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.

 

[Synozeer]

Here's a recent issue I have that I think some other people were experiencing. I was searching for my domains on GoDaddy and noticed that some weren't showing the prices I set for them, just the minimum offer requirement.

I contacted Afternic and pointed out the domains I found that were doing this and they said it was a synchronization issue between Afternic and GoDaddy and that they resynced those domains and all should be good now. I checked those names and they were now fixed, but I found more domains of mine with the same issue.

I then sent another email this morning to Afternic with more names to fix and asked if they can just run a resynchronization on my entire account. Since I just emailed them about this, I haven't heard back yet.

The scary thing is, how many other people is this affecting? I have a smaller portfolio so it's not as hard for me to find my domains having this problem, but for others with larger ones, that can be quite a task.

 

[D Haynes]

Here's a recent issue I have that I think some other people were experiencing. I was searching for my domains on GoDaddy and noticed that some weren't showing the prices I set for them, just the minimum offer requirement.

I contacted Afternic and pointed out some of the domains that were doing this and they said it was a synchronization issue between Afternic and GoDaddy and they resynced those domains and all should be good now. I checked those names and they were now fixed, but I found more domains of mine with the same issue.

I then sent another email this morning to Afternic with more names to fix and asked if they can just run a resynchronization on my entire account. Since I just emailed them about this, I haven't heard back yet.

The scary thing is, how many other people is this affecting? I have a smaller portfolio so it's not as hard for me to find my domains having this problem, but for others with larger ones, that can be quite a task.

Nobody should have to spend time doing any of the back and forth you and others are alerting them of the many bugs and glitches in their system. They charge 15 - 30% percent and you have to maintain their system for them.

 

[Future Sensors]

Perhaps it’s time for GoDaddy and Afternic to invest more in their product’s stability and less in marketing jargon. After all, a seamless user experience would be the best marketing strategy.

 

[Garet]

After all, a seamless user experience would be the best marketing strategy.

How do they completely and entirely miss this?

Happier users, reduced support burden, increased sales/revenue... Or spend time boosting people?

Yes, we are aware of that bug. That doesn't impact the customers we care about. Next...

 

[Future Sensors]

Yeah, it’s disheartening to see our domains not appearing correctly in listings. As domain investors, we rely on a stable and efficient platform to manage and sell our portfolios. Unfortunately, Afternic’s current state, plagued with constant bugs and unresolved issues, falls significantly short of our expectations. We need a reliable solution that supports our investment efforts, not one that hinders them.

Please, prioritize resolving all current issues and bugs to ensure the platform’s stability, before introducing any new features.

Once your platform is stable, shift your focus to proactive quality control. This will help prevent domain investors from encountering and having to report numerous issues themselves. Such an approach will significantly enhance user experience and help regain trust in your services.

I believe these are reasonable requests that will benefit all stakeholders involved.

 

[Future Sensors]

@GoDaddy

Apple’s approach is a great example. At one point, Apple shifted their focus from launching new products to enhancing the reliability and performance of their existing software and hardware. This strategy involved addressing user concerns about bugs and system stability, ensuring that their products not only featured cutting-edge technology but also delivered consistent and dependable performance.

By prioritizing optimization and user experience, Apple was able to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction and reinforce their reputation for quality and innovation.

For Afternic (and GoDaddy), a similar approach could be beneficial. By concentrating on enhancing the stability and performance of your current offerings, you can ensure that domain investors have a seamless and reliable experience.

This NamePros forum is currently full of discussions with domain investors expressing frustration over various issues. Addressing these concerns not only helps in retaining existing customers, but also builds a strong foundation for any future innovations at GoDaddy/Afternic.

Let the community know if you need more detailed insights into all current issues faced by domain investors, maybe we can start a separate poll or another method to help prioritize our concerns.

Thank you.

 

[4L.com]

Thanks for sharing this. We've spotted a sync issue, and our team is already investigating. We'll get this updated as soon as possible.

@GoDaddy Good day. The problem is still not resolved for THOUSANDS of my domains, I repeat, THOUSANDS. Instead of the Custom Lander, the page 'This domain is registered, but may still be available.' is displayed. When you follow the link, instead of showing the fixed price for the domain (and all my domains have fixed prices), GoDaddy’s domain broker service is displayed, without the option to purchase the domain. Examples for those who want to check this themselves:

If we click on 'Get this domain':

Another Example:

If we click on 'Get this domain':

It’s very convenient for you, as you receive a broker's commission, but it’s not convenient at all for me and potential buyers of my domains, as I am the one losing sales. Most of my domains practically sell themselves, as they are 4-letter domains, and almost all buyers find them by entering the desired combination of letters in the browser’s address bar. In this situation, instead of seeing the fixed price for which they can buy the domain, the potential buyer sees an offer to pay you $119.99 and possibly purchase the domain. Please provide a timeline for when you plan to fix this "bug".

 

[boziffous]

@GoDaddy Good day. The problem is still not resolved for THOUSANDS of my domains, I repeat, THOUSANDS. Instead of the Custom Lander, the page 'This domain is registered, but may still be available.' is displayed. When you follow the link, instead of showing the fixed price for the domain (and all my domains have fixed prices), GoDaddy’s domain broker service is displayed, without the option to purchase the domain. Examples for those who want to check this themselves:
Show attachment 262463
Show attachment 262464
If we click on 'Get this domain':
Show attachment 262465

Another Example:
Show attachment 262466
Show attachment 262467
If we click on 'Get this domain':
Show attachment 262468

It’s very convenient for you, as you receive a broker's commission, but it’s not convenient at all for me and potential buyers of my domains, as I am the one losing sales. Most of my domains practically sell themselves, as they are 4-letter domains, and almost all buyers find them by entering the desired combination of letters in the browser’s address bar. In this situation, instead of seeing the fixed price for which they can buy the domain, the potential buyer sees an offer to pay you $119.99 and possibly purchase the domain. Please provide a timeline for when you plan to fix this "bug".

I noticed this with a number of my domains a couple of days back. I did also notice that all of my domains that were having this issue were all registered at Dynadot.

 

[4L.com]

I noticed this with a number of my domains a couple of days back. I did also notice that all of my domains that were having this issue were all registered at Dynadot.

Yes, all my domains are also registered with Dynadot. I don’t keep domains with other registrars, so I don’t have the opportunity to check elsewhere.

 

[boziffous]

Yes, all my domains are also registered with Dynadot. I don’t keep domains with other registrars, so I don’t have the opportunity to check elsewhere.

I have domains registered at GoDaddy, NameSilo, PorkBun, and NameBright as well as Dynadot. The issue only seemed to affect about 20 to 30% of my domains registered at Dynadot.

 

[Name2go]

@GoDaddy Good day. The problem is still not resolved for THOUSANDS of my domains, I repeat, THOUSANDS. Instead of the Custom Lander, the page 'This domain is registered, but may still be available.' is displayed. When you follow the link, instead of showing the fixed price for the domain (and all my domains have fixed prices), GoDaddy’s domain broker service is displayed, without the option to purchase the domain. Examples for those who want to check this themselves:
Show attachment 262463
Show attachment 262464
If we click on 'Get this domain':
Show attachment 262465

Another Example:
Show attachment 262466
Show attachment 262467
If we click on 'Get this domain':
Show attachment 262468

It’s very convenient for you, as you receive a broker's commission, but it’s not convenient at all for me and potential buyers of my domains, as I am the one losing sales. Most of my domains practically sell themselves, as they are 4-letter domains, and almost all buyers find them by entering the desired combination of letters in the browser’s address bar. In this situation, instead of seeing the fixed price for which they can buy the domain, the potential buyer sees an offer to pay you $119.99 and possibly purchase the domain. Please provide a timeline for when you plan to fix this "bug".

I wonder where the justification for interposing a broker comes from. Would it be different if Floor Price and Make Offer were empty in your settings?
You are probably losing real money because many impulse buyers are exiting.

 

[Jannes]

@GoDaddy Good day. The problem is still not resolved for THOUSANDS of my domains, I repeat, THOUSANDS. Instead of the Custom Lander, the page 'This domain is registered, but may still be available.' is displayed. When you follow the link, instead of showing the fixed price for the domain (and all my domains have fixed prices), GoDaddy’s domain broker service is displayed, without the option to purchase the domain. Examples for those who want to check this themselves:
Show attachment 262463
Show attachment 262464
If we click on 'Get this domain':
Show attachment 262465

Another Example:
Show attachment 262466
Show attachment 262467
If we click on 'Get this domain':
Show attachment 262468

It’s very convenient for you, as you receive a broker's commission, but it’s not convenient at all for me and potential buyers of my domains, as I am the one losing sales. Most of my domains practically sell themselves, as they are 4-letter domains, and almost all buyers find them by entering the desired combination of letters in the browser’s address bar. In this situation, instead of seeing the fixed price for which they can buy the domain, the potential buyer sees an offer to pay you $119.99 and possibly purchase the domain. Please provide a timeline for when you plan to fix this "bug".

ns1.afternic.com, ns2.afternic.com ?

Can you test with ns5.afternic.com + ns6.afternic.com (they don't affect your lander selections), I wonder if this is related to the lame delegation issue @Future Sensors has been stressing?

 

[Timkh]

A few days ago I reduced prices on over 100 domains. On the same day I checked the changes through GD search and landing pages. It showed new prices. Today I decided to check again and see that the prices have returned back...

 

[Timkh]

I'm so tired of all this...

 

[Timkh]

85% of what amount will I receive if someone buys a domain now? from $19,888? or $9,888? What's interesting, I checked through GD auctions and new prices are shown there. The same goes to other Fast Transfer Network registrars. The problem is only with GD Search and Landing pages. Moreover, initially it showed the correct prices, but now 48 hours later the previous prices are there again...

 

[NicTraders]

Yeah, it’s disheartening to see our domains not appearing correctly in listings. As domain investors, we rely on a stable and efficient platform to manage and sell our portfolios. Unfortunately, Afternic’s current state, plagued with constant bugs and unresolved issues, falls significantly short of our expectations. We need a reliable solution that supports our investment efforts, not one that hinders them.

Please, prioritize resolving all current issues and bugs to ensure the platform’s stability, before introducing any new features.

Once your platform is stable, shift your focus to proactive quality control. This will help prevent domain investors from encountering and having to report numerous issues themselves. Such an approach will significantly enhance user experience and help regain trust in your services.

I believe these are reasonable requests that will benefit all stakeholders involved.

Given the void left by Dan (now that GD is committed to killing it off) and the continual ongoing issues with GD / AN, I really am surprised that a decent competitor hasn't come along yet. It seems that Atom has become a decent alternative for the brandable market, but there is no primary competitor for the general domain market. All it would take is a fair commission structure, a marketplace that works reliably, and someone willing to invest some decent $ in marketing/advertising. This is not particularly hard to do - it just needs someone with the will to make it happen. They would be absolutely certain to get hundreds of thousands (actually probably millions) of domains listed from Day 1 given all the disgruntled NP members weighing in here. It can't be too far away now. I do look forward to that day.

 

[Timkh]

Considering everything that I described on the previous page, I decided to disable Boost. I was ready to pay this 20% if only the domains would continue to sell. But I'm tired of being nervous all the time. Either your landing pages do not work, or buyers simply cannot add the domain to the cart, because the system gives an error(this has happened in the past and people here have reported it), or prices do not change. I can't list domains with "Make offer" because when buyers click "Make offer" they see "Comparable domains sold". These are not comparable sales... 90% of these sales are domainer's purchases from your expired auctions. These are not retail prices.

 

[Timkh]

I'm grateful to Afternic and GoDaddy for all the names sold. I am grateful to those brokers who helped with sales, but I am really tired of so many errors in the system. I hope that someday everything will change for the better. And please, pay attention to these "Comparable domans sold". Remove it. This only makes sales more difficult, especially of those domains that we value over $5k.

 

[Future Sensors]

@GoDaddy

Given the frequent and often unnecessary "In Review" status for domains, I propose implementing an easy "FIX" button that allows us to address these issues directly without further interaction, rather than having to submit a support ticket each time.

While a permanent solution would be ideal, this would at least alleviate some of the daily frustration sellers experience with using your platform.

 

[Future Sensors]

Currently, Afternic processes CSV uploads at a rate of only ~180 domains per minute. In comparison, DAN processes domains much, much faster. Please enhance Afternic’s processing speed to match or exceed DAN’s efficiency.

Additionally, please implement the following DAN-like features:

1. Send a confirmation email upon successful CSV upload with a quick summary.
2. Provide a comprehensive overview on the website, detailing the number of domains modified and the specific changes made.
3. Enable the option for Sellers to re-download previously uploaded CSVs.
4. Display a history of all pending and finished uploads, including timestamps and corresponding results.