Afternic - Official Thread

[GoDaddy]

Hello NamePros!
By popular demand, we have launched a dedicated feedback thread for Afternic, the GoDaddy-owned domain name marketplace.

We have created this thread as a way for you to tell us what works, what doesn't work, and what features you'd like to see at Afternic (please be constructive with your feedback). We're looking forward to hearing from the domain investment community to help us shape the future of Afternic.

We will also be sharing Afternic product updates in this thread.

Please note that this thread is not meant for support. Please email our support team at [email protected] for assistance.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

Nearly 24 hours since I notified Afternic that somehow nearly 2 dozen of my domains were fraudulently listed on their system. Still no response. No resolution. This is unacceptable.

I realize it is the weekend but this is domaining. Its 24/7/365. If a relatively small registrar has the resources to have people answer my concerns at any time of the day/night weekends, and they did last night, then shouldn't a large company too?

I don't mean to be beating a dead horse but it seems to me that this dead horse should have been eliminated a long time ago as I have read I am not the only one having this issue..

So, for ME to log in, I have to prove by way of user id, password, 2FA, pass whatever bot checks, etc that I am who I am supposed to be, and do this every time the site "times out" which is frequent, yet anyone can list my domains on THEIR account and that doesn't require one bit of verification? Makes perfect sense.

When I received the email from one of my registrars that I needed to confirm the Afternic listings for almost 2 dozen names were listed at Afternic without my approval I decided to turn the Afternic integration at DAN on. That produced a handful of various listing statuses.

I also tried to list ALL of my domains at Afternic and I cant. I guess because of the integration being set on. Only a 1/3 of them went through. So, where are the other 2/3?

If I am not to worry about it then why is one of these "Already Listed" status domains $38888 Buy It Now at DAN but the scammer was able to list his version of my domain on his account for $2500 (min $100)?

This is not working at all and its forced me to list ALL domains at DAN regardless if I want to sell some of the domains as a "block" to make sure no one lists my domains at either DAN or Afternic.

Once this is rectified by Afternic I am going to turn off the DAN integration, then manually add all of my domains to Afternic, and leave the integration off. I want to be able to see my domains at each marketplace, download a CSV file of my domains each week, check for anything screwy. The ones I do not wish to sell will get an astronomical price. Would be nice to not be forced to list them but it seems there is no way around this as the security is poor and listing everything is the best way to beat that.

 

[justsand]

It's been 8 days and the sign-in issue is still not resolved. I emailed you multiple times but got no proper response. Please come up with a solution.

 

[NicTraders]

If domains are listed on both the Afternic FT and the Sedo MLS premium at the same time, is there a mechanism in place for Afternic to double check for the immediate availability of the domain prior to the sale?

I don't believe so. It has always been the case that you should (theoretically) only list with BIN at one marketplace, and the others should be set to Make Offer. A lot of people list at BIN on both Sedo and AN, however you only have to search this forum to see that this can lead to issues.

So, the fake listings are apparently able to be propagated to Afternic by DAN integration.

Correct. You'd need to turn this setting off in DAN.

 

[NicTraders]

This all has me quite concerned. Afternic support is not responding. Dynadot did and said to ignore the request for approval at afternic but somehow I do not like that advice.

That's the best response you'll get at this stage. Dynadot can't do anything else. It's up to AN to fix the issue, but it's been going on for years and they don't seem to care.

 

[Traderas]

UPDATE
7 days and 34 emails later.
I just got this answer to my missing payments:

Regarding zv**.com and vz**.com, our Support Team cannot confirm that the aforementioned domains have been purchased. You can also check in the domain purchase tab of your account as the domains do not appear there.

xz**.com - the bid was lost and therefore you were not able to proceed with purchasing the domain name.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Regards,
Helki
Afternic Transaction Assurance
A GoDaddy Comapny


@GoDaddy

This is one more deficient reply, with no mention to the money I paid for these 3 transactions.
I really don't understand what I'm supposed to do.

I have provided them order confirmation and the domains still appear in my "Offers Made" tab with their status as "accepted".

If order confirmation is not enouph to prove a purchase, why do they exist?

Also what does "the bid was lost" means?

UPDATE 2
11 days and many emails later.

1. It s been 25 days since I paid for the domain xz**.com.
I still have received no confirmation about the transaction.

Today I received one more response that I can't interpret:

"The domain (xz**.com) doesn't seem to have sold, it looks like there was a counteroffer that had come in a few days back. If you won the domain, you would receive an email with the details."

2. I still have a pending refund about a transaction that failed in 23/2, 39 days ago!
20 days ago they managed to discover it, and they sent me the following email:

GoDaddy Auctions
Tue, Mar 14, 4:13 PM
to me

Hello,

Thank you for providing your credit card information.I have requested that the charge be refunded and you should see that on your credit card statement in 5-7 days.

Thank you for your patience while we researched this issue.
Thanks,
Rebecca


@GoDaddy
I do appreciate that you read, and give "Like" reactions to my posts.
But it s been weeks since my first post, and I my issues aren't resolved yet.
I have followed your advice, and I have sent many emails in [email protected].
They are just "forwarding" my issue to the transaction assurance team, with no result...

I have wasted many hours on this.
Please take care of it somehow.
My email is dimchrist[at]gmail.com

Thank you

 

[DigitalAsset]

Is there any chance Afternic is losing legitimate leads by using automatic spam filters on their landing pages? If anyone has information in this regard, please share.

 

[kor]

To see how the process works, I inquired one of my own domains with a pseudo name and email address.

Even though it was 3 days late, one of the brokers returned. He shared the BIN price, I stated that I had a budget of 1/3 of this price and I could not buy it. He then said that he wanted to pass this domain and offer me an alternative.

1-) Even though it has been 2 weeks since I filled out the ns3/ns4 inquire form, is it a correct approach not to share any information about this request with the domain owner? Shouldn't he have at least said: "There is someone interested in buying the domain name but the budget is low, would you consider making a counterbid?"

2-) Is it ethical to try to direct a customer who is interested in a specific domain name to other domains in your database? How would you explain my potential buyer being referred to another seller?

It seems that trusting the godaddy brand and delivering the sales channel to you despite the high commission amounts was not a very rational idea.

 

[Future Sensors]

Good question @kor

How actively are GoDaddy brokers promoting domains from their own NameFind portfolio here?

@James Iles @GoDaddy

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

To see how the process works, I inquired one of my own domains with a pseudo name and email address.

Even though it was 3 days late, one of the brokers returned. He shared the BIN price, I stated that I had a budget of 1/3 of this price and I could not buy it. He then said that he wanted to pass this domain and offer me an alternative.

1-) Even though it has been 2 weeks since I filled out the ns3/ns4 inquire form, is it a correct approach not to share any information about this request with the domain owner? Shouldn't he have at least said: "There is someone interested in buying the domain name but the budget is low, would you consider making a counterbid?"

2-) Is it ethical to try to direct a customer who is interested in a specific domain name to other domains in your database? How would you explain my potential buyer being referred to another seller?

It seems that trusting the godaddy brand and delivering the sales channel to you despite the high commission amounts was not a very rational idea.

Great points! Thanks for sharing your experience.

Would it be helpful for the brokerage to offer the option like Sedo does? They allow you to decide if you want to be informed of all bids, or a percentage of your BIN price?

It seems that each seller may have such individual preferences. None of them, of course, would likely want sales to be diverted to other options not owned by the seller.

 

[capybara]

Yet it seems as if we need to list them all otherwise we risk a potential scammer listing them, accepting a low minimum offer, the domain "fast transfers" to the new owner (who may or may not be involved in the racket) and the rightful domain owner loses their domain and gets zero from the sale.

That doesn't work either. I had some not for sale domains added to my account and then changed their status to "not listed" specifically to prevent anyone else from listing them – had the same idea as you – yet somehow a scammer still was able to list one and it disappeared from my account.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

That doesn't work either. I had some not for sale domains added to my account and then changed their status to "not listed" specifically to prevent anyone else from listing them – had the same idea as you – yet somehow a scammer still was able to list one and it disappeared from my account.

Now that's scary. It seemed that one potential benefit of Afternic's Not Listed status was to prevent anyone from placing a fake listing for your domain. It's sad to see that that apparently didn't even work.

Is there any chance that customer service can track down what actually happened?

 

[capybara]

Is there any chance that customer service can track down what actually happened?

I presume that the person claimed they acquired the domain and then sent fake ownership screenshots to the support (since its the kind of "proof" Afternic usually asks for) and thats how it moved from my account to theirs.

This can't be the "previous owner who has some kind of priority privilege uploaded their old list which included the domain" case because its been 3 years since I got it off Dropcatch.

I don't know how does Afternic treat people who are found to be doing these things – knowingly listing domains they don't own. Maybe their representative could officially clarify their policy for us?

But if that policy is not lifetime ban from all GD platforms (which I believe is the only proper way to deal with such people), I would rather leave it as it is (for this particular domain being listed for sale does me no harm, and its only their trouble if someone actually tries to buy it).

 

[Dane]

Shouldn't he have at least said: "There is someone interested in buying the domain name but the budget is low, would you consider making a counterbid?"

How would you explain my potential buyer being referred to another seller?

It seems that trusting the godaddy brand and delivering the sales channel to you despite the high commission amounts was not a very rational idea.

I agree with all of the above. I had switched many of my names to ns3/ns4 because of this new Lead Center, but I'm not very happy with it so far.

 

[td11]

I see the following status on a lead. Does anyone know what exactly this means:

"Status updated to Payment Received - Waiting for funds to clear".

So they did receive the payment from buyer? If so what is "Waiting for funds to clear"?

Thanks.

 

[wwwulff]

So they did receive the payment from buyer? If so what is "Waiting for funds to clear"?

Yes, this means that they have received the money - To clear means that they check whether the identity between buyer and the money is correct and that any card has not been stolen and used - It usually does not take long. Congratulations on your sale.

 

[GoDaddy]

No, not at all. Actually, I was so frustrated with the fake listings issue that I removed all my domains from the Afternic and Dan network. Currently, they are only on Sedo MLS. However, I was satisfied recently with an unexpected GD broker transaction. He contacted me them about a buyer that had enlisted their services. The transaction went very smoothly and efficiently, with a prompt payment.

It's great to hear about your experience with a GoDaddy broker!

Our main priority for Afternic is implementing ownership verification. We have teams actively working on this, and we'll share news of its release here first.

I have seen others complain about this for a long time and I really can not believe something this serious has not received any fix.

Is there any intention to correct this, if so when, if not then why not and how do we protect ourselves from some scam artist listing our names, selling our names from under our noses and pocketing whatever minimum offer they have set? In 2023 how can this be occuring still!!??

As we mentioned to @LoveCatchyDomains, ownership verification at Afternic is the number one priority for our development team. We're actively working on all aspects of it, and we'll share details of the system once it's live. Please DM us if you haven't received a response from customer support yet.

It's been 8 days and the sign-in issue is still not resolved. I emailed you multiple times but got no proper response. Please come up with a solution.

Please could you DM us? We'll get the team to look into this.

Is there any chance Afternic is losing legitimate leads by using automatic spam filters on their landing pages? If anyone has information in this regard, please share.

Great question. No - Afternic will not lose legitimate leads through any filters. Our systems and sales channels have been developed to ensure this doesn't happen.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Our main priority for Afternic is implementing ownership verification. We have teams actively working on this, and we'll share news of its release here first.

As we mentioned to @LoveCatchyDomains, ownership verification at Afternic is the number one priority for our development team. We're actively working on all aspects of it, and we'll share details of the system once it's live.

At a minimum, eliminating all of the unregistered domains would likely be very simple. After all, if it is not registered, there is no reason to have to ask the alleged "owner" permission to remove the listings.

Can we look forward to seeing this correction in a matter of days, weeks, or months?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Our main priority for Afternic is implementing ownership verification. We have teams actively working on this, and we'll share news of its release here first.

This is really good news, and I hope we will see it soon. Not only is the current system (real owner emails with screen capture 'proof' they own a domain name to service) inefficient for both owners and for Afternic, but the lack of verification means that some can try to game the system, and errors in listings can happen. More than once Sedo failed to verify a name because I had mistakenly entered it wrong. On Afternic, if no other user had listed the name with error, it can get listed and stay there. Anyway, I hope we will see ownership verification soon, and that it will apply to all, with no exclusions for your big clients.

On the positive side, I wanted to commend you for having implemented it seems a really careful check for transfers and expiration. If I transfer a name between registrars your system seems to flag it right away. This helps prevent names no longer owned from staying listed.

-Bob

 

[DigitalAsset]

Does GoDaddy Aftermarket/ Afternic do outbound marketing for the domains listed in their marketplace?

 

[Donmarick]

The problem with ns1/ns2 still exists, now it appears every time on domains so I suggest all who use ns1/ns2 check that. So no commission from traffic and ads. Do Advertisers, google know about this issue?

 

[ResoluteDomains]

As we mentioned to @LoveCatchyDomains, ownership verification at Afternic is the number one priority for our development team. We're actively working on all aspects of it, and we'll share details of the system once it's live. Please DM us if you haven't received a response from customer support yet.

As of Friday afternoon the domains have been returned to my control. Thank you.

What I would like to do now is turn OFF the DAN.com integration and then list the domains, manually, using my Afternic account. I realize there is a system of integration between the two marketplaces, but when I have the DAN integration set to on I cant see the DAN domains when logged into my Afternic account. I would feel better comfortable seeing all of my domains in my Afternic account and not just a status in my DAN account. The only way I can think of achieving that is to turn off the integration at DAN and manually list all of the domains from the Afternic side and managing both independent of each other. Then I can periodically download and compare both listings.

 

[JB Lions]

Hello NamePros!
By popular demand, we have launched a dedicated feedback thread for Afternic, the GoDaddy-owned domain name marketplace.

We have created this thread as a way for you to tell us what works, what doesn't work, and what features you'd like to see at Afternic (please be constructive with your feedback). We're looking forward to hearing from the domain investment community to help us shape the future of Afternic.

We will also be sharing Afternic product updates in this thread.

Please note that this thread is not meant for support. Please email our support team at [email protected] for assistance.

Any chance of starting a dedicated GoDaddy thread? I have a couple of minor issues in GoDaddy that take up a lot of time, not sure it's worth starting whole threads on them. Maybe, a thread for GoDaddy just like this one.

 

[GoDaddy]

Does GoDaddy Aftermarket/ Afternic do outbound marketing for the domains listed in their marketplace?

Afternic's network of registrars and partners generates more than 75 million qualified domain searches per month for our inventory. We also run occasional Afternic email campaigns to promote domain names - https://domaininvesting.com/afternic-outbound-email-sales-tactic/

The problem with ns1/ns2 still exists, now it appears every time on domains so I suggest all who use ns1/ns2 check that. So no commission from traffic and ads. Do Advertisers, google know about this issue?

Could you DM us some examples of domain names affected? From what we can see, the domain names that you previously DM'd us are resolving properly.

Any chance of starting a dedicated GoDaddy thread? I have a couple of minor issues in GoDaddy that take up a lot of time, not sure it's worth starting whole threads on them. Maybe, a thread for GoDaddy just like this one.

We can look into this, certainly. For now, you're welcome to DM us with any feedback.

 

[Future Sensors]

@GoDaddy Can you please elaborate on the aforementioned question regarding GoDaddy's NameFind portfolio? How actively are domains from NameFind being promoted as an alternative, when potential buyers contact Afternic? Thank you.

 

[Dane]

While working on my Afternic account I'm running into issues with my GoDaddy account. Anyone else having trouble trying to make DNS changes in GoDaddy? Or trouble simply getting your names to list?