Flippa account banned for spamming my own listings

[uzver]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share my experience. (attn. @FlippaDomains)

I used Flippa since June 2016. I sold 13 domains of different quality for a total sum of $12K, and received 100% positive feedback. No complaints from other users/Flippa integrity team until today.

I'm sure everyone knows that promoting auction listings at Flippa is rather expensive. I observed that many Flippa sellers promote their listings by posting comments on their own (more active or paid/featured) listings. So did I: I've chosen a tactic of heavily promoting my better quality names using paid options and then posting comments with links to my lower quality names that just don't worth a $49 promo fee. It was working well until now.

A month ago I submitted four "no reserve" auctions, all of which end in less than 48 hours. Today, out of the blue, I received an email from Flippa (now and further below new lines were removed for clarity):

Your account has been suspended temporarily due to potential site rule/guideline violations.
A short explanation for the suspension is outlined below:
Suspended, has been promoting own listings on other users listing. This is spam and not permitted.
If you believe a mistake has been made on our part, or if you would like to resolve this issue, please contact us at support@flippa com
Sincerely,
Flippa Team

It was midnight in my timezone so the message was unnoticed for 6 hours. I've reached out to their Customer Support:

This is ridiculous. You should have asked me first before blocking my account with LIVE auctions!
Please show one single example of above claim. I'm promoting on my own listings only!!!

A quick response from Flippa Integrity team:

Thanks for reaching out.
We understand that the promotion was on your own listing, that being said we'll have to ask that the overdue fee is paid and from there we'll have your account back underway.
Hope this helps and feel free to get back to us with any other questions or concerns.
Cheers,
Parnell P - Marketplace Integrity Specialist
San Francisco, CA

I responded quickly:

Please point me towards the rule that says promoting on MY OWN listings is not allowed. I can see it all over at Flippa, so I have concerns about my account suspension and request to pay fees.

And 30 mins later I added:

I need my account to be unblocked immediately. What is the fee and how can I pay?
At the same time, your claim has no any evidence: "Suspended, has been promoting own listings on other users listing. This is spam and not permitted." I'm awaiting your response on my previous messages. I started with Flippa auctions in June last year, and there were no complaints to me from users or Flippa team. I'm very disappointed with the way you're solving this issue now (blocking account for no obvious reasons and demanding a payment).

I haven't received a response until now. Mr. Parnell P responded 6 hours ago just once. My ending auctions are dead for nearly 13 hours now. Some of those auctions were promoted multiple times using paid options.

So here are my complaints
1) I've promoted my own listings while reason for suspension is "has been promoting own listings on other users listing".
2) If that's still considered a violation, they could have send me an email with a warning and I would have deleted my own comments. Instead, they are damaging my auctions just 48 hours before their end (most active bidding time); this affects my previous expenses for these domains.
3) Mr. Parnell P demands some overdue fee, but he hasn't left any option to pay: How much should I pay? By which means? There is no any payment link in my dashboard.
4) No response for 6 hours now.

It would be great to hear what others think about this issue. Also, an advice/help from @FlippaDomains is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[kite26]

Welcome to the club!

 

[uzver]

Welcome to the club!

Thanks

 

[Justin Matmor]

I am surprised you don't admit that you broke their rules.

 

[kite26]

What you expect. By mistake i made double account, i paid them my nice bucks to list and then banned me. I said them what can i do, and they told me that is permanent. I contact them twice, i ask them to delete one account and let me one, nothing. Permanent ban. Permanent ban. Stop facing us as criminals.

 

[uzver]

I am surprised you don't admit that you broke their rules.

Thanks for your opinion. I've neither denied nor admitted same. Couldn't find it in their rules at quick glance. Either way, I believe what they did to me doesn't align with my breach. Also, considering my white history, they could have done it more nicely.

 

[Cdomains]

This is why I have never used Flippa.

I've had an account there for years and every once in a while I think maybe I will use it.

Then I read something like this on NP and I change my mind again.

I haven't used them yet and so far I think I never will.

There have been many, many complaints here at NP for several years now and their rep comes here and tries to explain their BS, and fails.

Every time this happens they say they are going to make changes for the better and fix the problems.

It never happens.

Seems like it never will.

I can't believe they get away with all the sh*t they pull and are still in business.

 

[kite26]

This is why I have never used Flippa.

I've had an account there for years and every once in a while I think maybe I will use it.

Then I read something like this on NP and I change my mind again.

I haven't used them yet and so far I think I never will.

There have been many, many complaints here at NP for several years now and their rep comes here and tries to explain their BS, and fails.

Every time this happens they say they are going to make changes for the better and fix the problems.

It never happens.

Seem like it never will.

I can't believe they get away with all the sh*t they pull and are still in business.

They took your bucks and then ''Lifetime ban''. Let me send you documents if you want, give me a second chance, or give my money back. Nice attitude.

 

[uzver]

So now it's 13 hours of silence. No responses from Customer Support and @FlippaDomains.

 

[Cdomains]

So now it's 13 hours of silence. No responses from Customer Support and @FlippaDomains.

Yep!

That is the way they roll.

 

[iHaveThisIdea]

So now it's 13 hours of silence. No responses from Customer Support and @FlippaDomains.

As the "former" FlippaDomains Director (and should also make note here that I no longer operate the Namepros handle), I can assure you that it's well known that promoting your listings on others' listings is spammy and against the ToS. Parnell is a top-notch guy, however, so I expect if you abide by rules and regs, pay overdue fees and whatever else he requests, you will be fine.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Sedo allows the "mentioning" of other domains on listing that's being auctioned. A great piggy backing technique


GoDaddy does not
And now flippa?

I've seen tons of flippa users some brokers too who activate a paid flippa auction and then say something like

" I also have these domains available. Please give them a look. They are listed here on flippa."

Something to that effect.

I'm guessing this is a new rule? Or has this been in effect for a while?

 

[iHaveThisIdea]

Sedo allows the "mentioning" of other domains on listing that's being auctioned. A great piggy backing technique


GoDaddy does not
And now flippa?

I've seen tons of flippa users some brokers too who activate a paid flippa auction and then say something like

" I also have these domains available. Please give them a look. They are listed here on flippa."

Something to that effect.

I'm guessing this is a new rule? Or has this been in effect for a while?

Sorry, no - that is fine.

Maybe I am misunderstanding (OP, please confirm): promoting YOUR listing(s) on OTHERS' auctions is against the rules.

Promoting your other auctions on YOUR listings should be fine...

 

[uzver]

Sorry, no - that is fine.

Maybe I am misunderstanding (OP, please confirm): promoting YOUR listing(s) on OTHERS' auctions is against the rules.

Promoting your other auctions on YOUR listings should be fine...

That was on my own listings. I never spam other user's listings.

 

[iHaveThisIdea]

That was on my own listings. I never spam other user's listings.

My apologies then, and disregard my first post above.

The CS team at Flippa are all stand-up individuals so all should be fine.

 

[uzver]

As the "former" FlippaDomains Director (and should also make note here that I no longer operate the Namepros handle), I can assure you that it's well known that promoting your listings on others' listings is spammy and against the ToS. Parnell is a top-notch guy, however, so I expect if you abide by rules and regs, pay overdue fees and whatever else he requests, you will be fine.

The only overdue invoice I have will be paid by escrow.com automatically. I promoted my auctions on my own listings. Also, I went through the rules and I didn't find anything that says the sellers are not allowed to use comments for promotion of their listings (or similar wording). I admit, the commenting system was created for another purpose; but those are my listings -- if watchers/bidders don't like what I write there (as long as I don't hurt anyone), they can always unsubscribe (stop watching).

The end of the story: My account was suspended for 24 hours. They gave me 99 credits to recover disrupted auctions.

 

[uzver]

The CS team at Flippa are all stand-up individuals so all should be fine.

I had four no-reserve auctions about be ended. I paid to promote them at NameBio and Domaining.com. It wasn't fine.