Discuss your Epik Experience!

[dande]

I think Epik is building the best ever Domain Lander in the history of domaining, and it really needs to be talked about extensively. That's why I am creating this discussion thread. A lot of thought process really goes into the project. And I can see (for the first time) a landing page that is built from the stand point of domainers rather than for just the marketplace itself.

Everything you have ever dreamt of getting or seeing in a professional landing page can be found in the new Epik marketplace landing page design.

Some of my Favorites Features:

1. The ability to optimize your "domain for sale" landing page to actually rank on Google, displaying your sales pitch/domain description. I just did that with few of my generic domain names such as ASAP.TV, targeting certain keywords, and they are showing pretty well on Google. That's a huge plus in my marketing effort.

2. Being able to change background image is another huge one for me. If you are good with pictures and images, you will surely find this very useful. I did that with Nagasaki.org and the result was truly amazing, showing the city of Nagasaki right at the background.

There are too many positive features and I don't want to mention all of them, all alone

So I am leaving you guys to share and discuss what you loves most or dislike about the new Epik marketplace and the landing pages.

The only negative for me is the checkout process. There are too many terms and conditions buttons to tick before checking out. It will be nice if they can streamline those into one beautiful big button

They also need to place the checkout button directly under the payment options. Right now it is awkwardly place somewhere below at the sidebar, which I don't find cool at all.

Sales experience is also welcomed in this discussion. I haven't had any sells so far at Epik because I started using the marketplace just recently, but the future is looking so bright.

 

[Domain Crazy]

Resolved, thank you kindly

 

[Rob Monster]

Hi there Rob and team.

I tried starting a live chat to talk to Raj again about this but I am unable to start it, nothing happens when I click start chat. I tried disabling my adblockers and tried a diff browser. Emails has, thus far, received no reply (Since 27th).

I contacted your live support roughly a month ago asking about your ALT-TLDs. I asked very specifically whether or not alt-tlds would work on every vpn/proxy. I was told that YES they would work on any VPN/Proxy. (The answer did surprised me!)

With this knowledge though under my hand I decided to register around 100 domains.

Time passes and I give 'em a shot. I install some crappy chrome plugin to test it out. Didn't work. Tried another, didn't work. Went straight to live chat on your website and spoke to Raj who very graciously admitted that he was wrong and that the domains would not work on any VPN.

Bugger.

Don't think I would have purchased a single domain with this knowledge however I asked to refund only some domains as I had put a good amount of thought into it before.

Your company graciously accepted my refund of around 50 domains -- thank you.

However, there was a charge deducted of $0.50 per domain. It was also labelled 'ICANN restocking fee'.

ICANN restocking fee on an alt-tld? Also a fee for every domain seems unfair considering it was purchased under false pretences. I.e. I was told by your support after specifically asking that it would work on any VPN

I took the effort to write an email out to Raj to get the issue resolved on the 27th April:

But I did not receive a reply...

I sent a followup email on 5th March:

But I still haven't had a response yet. Maybe it is still too soon however I do feel like I'm being ignored on this issue even though they are minor charges.

Two Qs:

1. Please may I kindly request for these $0.50 charges per domain be refunded back to my account for this error on your customer support side.
2. Should there be ICANN fees on ALT-tlds in the first place for refunds?

Appreciate you having this thread to discuss. I'm happy to edit the content of this message away once resolved.

Regards

As for domain delete fee, it is possible for some TLDs within the first 5 days.

If you have a domain tasting account, you do it yourself and the delete fee is $0.25. This is actually much cheaper than pretty much anyone that offers that service.

If we do it for you, it is $0.50, which is again much cheaper than anyone else as far as I know.

For an alt domain, there is no ICANN and no external registry fee so we should be able to delete those without a fee.

 

[Domain Crazy]

Hi Rob, appreciate your quick response.

> As for domain delete fee, it is possible for some TLDs within the first 5 days. If you have a domain tasting account, you do it yourself and the delete fee is $0.25. This is actually much cheaper than pretty much anyone that offers that service.

I do not have a testing account, just a standard account I recently registered with you.

> If we do it for you, it is $0.50, which is again much cheaper than anyone else as far as I know.

That's great to hear - it is very reasonable!

> For an alt domain, there is no ICANN and no external registry fee so we should be able to delete those without a fee.

I didn't think so... does that mean you will refund these charges for these domains please? What should be my next step? Kind regards

 

[Rob Monster]

Hi Rob, appreciate your quick response.

> As for domain delete fee, it is possible for some TLDs within the first 5 days. If you have a domain tasting account, you do it yourself and the delete fee is $0.25. This is actually much cheaper than pretty much anyone that offers that service.

I do not have a testing account, just a standard account I recently registered with you.

> If we do it for you, it is $0.50, which is again much cheaper than anyone else as far as I know.

That's great to hear - it is very reasonable!

> For an alt domain, there is no ICANN and no external registry fee so we should be able to delete those without a fee.

I didn't think so... does that mean you will refund these charges for these domains please? What should be my next step? Kind regards

If there was some charge related to canceled alt domains, PM me the account details and I will get you a rebate for the restocking fee.

 

[Domain Crazy]

If there was some charge related to canceled alt domains, PM me the account details and I will get you a rebate for the restocking fee.

Thank you for sorting that out Rob.

Appreciate it v much.

 

[YairDD]

@Rob Monster Please check your private messages.

Appreciated

 

[PriyankaS]

After selling domain, what is the charge to withdraw the funds from masterbucks account and any fees to receive the funds via wire ?

 

[Rob Monster]

After selling domain, what is the charge to withdraw the funds from masterbucks account and any fees to receive the funds via wire ?

No fee there -- for wiring to India it is often done in seconds and Transferwise charges a few dollars and provides favorable INR FX rates.

For example, we just now sent NIXI $5,000 and see the rate:

That is 73.69 INR per USD. So, they make a small spread on the INR FX rate. If you can take USD, then you don't incur a loss on FX.

We are adding an India PvT for direct INR deposits. @Pat8 can update you on that one.

 

[PriyankaS]

No fee there -- for wiring to India it is often done in seconds and Transferwise charges a few dollars and provides favorable INR FX rates.

For example, we just now sent NIXI $5,000 and see the rate:

Show attachment 147213

That is 73.69 INR per USD. So, they make a small spread on the INR FX rate. If you can take USD, then you don't incur a loss on FX.

We are adding an India PvT for direct INR deposits. @Pat8 can update you on that one.

Great

 

[Domain Crazy]

Please may you add a favicon to nameliquidate for my bookmarks bar

Also I believe I still have the skype @Monster if you are interested. Owned it for around 10 years

 

[tonyk2000]

I wanted to ask for a long time and always forgot: Epik has many employees. Fine. They post @ NP. Fine. Sometimes they post personal opinions, sometimes their posts are reflecting corporate opinions. Which is what it should be. It is not always clear is the staff member acting as np member or as Epik staff member. Wouldn't it make sense to somehow clarify this? Also, if there is a document (not classified as a big secret) like Employee Code of Conduct - it would be interesting to read it. Just to understand what we np members (and/or Epik customers) should expect from Epik staff participating here, and what we should never expect ... ?
@Rob Monster

 

[wwwweb]

I wanted to ask for a long time and always forgot: Epik has many employees. Fine. They post @ NP. Fine. Sometimes they post personal opinions, sometimes their posts are reflecting corporate opinions. Which is what it should be. It is not always clear is the staff member acting as np member or as Epik staff member. Wouldn't it make sense to somehow clarify this? Also, if there is a document (not classified as a big secret) like Employee Code of Conduct - it would be interesting to read it. Just to understand what we np members (and/or Epik customers) should expect from Epik staff participating here, and what we should never expect ... ?
@Rob Monster

I see both sides of this, but many of Epik’s employees were hired because they were passionate, or had specialized skills relating to domains, and sales in their given locales.

They shouldn’t be discounted as members as some have been long time members, and contributors long before they were brought on. Many of these people are passionate about domains, and working hard to bring new applications, and awareness to the space which I can respect.

I think most domainers are pretty well grounded, and don’t get swayed by online polls, nor should anyone, maybe more conversation should be made about what makes these registers good, or bad in terms of their offerings, as opposed to a simple click vote.

I think Epik has one of the most diverse payment plans from what I have seen from any other register. As well they have lots of good experience in making hard to close international deals get done.

Another plus I would say sub 10% commissions are not bad in the current climate, as well as many crypto options is another added bonus not to many registers offer, along with them being their own register, having the ability to auto transfer, and close payout immediately is an added bonus.

They do go above, and beyond in these two categories, nobody even comes close to this regard. I think Epik has a lot more positive tools that can actually help domainers who are trying to be successful, most of the negative feedback doesn’t seem to be attacking their services, but more so their posting habits.

 

[Rob Monster]

I wanted to ask for a long time and always forgot: Epik has many employees. Fine. They post @ NP. Fine. Sometimes they post personal opinions, sometimes their posts are reflecting corporate opinions. Which is what it should be. It is not always clear is the staff member acting as np member or as Epik staff member. Wouldn't it make sense to somehow clarify this? Also, if there is a document (not classified as a big secret) like Employee Code of Conduct - it would be interesting to read it. Just to understand what we np members (and/or Epik customers) should expect from Epik staff participating here, and what we should never expect ... ?
@Rob Monster

The employee handbook is simple: "Do the right thing even when nobody is looking".

The executive committee that is taking shape is deploying a technology called Notion.So to formalize more of our operating procedures.

For calibration, we have about 70 staff worldwide. Resources permitting, I could see it scaling to 300 within 18 months.

So, now is a good time to deploy an executive leadership team, and also deploy operating processes beyond software, that translate cultural norms that are open to interpretation into policy that is specific.

Along the way, our intent is to not lose the personalized, relationship-centric approach. This is hard to scale but it is essential to our model. Fortunately, we don't aspire to be the biggest and never did.

 

[frank-germany]

I just sold a domain at nameliquit

the default setting is a minimum of $9 USD
which made me feel secure as
somewhere I read Rob claiming that people will be able to pay for renewals
from those nameliquit sales

yes but that is only half true

I sold the domain for $9 USD
but I can' use the funds to renew 1 domain for $8.49 USD
as I 'm left with only $8.10 USD after fees of 9%

why don't you have a $10 USD default?

Now I have let's say $8.10 USD in my masterbucks account
and let's say $5 USD in my "instore credit"

you would think that I can renew 1 domains using these funds?

no I can't

how can I transfer funds within epik from your internal masterbucks account
to the internal instore credit? and vice versa
and why is that made so difficult??

why don't you simply use both internal funds first with priority
when do I want to renew a domain at epik?


additionally, I found that I paid for transfers that didn't finalize
ages ago I forgot about

you won't receive back your funds automated

they are simply stuck forever

in case you want to use your money yourself
you need to cancel the transfers

I'm not impressed

when it comes to keeping money within the system
epik does a great job

 

[Rob Monster]

I just sold a domain at nameliquit

the default setting is a minimum of $9 USD
which made me feel secure as
somewhere I read Rob claiming that people will be able to pay for renewals
from those nameliquit sales

yes but that is only half true

I sold the domain for $9 USD
but I can' use the funds to renew 1 domain for $8.49 USD
as I 'm left with only $8.10 USD after fees of 9%

why don't you have a $10 USD default?

Now I have let's say $8.10 USD in my masterbucks account
and let's say $5 USD in my "instore credit"

you would think that I can renew 1 domains using these funds?

no I can't

how can I transfer funds within epik from your internal masterbucks account
to the internal instore credit? and vice versa
and why is that made so difficult??

why don't you simply use both internal funds first with priority
when do I want to renew a domain at epik?


additionally, I found that I paid for transfers that didn't finalize
ages ago I forgot about

you won't receive back your funds automated

they are simply stuck forever

in case you want to use your money yourself
you need to cancel the transfers

I'm not impressed

when it comes to keeping money within the system
epik does a great job

Just go here:

https://registrar.epik.com/account/add-balance-funds/

Add the amount you want to move from Masterbucks.

At checkout, choose Masterbucks as your funding source:

 

[Corey]

in one word....p o s i t i v e

Cheers
Corey

 

[frank-germany]

Just go here:

https://registrar.epik.com/account/add-balance-funds/

Add the amount you want to move from Masterbucks.

Show attachment 148091

At checkout, choose Masterbucks as your funding source:

Show attachment 148092

I see
works that way

still, why don't make that more user friendly?

 

[Samer]

I see
works that way

still, why don't make that more user friendly?

Why cant you be more friendly to Rob ?
that was teaching lesson. bonus: pics included

Knowing what i know about epik going forward
changes wit time, constant improve, innovate.

Samer

 

[HotKey]

With the Epik landers, is there a way to change the way the domain name displays? Cannot find any way to edit it, it just displays how it seems fit. Reason I ask, is a couple of my domains look really weird upon the visit, letters capitalized where they shouldn't be.

eg. ExaMpledOmain.com I want to be ExampleDomain.com

 

[Rob Monster]

I see
works that way

still, why don't make that more user friendly?

It works like PayPal -- just another external payment source.

We may add a way to combine payment methods at checkout. Reasonable request.

 

[Samer]

It works like PayPal -- just another external payment source.

We may add a way to combine payment methods at checkout. Reasonable request.

Game. Changer.!

i always want to pay Masterbucks support you

it’s one way to give back, less fees on u behalf
What’s Paypal going rate? If only easier way.

Samer

 

[Rob Monster]

With the Epik landers, is there a way to change the way the domain name displays? Cannot find any way to edit it, it just displays how it seems fit. Reason I ask, is a couple of my domains look really weird upon the visit, letters capitalized where they shouldn't be.

eg. ExaMpledOmain.com I want to be ExampleDomain.com

Look here:

 

[HotKey]

Look here:

Show attachment 148093

Perfect- thanks!

 

[Rob Monster]

Live meetup here:

https://hi.tv/epik

@Intelliname is hanging out too -- jamming on his acoustic guitar while talking domains.

 

[Samer]

Is there an option to export individual checked domains?

Can export to excel be located somewhere more accessible?

We should encourage more to organize, Consider allow me export checked DN to CSV.

Thanks for being the best registrar in business!

Samer