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Afternic is scamming me for $400

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Afternic_is_Scam

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I paid for a domain for $400 to afternic.com on Apr 17.
Afternic has failed to transfer the domain to my registrar. about 10 days after I heard nothing from them I threatened them to open a dispute on paypal if they dont refund my money or transfer the domain to me. At that time They unlock the domain and sent me the Authcode, When I started the transfer they rejected the transfer in middle.
I opened a paypal dispute in return and Now they are not transferring nor refunding my money.

Afternic.com is scamming its customer.
Screenshot attached.
i.imgur.com/3bIXmpe.jpg
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Each and everyday i saw a post here calming, Afternic scammed them. I am planning to remove all domains from them :cigar:
 
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Not sure if we can help you as you have already opened a PayPal dispute. Afternic is not a scam. It's owned by GoDaddy. They do have issues at the moment due to upgrades but they are resolving them.

It's understandable to assume they are a scam company in your situation but let me assure you they are legit.

Have you tried calling them?
 
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Not sure if we can help you as you have already opened a PayPal dispute. Afternic is not a scam. It's owned by GoDaddy. They do have issues at the moment due to upgrades but they are resolving them.

It's understandable to assume they are a scam company in your situation but let me assure you they are legit.

Have you tried calling them?

I have emailed them a numerous times to many email addresses in their company, I havent call them, I am not in US and writing and reading is more understandable by me.

Their last response was that I need to remove the paypal dispute in order for them to transfer the domain to me. However If i remove the dispute I can not get my money in case they decide to not send the domain. Paypal only allow one dispute per transaction, So I told them to refund my money as I can not trust them and at this point they stopped communicating with me
 
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One of my recent transactions with Afnic (as a seller) took something like 45 days from start to finish. The transfer failed for unknown reasons 4 times before it went through. Domaining related things take time every now and then.
 
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Cancel the dispute and wait it out. Afternic is legit albeit slow at times.
 
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Afternic is a very reliable company, I work with Afternic since 2005 (or earlier). Of course I had problems as well, but not transfering a domain within 10 days? well thats normal, maybe the loosing registrar is not providing the authcode in time, or the seller recently updated the name and it is under registrar lock. Give them time to respond, and make sure that you write detailed and clear what the problem is including mentioning your account name and the related domain. write all facts in the email. Did you contacted them from inside your account. And dont piss them off in your email.
 
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You will surely get your domain remove the dispute
 
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took me 30 days to get a domain i one on godaddy auctions (the name was registered somewhere else)

it happens
 
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Cancel the dispute and wait it out. Afternic is legit albeit slow at times.
A company that ignore customer emails and refuse to transfer the domain when they have already got the money for about 10 days is not legit in my opinion.

I prefer to get just the refund, They can keep that domain for themselves.

Afternic is a very reliable company, I work with Afternic since 2005 (or earlier). Of course I had problems as well, but not transfering a domain within 10 days? well thats normal, maybe the loosing registrar is not providing the authcode in time, or the seller recently updated the name and it is under registrar lock. Give them time to respond, and make sure that you write detailed and clear what the problem is including mentioning your account name and the related domain. write all facts in the email. Did you contacted them from inside your account. And dont piss them off in your email.

I transfered another domain from Godaddy to name.com in 4-5 days earlier, the steps are not very complicated and I am not a domainer, I buy domain 2-3 each year for my projects.
name.com will first send a confirmation email and the domain owner should send it to buyer and then Godaddy send 1-2 emails asking for confirmation of transfers, the seller need to remove Whoisprivacy and confirm the transfer in his accounts. For afternic it should be a piece of cake, me as a noob was able to transfer the domain in less than 4-5 days, why Afternic has not even start transferring in 10 days and why they rejected the transfer in middle?

The domain is owned by afternic itself according to WHOIS info, I dont want to make confusion but their checkout page was not working and we had a very long delay and discussion about the checkout error page. When I tried to pay for this domain name, Their checkout page shows me error. It takes maybe about 2 weeks until they fix it I suggested to use escrow.com but they refused, In that period I saw they cant even fix their checkout page so I emailed the domain owner according to WHOIS info and afternic replied back to me as they are owner of domain name so there cant be any delay in communicating with seller as Afternic was the owner.
 
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sounds like a terrible journey.
so you paid the domain, how did you contacted them? via email or in your account with this type of chat/contact for specific for each transaction?
 
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They are having some issues alright. I just sold a name through them although I did get paid in the end, it took a while, 2 weeks longer than they said it would. They are also not communicating very well with their customers. I know this sometimes cannot be helped, but if the want people to keep using them, it need to be sorted out quickly. I am fine with delays because of technical issues, but at least let your customers know, even if its just a simple email to all email addresses who have bough or sold a name through their platform, at least let people know there is an issue and there could be delays. The silence is what pissed me off.
 
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A company that ignore customer emails and refuse to transfer the domain when they have already got the money for about 10 days is not legit in my opinion.

I prefer to get just the refund, They can keep that domain for themselves.

Yes Afternic are not handling the situation very well. A lot of people have had issues recently including myself.

Best of luck with getting your money back.
 
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sounds like a terrible journey.
so you paid the domain, how did you contacted them? via email or in your account with this type of chat/contact for specific for each transaction?
Both in email and contact form on their website specific for my transfer.
I CCed to about 6-7 different emails, They simply ignore it
 
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You do realise that Afternic is selling that domain for another person? Maybe a member here.

When delays like this occur it is most likely down to a slow seller. Afternic could be better at communicating but they can not force a seller into action.

So calm your noobie nervs down. Remove the paypal dispute and go through with the deal you commited to.
 
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You do realise that Afternic is selling that domain for another person? Maybe a member here.

When delays like this occur it is most likely down to a slow seller. Afternic could be better at communicating but they can not force a seller into action.

So calm your noobie nervs down. Remove the paypal dispute and go through with the deal you commited to.
Afternic was owner of domain according to WHOIS. I explained it earlier in another post

"The domain is owned by afternic itself according to WHOIS info, I dont want to make confusion but their checkout page was not working and we had a very long delay and discussion about the checkout error page. When I tried to pay for this domain name, Their checkout page shows me error. It takes maybe about 2 weeks until they fix it I suggested to use escrow.com but they refused, In that period I saw they cant even fix their checkout page so I emailed the domain owner according to WHOIS info and afternic replied back to me as they are owner of domain name so there cant be any delay in communicating with seller as Afternic was the owner."
 
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@Joe Styler can help you with this. Afternic is definitely not a scam. Probably the seller of the domain name (not Afternic) was slow to transfer or something. But now you've kind of tied their hands by filing the PayPal dispute. How can they transfer the domain now when, if you don't drop the dispute and you win, you would have gotten the domain for free and effectively stolen it.
 
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If you already filed for a dispute with Paypal then no one can help you.
I have been with Afternic for years with several transactions without a problem.
Did you send an email to support from inside your account?

You created an account here with a weird alias name just to accuse Afternic? What is your agenda?
There are a lot of things going between the buyer/seller from one transaction and I would not post Afternic is a scammer.
 
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I opened a paypal dispute in return and Now they are not transferring nor refunding my money.
  • Quite obvious Afternic will not transfer the domain as there is a payment dispute.
  • Afternic will not refund you the money directly to you, you filed a dispute with Paypal and both parties will have to wait and abide by Paypal's decision.
  • Creating a username like yours itself raises eyebrows.
 
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@Joe Styler can help you with this. Afternic is definitely not a scam. Probably the seller of the domain name (not Afternic) was slow to transfer or something. But now you've kind of tied their hands by filing the PayPal dispute. How can they transfer the domain now when, if you don't drop the dispute and you win, you would have gotten the domain for free and effectively stolen it.
I hope he be able to fix this issue
I am happy if they even refund. in regards to who is owner of domain please read the post above ur post.
If you already filed for a dispute with Paypal then no one can help you.
I have been with Afternic for years with several transactions without a problem.
Did you send an email to support from inside your account?

You created an account here with a weird alias name just to accuse Afternic? What is your agenda?
There are a lot of things going between the buyer/seller from one transaction and I would not post Afternic is a scammer.
Yes, I did sent many emails to almost all email addresses in their website and also i sent email using the form on their website. I disputed payment after i didnt receive the domain after a long period of time.

I was trying about 2 weeks on purchasing this domain name on their website, I was a serious buyer not time waster. it took 2 weeks cause their check out page had error on last step.

at this moment Afternic is a scammer to me because they have stolen my money and havent transferred the domain.

When they transfer the domain or refund my money they will change to a terrible unprofessional company but not scammer, right now they are just a bunch of thiefs and scammers to me
 
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I am happy if they even refund. in regards to who is owner of domain please read the post above ur post.

Yes, I did sent many emails to almost all email addresses in their website and also i sent email using the form on their website. I disputed payment after i didnt receive the domain after a long period of time.

If you buy something online, don't receive it, and get no communication from the seller over a period of time it is natural to think it is a scam.

What people on this site are saying is many have used Afternic successfully bet recently payments, transfers and communications have been slow or non-existent.

Companies hate chargebacks and official payment disputes and may ban you if you do that to them. One way out for both you and Afternic is for them to just refund you the money directly. Also If you paid to Paypal by credit card your card protection may apply.

It really would make sense for Afternic to mark out what their required timeframes are - Sedo do that, beyond a certain delay point I think you can cancel a transaction there.
 
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I dont know the specific domain enough to comment on why it took so long. Sometimes there are delays outside our control but we do work hard to move the domains as fast as possible. Just this week I personally moved a domain for a customer that took me three weeks to get moved. The Whois was in Afternic's name, we had access to the account it was in at another registrar and we had all the codes and domain was unlocked etc. The transfer kept failing, after a lot of work I figured out that there was a problem with the other company and Versign having data that was out of sync, they needed to straighten it out before the name could move. Point being, things happen and it is not always clear why but I do assure you we work on getting the domains to people as fast as possible. I apologize for the delay.
 
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I hope he be able to fix this issue
I am happy if they even refund. in regards to who is owner of domain please read the post above ur post.

Yes, I did sent many emails to almost all email addresses in their website and also i sent email using the form on their website. I disputed payment after i didnt receive the domain after a long period of time.

I was trying about 2 weeks on purchasing this domain name on their website, I was a serious buyer not time waster. it took 2 weeks cause their check out page had error on last step.

at this moment Afternic is a scammer to me because they have stolen my money and havent transferred the domain.

When they transfer the domain or refund my money they will change to a terrible unprofessional company but not scammer, right now they are just a bunch of thiefs and scammers to me

Sounds Like a delay Fella, Try not to rush to a hasty Judgement. I hope it gets resolve soon.
Best of Luck.
 
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To Address the PayPal dispute - I am sorry again about you not getting the domain quickly but starting a PayPal dispute will result in you never getting the domain name back from us or the money back from us directly and will result in you being banned from using us ever again. Here's why -
You have a dispute with PayPal who can decide to give you your money back. If we give you the domain in good faith and you do not drop the dispute you can wind up with both the domain and the money back from PayPal, we still have to pay the seller - which is an added benefit of using us to sell names we take on all risk. If you sell with us you get paid even if we wind up eating the cost in a case like this.

So instead you want the money back. Worse problem in our eyes, we refund you, you also win the PayPal dispute, so you get our refund plus the money back from the dispute, and we pay out the seller and keep his name since they likely will want to be paid vs getting their name back. So now we paid out 3x for one sale. We won't do that.

So we won't do anything until the PayPal dispute is dropped or decided because then one of the variables is gone. If you win, you get your money back and are made whole but we eat the cost of the payment to the seller and as a result you will be banned for good. We don't want the risk anymore of future transactions like this.

If you lose then we likely would move the domain name to you because we know you cannot both get the domain and the refund through PayPal, we may also just refund you instead, again I don't know the specifics of the domain I do know for certain we would not both keep the name and the money regardless of the outcome of the PayPal dispute, but we will do nothing until it is decided or dropped because we incur more risk until the PayPal refund is settled.

At the end of the day I understand there is a learning curve to buying domains and participating in different market places etc and we would prefer to work it out with you in an amicable way and get you the domain name and not ban you or make your transaction any harder than it has to be. If you will drop the PayPal dispute for the reasons stated above we are happy to work with you on a good resolution for everyone.
 
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