . You disrespected my professional request in some silly hope of being an ethical enforcer. Perhaps it hasn't crossed your mind that the buyer might want to unfairly try to hold me liable for other damages this might have cost him (a lot more than the cost of the domain name?) There's no moral or ethical need to keep information that he could use improperly against me on a public message board, and there's no moral or ethical excuse for what you did. Lame.

 

[jberryhill]

If the domain transfer went through, then when the buyer became the registrant, the buyer took on all of the obligations of the domain registration contract with the registrar, including the obligation to renew the domain name when it was due.

 

[O.C.]

Originally posted by jberryhill
If the domain transfer went through, then when the buyer became the registrant, the buyer took on all of the obligations of the domain registration contract with the registrar, including the obligation to renew the domain name when it was due.

In all respects, I'm pretty sure I'm in the clear legally. If he let it expire because of something I said, I'm not going to be harsh about it. I'm waiting to see what he's after to see how I'll respond.


I still don't understand how he could have ignored Namescout's daily email badgering... and all of those tricky snail mail ads from competing registrars.