question DropCatch

[TampaDomains]

I thought I saw on here one time that its possible to see if someone already has a back order with dropcatch for a pending delete happening that day. Is this true? How?

 

[RGkiiing]

not sure.. but namejet will show you

 

[TampaDomains]

how? I have never used it.

edit:
never mind I see. It will show a bidder I guess.

 

[DropCatch Support]

DropCatch does not release backorder information so you are unable to tell if a backorder exist on a dropping domain name by another user!

 

[Arca]

@DropCatch Support - 90 to 100% of my discount backorders that you catch are usually given to HugeDomains, who is your sister company/partner and owned by the same group as dropcatch.

It seems like there might be a conflict of interest issue when you let your regular customers do the research and place discount backorders in your system, and then proceed to give most of those domains to your corporate partner, who may or may not have been given access to this info.

What kind of system, if any, have you put in place to fully mitigate this risk/perceived risk of a conflict of interest in your discount backorder system?

 

[davidc1]

@Arca avoid dropcatch as it' more and more the case...

 

[Michael M]

@Arca - You must pay pull price for a backorder at DC to ensure one of their 'Partners' do not grab the domain. Using the discount backorder you are giving them a list of domains of interest to look through, which they then can cherry pick the best ones out from under you.

 

[Arca]

@Arca - You must pay pull price for a backorder at DC to ensure one of their 'Partners' do not grab the domain. Using the discount backorder you are giving them a list of domains of interest to look through, which they then can cherry pick the best ones out from under you.

I think you have misinterpreted my post above. The point I am raising is not that I am "surprised" or anything that HugeDomains is taking my discount backorders, as I am well aware of the differences between their regular and discount backorders. I primarily use the former, but not all names worth backordering are worth paying $59 for.

What I am asking them to clarify is the conflict of interest built in to their discount backorder system, where they let their customers make backorders, and then take most of these domains for themselves (as HugeDomains and DropCatch are practically the same company).

TurnCommerce has multiple interests in this situation. They want domainer’s dropcatching $ and they also want the same domains that domainers want to dropcatch through their company. With the discount program they get both; they can take domainers money for backorders they don’t want, and take the domains they want for themselves (if there only is a discount backorder for that domain). The discount backorders made by domainers could even provide them with a list of domains they ‘might’ want, and coincidentally, many people have reported HugeDomains taking almost all of their discount backorders. This whole discount backorder system creates the possibility that the way they operate their dropcatching service targeting domainers (dropcatch), might be unduly influenced by their interests as a domain sales company targeting end-users (hugedomains). Normally a potential conflict of interest would be voluntarily resolved before anything inappropriate takes place, yet DropCatch appears to be setting up a system that creates a conflict of interest, and then operate it in a way that certainly doesn't dispel the notion that something might be off behind the scenes (with them taking most of domainers discount backorders for themselves).

 

[DropCatch Support]

@DropCatch Support - 90 to 100% of my discount backorders that you catch are usually given to HugeDomains, who is your sister company/partner and owned by the same group as dropcatch.

It seems like there might be a conflict of interest issue when you let your regular customers do the research and place discount backorders in your system, and then proceed to give most of those domains to your corporate partner, who may or may not have been given access to this info.

What kind of system, if any, have you put in place to fully mitigate this risk/perceived risk of a conflict of interest in your discount backorder system?

Thank you for reaching out. The discount club was created for the instances in which users did not want to place a regular backorder at $59.00 but still had interest in the domain name. We established the priority system for regular backorder, partner backorder, and discount backorders based on pricing.

We reserve regular price backorders for our DropCatch users to protect the interest of the domain name however our partner backorders are held to the same standard as our users. All backorder must be submitted prior to the cut off time for the daily drop and backorder information and history is never shared with anyone!!! I want to emphasize this because this means that HugeDomains has absolute no ability to know what domains have backorders placed on DropCatch by our users. When we released the Discount Club, we released the priority list with the rules and regulations to ensure everyone was aware of the system! Does this help?

If you have further questions, please feel free to reach out. You may also always email us at Support @DropCatch.com with feedback or questions.

Thank you
DropCatch Support

 

[Asfas1000]

Thank you for reaching out. The discount club was created for the instances in which users did not want to place a regular backorder at $59.00 but still had interest in the domain name. We established the priority system for regular backorder, partner backorder, and discount backorders based on pricing.

We reserve regular price backorders for our DropCatch users to protect the interest of the domain name however our partner backorders are held to the same standard as our users. All backorder must be submitted prior to the cut off time for the daily drop and backorder information and history is never shared with anyone!!! I want to emphasize this because this means that HugeDomains has absolute no ability to know what domains have backorders placed on DropCatch by our users. When we released the Discount Club, we released the priority list with the rules and regulations to ensure everyone was aware of the system! Does this help?

If you have further questions, please feel free to reach out. You may also always email us at Support @DropCatch.com with feedback or questions.

Thank you
DropCatch Support

Simply put, how do I know the DC BO I placed and was caught by you and eventually went to a partner of yours, was actually BO'ed by your partner too, and not just taken from me, because you'd rather have the domain than my $15 ?

Can you prove this beyond any doubt ?

 

[Arca]

@DropCatch Support - How about letting all discount backorders over $35 take priority over HugeDomains backorders, and all discount backorders below $35 go to HugeDomains, like all discount backorders do now? Then you’d give your customers a real discount backorder alternative, that actually works for customers, and that is not troubled by the kind of conflict of interest that your current system is. As @Asfas1000 has highlighted, there is just no way for customers to know whether or not HugeDomains is actually backordering the same domains, or whether there is something else going on behind the scenes.

 

[main]

Literally 90%+ of my discount backorders that get caught are trumped by "partner". It definitely has the appearance of shady.

 

[davidc1]

Literally 90%+ of my discount backorders that get caught are trumped by "partner". It definitely has the appearance of shady.

partner only, not standard ?

 

[Dream Hunter]

good info

 

[Domain Lead Finder]

As @Asfas1000 has highlighted, there is just no way for customers to know whether or not HugeDomains is actually backordering the same domains, or whether there is something else going on behind the scenes.

It is pretty easy to test. Split your back orders in 2 parts and order one part with Dropcatch, the other part without. Or simply avoid Dropcatch for a month and carefully monitor your total snipe % and then for another month order with Dropcatch and compare.

 

[Arca]

@DropCatch Support - How about letting all discount backorders over $35 take priority over HugeDomains backorders, and all discount backorders below $35 go to HugeDomains, like all discount backorders do now? Then you’d give your customers a real discount backorder alternative, that actually works for customers, and that is not troubled by the kind of conflict of interest that your current system is. As @Asfas1000 has highlighted, there is just no way for customers to know whether or not HugeDomains is actually backordering the same domains, or whether there is something else going on behind the scenes.

Do you have any plans to deal with the concerns that have been raised in this and other discussion threads here on NamePros?

 

[momentum]

Adding domains to DC discount backorder = Giving your research away to HugeDomains