Problems, Bugs and Fixes at Afternic - Report Problems Here

[carob]

I suggest a new thread titled Problems, Bugs and Fixes at Afternic - Report Problems Here. Then we can all list our issues so Afternic have to fix them. These Afternic probs have been repeatedly flagged up across numerous threads on here over a period of time, including the need for 2FA. Godaddy own Afternic and have the resources and motivation to fix it - this risky mess is unacceptable and reflects badly on their brand.

For info, Afternic keep reverting some of my domains to "In Review" status for no reason, and I only know that if I log in there to check on them. Until I then ask support to take them out of Review they are not listed for sale and will not sell at Afternic.

@Joe Styler When can we expect Godaddy to take action on Afternic, including implementing 2FA?

 

[simmplex]

@Joe Styler

Just a small suggestion for Afternic,
As for domain ownership verification mechanism,
4.cn do the best job,
you can add several verified email addresses to your account,
then all your pending verification domains will be whois scanned and added soon.

 

[DNGear]

This was happened me thrice.
Domains were sitting for days in Pending sale. No reply from their support.
(I do agree some buyers add domains to their cart and leave without purchasing)
After 1 week, Support just simply reply it was not sold.
If its not sold, why its in pending sale for 1 week.
Godaddy is better. It would be in sale pending for 2 or 3 hours and goes back to normal listing.

 

[creataweb]

Anyone else getting emails saying to add your payment and tax info even though you've already done so before?

Also my account has had all tax info and payment info deleted from Afternic (not by my doing.)

Lastly I have noticed that if I fill it all out again it says: "Note: Account updates take 4-6 weeks to apply." Another month delay to be paid for any sales?

 

[Arca]

This was happened me thrice.
Domains were sitting for days in Pending sale. No reply from their support.
(I do agree some buyers add domains to their cart and leave without purchasing)
After 1 week, Support just simply reply it was not sold.
If its not sold, why its in pending sale for 1 week.
Godaddy is better. It would be in sale pending for 2 or 3 hours and goes back to normal listing.

At certain registrars, if somebody puts your afternic listed domain in their cart, it will enter "pending sale" status for days, even though they remove it from their cart right away. Probably what happened in your case.

 

[LucidDomains]

Can't seem to edit my account details at all.

 

[DNGear]

At certain registrars, if somebody puts your afternic listed domain in their cart, it will enter "pending sale" status for days, even though they remove it from their cart right away. Probably what happened in your case.

Yes, it may be true. I sent several mails.
Afternic support should check and revert back to normal listing.

 

[Arca]

Yes, it may be true. I sent several mails.
Afternic support should check and revert back to normal listing.

I guess Afternic implementation is buggy at some registrars, so issues like this are frequent. I once had a domain keep getting stuck in "pending sale" for almost 8 weeks. I had to delete and re-list it to fix the problem. Another time I logged in to find 20+ domains "pending sale" at the same time (would have been nice to sell that many names in one day, but it turned out to be another bug). You can try putting your BIN listed names in the shopping cart at various registrars and then remove them. Some will show as "pending sale" for several days afterwards at Afternic.

 

[Joe Styler]

I have had a domain automatically moved out of my registrar account that was NOT fast-transfer enabled by me. I was not asked to authorize the transfer in any form. The domain just vanished from my registrar account. This is after I had worked with Afternic support on a manual transfer that had been unsuccessful until that point.

What Afternic support did next, without even informing me or asking me if it was okay, was to contact the registrar directly, and get the registrar to simply take the domain out of my account. The registrar did also not ask me whether I had actually sold the domain, or whether I wanted to accept the transfer, they just gave it directly to Afternic.

The fact that I, as the domain owner, never opted in to fast transfer, and never approved any form of ownership transfer, and then had the domain just taken right out of my account by afternic, is extremely problematic.

What if I had sold a domain I didn’t own? And the reason the manual transfer had not been able to proceed was that I didn’t own it? That should have been a red flag for Afternic. 3 failed manual transfer attempts is not something that should give you the confidence to move ahead and simply take possession of the domain after the seller (me) had been unable to provide it by himself.

But instead of making sure I owned the domain and get it moved in a legitimate way, Afternic support just somehow got the registrar to pull the sold domain right out of its registrar account, without any form of communication with or authorization by me.

I actually spent days trying to retrieve this domain as this seemed like theft to me, as I had no idea Afternic is able to do this kind of thing, and the registrar who facilitated this was of no help either (they just complied with Afternic’s request of taking the domain, and then when I asked them why they my domain, that was not fast-transfer enabled, move out of my account without my authorization and without even checking whether I'm actually the seller of this domain, they pretty much just said it’s not their problem and that I got to work it out with Afternic by myself... moving all domains away from them at the moment...). Then finally, after several days, Afternic support briskly told me that they had simply taken the domain out of my account by themselves with the help of the registrar (who did not ask me, the domain owner, whether this was acceptable). My concerned follow up questions with Afternic regarding this were, as they nearly always are, ignored.

@Joe Styler - Can you please explain how it is possible that Afternic can just take non-fast-transfer-enabled standard network domains right out of domain owner’s accounts without any kind of ownership verification, authorization, and approval on the part of the owner?

It is not possible for us to move a domain name that you do not authorize to move. There are ICANN regulations that restrict the way domains can move from one registrar to another. You have to opt in to move the domain and specifically give us the ability to move to the domain and this has to be done via Afternic AND the registrar the domain name is currently registered with or it cannot be opted into the fast transfer network.

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler

I've been having a lot of problems with the premium network. I had many email exchanges with Afternic support to try and figure this out. Almost all the domains that are registered at Domain.com, MyDomain, Dotster and Netfirms can't ...

If you are having issues with domains being opted in or listed in bulk we have a team of people who can do this for you. Just send me a pm and I will give you an email you can contact for help with listings.

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler


4. There's no ability to bulk search for a specific list of domains and then bulk edit them. Please learn from what Uniregistry has done in terms of bulk adding/viewing/editing/deleting (Godaddy auctions would really benefit from the same feature). This feature can save so much time and effort.

There are ways to do this already by downloading your list of names through excel and then editing the whole list in excel or you can email in and we can just do it for you on the Afternic side.

The GoDaddy auctions also has bulk tools which we can help with if you are stuck, you can email [email protected] for help using the bulk tools. We do have a new interface in the works which will help with things and should be released in the near future.

 

[Joe Styler]

@SuperBrander
@Joe Styler


Really good and considerate suggestions,
It would be great to add bulk adding/viewing/editing/deleting for Godaddy auctions.
especially bulk search and bulk adding to watch functions.

Most of these options are coming shortly.

 

[DNGear]

can anyone tell me MYdomain is in Premium Network?

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler I have sent email a week ago and no respond.

Email [email protected] and they can take a look for you or you can pm me, but service@ will be faster as I am in meetings most of the day today.

 

[Arca]

It is not possible for us to move a domain name that you do not authorize to move. There are ICANN regulations that restrict the way domains can move from one registrar to another. You have to opt in to move the domain and specifically give us the ability to move to the domain and this has to be done via Afternic AND the registrar the domain name is currently registered with or it cannot be opted into the fast transfer network.

Yes, it is not possible, but it happened and that's what is so shocking. The domain didn't move between registrars. Afternic contacted the registrar and got them to move the domain internally at the registrar when I was unable to facilitate the transfer by myself.

The domain was in my registrar account, and the escrow agent tried to initiate a pull multiple times, but it did not work, so we were going to do it through a registrar transfer instead. I never opt in domains with this registrar and had the domain been opted in to fast transfer, we wouldn't have had to spend all that time on unsuccessfully attempting to move forwards with the manual transfer. But then suddenly the domain just vanished from my account.

I was not asked to confirm it in any way by the registrar. No confirmation email link I had to click or anything. The registrar didn't ask me if I was the seller.

They just lifted to domain directly out of my account, so I thought the domain had been stolen. How is it possible for you to just take domains out of users registrar accounts? I wasted several days fervently trying to get it back from the registrar (in order to be able to fulfil my sale of this domain via Afternic...). Then after several days, the Afternic escrow agent suddenly tells me that they moved the domain out of my account for me! Without any kind of authorization or approval on my part! This is a really troubling incident. I have asked the escrow agent how it is possible that they can just take a domain out of my registrar account without my approval or without checking with the domain owner whether he/she is okay with it (as seller/domain owner may not be the same, it's easy to list other people's domains for sale at Afternic), but that request is being ignored.

 

[SuperBrander]

@Joe Styler Thanks for the quick responses. I'll PM you shortly regarding the premium network. It sounds like this needs to be handled on a management level though. Dotster and MyDomain can't on the one hand be advertised as a part of the premium network and on the other hand not be in it according to Afternic's reps. All the while, a few domains from these registrars (plus from Netfirms which isn't even promoted as a premium network partner) get enrolled, while others don't. Who knows why. Not to mention the auth code issue which makes it impossible to list domains in bulk from some registrars. Anyway, I'll PM you soon regarding that.

Regarding the spreadsheet download... it's a solution of sorts, but it isn't convenient having to keep on downloading and uploading spreadsheets every time a bulk change is needed, plus that doesn't solve the need to edit a specific group of domains in bulk easily. Turning to Afternic's support takes time and personally, I haven't been able to get things right despite dozens of exchanges so I'd prefer solutions within the platform itself rather than having to turn to support with such basic things. I'll be looking forward to better solutions and hopefully a better interface and that applies to Godaddy auctions as well. Glad that you guys are working on a new system. Not sure what bulk options you're referring to, but if they aren't apparent to users who use GD auctions... then there's a problem there already. There's a bug at GD auctions, by the way, with the 'select all selling domains' option. That option hasn't been working for months, at least for me. Thanks again.

 

[Joe Styler]

Yes, it is not possible, but it happened and that's what is so shocking. The domain didn't move between registrars. Afternic contacted the registrar and got them to move the domain internally at the registrar when I was unable to facilitate the transfer by myself.

The domain was in my registrar account, and the escrow agent tried to initiate a pull multiple times, but it did not work, so we were going to do it through a registrar transfer instead. I never opt in domains with this registrar and had the domain been opted in to fast transfer, we wouldn't have had to spend all that time on unsuccessfully attempting to move forwards with the manual transfer. But then suddenly the domain just vanished from my account.

I was not asked to confirm it in any way by the registrar. No confirmation email link I had to click or anything. The registrar didn't ask me if I was the seller.

They just lifted to domain directly out of my account, so I thought the domain had been stolen. How is it possible for you to just take domains out of users registrar accounts? I wasted several days fervently trying to get it back from the registrar (in order to be able to fulfil my sale of this domain via Afternic...). Then after several days, the Afternic escrow agent suddenly tells me that they moved the domain out of my account for me! Without any kind of authorization or approval on my part! This is a really troubling incident. I have asked the escrow agent how it is possible that they can just take a domain out of my registrar account without my approval or without checking with the domain owner whether he/she is okay with it (as seller/domain owner may not be the same, it's easy to list other people's domains for sale at Afternic), but that request is being ignored.

If you did indeed sell it through Afternic then you authorized them to move the domain in the terms of service. They should have notified you and I know the new system we rolled out is meant to address better customer communication.

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler Thanks for the quick responses. I'll PM you shortly regarding the premium network. It sounds like this needs to be handled on a management level though. Dotster and MyDomain can't on the one hand be advertised as a part of the premium network and on the other hand not be in it according to Afternic's reps. All the while, a few domains from these registrars (plus from Netfirms which isn't even promoted as a premium network partner) get enrolled, while others don't. Who knows why. Not to mention the auth code issue which makes it impossible to list domains in bulk from some registrars. Anyway, I'll PM you soon regarding that.

Regarding the spreadsheet download... it's a solution of sorts, but it isn't convenient having to keep on downloading and uploading spreadsheets every time a bulk change is needed, plus that doesn't solve the need to edit specific domains easily. Turning to Afternic's support takes time and personally, I haven't been able to get things right despite dozens of exchanges so I'd prefer solutions within the platform itself rather than having to turn to support with such basic things. I'll be looking forward to better solutions and hopefully a better interface and that applies to Godaddy auctions as well. Glad that you guys are working on a new system. Not sure what bulk options you're referring to, but if they aren't apparent to users who use GD auctions... then there's a problem there already. There's a bug at GD auctions, by the way, with the 'select all selling domains' option. That option hasn't been working for months, at least for me. Thanks again.

I am not sure where you are looking and I am about to go into some more meetings for the day so your best bet would be to continue to get clarity from the support team they are very good. The network though has two components, gaining and losing, so a registrar can be in the network as a gaining registrar meaning that your domains listed for sale are available for their customers to buy, but that does not mean that the registrar is a losing registrar, meaning that domains listed there can be eligible to be moved out from them when listed for sale. The support team can provide you with a list of both if you would like to see that.

 

[Arca]

If you did indeed sell it through Afternic then you authorized them to move the domain in the terms of service. They should have notified you and I know the new system we rolled out is meant to address better customer communication.

Sorry, but I think you have misunderstood my point here. I am not saying that I was trying to reneg on the sale. I am saying that Afternic took a domain out of a domain owner's registrar account without ANY kind of authorization by the domain owner. This is a huge security issue.

Of course I as an AFTERNIC SELLER have to deliver a domain when I sell it. But that does not give Afternic the right to steal domains right out of DOMAIN OWNER'S registrars accounts whenever a domain sells. It is extremely important that the owner of the domain has to approve that a domain can be moved out of their ownership before that can happen, because SELLER and OWNER is not always the same. It is very easy to list other people's domains for sale at afternic, and I'm sure people wrongly sell domains they don't own via Afternic every day. It's what happens after that which is most important.

Say I list one of your domains for sale through Afternic (anyone can list anyone's domain for sale, the system does not do ownership checks), and then sell it, then does that mean I have "authorized [afternic] to move the domain in the terms of service"? Of course I haven't, I don't own the domain, so I can't authorize Afternic to take your domain. It's your domain in your registrar account. It's you who need to authorize such ownership transfer, and at that point, the transaction should break down.

But in this situation, Afternic just went to my registrar account, with the help of the registrar, and took the domain right out of my account. I was not asked to authorize it, I was not asked by the registrar whether it was I who sold it, the domain was just moved right out of my account by Afternic without any kind of authorization on my behalf. So what if the domain was not owned by me? The domain could have been listed for sale by somebody else. I could have listed somebody else's domain for sale. They might as well have taken it out of anybody's account, because neither afternic nor the registrar ever contacted or asked the domain owner to see whether it was me who sold the domain. And I was not asked by the registrar to accept the ownership transfer, no email with a link to click. Afternic simply got them to silently pull the domain out of my registrar account. I was never notified. I have never experienced anything like this before!

Do you not think this is an extremely troubling incident? I could technically list your or anybody else's domain registered with this registrar for sale at Afternic, sell the domain, and then Afternic would just take it right out of the rightful owner's account, without asking whether they are the seller, or whether they actually authorize such ownership transfer.

 

[Haris]

Sorry, but I think you have misunderstood my point here. I am not saying that I was trying to reneg on the sale. I am saying that Afternic took a domain out of a domain owner's registrar account without ANY kind of authorization by the domain owner. This is a huge security issue.

Of course I as an AFTERNIC SELLER have to deliver a domain when I sell it. But that does not give Afternic the right to steal domains right out of DOMAIN OWNER'S registrars accounts whenever a domain sells. It is extremely important that the owner of the domain has to approve that a domain can be moved out of their ownership before that can happen, because SELLER and OWNER is not always the same. It is very easy to list other people's domains for sale at afternic, and I'm sure people wrongly sell domains they don't own via Afternic every day. It's what happens after that which is most important.

Say I list one of your domains for sale through Afternic (anyone can list anyone's domain for sale, the system does not do ownership checks), and then sell it, then does that mean I have "authorized [afternic] to move the domain in the terms of service"? Of course I haven't, I don't own the domain, so I can't authorize Afternic to take your domain. It's your domain in your registrar account. It's you who need to authorize such ownership transfer, and at that point, the transaction should break down.

But in this situation, Afternic just went to my registrar account, with the help of the registrar, and took the domain right out of my account. I was not asked to authorize it, I was not asked by the registrar whether it was I who sold it, the domain was just moved right out of my account by Afternic without any kind of authorization on my behalf. So what if the domain was not owned by me? The domain could have been listed for sale by somebody else. I could have listed somebody else's domain for sale. They might as well have taken it out of anybody's account, because neither afternic nor the registrar ever contacted or asked the domain owner to see whether it was me who sold the domain. And I was not asked by the registrar to accept the ownership transfer, no email with a link to click. Afternic simply got them to silently pull the domain out of my registrar account. I was never notified. I have never experienced anything like this before!

Do you not think this is an extremely troubling incident? I could technically list your or anybody else's domain registered with this registrar for sale at Afternic, sell the domain, and then Afternic would just take it right out of the rightful owner's account, without asking whether they are the seller, or whether they actually authorize such ownership transfer.

Most of AfterNic emails go into the junk folder, search for their email in there.

Worrying incident nonetheless.

 

[Joe Styler]

Sorry, but I think you have misunderstood my point here. I am not saying that I was trying to reneg on the sale. I am saying that Afternic took a domain out of a domain owner's registrar account without ANY kind of authorization by the domain owner. This is a huge security issue.

Of course I as an AFTERNIC SELLER have to deliver a domain when I sell it. But that does not give Afternic the right to steal domains right out of DOMAIN OWNER'S registrars accounts whenever a domain sells. It is extremely important that the owner of the domain has to approve that a domain can be moved out of their ownership before that can happen, because SELLER and OWNER is not always the same. It is very easy to list other people's domains for sale at afternic, and I'm sure people wrongly sell domains they don't own via Afternic every day. It's what happens after that which is most important.

Say I list one of your domains for sale through Afternic (anyone can list anyone's domain for sale, the system does not do ownership checks), and then sell it, then does that mean I have "authorized [afternic] to move the domain in the terms of service"? Of course I haven't, I don't own the domain, so I can't authorize Afternic to take your domain. It's your domain in your registrar account. It's you who need to authorize such ownership transfer, and at that point, the transaction should break down.

But in this situation, Afternic just went to my registrar account, with the help of the registrar, and took the domain right out of my account. I was not asked to authorize it, I was not asked by the registrar whether it was I who sold it, the domain was just moved right out of my account by Afternic without any kind of authorization on my behalf. So what if the domain was not owned by me? The domain could have been listed for sale by somebody else. I could have listed somebody else's domain for sale. They might as well have taken it out of anybody's account, because neither afternic nor the registrar ever contacted or asked the domain owner to see whether it was me who sold the domain. And I was not asked by the registrar to accept the ownership transfer, no email with a link to click. Afternic simply got them to silently pull the domain out of my registrar account. I was never notified. I have never experienced anything like this before!

Do you not think this is an extremely troubling incident? I could technically list your or anybody else's domain registered with this registrar for sale at Afternic, sell the domain, and then Afternic would just take it right out of the rightful owner's account, without asking whether they are the seller, or whether they actually authorize such ownership transfer.

You cannot that is my point.

 

[Arca]

You cannot that is my point.

I cannot what? What is your point?

I am not presenting a "what if" scenario here. I am presenting the facts of what happened just this past week.

 

[Joe Styler]

I cannot what? What is your point?

I am not presenting a "what if" scenario here. I am presenting the facts of what happened just this past week.

You are saying if someone listed a name for sale they did not own that we could take it from the real owners account and move it to the buyer. Unless I am missing something that did not happen. You listed a domain name that you owned and it was moved to the buyer.
Without the domain name it would be hard to say for sure what happened but knowing the rules that ICANN has in place for domains to change hands and the legalities of taking a domain name without permission and the way our systems work, I do not believe that what you surmise as potentially happening is plausible. Not only would we be at risk but so would Name.com in this case and they would not move a domain name without just cause and legal and ICANN requirements being met or they too could be held at fault so, again, I do not see any way that this would happen which is different than what you are describing actually happened. We simply cannot take domains from other registrars and move them to buyers without the permission of the current owner and the current registrar.

 

[LucidDomains]

Show attachment 55731

Can't seem to edit my account details at all.

@Joe Styler

Please have your technical team look into this. I can't get into my account details page.

I spoke to someone on the phone today from Afternic. They said Afternic systems were updated last week.

I think you have alot of bugs still!

 

[Tenn]

Show attachment 55731

Can't seem to edit my account details at all.

I'm having the same issue.

 

[Joe Styler]

You can contact [email protected] and have them look into it. I asked around and we don't know of anything but if you give them your exact details of the account and what you are trying to change they can take a look.