@Paul Nicks - Here are a some of the issues that impede Afternic from smoothly functioning as a portal for domain owners to list their names into the most active aftermarket in the world:
- No built-in function for dealing with “already listed” domains besides contacting support via email each time
- Maximum 50 domains can be viewed per page on the portfolio management page (very cumbersome if you have hundreds or thousands of domains listed - making bulk edits on afternic.com is frustrating)
- No built-in way to deal with domains inexplicably stuck in “pending review” for weeks and months
- Domain portfolio management page is extremely slow to load, buggy, and saving changes often does not work
- I inexplicably get logged by the system at times, especially when making listing edits
- Domain portfolio management page requires horizontal scrolling
- Customizing domain portfolio management columns does not work, it is reverted back to default once you leave the domain portfolio management area
- There is a spreadsheet bulk edit/add function, but it is complicated to use because it has too many settings columns. It's not convenient to upload a spreadsheet if we just want to make a few edits. Improved upload/edit/delete functionality on Afternic.com would be far better than having to deal with the spreadsheet
- Domains get “hidden” for no reason at times
- Account owners are not notified when domains are removed from their Afternic.com account and we are not provided with a log of domains removed from our account by customer support/the system
- Sellers are not informed when a sale fall through (so we don't know that we can offer the domain for sale again, and we continue wasting time reserving it for an afternic.com transaction that is not going to happen - please send out an email when you deem a sale to have fallen through)
- There are no security features besides an alphanumeric password, we can't change our username, no two factor authentication (and we can't even use symbols !@#$%^ in passwords)
- When using the Afternic.com I am inexplicably sent to a page telling me:
Resend the activation email.
Please enter the account name selected during registration, and we will get the activation sent out again. Be sure to add [email protected] to your contacts list so the email isn't sent to your spam filter.
* Please verify your account first. You can use the form to resend the verification email.
I encounter this error page on a daily basis. I don't actually have to re-verify my account (even though I enter my email, I'm never sent this email). Clicking around on the website eventually enables me to get back into my account again. But it's still annoying to encounter this bug every day.
- Support takes days to answer any inquiry, and often they outright ignore support request (no response is provided by support)
- There is no ticket support system. If you had this, perhaps CS could be held accountable for ignoring support requests
- No way to control opted in/opted out of Afternic network settings. Once you opt in to the premium network there is no way to opt out via Afternic.com (besides manually deleting the domain from Afternic.com)
- We also need to manually delete and relist every opted in domain that is moved from one registrar to another, in order to enable fast-transfer subsequent to moving a domain to a new registrar. A built-in function at Afternic.com for dealing with this would be more convenient
- Some brokers do not ask for permission to work a lead. If there is no "floor" pricing set, brokers must ask the seller before they can reach out to the prospective buyer. If seller negotiates with buyer, and the broker also negotiates with the buyer unbeknownst to the seller, that can easily cause confusion, misunderstandings and mess up sales. Also, there is no way to indicate our preference for sending leads only to certain brokers which is a highly needed feature.
- The new transaction system is still far worse and slower than the old one. A number of glitches and bugs that were pointed out in this thread one month ago still exist
- Many TA agents do not respond to messages regarding transactions and there is still no chat log or record being created for messages exchanged between seller/TA agent
- The way transactions are handled in the new system is too inconsistent. Sometimes I push a domain to Afternic's registrar holding account and the TA Agent immediately marks it as "transfer complete". Other times I do the same and the TA Agent refuses to mark the domains a "transfer complete". When sellers indicate that a domain has been transferred, the system does not save it (unlike the old system). Transfers are taking 3-4x longer to complete under the new system than they used to with the old system.
- Estimated payout dates are highly inaccurate and no "sold date" is shown
- Parts of the “account summary” details have not been working for more than a year, and this section was further broken by the introduction of the new transaction system (doesn't updated at all anymore). Would also be good if you could expand the amount of sales data displayed in this area with more relevant stats and numbers.
- Adult keyword review system is inconsistent, non-adult names are blocked from the platform, while a search for any of the most common “adult” keywords on afternic.com show a ton of adult domains already listed on the platform
I understand from your comment on domaininvesting.com that the Afternic.com website platform is not supposed to be a place for buyers to come and buy domains, and that GoDaddy channels all aftermarket development resources towards expanding your reseller network (which is providing fantastic results for sellers, so I certainly appreciate the continued development of this sales channel), while Afternic.com is merely meant to be a portal for domain owners to list and manage their names. However, I hope that the (non-exhaustive) list of issues above demonstrates that the platform currently does not serve the latter function in a satisfactory way, and that it is in need of extensive updates, improvements, and continued development to reach that level of functioning. So while the buyer-facing aspects of Afternic.com will not see any updates/improvements, I hope you can commit to focusing some of GD's resources towards fixing the seller-facing aspects of Afternic.com, so that the platform can adequately and effectively serve its stated function of being a portal for domain owners to list and manage their names for sale.