legal Non-Paying DNForum member – after $40K offer at Afternic!

[yodaj]

I received an offer on a domain I had from a user on Afternic for 40K and I accepted it.
Then the person/company decided not to follow through with the sale so Afternic sent me their full contact information as it was a legal contract
The username of this company's CEO on Dnforum is Zorro.

Zorro, I am asking you to please do the right thing and pay for the domain your company purchased at the price YOUR partner made the offer at.
You and your company need to decide if the reputation of you and your company is worth you ruining over a bid you made on Afternic in a contract.
A contract is legally binding.
If you wish to contact me please PM me here as I am hoping we can resolve this in a timely manner.

Yodaj

 

[PRED]

you'll probably need to provide more details
how do you know their username correlates to the person who made offer?
does the email link back to them, possibility someone not linked to them made offer
as you have one post and brand new member onus on you to back it up here

 

[A D]

I can confirm that their is a tie between the offer and the user mentioned.

Adam

 

[Zorro]

Yodaj,

What you are saying is true.

My colleague did log-into the account and took the liberty to "fool around" not understanding the gravity of a legally binding offer.
While I cannot defend his behavior; I do sincerely apologise to you for the inconvenience caused.

As a long-standing DNF member let me assure you that this has never happened before and will not happen again.

Thanks.

 

[Theo]

Which domain was it about? And what type of business colleague places a $40,000 offer without understanding what they are doing? Has he been fired or disassociated?

If he is a business associate, the bid is binding and the company shares the responsibility.

Another issue: sharing the Afternic account credentials is a violation of their ToS.

 

[Cartoonz]

Yodaj,

What you are saying is true.

My colleague did log-into the account and took the liberty to "fool around" not understanding the gravity of a legally binding offer.
While I cannot defend his behavior; I do sincerely apologise to you for the inconvenience caused.

As a long-standing DNF member let me assure you that this has never happened before and will not happen again.

Thanks.

uhh... I suspect you're going to have to do a lot more than this. That statement is complete nonsense and does nothing to get you off the hook.

 

[angel69]

Sorry to say this, Zorro, but w/a colleague/partner/employee like this, who needs enemies, rivals or competitors ? You have your hands full watching out for your very own people actually harming your name and biz like this, is he 10 years old ?...
:sigh2:

Yodaj, What you are saying is true. My colleague did log-into the account and took the liberty to "fool around" not understanding the gravity of a legally binding offer. While I cannot defend his behavior; I do sincerely apologise to you for the inconvenience caused. As a long-standing DNF member let me assure you that this has never happened before and will not happen again. Thanks.

 

[amplify]

Sorry to say this, Zorro, but w/a colleague/partner/employee like this, who needs enemies, rivals or competitors ? You have your hands full watching out for your very own people actually harming your name and biz like this, is he 10 years old ?...
:sigh2:

Sounds like a Junior High graduate to me. Great hire, now fire & pay up IMO.

You trusted your employee/associate to place bids with your companies username, that's pure negligence and you are liable for his actions. If he had his own account, unrelated to your business and bidding on his own, it would be a different story. However, you admit that he was just "fool[ing] around" - with $40,000...?

 

[angel69]

One bright spot for Zorro is that his guy didn't pull this w/Sedo. There they ban you for life if you sneeze the wrong way. I know two guys this happened to, and they threatened me once with that after what was obviously a simple human error on my part

Having said that, if I left some auction account of mine unattended and someone I'm responsible for did something like that I'd feel horribly and I also wouldn't want to get picked on, so in some fairness to Zorro and realizing this could happen to anyone who's not careful, I'd try to make it up to yodaj in another way if I couldn't actually pay those $40,000, that is no chump change. I'm curious, was this a meganame ? You don't have to disclose the domain, yodaj but I'm wondering if an offer for $40K was made on some 7a4u.net or on a 66.com, for example...

 

[Zorro]

Cartoonz & David,

You are being unfair gentlemen.

My employee placed the bid from his personal account not a company account.
- He was not authorized by the company to do so
- He is is not an executive director in the company
- He did, what he did in personal capacity.

Please advise me if I should be held responsible for the "unauthorized" actions of employees or associates.
I repeat: He did not use the company name, email or authorized account.

 

[amplify]

Then there's something missing from this story if Adam connected you to this transaction for whatever reason.

 

[Zorro]

Then there's something missing from this story if Adam connected you to this transaction for whatever reason.

David,

I wanted to ask this question but decided to let it go.
But now that you've asked ...

 

[yodaj]

Zorro,

I appreciate it that you admit to this, but let me explain why your answer isn’t good enough, in addition to the excellent comments posted so far.

1. You partner had to register-so that requires some thought and understanding. Nobody just does that for the fun of it, in order to "fool around"…

2. Your partner actually saw what my price was. He made a lower offer and I accepted it. The fact that he didn’t just accept my price but made a lower offer shows that he knew what he was doing. It usually requires "some" thought and some thinking when one enters a different price. It shows intent.

3. If it was a mistake, he could have contacted Afternic immediately and told them it was a mistake. He didn’t.

4. So your partner according to you was fooling around the whole way, one stage after the other. He registered in order to… "fool around". Then he saw my price and made a lower offer just to… fool around. He then confirmed his price just to fool around again… Are you kidding??

5. You guys own and run a domain aftermarket place. You buy plenty domains too. He knew what he was doing!

6. So he didn’t just by mistake "fool around". Sorry , but I don’t "buy" that explanation. You partner is a smart guy and you claim he is one of the best in his field. He does web development, seo, and much more for you guys.

7.This was done in his capacity as a partner in your company! This reflects on you directly. He put in the address of YOUR company!! So if he was playing around he would put in his own address, or make one up. By putting in the companies address, it shows he was serious and not playing around.

8.You called him a colleague and just a worker. So no go. He is a partner.

9.You also apologized too in your original response. If it was only him then you would not have apologized…

10. By the way, you guys are very much into social media. Social media has a way of moving very fast. You should know better.

11. My representative sent you both an email and you both ignored it. If this was a onetime occurrence, you would have immediately approached Aftenric explaining the situation as said previously or later responded to my representatives email.

12. I gave you a chance to make things right by having my representative approach the two of you, but you both ignored the email.
Only now when it's in the public and I still didn’t expose all that I know you decided to come forth… Not very professional to say the least.

13. How many others have you have done the same too? Should I start a campaign and find out? If this indeed was the first, then I hope it will be the last too!

14. Fooling around?? Making offers and not keeping to them is not called in my language fooling around! Afternic is a business. One doesn’t just "fool around". I wonder if he fools around in your own domain aftermarket place??

15. I am saddened to hear that your company partner believes in fooling around in his work and part of his work!! I am saddened to hear that your partners business ethics is that he "fools around" in his job. Sad to see that he sees no problem in breaking a legally binding contract, and runs away with no explanation and no compensation.

16. As I said, I gave you both a chance to make things right by responding to my representative but you ignored the email. So this seems to be a regular way to conduct business unless exposed. So I am herby giving you a chance to rectify the situation, and start on a new path. Saying sorry.. doesn’t cut it.

17. Your company (and he has a serious part in it), run a domain after market place! How do you think the users of that site would react knowing that your partner "fools around" placing bids he doesn’t intend to keep for whatever reason he has. Do you think this will bring credibility to your company??

18. Honoring a legally binding contract is not a joke. If people in general felt that fooling around is acceptable there would be no domain aftermarket place. Placing a bid and not keeping to it undermines the whole industry. Having a high ranking person in a domain aftermarket place do this-is way worse.

Just explaining the seriousness of this to your partner, isn't good enough. I am sure that now you understand the need to do much
better.

 

[Theo]

I only see one partner here: http://www.doublespring.com/about/

 

[Zorro]

IMHO I have explained my position as honestly as I could. It may not be good enough for some of you. Some of you will continue to take great pleasure in attacking me; but I will not respond.

I've been in the business for 10 years, bought & sold a few thousand names (no, I'm not trying to show off) and you will not find a SINGLE complaint of a buyer or seller getting screwed.
What happened with Yodaj was unfortunate but not my fault.

Feel free to bash me here or make your own judgement. This is my last post on DNF.
Being a member for a decade, seen so many ups & downs. Unfortunately this place has become too negative.

Yodaj: I've been in similar situations before as a seller. I understand that you are upset.
Your reasoning about the employee using the "same address", etc. is not relevant but lets just agree to disagree. And yes he is my partner, so are all my employees. But not a "legal" director. And definitely not authorized to purchase anything.
I hope that you score some big sales in the future and do well with your portfolio.

Adam: Congratulations you win! Stop holding grudges and move on. We both know what this is about.
You are doing some work helping domainers; let bygones be bygones.

 

[DomainsInc]

Your partner sounds like a complete idiot. I'd fire him if I were you.

 

[amplify]

Damn, Adam sounds like a sadistic bastard. Who would hold a grudge for 12 years and then call you out on it just now? Come on, seriously?

 

[PRED]

Damn, Adam sounds like a sadistic bastard. Who would hold a grudge for 12 years and then call you out on it just now? Come on, seriously?

Adam used to own 'elephant.com' and both of them never forget

 

[angel69]

Zorro....dude, WTF ? lol ....what does anything that might or might not have taken place in like 2002 have anything to do w/this thread ? I guess I'm missing something, where did that comment even come from....

I tried to be fair to you in the 2nd post I wrote, that you were still responsible for people under you accessing your Afternic acct but at the same time I was not "picking on you" just for kick...and that if that happened to me I wouldn't like others doing that

But walking w/chips on your shoulder from like 11 years ago may be a bigger problem for you than the fact that your company may be technically responsible for $40 K, if you don't wanna lose your Afternic acct that is... there's a saying.... that resentment is like drinking poison and hoping someone else will get sick.... you're the one who needs to let go, bro

.....Congratulations you win! Stop holding grudges and move on. We both know what this is about. You are doing some work helping domainers; let bygones be bygones......

 

[lordbyroniv]

40k is not chump change

And a deal anint done until the check clears

Move on