MORE software problems at Afternic. (Should I give up?)

[randomo]

Afternic has still not fixed the obvious, glaring problems with its interface that were mentioned in this thread. Meanwhile, I just ran into another disaster there.

I wanted to add half a dozen domains to my account. When I clicked on "Add Domains", I was pleasantly surprised to see a new feature that would let me add them in bulk in a table format, while setting the prices, categories, descriptions and so forth for each one.

Only after I had spent 15 minutes entering all the data and wrestling with dysfunctional dropdown menus did I notice that this feature is marked as BETA. And it started giving me some error messages about bad data I entered ... but even after I fixed those entries, it still views them as errors. So now I'm out 15 minutes and I apparently need to start all over again.

I'm a patient man, but I'm getting SO %^!*&^&!* TIRED of being the beta tester for Afternic's BUGGY INTERFACE!

(And considering that I've made many more sales through Sedo than Afternic, I'm on the verge of giving up on them altogether. Any reason I shouldn't?)

 

[David G]

Can't believe after all the time and the big money BD has they have not fixed the issues. The Afternic site had serious bugs and issues ever since BuyDomains purchased it a few years ago, i.e. last time I used them they had very poor bulk capabilities including no way to do bulk deletions of listed names, or bulk price changes, bulk addition issues, and other things in bulk such as premium listing/non-premium status changes, plus some names being rejected even thought they were 100% generic. Also, slow and poor support. That's why I cancelled my membership some time ago.

 

[randomo]

Seven months later, STILL no fixes to this absurdly buggy "Add Domains" feature.

Far too many errors when I try to use it in Firefox. In Internet Explorer, I can painfully make my way through it, but just found yet another bug. I copied and pasted the prices (minimum, floor, reserve, buy now) from one domain to some others, and they showed up just fine in the "Add Domains" screen. But once I had added the domains, I discovered that all the copy-and-pasted ones had the same value for all four prices (equal to the minimum price), instead of the varying prices I had entered.

Afternic, if you really want people to list domains with you, make it EASIER and LESS BUGGY.

 

[randomo]

OK, good news & bad news:

The good news is that the "Add domains" feature is finally working OK; looks like bugs have been ironed out.

The bad news is that the selection of categories is no longer included in the "Add domains" process. As best I can tell, once I have added some domains, I have to track down each one individually and set the category.

Afternic: Please restore category selection to the "Add domains" process.

 

[christinaforker]

@Randomo
As part of our overall site redesign, we worked hard to continue to improve functionality and the overall user experience. With the “Add Domains” functionality, we completely redesigned the whole process. As part of our user experience process, we worked with many customers to identify what was working well, areas that could be streamlined, and areas that were not working as well, and the product team worked to fill those gaps. We appreciate your (and others) comments as to what you like, don’t like, and any suggestions you may have. I’ll let the product team know about your suggestions. And, at any time, feel free to call me at 781.839.7930 – your thoughts and feedback are very important to us as we continue our quest to build the best product for our customers.

Best Regards,
Christina
Manager, Afternic Customer Service

 

[JuniperPark]

OK, good news & bad news:

The good news is that the "Add domains" feature is finally working OK; looks like bugs have been ironed out.

The bad news is that the selection of categories is no longer included in the "Add domains" process. As best I can tell, once I have added some domains, I have to track down each one individually and set the category.

Afternic: Please restore category selection to the "Add domains" process.

You're doing better than I am.... I just uploaded 1,050 updates with the bulk upload process, and it appears that 3 (THREE!) were processed.

Last month - for reasons not known and never explained - my only portfolio went from 11,000 domains to 300. I only found out because after month of zero sales (while Sedo was selling like crazy), I went in to look to see if there was a problem. There was a BIG problem. The new sales rep ignores all emails from me.

I filed a support ticked and the reply was that I can manually email them domain deletes, and that deletes (code 4) are no longer processed by the bulk uploader!

Considering I spent roughly 50 hours of consulting time (for which I was not paid) debugging their system 2 years ago, I too am considering just giving up on them.

 

[JuniperPark]

I've now heard back from Afternic.

They are going back to MANUAL processing of domains. It seems they have thrown in the towel on the automated updates.

 

[randomo]

I've now heard back from Afternic.

They are going back to MANUAL processing of domains. It seems they have thrown in the towel on the automated updates.

Oh well. At least their intentions were good.

 

[hugegrowth]

Afternic - Why don't you just look at Sedo's domain adding process and do it the same way?

1 - I have an Afternic account and have sold domains there in the past, but I don't add any new domains to my account anymore, just keeping what's there already. I only add my new domains to Sedo because it's so much easier, and Sedo does sell a lot of names.

2 - I get constant reminders about my domains at Afternic that have expired, or are close to expired, wanting me to somehow confirm each one is still my domains. I don't have the time to do that. Most of these I end up renewing anyway. Again, I don't have this problem with Sedo - they seem much more user friendly, though ofcouse not perfect either.

 

[BostonDomainer]

I'm in the same boat with you. I stopped updating my Afternic names. Hell, I actually forgot I had an Afternic account. Their userface is EXTREMELY annoying. Everytime I purchase a new name, I add it to Sedo but always forget I have an Afternic account.

 

[hugegrowth]

Hopefully they are listening here!

 

[JuniperPark]

Hopefully they are listening here!

They're not.

I had long discussions with their tech person and 2 different account reps years ago, even discussed the MUCH better way of doing escrow (like Sedo has been doing for years), and it all falls on deaf ears. Nothing changes except the page layout on the web pages, the bugs stay for years and nobody seems to really care that they have many domains on their site that are no longer owner by the "seller".

 

[randomo]

Everytime I purchase a new name, I add it to Sedo but always forget I have an Afternic account.

I'm actually the opposite - I try to add all my new domains to Afternic (when their interface is working), but you have to set a domain to Sedo nameservers in order to add it to an account there, and I don't always bother.

 

[hugegrowth]

No, you don't have to set a domain to Sedo nameservers to list it there, they just suggest you do at the end of the addition process.

 

[randomo]

No, you don't have to set a domain to Sedo nameservers to list it there, they just suggest you do at the end of the addition process.

Did they change it? They used to require using their nameservers, and it seemed that was how they verified your ownership of the domain.

 

[christinaforker]

@JuniperPark
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. If you would like to send me your upload file directly I am happy to take a look at it and give you a call directly to go over where the issues were so your future updates will process successfully. I can be reached by phone, 1-781-839-7930, or by email, cforker (at) afternic.com.

@HugeGrowth
As part of our domain integrity process we do checks on domain ownership. The purpose of these checks is to ensure buyers are purchasing domains that are owned by the seller who is listing them for sale. I would like to hear your feedback regarding our current process as we are always looking for feedback and constantly working to improve our system. Please feel free to contact me directly to discuss at any time.

 

[JuniperPark]

@JuniperPark
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. If you would like to send me your upload file directly I am happy to take a look at it and give you a call directly to go over where the issues were so your future updates will process successfully. I can be reached by phone, 1-781-839-7930, or by email, cforker (at) afternic.com.

@HugeGrowth
As part of our domain integrity process we do checks on domain ownership. The purpose of these checks is to ensure buyers are purchasing domains that are owned by the seller who is listing them for sale. I would like to hear your feedback regarding our current process as we are always looking for feedback and constantly working to improve our system. Please feel free to contact me directly to discuss at any time.

I'm beginning to have serious doubts about whether "christinaforker" account is connected to Afternic at all.

The response I got from the REAL Afternic support person is that the "file update" is no longer working at all, in fact it's so bad that they have lost my updates file and needed me to send another directly to them for manual processing. Afternic staff will be processing my update file weekly because there is no longer an automated process. I'm not sure why a company would decided to spend hours manually doing updates rather than fix a rather simple database update problem, but after several years I have given up on their business logic.

If you're asking me to call to do more testing/debugging/consulting, we'll have to arrange an fee schedule this time, since many hours of my time have been wasted in the past. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but "enough is enough". The freebies are over.

 

[Gerry]

I'm beginning to have serious doubts about whether "christinaforker" account is connected to Afternic at all.

hmmm...eight months to respond to a thread entitled MORE software problems at Afternic. The irony.

Must still be using dial-up to post which is just now making it to the forum.

 

[BostonDomainer]

hmmm...eight months to respond to a thread entitled MORE software problems at Afternic. The irony.

Must still be using dial-up to post which is just now making it to the forum.

lol