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Domain sale freemarket.com - Help needed

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jonnyk

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I sold a domain name through freemarket.com(freelancer.com) listed with buy-now price.

Anyways, the deal went smooth and I pushed the domain to him through Namecheap and the money got transfered to my freelancer account. The money needed to stay with freemarket for two weeks before I could withdraw them(security reasons) but after the two weeks passed, I got this message: "Funds originated from an account that is currently under review" and later on, this mail:

our employer, XYZ, that bought your Freemarket item were found to have violated our Terms and Conditions. Their account was closed by our site administrators. All the payments that they have released to you were returned to its source.

We strongly suggest that you contact your employer, in any way possible to you, and settle the payment outside the site. As an extension of our support, we can send them a message on your behalf. Should you wish to proceed with this, kindly mail us back for your confirmation.

Feel free to contact us back should you need further assistance. "

The payment got reversed.

Now I neither have money or my domain, what should be my next step?
Regards
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Lesson learned...stay away from that site!
Contact buyer and see if they will either honor their payment (doubtful) or transfer domain back to you (again doubtful).
 
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Every dummy domain marketplace can be integrated with escrow.com for safe transactions for both parties... As we see, Freelancer.com knows it better... Here is the result...

I am glad their whois verification didn't worked when I tried to list my names.

JonnyK, contact with them 100 times if it is necessary, try to get your money/domain back, they are responsible for the safe transaction, so it is their fault...
 
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Tell him his money got reserved and show proof of a prt screen since he probabbly won´t be able to log into his account. If you have his email then contact him or try to phone call him. If you know it´s username try to go to WarriorForum and search for similiar name. Freemarket.com have tons of users coming from the WarriorForum
 
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Is this a joke?! It's bloody awful by Freemarket. This takes away all credibility for that marketplace if they had any at all to begin with.
 
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Exactly. Why would they even send you the funds to your freelancer.com just because they own freelancer.com? They should give all users a option to make a safe transaction and not to deal with scammers.
 
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I sold a domain name through freemarket.com(freelancer.com) listed with buy-now price.

Anyways, the deal went smooth and I pushed the domain to him through Namecheap and the money got transfered to my freelancer account. The money needed to stay with freemarket for two weeks before I could withdraw them(security reasons) but after the two weeks passed, I got this message: "Funds originated from an account that is currently under review" and later on, this mail:

our employer, XYZ, that bought your Freemarket item were found to have violated our Terms and Conditions. Their account was closed by our site administrators. All the payments that they have released to you were returned to its source.

We strongly suggest that you contact your employer, in any way possible to you, and settle the payment outside the site. As an extension of our support, we can send them a message on your behalf. Should you wish to proceed with this, kindly mail us back for your confirmation.

Feel free to contact us back should you need further assistance. "

The payment got reversed.

Now I neither have money or my domain, what should be my next step?
Regards


I would NOT waste any time going after the buyer. That's freemarket's job and if they can't recover the money it should be their loss, not yours. On its front page, freemarket.com states:


  • SECURE TRANSFERS AND HANDOVERS

    We hold the buyer's payment before you need to transfer ownership. This ensures the security of your assets and payments.
They need to live up to their advertising and "ensure the security of your assets". I would write them and make it clear that you expect them to pay you. If they refused, I would threaten to sue and/or file a fraud complaint against them.
 
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They basically stole you

I agree. If freemarket.com could run their marketplace the way they seem to think they can, then they could basically steal domains from anyone with a listing simply by placing fake orders from fake accounts and then just grabbing sellers' domains and reversing the payment. What they're doing is outrageous.
 
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I agree. If freemarket.com could run their marketplace the way they seem to think they can, then they could basically steal domains from anyone with a listing simply by placing fake orders from fake accounts and then just o grabbing sellers' domains and reversing the payment. What they're doing is outrageous.

That´s why it is standing at WarriorForum and featured there. That forum has tons of scammers, and they are promoting freemarket.com there probably because it´s owned by them.

That site has tons of gurus who actually ends by scamming people who just joined by buying their products etc
 
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hope you get it sorted OP. I wont be touching the site whilst I hear of these horror stories.
 
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I sold a domain name through freemarket.com(freelancer.com) listed with buy-now price.

Anyways, the deal went smooth and I pushed the domain to him through Namecheap and the money got transfered to my freelancer account. The money needed to stay with freemarket for two weeks before I could withdraw them(security reasons) but after the two weeks passed, I got this message: "Funds originated from an account that is currently under review" and later on, this mail:

our employer, XYZ, that bought your Freemarket item were found to have violated our Terms and Conditions. Their account was closed by our site administrators. All the payments that they have released to you were returned to its source.

We strongly suggest that you contact your employer, in any way possible to you, and settle the payment outside the site. As an extension of our support, we can send them a message on your behalf. Should you wish to proceed with this, kindly mail us back for your confirmation.

Feel free to contact us back should you need further assistance. "

The payment got reversed.

Now I neither have money or my domain, what should be my next step?
Regards

Hey Jonnyk,

I've contacted our CS team and they mentioned your ticket is currently being looked into. I can't make a statement about your case specifically, but in general chargebacks occur in all realms of digital goods (Ebay etc.) and no one has a perfect solution. We already have several mechanisms in place to prevent this from occurring, especially for higher priced transactions.

Unfortunately these chargebacks do occur after the transfer is already completed. We are actively trying to resolve this for you and for our current users going forward. If you have any questions feel free to send me a private message here.

Cheers,
Stefan
 
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Hey Jonnyk,

I've contacted our CS team and they mentioned your ticket is currently being looked into. I can't make a statement about your case specifically, but in general chargebacks occur in all realms of digital goods (Ebay etc.) and no one has a perfect solution. We already have several mechanisms in place to prevent this from occurring, especially for higher priced transactions.

Unfortunately these chargebacks do occur after the transfer is already completed. We are actively trying to resolve this for you and for our current users going forward. If you have any questions feel free to send me a private message here.

Cheers,
Stefan

I have a question. Why does your website state that transactions are secure when in fact they clearly aren't? I pointed out earlier that your front page says:

"We hold the buyer's payment before you need to transfer ownership. This ensures the security of your assets and payments."

This is obviously misleading. What your website should be saying is what you say above ( ie that you don't guarantee payment and that if the customer files a chargeback, it's too bad for the seller ). I don't know what the seller in this case has in mind, but if it were me I know I'd be insisting that you make good on your promise to "ensure the security of assets and payments". There's no way I would let you off the hook with the kind of lame excuse making you're providing here.
 
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We already have several mechanisms in place to prevent this from occurring, especially for higher priced transactions.

Stefan, I am sorry but did you just say that you are there to help secure funds for higher priced transactions? What about this guy? Just because his transaction was lower priced he doesnt qualify for secure transaction?

This is not how a domain name sales platform runs and your company would be in serious trouble (legally & socially) for letting these scammers perpetrate on your platform.

I would definitely go ahead report this incident to Mike Berkens (TheDomains.com), Theo (DomainGang.com), Rick Schwartz (HallOfShame.com), Andrew Alleman (DNW.com) etc so that they could highlight how poorly this was handled.

I personally would never use FreeMarket.com !!
 
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Hey Jonnyk,

I've contacted our CS team and they mentioned your ticket is currently being looked into. I can't make a statement about your case specifically, but in general chargebacks occur in all realms of digital goods (Ebay etc.) and no one has a perfect solution. We already have several mechanisms in place to prevent this from occurring, especially for higher priced transactions.

Unfortunately these chargebacks do occur after the transfer is already completed. We are actively trying to resolve this for you and for our current users going forward. If you have any questions feel free to send me a private message here.

Cheers,
Stefan

Dear Freemarket.com staff - Precisely, that's the reason why people choose your service. You promised them with the assurance of transacting safely via your marketplace. Your statement:

"Unfortunately these chargebacks do occur after the transfer is already completed. We are actively trying to resolve this for you and for our current users going forward. If you have any questions feel free to send me a private message here."

is something that your company has to take responsibility. We all know that charge-backs do happen because of unethical people. When you want people to use your marketplace, this becomes your prerogative. If you cannot solve this, you have to take responsibility for it. If not, your freemarket.com should not be touching or dabbling in the world of intangible products, especially domains.

Edited: You (referring to freemarket.com) resolve this not for your users or the person whose domain is being stolen. You resolve this for yourself, freemarket.com. Please accept responsibility and stop pushing the blame onto other factors.

Disclaimer: What is being said is only valid if the initial poster of this thread said is factual. Otherwise please disregard
 
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Sorry Freemarket, just a question

DID IT TAKE OVER 2 WEEKS TO FIND THIS OUT?

our employer, XYZ, that bought your Freemarket item were found to have violated our Terms and Conditions. Their account was closed by our site administrators. All the payments that they have released to you were returned to its source.

I am not a lawyer but my opinion is that Freemarket can't put this on you. If they have inefficient systems in place which can't verify accounts, money etc and be covered by an escrow service then it's just their problem
Insurances exist also for these purposes, dear Freemarket.

To the OP: blast the internet with this story, all the forums and let the influential people know.
Then if you can afford it contact a lawyer.
 
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Hey Jonnyk,

I've contacted our CS team and they mentioned your ticket is currently being looked into. I can't make a statement about your case specifically, but in general chargebacks occur in all realms of digital goods (Ebay etc.) and no one has a perfect solution. We already have several mechanisms in place to prevent this from occurring, especially for higher priced transactions.

Unfortunately these chargebacks do occur after the transfer is already completed. We are actively trying to resolve this for you and for our current users going forward. If you have any questions feel free to send me a private message here.

Cheers,
Stefan

Hello Jonnyk,

We have returned the payment back to you and will be working with the domain reseller to recover your domain. You will be receiving a response from our CS team soon. Sorry for any inconvenience this caused, please let me know if I can be of further help.
 
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Hello Jonnyk,

We have returned the payment back to you and will be working with the domain reseller to recover your domain. You will be receiving a response from our CS team soon. Sorry for any inconvenience this caused, please let me know if I can be of further help.

This is good news, but what does this mean in terms of your policy in general? Will the next chargeback be passed on to the seller or will you be ensuring payments as advertised on your website? Customers shouldn't be put in the position of needing to publicly embarrass you every time they need you to honor your commitments.
 
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@jonnyk - How is everything so far? Has Freemaeket returned you your rightful domain or the amount you sold for?
 
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Congrats, to freemarket in terms of the end result, that is the right thing to do. I had a similar experience years ago with escrow.com. Escrow.com offered to make good even mid-transaction because the name was already transferred when they discovered a problem. We were able to recover the name, but the point is Escrow offered to make good on the payment in the event that the name was not able to be recovered. This is the "right" thing to do. I can't speak as to what their specific policy may or may not have said at the time, or how that effects their current handling of similar situations, but the point here is that for reasons like that, Escrow.com has earned the trust of masses. If sound policy cannot be balanced with common sense and doing what is "right" then don't expect to find repeat customers, and once those stories get out the continuation of finding any new ones. The bigger question here, is was this a one time situation of making it right, or will this be the policy for everyone moving forward..
 
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Hello! The money got transferred back to my freelancer account.

11 Jan 2015 22:30User Credit: Credit for defraud case. Approved by XYZ and ZYX. (USD)200.00200.00

I tried to withdraw them to my paypal account, but again I got the email stating: Funds originated from an account that is currently under review.

I messaged the freelancer.com guy here on NP and he then told me he would get it checked asap.

I've now tried to withdraw it again, and hopefully..it will work.

Regarding my domain; Nothing.

Anyways, I am very happy to see the money transferred back to my account and that freelancer took responsibility.
 
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Great to hear. As a stakeholder of Freelancer.com I really want to know that all parties are being treated fairly. Thanks for the prompt response.
 
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Great to hear. As a stakeholder of Freelancer.com I really want to know that all parties are being treated fairly. Thanks for the prompt response.

Thanks for the active participation in building trustworthy community :)
 
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