Must read - Afternic story

[denny007]

It started 2 weeks ago. I bought on Afternic a domain skyp.com for $3.5K The owner later contacted me via email, that he want do without Afternic, privately, to save the Afternic fee. I rejected and offered him to aditionaly pay him the fee via Paypal (later showed this guy is scamer, he is scaming people for Paypal payments and does not plan to transfer the domain, which he uses only as a bait).

Anyway - I was sure, this guy is scam, I knew he will not transfer the domain even BEFORE I wired the money. I asked Afternic I want to back out and they told me, I should wire anyway. So I did. Of course, the guy did NOT transfer the domain, so I had $3.5K credit at Afternic.

Later I bought here on Dnforum jzn.com and wanted to use the Afternic escrow (one reason was I wanted to use the credit asap and second was common security sense). The owner protested, saying that Afternic "suck f*cking dick" (using his words , but he opened an account there and we started. At the same time I also bought moviemusics.com for $2.5K As the jzn.com was $1400, my credit was $400 short. I asked Afternic, if I could pay the rest with Paypal. No answer for 2 days came, the jzn.com seller was unhappy, and as he agreed to push the domain first, finally we setlled it without Afternic.

I told Afternic, that due they did not responded for 2 days, we settled it privately so they should cancel the Escrow. Now it starts to be really off-pissing: they told "no way, the escrow can NOT be cancelled". Duh ! I offered them I will give them $60 their commission (although is abolutely nonsense as they did not earned nothing - I forced the escrow and cancelled only because of their long time non-response). Now - you will not believe - they answered again "the escrow can NOT be cancelled". It is almost like lunatic asylum, isn't it...Afternic...

BTW after two days they probably realised, whats up and told "OK, we will take the commission from your credit". Zzzzzummmmmmmmmmm.

Also in the meantime I bought blogaholic.com for $1288. At that time I still had credit $1000. I asked again for Paypal payment of the $288. After 2 days got response "NO". Although in last two month I paid total $14K to them and $7K from it was via Paypal, but they non-logically rejected. So for wire transfer they wanted to charge me $25 + $10 would charge me my bank. Afternics "logic"...

So anyway, I decided to wire it, but before I did, they sent me friendly note "Membership Suspended, It seems you are not satisfied with the service we provide. We ask that you no longer continue to use Afternic. You account balance will be refunded".

Damn sure thing, I am NOT satisifed ! Now I am waiting, if they will or will not charge some "cancelling membership fee" or another fees, hidden in the long TOS which nobody reads, because of blind trust.. Anyway, I already know, a lot of scum on the Internet, even known company might be scum... Since I bought bunch of good domains via Afternic, I will be still browsing there. But I will contact the domain owners via whois and we will do Sedo escrow (which is even better, because the domain seller actually pushes the domain into Sedo accounts, not the "whois information change" on Afternic, which can be SO easily faked...

Now i feel better - shared anger, half anger... Thanks for attention to all who read it to the end !

 

[mark]

afternic has tried to improve their image since the nightmares of previous years. sounds like some of their former employees have been rehired.

 

[spotlightdomains]

Thanks for sharing. I was torn between Afternic and Sedo for parking/selling my domains and your experience has really made me realize which one I should go with. Two days for a response is bad, esp. in the domain market where deals are made quick and need to move quickly.

 

[Theo]

You paid too much for average domains. And I would not for the life of me use Afternic.

 

[denny007]

You paid too much for average domains.

I can agree with that for jzn.com (but I wanted have my own 3-letter domain and with blogaholic.com (I was looking for some blog hosting domain and this was the only on I found I liked).

But skyp.com as typo of skype.com with over 20K uniques/month and IP telephony traffic which converts very well...that was a good one. Similar case moviemusics.com, about 10K uniques/month and download music traffic, which also converts pretty well - also the price was OK...

Thanks for sharing. I was torn between Afternic and Sedo for parking/selling my domains and your experience has really made me realize which one I should go with. Two days for a response is bad, esp. in the domain market where deals are made quick and need to move quickly.

Definitely Sedo. It is not only for the response time. It is also for their arrogancy ; i.e. to cancel an account only because I dared to tell them my opinion about their services ? Who they think they are ? Domain monopoly ? And their Escrow is dangerous, this I realised byt the skyp.com scam. Because after the escrow confirmed receiving of the money, the owner CHANGED the whois to MY name and my email and confirmed, the domain was transfered. But as Afternic rules state, I have to confirm I really received the domain, so this does NOT worked thanks god. So if I would like to scam a seller on Afternic, when he pushed the domain to me, I would keep his contacts and not confirm transfer.

 

[Theo]

I didn't notice the skype.com reference until I saw the article at News.com - that would be a good traffic domain indeed.

 

[seeker]

thanks for sharing.
I was just *about* to retry afternic after many years of not using them.
The reaction to your transaction is absolutely horrible.
I'll probably not be trying them.

 

[domaintalk]

First of all thanks for sharing.
Secondly i can feel your pain. I always go with Sedo for their reliable service.
Get everything i want plus a good tech who always helps and supports.

Now you have learnt that no more Afternic, all the way Sedo .

 

[pleasedelete]

The info I had previously posted was supplied by a peer. It appears to have been incorrect and Afternic will need to investigate this situation more thoroughly before posting again. Denny007, I'm sorry for the quick post I had sent regarding your trouble with Afternic Escrow.

 

[denny007]

Feel free to publish here all my Afternic PMs. I am allowing this to you and begging for it !
BTW my question about partial Paypal payment for jzn.com has been asked on monday May 16th (or tuesday 17th). How can I know it ? Because "Escrow service for JZN.COM has been initiated" message I got on 17th in the morning of my time, which was monday evening 16th your time and I aksked that immediately in the jzn.com escrow via PM. On 18th wednesday 4:30 PM my time the seller contacted me with "please hurry the f*ck up" (it was escrow message too, you can check). So I sent the question once more (not sure however), anyway 6:30PM my time I Paypaled the money to the seller. And later you 3 times reapeated, I can not cancel escrow, even if I pay you "commission" (in this case "ransom" would be more suitable word).

Case blogaholic.com: escrow started on may 17th 9:30PM my time. I asked same question about Paypal. Got answer on 19th 10PM my time "we can not accept credit card or PayPal for the balance due. If you would still like us to us your credit please let us know". Not only the rejecting had no logic, but actually did not answer my question, as I asked to pay part of the payment, so "If you would still like us to us your credit please let us know" was a little strange answer, as I wanted use the credit, but the credit was NOT enough.

Now answer me, if you can at all:
1.
why are you lying ? Or there is another day order in Afternic-land ? I had here 16th monday, 17th tuesday and so on.
2.
Why you rejected US$288 Paypal payment when I wired you in last couple of moth $7K and another $7K Paypaled ?
3.
Why you keep in your listings so many domains with obviously fake traffic, although I reminded you about that ?
4.
Why you did not return me also $9.95 subscription fee and about $1.xx from my last year september few days "parking" ?
5.
Where in the TOS is written, that beeing "not satisfied with the service we provide" is reason for account cancelation ?
6.
and so on, I would have so many quesitons, but is waste of my time now.

Good day (and luck, you will need it) sir !

 

[Theo]

The plot thickens.

 

[Mr. Deleted]

LOL I have not used them much but have just put Desireableness.com on Bazaar.

 

[proproject]

I have not taken time to read the whole thread yet, but I have already researched this issue long enough to conclude that we indeed communicated incorrectly regarding your escrow-only transaction. Our escrow manager should have told you that it was no problem to cancel an escrow-only transaction if the other party agrees. I apologize for that mistake.

We also made a mistake by not replying to your escrow question promptly. My employees should know that we respond to escrow questions within 24 hours (excluding weekends and holidays), or else. I apologize again.

I'm embarrassed to hear about problems this way, but better this way than no way at all. Thank you. I've heard loud and clear and the so called corrective action has already started (and it ain't pretty).

Denny, I will be contacting you about returning fees and seeing what else we can do to make you satisfied asap.

 

[Theo]

Two thumbs up for the professional reply!

 

[DomainTurn.com]

I have been waiting for a sale to finish and the client wanted to pay with paypal afternic refused payment unless it was paypal echeck. this has been going on for weeks now i have decided net to use them after this. I have already changed my name server. After this year i will let the service cancel I would give everybody the same advice. ps there and better names at domainturn.com

 

[proproject]

Star, thank you!

Turn, the only transaction you have with us sold on 5/21, that's four days ago, or two business days; it has not been going on "for weeks," sorry if it seems that long. We guided your buyer to submit the correct form of payment; he understood and we received his payment today. I don't see a problem with this one; this one is going very smoothly, as they usually do. Thank you for using Afternic.com.

 

[seeker]

so, whats the standard policy at afternic?
is a customer complaint grounds for a cancelation?
I really got excited at some point during the last 2 weeks because I read about some changes at afternic.
However, this post raises some serious questions.
Any reply is much appreciated.
The fact the people from afternic are postinmg here is a very good sign, but I would appreciate some clarification.

 

[proproject]

We want to keep every member, so we do not terminate unless we must to protect the quality of the exchange for our other members. For example, if you use profanity with our staff or another member, we give you a warning. (We're thick skinned, so you'll get multiple warnings about profanity to our staff, but only one if it is directed to other members.) However, if you knowingly lie about your items for sale or fail to perform on a purchase or sale, your membership would be terminated without a warning. These are just examples; it is impossible to anticipate every behavior that could get you in trouble on the exchange, but generally, just one member complaint wouldn't do it automatically.

Denny's suspension was a mistake, not our policy, at work. That is all repaired now, I think.

 

[seeker]

Thank you sir for your promt reply.
The fact that there are people from afternic here that are responding so fast definately gives them a bonus.
I will be subscribing asap.
Thank you.

 

[namestrands]

Well you convinced me.. AfterNIC account now getting Closed.. there is no needs for the likes of this in the industry. GungHo responders should not be working in Customer Service.

Its a sad day when the customer acts more professional than the company..