discuss Afternic really needs to up their game

[NameMaxi.com]

I have the habit of tracking prices for some high-value name categories to look for investment opportunities. However, Afternic's lack of verification of their listings has been a huge hindrance.

Recently, I took a gamble by purchasing Arms.com when the price dropped to $4,999. The domain never got into my hands and I lost $400 in the refund process.

Same thing happen a while ago with wisdom.com being listed for some 3 digits, Bank.com price dropped to $2499. Even media.com was listed for an unbelievable price. These are obvious cases where we can tell the listing is fake. Otherwise, there is no way to verify these listings as authentic since anybody can seem to list any domain on Afternic (and get their account banned too).

Who else has encountered this issue? Purchased a domain that ended up not being for sale? Lost money in the process? Or is it just me?

 

[TSOHost]

totally agree with this! Afternic has great potential, but there are definitely areas where they could improve, especially when it comes to user experience and customer support. Has anyone had recent experiences that show if they're making any improvements?

 

[NameMaxi.com]

totally agree with this! Afternic has great potential, but there are definitely areas where they could improve, especially when it comes to user experience and customer support. Has anyone had recent experiences that show if they're making any improvements?

I did get in touch with a GD rep about the fake listings and they were pretty receptive, though I don't see anything changed.

As for the rest of Afternic experience, nothing much has changed unfortunately

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

Solution: Only buy when it has Fast Transfer.

 

[D Haynes]

Pretty shocking to me that you would lose money due to their platform. All money should be reimbursed shouldn't it? Including all fees etc.

The real kicker is when you try to add domains you own and you can't because someone else has them listed. Then you enter into the murky hit and miss world of Afternic ownership verification which is ironic.

 

[DVHosting]

I totally agree! Afternic has been a popular platform, but it feels like they’ve fallen behind in certain areas. The user interface could use some improvement, and better customer support would go a long way. Anyone else feeling the same way, or have you had better experiences recently? Would love to hear your thoughts on how they can step up their game!

 

[alcy]

few month ago I add my 500 name folio on afternic. result.. 50 names.added and 450 conflict. I retried a week ago. result... 450 names.added... 50 conflict. so I say they cleaned up good. I dont wanna be bothered with stcupid txt verify so this is good news to me.

other than this I dont really see why u wanna spend your free time buying names worth 1 million for 5k. or what weird error u hope will get them transferred to ya... but I guess its your time to waste... just kinda dont complain it's not happening

it makes ya look way worse than afternic

 

[carob]

Solution: Only buy when it has Fast Transfer.

Actually I have seen Afternic re-list domains in my account which I no longer own and showing them with Fast Transfer on. Other domain owners have received emails to enable Fast Transfer when scammers have listed domains they don't own on Afternic, and sometimes busy domain owners just click to enable Fast Transfer on those domain listings. This problem has been reported over and over and solutions suggested, but as usual no improvement from Afternic.

Fast Transfer is a bad risk for domain owners and enabling it in fact only reaches a small number of additional registrars according to Afternic's own public figures - the real benefit of Fast Transfer is to Afternic, not the domain owner. I don't enable it on any domains now.

Afternic need to provide the ability to disable fast transfer, both as a global setting and on individual names.

 

[carob]

Recently, I took a gamble by purchasing Arms.com when the price dropped to $4,999. The domain never got into my hands and I lost $400 in the refund process.

Unless that is due to currency fluctuation, they should refund you the $400 - they did not fulfil the contract and the loss is not your fault, they should restore you to where you were at the start. Any wire fees and other fees should be refunded.

 

[alcy]

I missed the part where op losing exchange money. wow... so this guy buys million dollar names for 5k thinking god knows what..and does it knowing about exchange money loss.

ok now I'm totally speechless.

 

[equity78]

Unless that is due to currency fluctuation, they should refund you the $400 - they did not fulfil the contract and the loss is not your fault, they should restore you to where you were at the start. Any wire fees and other fees should be refunded.

It was probably a currency fluctuation and no one is reimbursing you for that. I agree with @alcy I don't know why people try to buy obvious 6 figure names for $5,000. But if you want to take that gamble then you risk losing money due to FX.

 

[carob]

It was probably a currency fluctuation and no one is reimbursing you for that. I agree with @alcy I don't know why people try to buy obvious 6 figure names for $5,000. But if you want to take that gamble then you risk losing money due to FX.

On a well-known platform I bought a domain and wired a four figure sum, then was told sorry the owner no longer owns the domain, we're wiring the money back at your expense. I insisted they refund all the wire transfer costs in both directions - they did, under protest, too bad, it's a cost of doing business and why not bill the person who listed the domain and - at best - forgot to remove it. Incurring costs and customer dissatisfaction like this would make some normal businesses a bit more careful about screening listings.

It would help if you can confirm the domain really is available before paying.

 

[NameMaxi.com]

It would help if you can confirm the domain really is available before paying.

Yep, this is exactly what we need. As a serious domain investor, there has been multiple instances of not landing a domain I purchased while payment goes through pretty fast

It was probably a currency fluctuation and no one is reimbursing you for that. I agree with @alcy I don't know why people try to buy obvious 6 figure names for $5,000. But if you want to take that gamble then you risk losing money due to FX.

Pretty shocking to me that you would lose money due to their platform. All money should be reimbursed shouldn't it? Including all fees etc.

It was credit card fees for global transaction. Both for purchase and refund, 3% either way.

As for @alcy's question... you might not believe - some domainers do tend to drop their prices quite a bit for even the most premium domains.

 

[freety85]

I remember there were a bunch of these kinds of listings at Dan as well. Most people don't touch them, as they're normally too good to be true

 

[Coconuts]

Yep, this is exactly what we need. As a serious domain investor, there has been multiple instances of not landing a domain I purchased while payment goes through pretty fast



It was credit card fees for global transaction. Both for purchase and refund, 3% either way.

As for @alcy's question... you might not believe - some domainers do tend to drop their prices quite a bit for even the most premium domains.

They don't drop six and seven figure names to 2500 or 4,000

 

[Recons.Com]

Solution: Only buy when it has Fast Transfer.

How would you know if a name is on fast transfer?

 

[Future Sensors]

How would you know if a name is on fast transfer?

Not all registrars do this, but Porkbun clearly indicates when domains are fast transfer domains.

 

[Recons.Com]

Not all registrars do this, but Porkbun clearly indicates when domains are fast transfer domains.


Show attachment 268329

In other words, there is no definitive way to tell this about all domains.

GD itself has made it purposefully misleading by showing fast transfer only for boost names. I.e. hiding info from buyers if a seller doesn't pay up extra 33.3% in commission.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

How would you know if a name is on fast transfer?

The definitive way is to ask an account rep at GoDaddy or an employee at Afternic. They can check it quickly.

All partner registrars should also be able to access that information, but whether they have a process in place to do so (manually or automatically) will vary from registrar to registrar.

 

[Recons.Com]

The definitive way is to ask an account rep at GoDaddy or an employee at Afternic. They can check it quickly.

All partner registrars should also be able to access that information, but whether they have a process in place to do so (manually or automatically) will vary from registrar to registrar.

Yeah, that assumes the guy is being reasonable and patient. And that doesn't bode well with thinking you are buying a 6 figure names for 4 figures. If it were true, it would be gone by the time you'd get a response )

 

[Joe drake]

I have the habit of tracking prices for some high-value name categories to look for investment opportunities. However, Afternic's lack of verification of their listings has been a huge hindrance.

Recently, I took a gamble by purchasing Arms.com when the price dropped to $4,999. The domain never got into my hands and I lost $400 in the refund process.

Same thing happen a while ago with wisdom.com being listed for some 3 digits, Bank.com price dropped to $2499. Even media.com was listed for an unbelievable price. These are obvious cases where we can tell the listing is fake. Otherwise, there is no way to verify these listings as authentic since anybody can seem to list any domain on Afternic (and get their account banned too).

Who else has encountered this issue? Purchased a domain that ended up not being for sale? Lost money in the process? Or is it just me?

This happens a lot ,look the domains you mentioned obviously are going to be owned by top investors ,maybe you caught someone falling a sleep on the buttons when listing, this all being said thats a great reason to never ever give permission for fast transfer ,because in the end you can always say sorry I sold it already , but if you put FT on it the domain is GANDI 4ever. also look at one andrew rosner recent sherpa podcasts which shows how peolple are stealing domains out of godaddy and godaddy wants no part in helping getting them back,its the episode with unstoppable domains

 

[900Worldwide]

Pretty shocking to me that you would lose money due to their platform. All money should be reimbursed shouldn't it? Including all fees etc.

The real kicker is when you try to add domains you own and you can't because someone else has them listed. Then you enter into the murky hit and miss world of Afternic ownership verification which is ironic.

this happened, to me someone had my domains attached to there account, but they quickly resolve the issues once they responded...

 

[Joe drake]

this happened, to me someone had my domains attached to there account, but they quickly resolve the issues once they responded...

I sometimes switch the Afternic ownership verification with my code before adding domains to Afternic, but there's still a significant lag. It doesn't make sense because many of these domains are hand-registered. How can these systems be so inefficient?

On top of that, I was really frustrated this morning when I logged into GoDaddy and saw "Let AI decide your next domain." I tried searching for some of my best domains listed on GoDaddy by entering the domain names with ".com." Every time, the AI suggested unregistered domains with second- and third-level extensions, like .mobi, but none of my premium domains were listed. What’s going on?

Why am I paying at least a 15% commission to list domains here if, when I get a buyer inquiry, it feels like Afternic/GoDaddy is working for the buyer? I don't even know who is interested in my domains, unlike Atom, which shares detailed buyer demographics, info, and even their name.

Please tell me this isn’t true, Joe S or Paul Nicks. Are you guys really letting this go downhill for the customer?

 

[900Worldwide]

@Afternic is still the best place to buy and sell domains. I feel like the internet is growing fast and with the times business need to make changes just as fast.
IMO I don't need all the bells and whistles, I just care if I have the buyer needs when they're searching. And @Afternic need to bring back auctions for sellers.

 

[carob]

Please tell me this isn’t true, Joe S or Paul Nicks. Are you guys really letting this go downhill for the customer?

Domainers aren't the customers, they are just suppliers and our goods compete with Godaddy's own stock of domains... so they feel free to treat us with disrespect and poor performance, and string us along to grab our incoming traffic on their landers.

Afternic has been getting worse but even if it was not, it is getting left behind - I moved all my domains off their landers, landers which I was temporarily force to use by the Dan migration. The other platforms I find are just so much better, better features, quick, responsive, innovative.... by comparison using the patchwork Afternic interface is just horrible, stressful, embarassing.

Tried to buy an Afternic listed domain on GodDaddy - 40 seconds to load the cart, then previously undeclared extra charges were added... wtf... went to see if it was listed on another platform, yes, GoDaddy/Afternic lost a sale.