BargainDomains.com admits to bidding on their own auctions! Can they be trusted?

[okvalley]

Well it happened again. I was bidding on an auction at BargainDomains.com and was the highest bidder with the reserve met and (conveniently?) I can't log in during the last 5 minutes to make sure I win the domain! Well this time I was pretty cranky since I had to get up at 3am (when the auction ended) and because this domain was for a client of mine! So I sent BargainDomains a fairly angry and explicit email explaining what happened and here's their response:

-copy & pasted direct from my email-

Domaining.com to me

Hi,

Now I admit this morning we had some server problems and it was difficult to access the site, I just rebooted it.

For your convenience I am going to resume the auction and add 12 hours so you can bid.

I form the other bid.

I do apologize for the inconvenience,

Francois


I FORM THE OTHER BID??? The WINNING bid??? How can an auction site bid on their own auctions??? They did resume the auction so I can bid again but they kept their bid in there so the price is significantly higher! Can I trust these guys??? Has anyone else had the same problem?

Would love some feedback!

Thanx!

oh BTW the name they used to place their bid was Gary Warne. So watch for it if you're bidding there!

 

[stingrae]

I'm not sure that you can conclude that "I form the other bid" means that he bid on the name himself. I don't really understand what he is saying.

However, if they don't OWN the domain themselves then I think that them bidding is ok as long as they don't have the abilty to program snipe or have some sort of advantage.

---------- Post added at 02:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:54 PM ----------

Now that I think about it, he probably meant "I inform the other bid".

 

[SlimPickins]

okvalley, first I would like to say "welcome to the forum" and THEN I would like to say that posting such a HUGE accusation based on your interpretation of, what looks like to me at least, to be most likely an incorrectly written sentence is a big mistake. Please keep in mind that English is NOT the first language of everyone on this planet (far from it actually) and that it is better to get further clarification about meaning PRIOR to posting such an accusation against anyone, including a person like Francois who is a well established and trusted member of the domain community. I have zero doubt that this a matter of misunderstanding.

 

[DomainingCom]

This morning our SQL server was convulsed and it was difficult to login.
Apparently it hapenned when the auction you were interested to bid was closing.
After be aware of the problem I advised all paties that the auction will be exceptionally extended 12 hours so anyone who wanted to bid and was unable due to this technical problem could do it.

I announced in our daily newsletter when we switched the BargainDomains.com marketplace to an auction format that I may place the first proxy bid (under my own name: Francois Carrillo) of any name I found of interest, mainly to focus the attention to our members.

I am not the owner of the domain you bid, nor I bidded this domain.

Email typos:

I FORM THE OTHER BID??? = I INFORM THE OTHER BIDDER(S)

 

[DN BROKER]

Francois is an honest Business Man, no need to make such false claims. As pointed out its a typo error