I bought DomainNames.com from NetworkSolutions, but they took it back.

[owntype]

Hi, guys

I'm the buyer of DomainNames.com, I did the search via NetworkSolutions.com on 12.Feb, and found it's in their premium domain name lists with a very bargin price $2,577 (yes, it's a big bargain but a deal is a deal). Then I ordered it and paid via credit card.

This domain name is under control of New Ventures Services Corp and everyone knows it is NetworkSolutions/Web.com's warehousing company. All their domain names will be listed as premium domain names for sale on NetworkSolutions.com.

Once I made my order, Netsol sent me a order confirmation email. After 3 days, Networksolutions pushed the domain name into my Netsol account with a confirmation email to notify that my order has been completed, and I have the full control on it. I changed the DNS to my own hosting account.

But NetSol has removed it from my account today without any notifications nor explaination.

I will update further later.

 

[bobbarato]

and didn't refund the $3.99 netsol hosting plan

LoL! What's the thinking behind that? Sets some kind of precedent if they do refund fully?

Teeny tiny passive aggressive FU?

 

[Peak.Domains]

What would happen if I priced a domain name incorrectly and Network Solutions snapped it up?


I'm sure they'd be eager to reverse the transaction when I noticed, days later, after they already had possession of the name.


I'm SURE this is a two-way street...


Right...?


Maybe it's time we stopped buying shitty domains in every garbage extension that these companies shove down our throats and giving these companies so much power to pull ridiculous stunts like this.

They need to remember that they can't exist without their customers, and maybe they can't exist in their current state without their customers spending millions+ a year on awful speculative names that will never generate a penny in earnings beyond registration fees that prop up these companies and keep them in a position where they can treat their customers so unfairly at every single turn.

Someone finally manages to snag a good name away from them and they're like "Nah, we'll take that back."

The fact that anybody at all can even try to defend this is just unfortunate. This is a very real problem. But it's never going to change as long as people are just okay with it. If they noticed a big influx of domain names being transferred away, I imagine they'd have at least have to spend a SECOND thinking of whether or not it's worth pulling stunts like this, but when there are no consequences at all, it's just going to keep happening.

Instead of putting it in their ToS that they're allowed to steal back a name you've already paid for and have in your account, they could have put a system in place to avoid mis-pricing names in the first place, but why would they bother when there's zero accountability?

Meanwhile at Network Solutions HQ...

"Hey, we might price something wrong sometime, we need to make sure that doesn't happen..."

"No we don't."

"What do you mean? If we price something wrong, we could miss out on hundreds of thousands of dollars..."

"No, it's okay, we'll just take the name back."

"But wouldn't it be better to just put checks and balances in place to make sure everything is priced accurately, and we take some accountability instead of screwing over our buyers?"

"YOU'RE FIRED!!!"

I'd love to see another company take a stand here and offer free transfers from Network Solutions, or at least go on record that they'd handle this situation differently.

It must be nice to be in a position where you can screw up majority and face zero repercussions, if only it worked that way for the rest of us in this business, hey? LOL

 

[Jason.tv]

Just an update:

A vice president of Web.com gave me a call last night, he told me he would like to appologize for this matter personally (I do appreciate his attitute). And he mentioned that there was a technical issue in their system, this domain name should never been listed for sale nor can be transferred, there should have been a registrar lock. But they have to reverse this domain name to their control and he talked about compensation suggestions. I told him that I prefer to talk about this via email and he told me he would send me an email. But I didn't receive any email yet, maybe this is weekend.

And Netsol issued the refund today, I paid $2,600.98, they refunded $2596.99, and didn't refund the $3.99 netsol hosting plan which attached to this DomainNames.com purchase.

I'll seeking opinions from lawyers, and will update later if there's any news.

Again, thank you for all the kind helps you guys have given me!

I would love to meet you in person just to experience this demeanor of yours.

What are lawyers going to do? There is no getting the name even if you did win a law suit; moreover, what are you suing them for?

Again just because there was an error in the system and this goes with other errors that DOES happens in the domain industry; people like you get their panties in a bunch and want the upper hand on every error that occurs, get over it and move on.

 

[MapleDots]

I would love to meet you in person just to experience this demeanor of yours.

What are lawyers going to do? There is no getting the name even if you did win a law suit; moreover, what are you suing them for?

Again just because there was an error in the system and this goes with other errors that DOES happens in the domain industry; people like you get their panties in a bunch and want the upper hand on every error that occurs, get over it and move on.

Someone close told me you sell high valued domains in excess of $100k; this means you could have never have gotten to this point if you don't swindle your way in situations like this; meaning you screw other people over to get want you want.

Seriously dude.... you need to chillax a bit.

One can sell a 100k if its a direct hit or something. I make up a name the next guy wants it and depending on how badly he wants it you have a sale. No swindling or scamming involved.

I agree with you that mistakes happen and one can not always get their way but the statement above is a bit over the top.

 

[Kate]

Please forgive me for bringing back old memories...
https://www.namepros.com/threads/it-gets-worse-ireit-continued.453518/#post-2669164

Yes, it's off-topic too.

 

[MapleDots]

New Ventures Services employee: Hey boss, let's price a lot of domain names with these prices, then if we see people congratulating the buyers or if they turn out to be a large corporation that could have afforded 6 figures, we just use the TOS to take them back.

Boss: It's almost too perfect, I see a promotion in your future.

I'm not sure I like any aspect of this statement even if it was made in jest. Discussing such things will give unscrupulous businesses ideas of how to take advantage of the system even more.

 

[Arca]

I would love to meet you in person just to experience this demeanor of yours.

What are lawyers going to do? There is no getting the name even if you did win a law suit; moreover, what are you suing them for?

Again just because there was an error in the system and this goes with other errors that DOES happens in the domain industry; people like you get their panties in a bunch and want the upper hand on every error that occurs, get over it and move on.

Sounds familiar. Is this much different from how Network Solutions use every little error a registrant can make to snatch their domain asap for themselves aka New Venture Services Corp?

OP bought a domain asset they priced lower than they intended. His gain would therefore be at their expense, which you take issue with.

But large swaths of the NetSol business model is based precisely around profiting at the expense of someone else, namely their own customers. NetSol have a history of taking domains out of users accounts without authorization by the owner, there are even cases where they have taken non-expired domains for themselves from registrants, they frontrun domains and pocket the difference, they hijack domain traffic with their ZTOMY name servers, they use any opportunity to grab domains for New Venture Services Corp (and do the absolute least possible they can to help their users retain their domain ownership - their own interest is always put above that of their customers), lots of cases of unauthorized credit card charges for services not ordered/delivered, I could go on.

NetSol ensure that they always have the upper hand usually at the expense of their own users. OP is trying to defend his legitimate purchase that was listed, bought, paid for, and transferred to his ownership - The transaction completed. His actions seem more justified than the day to day business operation of NetSol.

Domains accidentally get listed for too low prices and sold all the time. The marketplaces don't care that you accidentally listed a domain for a too low price. They don't reverse completed transactions. Would NetSol (or Sedo or Afternic) have let you reverse a domain transaction after it had completed and you'd gotten paid and the domain was with the buyer, if you realized that you accidentally listed the domain for a too low price? They absolutely would not let you do that. So why should NetSol let themselves do what they would not let their users do in the same scenario?

 

[HotKey]

I'm not sure I like any aspect of this statement even if it was made in jest. Discussing such things will give unscrupulous businesses ideas of how to take advantage of the system even more.

If they are already an unscrupulous business, a scenario like Equity suggested would be TakeAdvantage101 mandatory reading for them.

 

[Steven McEvoy]

@owntype what was the final conclusion to all of this?

 

[owntype]

@owntype what was the final conclusion to all of this?

No further update yet.

Netsol issued me another $3.99 refund yesterday (the enclosed shared hosting package when I ordered DomainNames.com)

That VP of Web.com still haven't sent me email yet.

I have created the support ticket at the day when I posted this thread. No answer update from Netsol, and they closed my support ticket, I reopened it, then they closed it again.

 

[1Darko]

No further update yet.

Netsol issued me another $3.99 refund yesterday (the enclosed shared hosting package when I ordered DomainNames.com)

That VP of Web.com still haven't sent me email yet.

I have created the support ticket at the day when I posted this thread. No answer update from Netsol, and they closed my support ticket, I reopened it, then they closed it again.

What a shame!

 

[mr-x]

Okay. Just out of curiosity, and leaving aside any legal arguments, where does taking advantage of someone who made a mistake fall on your right/wrong scale of morals?

Last week, I bought a box of junk at a garage sale for $10. A few days later, the seller called me up and said that while she was collecting household items to put in the box, her $10,000 diamond ring must have fallen off her hand because she has been unable to find it. I just looked in the box and the ring is in there. She is demanding the ring back.

I'm not going to give her the ring back, because I have morals. I paid for the box, the ring is mine, and she's a slimy wretched immoral person trying to cheat me out of my purchase. She sold me the box fair and square, so everything in it is mine.

Again, without reference to any "legal" principle, perhaps you can explain the moral principles involved in that scenario.

If were talking morals, a more accurate analogy might be..

I buy a ring at a yard sale for for $50. When the owner realizes it was a diamond ring worth $10,000, she takes it out of my house but doesn't tell me and keeps my $50.

 

[Steven McEvoy]

These types of business should be reported and no longer in business

 

[rafaelo0]

@owntype i been busy but got a mail from domaning.com today when thats when i notice in the "domaning news" section a article about domainnames.com (at least this subject is getting some attention).

"A vice president of Web.com gave me a call last night, he told me he would like to appologize for this matter personally (I do appreciate his attitute). And he mentioned that there was a technical issue in their system, this domain name should never been listed for sale nor can be transferred, there should have been a registrar lock. But they have to reverse this domain name to their control and he talked about compensation suggestions. I told him that I prefer to talk about this via email and he told me he would send me an email. But I didn’t receive any email yet, maybe this is weekend."

Lol so the vice president of web.com gave you a call, thats at least something but IMHO they only did this because they know you have a case and they are in the wrong.

They talked about compensation suggestions of course they did when a lawsuit is maybe on the way and they probably are on the lossing side they can't run fast enought to talk about compensation suggestions but if they were in the winning side you would never heard about that "compensation suggestions" myth.

What do you have to do with their "technical issue in their system" and that "this domain name should never been listed for sale nor can be transferred, there should have been a registrar lock" this was their mistake not yours and they have plenty of money to fix those "technical issue in their system" so they should start to empty their pockets to fix those big problems but in my eyes you have all right to own that domain why should you pay for their issues?

I'm a bit sick of seeing and hearing about this big companies playing "dirty" and trying to screw the little guys all the time.

I completly agree with @Steven McEvoy

@owntype seek the best lawyer you can find and see what he has to say, if he says you have a solid case go for it, in the mean time don't accept any compensation suggestions before you talk to your lawyer.

Thats just my 2 cents of opinion.

I'm really tired of this attitudes from certain registrars.

I would get emotional if i was in your situation and even if i didn't had a solid case i would still see them in court, i know this depends on many factores and i could lose and be in worst situation but at least i tried.

 

[DomainCairn]

We need to put domains on a blockchain so no assholeism like this or Godaddy's monkey business that had cost me almost $1000 today can happen

peername.com check it out

 

[Haris]

@owntype

@BoothDomains got his domain back by getting his lawyers involved, even though the situation is different as DomainNames.com is owned by NetSol themselves, I think you too can get either the domain or thousands of dollars as a settlement. Keep pressing them.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/domainer-scammed-for-26k-on-a-stolen-domain.1068888/

 

[Steven McEvoy]

Any update? @owntype

 

[owntype]

Thank you for the suggestions! @rafaelo0
Thank you for the link, I was on a business travel, will check this thread tonight @Haris

Any update? @owntype

No any news yet, they just kept ignoring my inquiries and support tickets. I will update once I get any news later. Thank you for helping me spreading this on social media.

 

[Dave]

Sue them. Imagine if a multi billion dollar company had purchased domainnames.com, Network Solutions would be quaking in their boots at taking it back.

In the UK at least, any advertised price must be what that item is sold for and that is the law. Not sure if it is the same in the US.

 

[Arca]

No any news yet, they just kept ignoring my inquiries and support tickets.

They will probably just ignore you until you give up. They got their domain back and gave you a refund. They're done with this incident. They don't have a reputation to save so they don't care. You need much stronger ammo than measly support tickets if you want to get anywhere with this.