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Not long ago, I've sold a domain on Flippa. Nlw, I'm going to post this in here at the start. These are germs I have in every auction I post:
“Note: eCop, an escrow that allows Paypal, is available for all purchases. So if you want to bid but can only pay via Paypal, feel free to! Paypal itself is accepted for any sale at or under $50US (except to users with no previous buys/transactions). Anything between $51-200 needs to be approved by me before I’ll accept Paypal for it. Paypal isn’t accepted for any auction ending at $201 or higher. For those, we’ll use Flippa escrow or eCop.”
This is NOT written in tiny print, a made-up language, or in any way hard to locate. It’s right there, in the open. I keep the Paypal option open for ALL USERS WHO FIT THE CRITERIA. Those who meet it (sales at under $50) can freely send me Paypal whenever convenient.
Now:
The auction ended at over $200. Per my terms, payment was ONLY ACCEPTABLE via an escrow. The winner, a new Flippa user, IGNORED my terms and shot me a Paypal payment. As my account was empty prior to this (and the act that Flippa removed 10%), I wasn't able to send the user a full refund. This exact same thing had happened several times before. I didn’t write terms out for someone to completely ignore. He bid and thusly agreed to my terms (it's considered an acceptance to terms when a person agrees to bidding, correct?). After several days, Flippa reimbursed me the 10%, and I was able to send the money back to the buyer.
But that was the final straw: as he refused to honor my terms, I've refused to sell the domain to him.
Three disputes were opened, 2 of them by me. I've left this in the sales discussion, after Staff got involved:
“You are forgetting an extremely important fact: there is such a thing as sellers rights. No matter the platform, we have our rights, so long as they do not conflict with the governing/site rules. He broke my rules. But I cannot suspend him or in any other way penalize him for his wrongdoings. Where is his lesson there? Answer: there is none. The best I can do is refuse the sale. It should in no way conflict with Flippa's TOS. It's not me saying, "Oh, I'm not happy with the price. So I won't sell." Hell, I've sold many aged (10+ years old) for $1 each! It all boils down to the fact that there was a trespass. Flippa temporarily banned me for breaking rules (note: this was with an issue of what was deemed as spam). The most I can do here is refuse to sell to this person.”
Staff said little, aside from "you should just turn the Paypal option off."There is no point/purpose/use/need in it: I keep the option on for PEOPLE WHO READ MY LISTINGS AND ABIDE BY MY TERMS. That’s the point. Why should I not make things easier for buyers simply because a moron here and there refuses to follow terms? If someone bid on an auction without agreeing to Flippa’s TOS, they’d see penalty. And here I am, discussing a user who refused to take a minute to read my terms and agree to them. He bid, spit on me, and expected me to wipe it off with a perfunctory smile.
How can Flippa allow buyers to do as they feel, ignoring the basic principles of what a seller can//should always be capable of, and expect to thrive? Again, this is not an issue of me being unhappy with the selling price or anything remotely similar. I’ve simply had too many people walk all over me and expect to walk away like nothing had happened.
A suggestion to @Flippa / @FlippaDomains you NEED to draft out a section in your TOS specifying exactly and to what extent sellers have a right with their proceedings. If Flippa can cancel out an auction because the seller believes that the buyer is shady (as they’ve done for me a few times in the past), then I see no logical reason to let this mockery stand. I’m 100% in the right here, and I am in no way wrong. This entire fiasco is an insult to me and to the institution of free enterprise. I’ll state this publically: the winner will not receive the domain, no matter what he does or how much complaining he performs. It’s said, done, and over. Next time, he should stop to read listings. If you make a mess, you are the one to fault. He’s caused me to lose many hours, due to his blind-bidding/not reading my terms. Why is this even an issue? Someone is to blame for his folly. And guess what? It’s him.
I'm typically a Flippa cheerleader, but this is annoying. Really, Flippa, you NEED TO BETTER PROTECT YOUR SELLERS. I don’t want either of us to wage a war on seller’s rights. But you need to protect us. Without the sellers and their domains/websites/apps, there IS no Flippa. This is easily the best platform I’ve ever used, and you guys have spent a lotta cash and made some costly acquisitions to set yourselves apart from the pack. Depriving us sellers of our obvious rights really tarnishes your image.
“Note: eCop, an escrow that allows Paypal, is available for all purchases. So if you want to bid but can only pay via Paypal, feel free to! Paypal itself is accepted for any sale at or under $50US (except to users with no previous buys/transactions). Anything between $51-200 needs to be approved by me before I’ll accept Paypal for it. Paypal isn’t accepted for any auction ending at $201 or higher. For those, we’ll use Flippa escrow or eCop.”
This is NOT written in tiny print, a made-up language, or in any way hard to locate. It’s right there, in the open. I keep the Paypal option open for ALL USERS WHO FIT THE CRITERIA. Those who meet it (sales at under $50) can freely send me Paypal whenever convenient.
Now:
The auction ended at over $200. Per my terms, payment was ONLY ACCEPTABLE via an escrow. The winner, a new Flippa user, IGNORED my terms and shot me a Paypal payment. As my account was empty prior to this (and the act that Flippa removed 10%), I wasn't able to send the user a full refund. This exact same thing had happened several times before. I didn’t write terms out for someone to completely ignore. He bid and thusly agreed to my terms (it's considered an acceptance to terms when a person agrees to bidding, correct?). After several days, Flippa reimbursed me the 10%, and I was able to send the money back to the buyer.
But that was the final straw: as he refused to honor my terms, I've refused to sell the domain to him.
Three disputes were opened, 2 of them by me. I've left this in the sales discussion, after Staff got involved:
“You are forgetting an extremely important fact: there is such a thing as sellers rights. No matter the platform, we have our rights, so long as they do not conflict with the governing/site rules. He broke my rules. But I cannot suspend him or in any other way penalize him for his wrongdoings. Where is his lesson there? Answer: there is none. The best I can do is refuse the sale. It should in no way conflict with Flippa's TOS. It's not me saying, "Oh, I'm not happy with the price. So I won't sell." Hell, I've sold many aged (10+ years old) for $1 each! It all boils down to the fact that there was a trespass. Flippa temporarily banned me for breaking rules (note: this was with an issue of what was deemed as spam). The most I can do here is refuse to sell to this person.”
Staff said little, aside from "you should just turn the Paypal option off."There is no point/purpose/use/need in it: I keep the option on for PEOPLE WHO READ MY LISTINGS AND ABIDE BY MY TERMS. That’s the point. Why should I not make things easier for buyers simply because a moron here and there refuses to follow terms? If someone bid on an auction without agreeing to Flippa’s TOS, they’d see penalty. And here I am, discussing a user who refused to take a minute to read my terms and agree to them. He bid, spit on me, and expected me to wipe it off with a perfunctory smile.
How can Flippa allow buyers to do as they feel, ignoring the basic principles of what a seller can//should always be capable of, and expect to thrive? Again, this is not an issue of me being unhappy with the selling price or anything remotely similar. I’ve simply had too many people walk all over me and expect to walk away like nothing had happened.
A suggestion to @Flippa / @FlippaDomains you NEED to draft out a section in your TOS specifying exactly and to what extent sellers have a right with their proceedings. If Flippa can cancel out an auction because the seller believes that the buyer is shady (as they’ve done for me a few times in the past), then I see no logical reason to let this mockery stand. I’m 100% in the right here, and I am in no way wrong. This entire fiasco is an insult to me and to the institution of free enterprise. I’ll state this publically: the winner will not receive the domain, no matter what he does or how much complaining he performs. It’s said, done, and over. Next time, he should stop to read listings. If you make a mess, you are the one to fault. He’s caused me to lose many hours, due to his blind-bidding/not reading my terms. Why is this even an issue? Someone is to blame for his folly. And guess what? It’s him.
I'm typically a Flippa cheerleader, but this is annoying. Really, Flippa, you NEED TO BETTER PROTECT YOUR SELLERS. I don’t want either of us to wage a war on seller’s rights. But you need to protect us. Without the sellers and their domains/websites/apps, there IS no Flippa. This is easily the best platform I’ve ever used, and you guys have spent a lotta cash and made some costly acquisitions to set yourselves apart from the pack. Depriving us sellers of our obvious rights really tarnishes your image.
