another suspended account victim

[Focus]

Focus,
As I have mentioned already, we will always assess every account where we receive a complaint, which happens in less than 1% of accounts we block, so we aim to correct any wrongs we commit when blocking accounts.
Ed

I think the assessment should be done in whole BEFORE you block accounts.
It seems maybe you guys are just a bit too fast on the trigger over there..one of the reasons I don't risk my revenue with ND at this point.

 

[NameDriver]

Mulligan,
Thanks for the kind words.
Focus, we clearly do do the assessment before we block accounts and we never block accounts unless we believe there is a 100% reason to do so. However, we do realise that there are two sides to every story and if the aggrieved domain owner can put forward a case that is just, then we will act appropriately.
Hope you all have a good Sunday.

Ed

 

[bwhhisc]

I also park at NameDrive and have for 3 years. Ed is a standup guy who will answer you promptly and directly if you have a problem. Most of the people that get banned are usually manipulating the clicks, or violating the TOS, some inadvertantly or not of their own doing.

Namedrive has dozens of terrific quality themed templates and creative headers, and a nice user interface for customizing options and setting keywords etc. Might be worth a try for some of you...take a minute and check out their "Electronics" template, that one is tops IMO.

 

[broe-foe]

What never ceases to amaze me is the current phenomena of customers of a company having to post complaints in a public forum or blog in which lurk the "higher-ups" of said company, in order to get proper customer service. It seems the company in question here, based on its response to the complaining customer, is more concerned about other domainers yanking their domains and parking elsewhere. Otherwise, a truly dedicated customer service department at the company would have resolved the issue for the customer within 24 hours, whether or not "Ed" was away for the weekend. For a company with "tens of thousands of customers", why is the continuity of a customer's account broken because one dude took a long weekend?

It seems bush-league for a company to provide customer service through this forum when it should have been handled quickly and directly from the company. It makes us wonder if the only way to get proper customer service is to post complaints here, knowing the company is lurking here to stomp out PR fires.

I smell fish. It stinks.

 

[David G]

My dealings with Namedrive are limited with few names there but no problems at all.

With most all companies, sometimes regular support fails for various reasons, possibly simply communcations or personalities involved so the forums would be a final resort. Nothing wrong with that.

Ed is to be complimented participating in the forums which is something hardly anyone else does with the notable exception of parked.com fabulous and moniker who quickly come to mind. How often do you see other big players here? Very rare if at all.

 

[broe-foe]

With most all companies, sometimes regular support fails for various reasons, possibly simply communcations or personalities involved so the forums would be a final resort. Nothing wrong with that. Ed is to be complimented participating in the forums which is something hardly anyone else does with the notable exception of parked.com fabulous and moniker who quickly come to mind. How often do you see other big players here? Very rare if at all.

Yeah, I know what you're saying, and a healthy portion of what you say is right. But it seems to me if "Ed" or another rep from a different company would spend the time otherwise spent here manning the Complaint Department at the company they own or work, all their customers would be better off for it.

Sorry for my cynicism, but I believe the reasons those reps lurk the domain forums is to monitor threads dedicated to their respective companies to stamp out PR fires, and put on the best face to lure new customers. I'm not a NameDrive customer, therefore I don't need their customer service. Their CUSTOMERS need customer service from them. Those customers expect to get customer service from NameDrive, not dnforum.com.

It's all good. The BS is apparent, we learn something, they learn something. Just remember fellow domainers, any company utilizing an asset YOU own to enrich themselves entitles you to the highest level of customer service and support. The analogy of tangible real estate applies here. If a management company takes a fee every month to collect rents from your tenants on your behalf and otherwise manage a building you own, you wouldn't expect them to stop collecting your rents from your tenants because one of their employees went away for a long weekend or rather dropped the ball.

 

[NameDriver]

Hi Broe-foe,

As someone who has not come into contact with our customer service, I don't know why you feel you need to comment on it. As I said earlier on in this thread, it is human nature to want to tell everyone if you are dissatisfied with something but not so much if you are happy with something. Read any thread on any company on any forum and the comments are mostly about problems or bad experiences mixed in with a few positives.

As a result, people don't post "Hey, my ND rep got back to me 10 minutes after writing to them". Instead, they'll write a personal message to their rep saying they appreciate the response. I see plenty of these types of mails every week, but how many of these people post in forums to say they're happy their issue was dealt with quickly and efficiently?

I find it strange that you are suspicious of us putting a lot of time into answering people's questions on forums. You can see in this thread alone that 3 dissatisfied customers can post a thread in a forum which is read by over 500 people, despite the hundreds of private mails of thanks we get for our support which are not posted in forums. Forums are well-indexed by Google, they are read by thousands of domainers and are an important source of information for many people in the industry, which is why we try to make sure that we are represented fairly and honestly here.

On the case in point which you refer to, NZPoint originally wrote to one of my colleagues who wrote to me asking what action we should take but I was away and so did not get back to him for three days. As I stated earlier, we compensated him for the loss in earnings during this time so he was not out of pocket.

Most people seem to appreciate that we are active on the forums where other companies are not so much. It is an additional service to the great support provided by my team, it is not a replacement for it.

I can also confirm that my name is actually Ed. And that I do actually post myself.

Ed

 

[wlide]

I‘m suspended account victim too

 

[NameDriver]

wlide, while we're here, let me look at your account and I can clarify the situation. Your post doesn't give me much to go on.

Ed

 

[David G]

Excellent reply Ed and so true that no matter how good the company is there always be a percentage of vocal unhappy customers vs non-vocal happy ones, which goes with the territory when you are in business. Been there and done that.

....Read any thread on any company on any forum and the comments are mostly about problems or bad experiences....

 

[broe-foe]

Hi Broe-foe, As someone who has not come into contact with our customer service, I don't know why you feel you need to comment on it.

Only to highlight the endemic problem of abysmal customer service in the domain business. Yes, I know perhaps it's the exception, not the rule, but it is what it is. You're right, I haven't come into contact with NameDriver customer service, but I've had plenty of abysmal customer service from registrars and parking companies whom make $ off of my investments. I recognize it for what it is, and the fact that it may not happen frequently to any one customer is little solace to those customer(s) having to wait long weekends for resolution. Of course those customers always have the option of migrating their domains elsewhere.

I also become skeptical when a concerned party with a vested interest in the situation questions others who comment with no vested interest. I currently park no domains for PPC revenue, and do not work for any of your competitors. I merely saw what I consider a lame excuse given to a NameDriver customer and felt the need to comment.

 

[NameDriver]

Hi broe-foe,

I can empathise with you regarding poor customer service. We have all experienced it, in fact I have been trying to change the DNS on one of ND's domains for over 3 weeks with no luck so far, so I appreciate people get annoyed with online CS in general. That is why we try to do it differently, especially when the atmosphere surrounding parking companies is one of general cynicism.

I'm not sure what lame excuse you are referring to, though, as I explained the situation regarding NZPoint in my last post. I happened to take my first 3 days off since Christmas for my best friend's wedding so I was actually, as I stated in my first post, "away" when this issue struck, an inconvenience we have since compensated the user for. The timing was particularly unfortunate as the last time I had to post on a response on here was well over a month before this issue flared up, but the fact remains that I do not bother posting lame excuses on forums. I always post the truth, pleasant or not, as something will always come back to bite you if you try and be creative with it.

Ed

 

[limebomb]

We've been using NameDrive for several years and have been quite pleased. After using several different parking sites, I have to admit that Ed and Simon have provided the highest level of service that we've seen across the board. I think the fact that Ed responds to all of these threads actively on DNforum speaks to this. If you're interested in "only" getting a higher PPC somewhere (and possibly folks disappearing on you when it comes time for payment), there are probably other parking sites better suited for you (from what I've read). But if you're serious about investing into your domains and need a quality and professional organization that will care and look over your account, NameDrive is a good choice. You can count on the fact that they will be there for you.

 

[NZPoint]

wow, i had no idea there has been so many reply on this topic.. i wonder why i never got any email notifications!!

I just come to check today to see how much popunders would generate with namedrive and perhaps leave a comment for Ed.

Ok, Ed is by far one of the outstanding guys out there and he does goes out of his way to fix things up, thanks Ed,

Now Ed, this is so frustrating when you say something and someone will get back to you and without having a look at your account, gets back to you and make a comment...there is this popunder i am having problem with now.. i did send you email and you passe it to Aidan.. I have been so far 2 times back and forward with Aidan regarding this and i am getting no where.

can you please tell me, how is it possible,.. that i have 15670 views, 970 clicks and 0 popunder totals? ZERO!!!

I am trying to explain and get someone to actually look into this, but in my two emails from Aidan i have,, it could be firewall since most users are behind it, or they have a blocker and popunders get blocked.

I am not saying he knows what he is talking about, perhaps misundersanding me,, but its nice before putting a time on writing email to someone and making comment, at least to have a look at their account?

Also i would like to know how much would you earn from each popunders

Thanks

 

[NameDriver]

Hi NZPoint,

I wasn't aware that we are having any issues with popunders. I saw that Aidan is dealing with it and he has established that there are no popunders are being shown and has asked tech to sort it out which will hopefully be done today.

Ed

 

[NZPoint]

Hi NZPoint,

I wasn't aware that we are having any issues with popunders. I saw that Aidan is dealing with it and he has established that there are no popunders are being shown and has asked tech to sort it out which will hopefully be done today.

Ed

Hi Ed,

Thanks for quick reply, could you please clarify this,, are you saying this popunder is global problem and all namedrive accounts have been effected by this?? i am sure this got to do something with my account.. i dont see anyone else complaining about popunder!!

could you please or anyone else here tell me how much i should be expecting from each popunder?

 

[NameDriver]

Hi there NZPoint,
I am not sure if it is a global problem yet. I have not been able to replicate it on any other accounts, but I don't see how it can only affect your account. Tech have been a little slow in getting back to me on it, but I'm hoping to have a solution for it, whether it's just your account or system wide, later on today.
It's hard to say how much you should be earning from popunders. Popunders are not our strongest suit, but you should be getting a few dollars RPM on them.

Ed

 

[NZPoint]

Thanks Ed, I am just going to make a point here and its only for my sake and later dont tell myself why didnt i say that and i make it short and i wont go through all the problems i had after reactivation and bug reports i went through with you.

My email to Ed,

Is there something i should know about my account? or simply you guys done something politly so i move my domains away from you?

i am having all these problems since my account has been reactivated.

1- The problem i told you about with IE, (since activation)
2- keyword dont match up with shown ads
3- in domain setting, the botton for "user search" keyword has been removed to apply the changes (since activation)
4- when i change a keyword in setting, it shows me a complete set of keywords that used to be live keyword!!
5- some domain keyword or template has been changed! (since activation)

Ed says in email.

Hi there xxxxx,

I can assure you that there is not some conspiracy to drive you out of ND and I would be happy to work through your problems with you. I can also say that there is nothing changed once an account is reactivated.

I quote again, Ed says

I can also say that there is nothing changed once an account is reactivated

and well, now with popunders problem,,,Now it does not make sense that my account has been restored, and its been restored on the same system..

how is it possible that only my account having all these bugs after restoration and no one else on ND effected and yet we all sit on the same system?

unless its been restored on different kind of lets say ND platform, system, (new, trial, test, jail) whatever you can call it.

also there are other facts that i can go through, such as revenue, email i got from ND recently regarding domains been moved from "search template" ,,, just too many mistakes

as i said in start, just keeping it short here and said these few words for peace of mind.

Thanks Ed

 

[broe-foe]

Hi Tom,

As I said in my original post,
"your own name with a .info extension had 80% CTR for ads on car insurance."
Your own name being tomclowes.info, which was getting clicks on car insurance ads. I see you no longer own now but it was the major reason your account was suspended in 2006.

Ed

Out of that 80%, were there no legitimate clicks-throughs? The money retained from any honest click-throughs is retained by ND, right? Kind of like "liquidated damages."
Yes, the advertiser supposedly gets credits for fraudulent click-throughs, but who keeps the domainer's portion of $$$ earned from any legit click-throughs? NameDrive? If true, then one arsehole can screw with an account that has a legit CTR by hitting on the domain a few dozen or hundred times. Then the parking company has grounds to suspend the account while at the same time keeping the $$$ from the honest click-throughs.

Does it work this way?

 

[NameDriver]

Hi NZPoint,

As I said privately in mails to you, there is nothing different with the account once it is reactivated, we have nothing to gain by running two systems simultaneously.
The problems you experienced could have been due to a IE7 update which occurred over the weekend your account was suspended, as you said it worked OK on Firefox. We also resolved those issues for you within 48 hours.

Looking back over your account on a monthly basis, it seems your popunder earnings for June were similar to August, so this clearly has nothing to do with the account being suspended and reopened. I still have no answer as to what is happening here, but I will get back to you the second I do.

The Search Box template affected many users and was handed down from our advertising provider, it was nothing to do with just your account.

I appreciate you have been experiencing some glitches recently but hopefully we can clear up the popunder issue shortly and things should be set right once more.

broe-foe, if an account is suspended for fraud, we only do so when we are aware that our terms, and thus the terms of the advertising provider, have been breached. We know from experience that if a domain is seen to have fraudulent activity, we are not paid any of the earnings for the domain, whether there was 'honest' activity on it or not. Our terms clearly state that fraud will result in an account being suspended and the funds withheld, so it is up to the user to make sure they abide by those terms.

I hope this explains all your points.

Ed