Name & Shame Flippa NO RESERVE Auction fail

sam roy said:

I am confused. Your description does not reveal whether the domain was reserved or no reserve auction.

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It was a No Reserve Auction.!

ulterios said:

This looks like his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/madhu.maddy.3572

Too Bad Facebook doesn't have a "DisLike" button yet!

Maybe you should send him a message there as well.

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Don't think that's him.

I looked at that listing also Only reason I didn't bid was because of the inconsistency between pounds plural and euro singular. It's annoying and he should be forced to follow through, but really, it's not that great a domain in my humble opinion!

Nick V said:

Don't think that's him.

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Don't think so either.

Here's the last one that happened to me. After they didn't ban him, I pretty much have been turned off of Flippa.

Conversation with Flippa seller who refused to transfer domain.

I had a similar experience on Flippa.
I was searching for domains in LLL and found two domains with minimum 1$ bid and No Reserve. Both domains were of same seller.
I did bid and won the auction, but after several messages to the owner, he did not even respond, though I noticed him active during all that time.
I let Flippa to know this fraud and his account was banned., but this ain't a solution

Sohail Khan said:

I had a similar experience on Flippa.
I was searching for domains in LLL and found two domains with minimum 1$ bid and No Reserve. Both domains were of same seller.
I did bid and won the auction, but after several messages to the owner, he did not even respond, though I noticed him active during all that time.
I let Flippa to know this fraud and his account was banned., but this ain't a solution

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The solution is forcing new sellers to watch an educational video about how auctions work and making it crystal clear what "no reserve" means, and maybe even holding domains in escrow for new sellers. I already mentioned this to Kevin and others at Flippa. I doubt they care.

Nick V said:

The solution is forcing new sellers to watch an educational video about how auctions work and making it crystal clear what "no reserve" means, and maybe even holding domains in escrow for new sellers. I already mentioned this to Kevin and others at Flippa. I doubt they care.

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This is what was I thinking and is the possible solution. Otherwise rules are pretty clear when you sign up for Flippa. Now a days, Flippa is offering a lot of helping material (eBooks etc) for new users on sign ups. If they don't read those guides, they won't watch the video as well.

Very sorry to hear that i do understand feelings when this happen. I had reverse experience than yours @Daniel Mac Sweeney i've placed my first domain before few months back and i knew that domain is going to do nothing. This was just for testing purpose to learn process. One of bidder has placed $1 bid and he won the auction. I contacted him several time and he had just excuse he couldnt make payment to my paypal id. Than i again contacted him several time and no reply from him. After few days i saw his account was suspended so he might have repeated this job with other sellers as well. I than opened dispute and won that dispute. And now i'm free to relist that domain again.

Sohail Khan said:

If they don't read those guides, they won't watch the video as well.

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You can programatically force a video to be played before an auction is created. It doesn't need to be more than 2 minutes, either. Of course, you can't force someone to watch it. But at least they can't claim they didn't understand. I do agree that the domain escrow idea is a better one, though. But, whatever. They're not paying me or helping me sell my domains, so I'm not really interested in offering any more suggestions. I will, however, share my honest experiences to help others.

DomainBag said:

Very sorry to hear that i do understand feelings when this happen. I had reverse experience than yours @Daniel Mac Sweeney i've placed my first domain before few months back and i knew that domain is going to do nothing. This was just for testing purpose to learn process. One of bidder has placed $1 bid and he won the auction. I contacted him several time and he had just excuse he couldnt make payment to my paypal id. Than i again contacted him several time and no reply from him. After few days i saw his account was suspended so he might have repeated this job with other sellers as well. I than opened dispute and won that dispute. And now i'm free to relist that domain again.

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Hilarious!! I can't believe all this for $1:D

You are right @sam roy I was thinking same at that time this much hassle for $1 ? :D But It was actually not for $1. It was for business ethics and reputation i wanted to start building over flippa.

Sorry to hear that... mine was also worse...

I won a domain for just $1 as it was no reserve...I liked the domain tbh.. The seller decided to not push the domain as he had "mistakenly" accepted the bid...He told Flippa about his mistake and Flippa said you can contact the Buyer if he agrees to cancel this auction... I wasn't ready at first but later he said he got the domain for $1000+ and can't give away the domain and let Flippa ban him it doesn't matter him...I later found out he was also a NamePros member, so I decided to let it go and let the dispute go in neutral...I later decided not to work with him again...

These things happen sometimes and it happens everywhere. The marketplace just have one option to ban the account. However new accounts can be created again. So then another option is to blacklist the PayPal account/credit card from being used in the marketplace again. Not sure if Flippa already have this option available, but if it is available, then the same user won't be allowed to use the credit card again even if he creates a new account.

Messiah said:

Sorry to hear that... mine was also worse...
So then another option is to blacklist the PayPal account/credit card from being used in the marketplace again. Not sure if Flippa already have this option available, but if it is available, then the same user won't be allowed to use the credit card again even if he creates a new account.

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Flippa might have this option, but now a days, getting a VCC and loading it is matter of minutes.
The best option would be to hold the domain in Esrcow.

Sohail Khan said:

Flippa might have this option, but now a days, getting a VCC and loading it is matter of minutes.
The best option would be to hold the domain in Esrcow.

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Not sure if Escrow holds the domain upfront before selling... I haven't had experience with Escrow at the moment, but this is how it works.

1. Buyer sends the payment to Escrow.
2. Seller push/transfer the domain to Escrow.
3. Escrow push the domain to buyer.
4. Escrow releases the fund to Seller.

So, domain is hold when the seller is going to sell. In this case, if the seller is interested to not sell and play his trick, he won't push the domain.

Well the user is new and this No Reserve mistake happen to everyone , in my case I just sold the domain at any price , the reputation means a lot to me more than some dollars.

Sorry to hear that Daniel, I can imagine it would be too very frustrating for you.
It is too very disappointing to read the text seller you mentioned. When someone starts a no reserve auction, he should understand that he might end up selling a good domain at low price, an unexpectedly low price.
The reason may be due to less promotions, insufficient marketing, no activity on domain forums, not using premium upgrades, unrealistic expectations and so many more. However for a seller, reputation should means a lot, if anyone wishes to make a place in the market, and get some respect from domain buyers, he should refrain from these kind of non professional behavior.

Wonder why is it so difficult for Flippa to take escrow of domains when they get a bid on no reserve listing or when bid meets the reserve?

Maybe it cannot be done for all tlds, but for tlds like .com/.net/.org it would not be a problem. That should solve this problem. Flippa could make this optional for a seller, to establish trust. Genuine sellers having confidence in their names would not have a problem escrowing their domains.

Plus asking new bidders to optionally but willingly keep refundable deposit of small amount like $10 to $50 as escrow to show they are serious buyers would help. This deposit could be used towards Flippa escrow payment method. This deposit could be reflected in user's rating. The higher the escrow amount and longer you keep it at Flippa, higher your rating.

Nick V said:

I think he meant, was the domain name you bid on related to currency. (i.e. money.com)

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Exactly, because there are only one recent premium listing which sold for $20 and its related to currency, poundstoeuro.com.

Geez, all this for that name? $20 is a fair price...

Registered in May of 2015...

K.Youness said:

Well the user is new and this No Reserve mistake happen to everyone

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He clearly wrote in the description "NO RESERVE". The only mistake, was thinking that he would get more bids and have a sale which would make headlines on all the domain blogs.

Messiah said:

2. Seller push/transfer the domain to Escrow.

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That option is usually offered as a premium service from 3rd party escrow companies like Escrow.com or DN.com. Flippa doesn't do it.

This was the only way for the listing to make headlines...
Unfortunately,

Perhaps he'll actually push you the name and maintain some dignity....

unfortunately he can do it as he is the one who needs to transfer the asset to you, he will likely get banned from flippa and publicly shamed if his identity is discovered here. I have had to sell at a loss in the past, and i have a couple auction running now which are no reserve that i may lose on, but thats the risk you take.

Daniel Mac Sweeney said:

Still waiting on flippa to get back.
Here is the guy he still won't reply either
https://flippa.com/users/960733

Is there a Madhu maddy here on namepros?
Does he have anything to say?

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I review his profile. he's a new user.you can only file a dispute or can contact flippa. I don't think he's afraid of to get banned on flippa because he don't have any previous history of selling. which most seller's afraid to ruin.
However flippa really suck's sometime. overall domaining is a risky business. We all face these circumstances sometime.File a complaint and go on. Don't waste your further time.

that is well out of order - he might not like it but if he has not put a reserve on thats his fault and he should honour his side of the deal.