advice Seller wants domain back. What would you do?

[draco]

I bought a domain for mid 4 figures from someone here on NamePros. Transaction went fine. After they were paid and the domain was transferred, they messaged me asking for the domain back. They said they sold it on GoDaddy auctions and didn't get notification until after they sold it to me. They seem to have also spent the money, as they asked me to wait for a refund until after they get paid from GoDaddy. They do have a good reputation here.

What would you do in this situation? Keep the domain, give it back and wait for your money back, insist on your money back right away, something else?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Acroplex]

What is the timeline of events? E.g. Did he sell the domain to you before or after it was sold at GoDaddy? There is always the potential for litigation, so better be careful. Get things in writing from Afternic before agreeing to proceed.

If you want to sell at the price the domain was sold at GoDaddy, your obligation to the previous owner is zero. After all, not only they are causing you duress by involving you in a transaction that should only have two parties involved, but they cannot refund the purchase immediately.

From a personal experience, it's funny how karma plays out.

I bought a domain and the seller contacted me a year later wanting to buy it back for personal reasons. We agreed on a price, and he strung me along for 3 months with excuses that the check is in the mail.

After that time passed, I notified him that the deal was null and void and held onto the domain, never hearing from him again. A year later, I sold it to someone else for mid five figures, about four times the failed deal's agreed price.

I'm sure he wishes he had paid me instead.

 

[freedom30]

I would probably point, laugh, and dance.

 

[DomainVP]

ask for screenshot of godaddy auction sale.. prices.. end date etc..

Agreed.

If someone purchased the domain before you, and the seller processed that transaction, this would hold up in litigation. Especially with all the agreements GoDaddy sets forth when you are buying a domain.

If they never checked their inbox and they had an 'offer' that's a different story. That would make the domain yours, and I'm sure you would hear from the interested buyer promptly.

I've only had one buyers remorse incident over a 4L .com acquired here on the forums. He asked to buy it back at the price I acquired it for about 3 days after sale. I was not interested in that, and he told me off. I still own it, and it's respective .net.

 

[namerav]

Depends based on negotiation.

 

[Kingsley Okpoh]

garptrader just said it all. I could not have advised better on this issue. You sound like a nice dude and that is not bad but then again, you are not obliged to return the domain. Business is Business. Plus, the seller does not come across to me as nice as you are. I sense Pure Greed in him or her.

 

[Blueforever]

Keep it... Then try to sell it yourself, and keep all the profit...if someone buys a domain off me then does a quick flip I can't expect a share of the profit. Same principle. That's Business.
A similar thing happened to me when I sold a domain, forgot to update and delete on another selling platform, then got a higher offer (even before I transferred the name out). I had to take it on the chin.

 

[LucidDomains]

Send him a finders fee, it's always better to make friends in business than enemies. The more friends you have, the more opportunities will present itself.

 

[doofer]

If you know how much the buyer was prepared to pay via Godaddy, stick it on there as a buy it now/premium listing and if they really want it, they'll buy it ! You owe the previous seller nowt in theory, its up to you whether you bung them something out of kindness but it was their mistake !

 

[N-A]

This nonsense about a finders fee makes me laugh.

The previous seller didn't find anyone, even if they did, they shouldn't be actively selling a domain that they don't own. A new buyer found their old listing, which they're bound to do again in time if you cannot take over the GoDaddy sale. There've been a few good suggestions on how to close the deal to eliminate the 20% commission already, so I'm not going to parrot that.

I think we'd all be a bit richer if we treated domaining like a pyramid, in that, we tracked who we bought the domain from and passed a percentage of the final sale up. Dream on; that's not how this game works. I've seen a couple of my past domains hit NameBio (months to years) after having handled them myself and never once contacted someone for a cut of that.

Keep the final sale to yourself. I know they would, if they could.

 

[FusionSpy]

Sell it via GoDaddy and keep the money. Similar thing happened to me once. I sold a domain via email inquiry and only a week later an offer came on my email (whois still had my email on it) from someone else for 4x amount of domain sold.
I contacted my buyer and told him I have a potential lead for him with great ROI, so I forwarded an email, he negotiated and sold it for like 6x amount of my initial sale.
I didn't even ask for anything, but he wanted to pay me for the lead and I said it's his sale and I don't want anything for it. He couldn't thank me enough and that lead to another great sale to this buyer after a year or so.
Sale is a sale - it's final. If I would sell a domain here for 10$ only to receive an offer on any marketplace the next day it's not mine any more. Else you could haunt every buyer of the domain you once had and that sold for a nice profit.
Same goes the other way - it's not your fault if someone "overpaid" you for a domain name and you see it the next year on the droplist.

 

[magicpeanut]

No brainer, the domain is now yours so just move on and keep / sell it!

 

[lock]

Great you have 2 potential buyers. Put it back up for sale in godaddy and a for sale landing page to hopefully catch his end user on the type in. You certainly have no moral obligation and you don't have to cut this guy back in again he already made the most percentage. The end user bidding like that will return out of curiosity.
Ask Godaddy for the buyer since they know and will want the commission.

 

[forge]

As someone mentioned, a timeline could be critical. We're given no frame of reference here. How long ago did OP buy this domain?

 

[Nerevar]

If the seller has a good reputation, I would suggest to him to split the profits. I would do this as a favor for a fellow NP member, so that he does not get into trouble with GoDaddy for selling a domain he does not own. Otherwise, I would keep the domain for myself.

 

[headsupp]

This will play into the integrity of the seller, on how this moves ahead. A Deal is a Deal. A decision was made to sell it to you at this price. Nobody forced him. If he decides to retract it do to greed, his integrity and reputation will suffer. Straight up.

 

[draco]

He's had the domain for awhile. The day before he sold it to me, it sold on GoDaddy or one of their affiliate sites. I'm unclear which at this point. The seller said he got an email from GoDaddy in Russian, and he thought it was spam or a phishing attempt so he never checked it out. The buyer is from Russia. Now he's decided he wants the money (he did offer me an extra $1000) from the sale, so he's claiming the email was actually from the buyer and he never got an email from GoDaddy. I'm checking with them to see if he was notified.

Needless to say, if he's lying about the notification, I'm done with him. I bought it and it was his fault for not checking it out first. He's an experienced domainer with a good rep on here. Not some newbie who doesn't know what he's doing.

 

[namezest]

Buyers on godaddy have no contact with the sellers, it is all via godaddy so BS!
Seller took your money, the domain is now yours end of

 

[alcy]

He's had the domain for awhile. The day before he sold it to me, it sold on GoDaddy or one of their affiliate sites. I'm unclear which at this point. The seller said he got an email from GoDaddy in Russian, and he thought it was spam or a phishing attempt so he never checked it out. The buyer is from Russia. Now he's decided he wants the money (he did offer me an extra $1000) from the sale, so he's claiming the email was actually from the buyer and he never got an email from GoDaddy. I'm checking with them to see if he was notified.

Needless to say, if he's lying about the notification, I'm done with him. I bought it and it was his fault for not checking it out first. He's an experienced domainer with a good rep on here. Not some newbie who doesn't know what he's doing.

well then! shady stuff just got shadier

good luck

 

[draco]

This just keeps getting better (or worse). The Afternic rep said the seller wasn't notified until he emailed him about 24 hours after the buyer agreed to purchase the domain. Apparently their partner network system isn't automated, so you can sell domains multiple times. Unless he has it wrong. Anyone from Afternic or GoDaddy care to chime in on this? It's a possible huge hole in your system, that could upset a lot of buyers. And it's certainly putting me in a difficult situation.

 

[N-A]

This just keeps getting better (or worse). The Afternic rep said the seller wasn't notified until he emailed him about 24 hours after the buyer agreed to purchase the domain. Apparently their partner network system isn't automated, so you can sell domains multiple times. Unless he has it wrong. Anyone from Afternic or GoDaddy care to chime in on this? It's a possible huge hole in your system, that could upset a lot of buyers. And it's certainly putting me in a difficult situation.

You ought to just tag them in this thread and have him or her explain their side.

 

[Joe Styler]

I am not going to comment on what you should or shouldn't do, you're going to have to make a decision on your own.

As far as Afternic I am not surprised you received a cryptic answer in that we do not give out account specific information to a non account holder. Therefore we are not going to be able to go into detail about a sale that happened to another account even if you now own the domain. I would re-list it for sale or wait to see if they contact you via the whois for the sale. It may be someone savvy enough to do that, and it may be someone who is just not that well versed in the ways of domains and purchased it at another partner like Network solutions or something and may not know the Whois exists.

That is, if there was another sale. In most cases when a domain name sells we notify the seller. It is then up to them to remove the listings from other sources. That seems very unusual to me. There are several points that seem to be things that would make me hesitate to proceed on this without some kind of security (escrow.com or afternic escrow etc). As it stands now it seems strange that the domain was sold before he moved it to you and was not notified and then quickly/immediately spent the money and then contacted you to move the domain back to him so he could complete the sale. These are things I would not be comfortable myself.

As far as Afternic goes you have no obligation to complete the sale through us as you did not list it for sale and you will not experience any negatives from Afternic for listing/not listing this domain name through us. I am not aware of any time we have had a customer complete a sale for another person so they would not be disciplined for failure to move a domain name to the buyer - if a sale did indeed take place which I do not know. If a sale did take place we would hold the party that listed the domain name responsible for not removing the listing from us when they sold it elsewhere.

It is also possible but unlikely that the domain name did not automatically become removed from the Afternic listing system if the ownership changed. An ownership change would definitely trigger it to be removed from the fast transfer network and the original listing party would be intermediately notified by email that the name was removed from the fast transfer network. So there should have been some emails from Afternic somehow in this situation that would have triggered the original party to take some kind of action.

There really isn't enough information for me to say decisively but there are many things in this thread that would make me think it is highly strange to say the least and I would proceed in a way that protects you, if it were me, in any future transactions by utilizing an escrow service if another sale presents itself for this domain.

 

[forge]

You would be wise to cease all communication with this seller. Consider your interests and yours alone. You owe this person nothing monetarily, or in the form of favors or even your own good will.

It really is that simple.

 

[deez007]

I think maybe get the full details from the dude.. with regards to how much it was sold for on Godaddy. It would probably be amicable for both of you guys to split the profit from the Godaddy sale. I think as much as it was the sellers fault it's also important to remember that we are all human and we all make mistakes. The ideal outcome would be for all parties to be happy without anyone getting short changed.

 

[draco]

I know how much it was sold for on GoDaddy. They're substituting me in as the Seller on the sale. The Buyer paid and they are verifying the funds now.

The issue is when the guy that sold it to me was notified about the sale. I've gotten different stories from him. The Afternic rep said they didn't notify him until 24 hours after the sale, which was during the time period that I bought it. I've been notified of sales automatically. Not an email from an account rep 24 hours later. But apparently this sale was through a Russian partner, so maybe it's different. Joe Styler is looking into it. If he doesn't post an update, I will.

 

[Edward Smeu]

Interesting topic, lots of good answers.

But is it fair to consider that since the sale between the ex-owner and @draco was finalized, now the domain name increased its value? So theoretically, there should be a new deal with a higher price or at least a renegotiation between the brand new owner and the interested buyer? Of course, with GD's brkers to assist for the tasty 20% chunk. Of course, if the current sale price is satisfying then go for it but a try for more should be legit based on the above.

Must be a very nice name

I think we'd all be a bit richer if we treated domaining like a pyramid, in that, we tracked who we bought the domain from and passed a percentage of the final sale up.

What a nice idea Totally doable if you ask me