Afternic cancelled our sale after sitting on it for weeks and then blamed us

[jalsoftware]

Hello,

We have been selling domains for many years and, until now, we had never experienced a situation like this with a completed transaction process.

6 weeks ago, a GoDaddy broker contacted us to ask whether we would consider selling our domain name. We agreed, listed it on Afternic and buyer payment for a significant transaction was confirmed very quickly.

We sent the auth code and followed up multiple times afterward asking whether anything else was needed from our side. Then the transaction dragged on for 1 month while the domain was effectively tied up.

After all that, yesterday Afternic cancelled the sale and claimed they had not received a response from us and that the domain had not been delivered in time. That is totally false.

Their last mail:

We are reaching out regarding the domain you recently sold - <domain name>. Despite our attempts to contact you via phone and email, we have not received a response.

We regret to inform you that the sale has now been cancelled due to the domain not being delivered in a timely manner. We also recommend you review your portfolio and remove any inactive listings to avoid future cancellations and potential punitive actions.

They never called. They reached out a few times by mail, we always responded. We sent the auth code.
We followed up several times.

So the reality is:

• buyer paid,
• seller sent the auth code,
• seller followed up many times,
• domain was tied up for 1 month,
• sale got cancelled anyway,
• seller then got blamed.

We have already contacted Afternic and the GoDaddy broker involved. No feedback so far.

Domainers should be aware that even after buyer payment is confirmed, a transaction can still apparently be mishandled badly enough to collapse, with the seller blamed afterward.

Has anyone else here had this happen ? some AI agent issue ?

 

[Squidcart]

This sounds exactly how my last relationship went.

Hello,

We have been selling domains for many years and, until now, we had never experienced a situation like this with a completed transaction process.

6 weeks ago, a GoDaddy broker contacted us to ask whether we would consider selling our domain name. We agreed, listed it on Afternic and buyer payment for a significant transaction was confirmed very quickly.

We sent the auth code and followed up multiple times afterward asking whether anything else was needed from our side. Then the transaction dragged on for 1 month while the domain was effectively tied up.

After all that, yesterday Afternic cancelled the sale and claimed they had not received a response from us and that the domain had not been delivered in time. That is totally false.

Their last mail:


They never called. They reached out a few times by mail, we always responded. We sent the auth code.
We followed up several times.

So the reality is:

• buyer paid,
• seller sent the auth code,
• seller followed up many times,
• domain was tied up for 1 month,
• sale got cancelled anyway,
• seller then got blamed.

We have already contacted Afternic and the GoDaddy broker involved. No feedback so far.

Domainers should be aware that even after buyer payment is confirmed, a transaction can still apparently be mishandled badly enough to collapse, with the seller blamed afterward.

Has anyone else here had this happen ? some AI agent issue ?

 

[Jannes]

@GoDaddy

 

[Ali Mustafa]

@Afternic

 

[Jannes]

 

[jalsoftware]

We have now followed up again with Afternic and with the GoDaddy broker involved, and we still have no substantive response from anyone. Nothing ....

We also contacted GoDaddy / Afternic privately here as suggested and received no response there either.

At this stage, the silence is becoming part of the problem.

If this is how confirmed sales can be handled, with the seller blamed afterward and no substantive response even after follow-ups, then it becomes very difficult to justify continuing to list serious inventory on the platform...

 

[fka1080405]

Afternic and GoDaddy's broker service are different, you've described something that doesn't fully add up and that could be the cause of the problem.

6 weeks ago, a GoDaddy broker contacted us to ask whether we would consider selling our domain name. We agreed, listed it on Afternic and buyer payment for a significant transaction was confirmed very quickly.

GoDaddy's broker service and Afternic are separate. GoDaddy's broker service take commission from the buyer whereas Afternic take commission from the seller. If GoDaddy's broker service contact you and negotiate a price, you receive the full price.

Listing the domain with Afternic after GoDaddy's broker service contact you is abnormal and confusing, it's as if you tried to circumvent the GoDaddy broker service process.

I suspect what happened is:

1. You agreed to a deal with the GoDaddy broker service
2. You listed your domain on Afternic
3. You ignored the GoDaddy broker service process
4. The deal got cancelled

When what should have happened is:

1. You agree a deal with the GoDaddy broker service
2. They send you details for how to transfer the domain to the GoDaddy broker service via their portal
3. You transfer the domain through the GoDaddy broker service portal
4. GoDaddy send the domain to the buyer and payment to you

Can you clarify, was this via the GoDaddy broker service or Afternic? When you say you "sent" the auth code, who / where did you send it to?

edit: What do you see when visiting https://www.afternic.com/sales/leads? If the domain shows up there, what does the history show?

edit edit: and here's GoDaddy's explanation of the broker service process https://www.godaddy.com/help/domain-broker-service-a-sellers-roadmap-5687

edit edit edit: ah! I thought I remembered someone going through a similar confusion. Here's a (long) thread with a similar issue but different outcome: https://www.namepros.com/threads/unfair-afternic-commission.1359752/

 

[boker]

Afternic and GoDaddy's broker service are different, you've described something that doesn't fully add up and that could be the cause of the problem.



GoDaddy's broker service and Afternic are separate. GoDaddy's broker service take commission from the buyer whereas Afternic take commission from the seller. If GoDaddy's broker service contact you and negotiate a price, you receive the full price.

Listing the domain with Afternic after GoDaddy's broker service contact you is abnormal and confusing, it's as if you tried to circumvent the GoDaddy broker service process.

I suspect what happened is:

1. You agreed to a deal with the GoDaddy broker service
2. You listed your domain on Afternic
3. You ignored the GoDaddy broker service process
4. The deal got cancelled

When what should have happened is:

1. You agree a deal with the GoDaddy broker service
2. They send you details for how to transfer the domain to the GoDaddy broker service via their portal
3. You transfer the domain through the GoDaddy broker service portal
4. GoDaddy send the domain to the buyer and payment to you

Can you clarify, was this via the GoDaddy broker service or Afternic? When you say you "sent" the auth code, who / where did you send it to?

edit: What do you see when visiting https://www.afternic.com/sales/leads? If the domain shows up there, what does the history show?

edit edit: and here's GoDaddy's explanation of the broker service process https://www.godaddy.com/help/domain-broker-service-a-sellers-roadmap-5687

edit edit edit: ah! I thought I remembered someone going through a similar confusion. Here's a (long) thread with a similar issue but different outcome: https://www.namepros.com/threads/unfair-afternic-commission.1359752/

First, he says that the buyer paid instantly, so it can't be about confusion. I had two sales with afternic this year, both times the buyers paid and everything got stuck after sending the auth code, it could be some issue with their transfer service, if the domain is not listed as fast transfer. In my case were standard afternic listing, afternic was replying: to have patience, every a few days and after a month or so they cancelled the sales, saying that I was not responsive. I think that there's a bug or something and they cancel the sales, throwing the blame on sellers, probably to look good in their system. Now, the third sale is pending, the auth code was sent one hour after they confirmed receiving the payment and I have a bad feeling about this one also. Afternic is competing with sedo in the bug race.

 

[jalsoftware]

No confusion on our side.

The GoDaddy broker specifically asked us to proceed through Afternic / GoDaddy’s platform once a price had been agreed.

He wrote:
I’ll get the steps to you on how to list through Afternic and/or GoDaddy’s platform.
Before we’re at that step, we’ll need to get to an agreeable price if you have not listed with GoDaddy or Afternic previously.”

So we followed the process exactly as instructed.

 

[jalsoftware]

First, he says that the buyer paid instantly, so it can't be about confusion. I had two sales with afternic this year, both times the buyers paid and everything got stuck after sending the auth code, it could be some issue with their transfer service, if the domain is not listed as fast transfer. In my case were standard afternic listing, afternic was replying: to have patience, every a few days and after a month or so they cancelled the sales, saying that I was not responsive. I think that there's a bug or something and they cancel the sales, throwing the blame on sellers, probably to look good in their system. Now, the third sale is pending, the auth code was sent one hour after they confirmed receiving the payment and I have a bad feeling about this one also. Afternic is competing with sedo in the bug race.

Thanks, that is very helpful.

What you describe is extremely close to our own experience: buyer payment confirmed, auth code sent promptly, repeated follow-ups, long delay, then seller blamed at the end.

If this is happening to multiple sellers, it raises serious questions about how Afternic is handling standard transfer transactions.

We sincerely hope your third sale does not end the same way.

 

[fka1080405]

First, he says that the buyer paid instantly, so it can't be about confusion. I had two sales with afternic this year, both times the buyers paid and everything got stuck after sending the auth code, it could be some issue with their transfer service, if the domain is not listed as fast transfer. In my case were standard afternic listing, afternic was replying: to have patience, every a few days and after a month or so they cancelled the sales, saying that I was not responsive. I think that there's a bug or something and they cancel the sales, throwing the blame on sellers, probably to look good in their system. Now, the third sale is pending, the auth code was sent one hour after they confirmed receiving the payment and I have a bad feeling about this one also. Afternic is competing with sedo in the bug race.

Conversely, I've had zero problems with the domains I have sold via Afternic over the last 12 months.

No confusion on our side.

The GoDaddy broker specifically asked us to proceed through Afternic / GoDaddy’s platform once a price had been agreed.

He wrote:
I’ll get the steps to you on how to list through Afternic and/or GoDaddy’s platform.
Before we’re at that step, we’ll need to get to an agreeable price if you have not listed with GoDaddy or Afternic previously.”

So we followed the process exactly as instructed.

Can you go to Afternic's leads section and share a screenshot of the lead history?

https://www.afternic.com/sales/leads

 

[boker]

Thanks, that is very helpful.

What you describe is extremely close to our own experience: buyer payment confirmed, auth code sent promptly, repeated follow-ups, long delay, then seller blamed at the end.

If this is happening to multiple sellers, it raises serious questions about how Afternic is handling standard transfer transactions.

We sincerely hope your third sale does not end the same way.

The bad thing, if it's a bug, the buyers will not come back to buy from other marketplaces, because 100% afternic blamed the seller in emails to the buyer, so he will consider the seller unprofessional, so we could end up wasting a lot of buyers because of afternic bugs.

 

[DN_Hunter]

What registrar is the domain name? If it is at GoDaddy, does the Seller happen to have DTVS (Domain Transfer Verification Service) Turned on for their account (where an approval is needed from the seller before proceeding with the transfer out). If DTVS is turned on, the domain will sit there until GoDaddy calls the seller to approve the transfer -- even if the buyer entered the AUTH Code during the transfer transaction.

 

[jalsoftware]

Thanks for the suggestion, but that does not apply here.

The domain was not registered at GoDaddy, so this was not a DTVS / seller approval situation on our side.
This was also a high-value sale, so we took the matter seriously from the start and checked with our registrar as well. There was no pending transfer request, no pending approval, and nothing awaiting action from our side there either.

We sent the auth code and followed up multiple times afterward. That is precisely why Afternic’s claim of seller non-response is so problematic.

Even if there had been some additional step required, Afternic should have contacted us clearly about it instead of letting the transaction sit for 1 month and then blaming the seller. If the transfer failed, it appears far more likely that the issue was somewhere in the transfer process itself, not with any lack of action from our side.

 

[boker]

Conversely, I've had zero problems with the domains I have sold via Afternic over the last 12 months.



Can you go to Afternic's leads section and share a screenshot of the lead history?

https://www.afternic.com/sales/leads

I'm curious, are most of your domains listed as fast transfer? I suspect an issue with domains not listed as fast transfer, even if some domains not listed as fast transfer have no issues.

 

[jalsoftware]

 

[DN_Hunter]

Any 60-Day transfer lock on the name? Does the buyer still want the domain name at the agreed upon price?

 

[jalsoftware]

No, there was no 60-day transfer lock on the domain.

As for whether the buyer still wanted the domain at the agreed price, we do not know. Buyer payment had already been confirmed, and from that point onward Afternic / GoDaddy controlled the process.

The final status shown in their system is: The transaction has been canceled.

So if the transaction was ultimately blocked or shut down, that happened on their side of the process, not because we failed to act. We also find it quite strange that neither GoDaddy nor Afternic has responded to our emails or to our private messages here.

 

[jalsoftware]

We are now going to put the domain back on another marketplace. We had removed it from there after the GoDaddy broker asked us to go through their own process. At this point, it honestly looks like something is broken in their system, and we have most likely lost a major sale because of it

 

[boker]

No, there was no 60-day transfer lock on the domain.

As for whether the buyer still wanted the domain at the agreed price, we do not know. Buyer payment had already been confirmed, and from that point onward Afternic / GoDaddy controlled the process.

The final status shown in their system is: The transaction has been canceled.

So if the transaction was ultimately blocked or shut down, that happened on their side of the process, not because we failed to act. We also find it quite strange that neither GoDaddy nor Afternic has responded to our emails or to our private messages here.

I have asked them how can they blame me, when all the messages from me asking for an update were saved in the transaction activity and I never received a reply either, so probably this is the way to not count a transaction as failed because of them.