advice Flippa BIN bidder no payment, no contact

[thetgc]

I'm pretty sure some of you will have come across this situation before. Had a site listed, got plenty of interest. Had a BIN of $1000 with reserve of $700. People bidding and then there was a BIN.

Great I thought, job done. Got an invoice from Flippa for $150...always quick when asking for money. So I contact the buyer and...no response. Tried again and still no response. Contacted customer service. About 14 hrs later get a response asking if I had a requirement to pay instantly on BIN which I didn't but was going to use Flippa's Escrow.

Wrote back to Flippa mentioning that the buyer had only registered two hours before submitting the BIN but I could see he had also made 14 other bids in that two hours. The member has not been online since.

Have not heard from Flippa since, so that's 48 hrs at least. Also tried tweeting them several times but no response.

Thing is, whilst this remains unresolved my auction is offline.

Yeah I know, need to be more choosy over who I accept bids from.

What I don't understand is why someone would bother to register and then submit a BIN but then just disappear? Also why are Flippa not getting involved? I assume they would like their commission?

Is it worth pursuing or should I just dump flippa and advertise elsewhere. I have another higher value auction running at the moment. Should I just pull it?

 

[Isac]

Flippa only care about their commission. Nothing else. Average domain dint get even 1 view there.

 

[thetgc]

I just find it odd. They gave my site their top level promotion free of charge twice. I got enquiries and also an offer just short of my reserve...which in hindsight I should have taken.

Anyway can't relist it now and Flippa can't earn any commission because it has obviously not sold.

Seems like one of those sites that is great on the surface but is all smoke and mirrors.

 

[Asfas1000]

Not saying that this is why it happened to your auction, but a fresh Flippa account could be used for shill bidding, and could have bid on other auctions too, trying to obfuscate the actual shill bid.

 

[thetgc]

Yeah I did think maybe shill bidding or perhaps even Flippa themselves. After all they are having to list unsuccessful auctions for free so perhaps it's their way of getting you to go away

Definitely something not right about it though.

This site seems to be much better. Even if I never sell anything at least there is a lot of useful info here and of course we all gain from the experience of those who have been successful

 

[rafaelo0]

Hi @thetgc

I'm not saying Flippa is best marketplace, i ad 1 or 2 miner headaches when dealing with shill bidders (new and faker biders) at Flippa but at the end Flippa always resolved the problem and they always offer a free relist and sometimes credits for the troubles.

Flippa is getting worse at least on the domain side, on the website side it's ok, but i just keeping going back to them because they have such a easy platform, the lowest commissions and flippa escrow which is free (normal commission is 15% but if you use flippa escrow i think it drops to 12%).

Flippa will probably respond to you, they usually respond after 1 day (longer on weekends).

What you have to do is go to your flippa dashboard and in front of the website you sold is "sales completion area" click on it, then click on "dispute sale".

You have to describe by detail what happen. Just say that it's a shill bider (fake), he never responded to your messages and it already passed x days since the auction ended. They will review your case contact the buyer if he doesn't respond they will cancel the transaction and offer a free auction relist.

When filling the dispute sale, say how you had x numbers of bidders already and if you use premium features for your auction also mention that. The point is mention that shill bider cost you money and loss of potential buyers (future profit) they compensate you with credits.

Also before relisting the auction, i think there is option to maker offer to all your previous bidders and you can negotiate with the bidders (counter offer them), use it you may get a sale without relisting the website
Hope it helps.

Best Regards

 

[thetgc]

Thanks for the advice rafaelo0 it is very much appreciated. I have lodged a dispute so just need to wait and see what happens.

 

[thetgc]

Quick update. After using the "dispute" button I finally got a response. They are contacting the non paying bidder and if they don't hear from him will find in my favour and then relist the auction free of charge. not sure why they now need to wait 72 hours as clearly this person is not going to respond. It's been 5 days since he submitted a BIN and ended my auction and hasn't been on Flippa since then. Still, it's more than I was getting so lets see what happens.

 

[rafaelo0]

Don't worry @thetgc the problem will be resolve and you can relist the auction for free. They need to wait 72h because it's part of their terms (procedure), they need to give time for the buyer to present is case and respond even if they know he probably is a shill bider.

There is pros and cons to relist the auction.

The pros are when you relist the auction you will begin with your previous watchers, this can go in your advantage because you stated that you had bidders in your previous auction so you will begin with those bidders, you can contact your previous bidders and negotiate with them a fair price or you can just add a lower BIN compared to your last one, the previous bidders may see it has a "second chance" and pay the BIN

The cons are watchers and bidders may find there's something "fishy" with the domain or auction for being relisted when someone already paid for the BIN in the previous auction or maybe the domain isn't as value as they think.

 

[thetgc]

Well it's not been relisted yet although Flippa have stated that the buyer has not responded to them and they are making a decision. So 10 days now since the BIN. That's 10 days my auction has been offline. Not happy about that but not much I can do. Hopefully things will move along tomorrow.

Maybe once the auction is listed I can add some comment about why, is that a good idea or not?

 

[TopShelf Domains]

I'm pretty sure some of you will have come across this situation before. Had a site listed, got plenty of interest. Had a BIN of $1000 with reserve of $700. People bidding and then there was a BIN.

Great I thought, job done. Got an invoice from Flippa for $150...always quick when asking for money. So I contact the buyer and...no response. Tried again and still no response. Contacted customer service. About 14 hrs later get a response asking if I had a requirement to pay instantly on BIN which I didn't but was going to use Flippa's Escrow.

Wrote back to Flippa mentioning that the buyer had only registered two hours before submitting the BIN but I could see he had also made 14 other bids in that two hours. The member has not been online since.

Have not heard from Flippa since, so that's 48 hrs at least. Also tried tweeting them several times but no response.

Thing is, whilst this remains unresolved my auction is offline.

Yeah I know, need to be more choosy over who I accept bids from.

What I don't understand is why someone would bother to register and then submit a BIN but then just disappear? Also why are Flippa not getting involved? I assume they would like their commission?

Is it worth pursuing or should I just dump flippa and advertise elsewhere. I have another higher value auction running at the moment. Should I just pull it?

Welcome to Flippa

 

[rafaelo0]

The Flippa staff responsible of that and other departments aren't working on weekends (i think at least that was what the they told me a wile back) tomorrow it will probably be resolved and you will have the option to relist.

Yes you can explain what happen in the comment section, but i wouldn't take that route (that's just my opinion) because it can go either way.

Previous and new biders can look at the comments and believe you or they may think something is wrong with this auction, (why because you are responding to a question no one asked) think like a buyer, your trying a great length to prove nothing is wrong with the auction and it was a shill bider, that alone raises suspicion, others may think you are the shill bider and others may think your desperate to sell and if they are interested they will try to bring you down on the domain/website as much has they can (that is only my opinion not facts).

From what i learn so far is that buyers are really paranoid especially domainers if they see a domain they +/- like they may bid on it but if they think something is wrong with the auction or domain just for a second they move on to other auctions.

Also if it's a buyer that is really interested in your domain they wont lose interest in the auction just because it didn't sell the first time but they may use this knowledge to bring down the value of the domain to get it cheap.

I recommend you to relist the domain and if you can contact the bidders who bid on your previous auction, contact them again and offer them a lower BIN that your comfortable with (keep in mind if they didn't pay the BIN the first time it's probable they won't this time again, that's why you should lower the BIN).

Again, this is only my opinion.

 

[rafaelo0]

@TopShelf Domains "Welcome to Flippa" loool well said.

It's a shame flippa is going down hill this couple of month's. They have a great platform (simple, smooth and easy to navigate) they also have flippa escrow which is free, their listing fee is low only 9$ and they have real low success fee (lots of marketplace claim they have the lowest but flippa is really one of the lowest) for me those 4 aspects are the only reason they are different (unique) to other marketplaces and get my attention. I see great potential for Flippa if they did some tweaks to their platform, especially in the search option.

That being said they have lots negative aspects (i think it's because they just stop giving a sh*@ about their business at least in the domain area) their domain search is not so good, they have lot's of shill biders, you have to contact support to use some options that could just simply do it your self and their editors choice recently as been a joke, i see some domains that show when their reserve is met that are 10x better then the ones they picked for editors choice.

Ps: if you dont know any flippa editors you have low chance of getting to the editors choice.

 

[thetgc]

They found in my favour this morning so I can now relist so that is good news at least.

Anyone think it might be a good idea, since we're not talking thousands of dollars here, to perhaps have it as a requirement to pay instantly via Paypal on a BIN? If the buyer didn't respond etc wouldn't that speed up a resolution?

I think Flippa need to instigate a tougher regime with regard to BIN. A threat of having an account suspended for a lot of shill bidders is not really a deterrent since they can probably create as many accounts as they want and have plenty to fall back on?

Perhaps require the BIN bidder to pay a deposit into Escrow so at least unless there is very good reason to pull out i.e a dishonest seller they will either need to follow through or lose their deposit.

Not sure there is a perfect solution but something needs to be done.

 

[1Darko]

The same happend to me several times. BIN triggered or auction won and the buyer dissapears and never pays. Flippa could solve this problem very easy by demanding auction entering fee for bidders.

 

[thetgc]

Site has been relisted with a free premium upgrade. Let's see what happens this time!

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

I hope your name sells, and you get your money. To many horror stories over the years, well the last 2 years I would stay away, and I never go there visit their site. Dont use them again or suffer the consequences

 

[thetgc]

Thanks but any suggestions as to alternatives to Flippa? apart from namepros of course