debate Flippa new verification process?

[James Rodman]

a friend of mine just told me flippa has a new verification process for bids over $5,000. I havent seen it yet as i havent bid that much on a domain and i think this is a new thing. I was also told you have to pay $500 by credit card and they hold the money for 1 week. What are your guys' opinion on this?I know its for security purposes but to me $500 is maybe a little too much. thats $500 i can't reinvest during the week.

Do you think this will turn off some people?

Hope to hear what other people have to say. thank you.

 

[FlippaDomains]

Whenever security is required there are usually inconveniences and/or hoops to jump through, whether online or physical (door locks, key-less entry, web passwords, captchas, etc). It's very annoying, but we need these things.

I would say that "most" end users who are deterred by this are not much loss. People who are serious about bidding should welcome a system which aids in their bidding being only with other serious bidders and not foul play or time wasters.

It's only for over $5k bids, which seems prudent to me, and the fact the money isn't actually "taken" and the fact if you are going to bid $5k+ you must have $500 (or you wouldn't be able to bid $5k) makes it acceptable IMO.

Thanks very much for these thoughts; I couldn't have said it better, and this is what we hope everyone understands when being asked to hold money to verify legitimacy and/or provide identification, which I know is a touchier subject...

More down the line from me on this.

 

[m-i-k-e]

Do you still need photos of sellers holding their ID's before paying them for names they've already transferred to buyer's or can I finally get paid for my last sale that completed this past Summer?

 

[FlippaDomains]

@m-i-k-e Hey Mike, long time no talk.

To be real for a moment, this isn't Flippa's policy, but by accepting our ToS, and by accepting Flippa Escrow as a payment method, you accepted the potential or actual request for identification at any time. From either company, I should add; our Marketplace Integrity requests ID from suspicious customers all the time, and that is in our ToS.

On the Escrow side, I am working to place these stipulations in front of our customers *before* transactions take place, as the ID-selfie thing is not something Flippa has any control over, nor does PromisePay (Flippa Escrow): apparently it is a bank-required security maneuver.

Everyone's information is safe and secure, but unfortunately neither I nor our acquaintances at PromisePay have any ability to waive this requirement. I wish I could tell you otherwise, because I think it's ridiculous for your money to be tied up, but the only thing I can offer you is my personal apology that we (Flippa) didn't brief you on this requirement ahead of time, seeing as you would have likely used another method of payment so as to avoid this.

I'll continue working with you to ensure we exhaust all additional opportunities to get you your payout. If anyone has ANY questions regarding Flippa Escrow, I urge you to direct them to [email protected].