I know there is entire NameSilo Auctions thread here, but this shame deserves its own thread

[golan]

I know many of us faced this ugly thing when we just started using NameSilo auctions: you bid over yourself.

Because when you bid on the auction for the first time, how can you know it's your own bid there on top? No you can not, and the system suggests you to bid again:

You are in the auction rush, and the system shouts to you in big red - YOUR BID xxx and then big red button PLACE YOUR BID. You are loosing, time is running, how can you even notice fine prints You are currently the high bidder ? And you still have no idea you need to pay attention at those red asterisks **.

I mean, find 10 differences:

But not only n00bs, heck i myself lately fell into this trap a few times. All auctions end in the same second, many tabs are open, you switch between them... And eventually bid over yourself once or twice.

So, it's nothing new.

But yesterday i made this screenshot

A poor guy, i suspect a n00b at these auctions, has bid over himself all the way up from $50 to $675...

And i can't say if he (or she) realized it ever.

I call it some dirty UX, how would you call it guys?

@namesilo

 

[Darren C]

Interesting ...have done it myself once and know other pro domainers that have done the same ...I allways refresh the page now before placing a bid ...keep an eye on red asterisk and “you are currently high bidder” in the bid box ......as for the above bidder placing bids against themselves I don’t think many noobs would have available funds as you either have to prefunded or have a credit limit ....$650 allready goes beyond basic credit limits ....so really can’t say what happened there...maybe a few to many beer perhaps. And just a little more info the proxy bid is what you pay so if current bid is $20....and you bid $200.....you pay $200 regardless that the last bid was $20....don’t expect to pay $25 like a GD expired , Dynadot etc.

 

[namesilo]

I call it some dirty UX, how would you call it guys?

@namesilo

Sorry to hear that you feel this way but pls know that our goal is never to trick our users into outbidding themselves.

When someone bids on a marketplace domain, we display this notice highlighting the user's bids:

We are investigating now how to include additional security measures to prevent these kinds of situations but it is tricky. Any kind of extra prompts added may result in users getting delayed further in their bids and potentially missing auction deadlines. These types of cases are also quite rare and we try to work with users when they happen.

We are also planning to introduce proxy bidding into our expired auctions in the near future. Through this, we'll be able to further help avoid these types of mistakes by letting users bid once and get charged only the price required to win it.

 

[premkumar]

@namesilo ,if @golan screenshot is true, I think you guys have to make changes.

1. Can't you highlight the word "you're the highest bidder" in Green & in H1 font size and display in top, next to bids.
2. In bidder Column, can't you display "Your Bid" to differentiate bidder from others instead of Bidder 1

 

[Chris Hydrick]

But not only n00bs, heck i myself lately fell into this trap a few times. All auctions end in the same second, many tabs are open, you switch between them... And eventually bid over yourself once or twice.

So, it's nothing new.

But yesterday i made this screenshot

A poor guy, i suspect a n00b at these auctions, has bid over himself all the way up from $50 to $675...

And i can't say if he (or she) realized it ever.

I call it some dirty UX, how would you call it guys?

@namesilo

Thank you @golan for looking out for your fellow domainer.

I agree. dirty UX at best

Interesting ...have done it myself once and no other pro domainers that have done the same

I've done it as well.

I emailed [email protected] last October regarding this.

My email to namesilo October 2019

The new UI is deceiving. After I refresh page to see if I was still high bidder, a red error code would continiously appear saying, "You must bid at least $X" leaving me to assume, because of the red error, that I was outbid, and needed to continiously bid. However come to find, I was only bidding against myself, continiousy extending the timer every few minutes. Event though I bid myself up $8, I feel I was made a fool. Yes, now I can see the user error, but I would support an argument whether intentional or not, that the new UX allows for deceptive practices meant for the customer to spend more than they need to. At best an error that needs to be addressed, at worst, a bad business practice. Auction: https://www.namesilo.com/Auctions?auction=ZmVmBGZ3ZmtmBGZlZmH=335r18n48p5o757rsrqro6888968q782

<<<>>>

Sorry to hear that you feel this way but pls know that our goal is never to trick our users into outbidding themselves.

I'm sorry that you feel providing a subpar product with deceptive features is acceptable. But please know my feedback is to look out for others, and stop the blatant and previously reported widely experienced dirty tricks.

Do you see how patronizing responses to feedback might not be helpful? Perhaps, accepting responsibility, and being accountable might be better suited?

It seems quite obvious that @golan reported a user likely being deceived into outbidding himself by hundreds of dollars. Options:

1. Patch the issue
2. Refund Effected Customers
3. Patronize the feedback

Why choose option 3?

To be honest, I came this thread to defend @namesilo after seeing @golan shame namesilo title Then, after seeing the initial pre-edited response from @namesilo, I became heated. Last night I had transferred over 100 domains to namesilo.com. I could have saved over $100 with a competing registrar coupon code, but I wanted to stand with Namesilo for their efforts with BreonnaTaylor.com. <<..>>

I apologize to @golan for bringing any unnecessary heat to this thread. I know we disagree on a lot of issues, but that's not to say I don't respect @golan for always sticking up for his fellow domianer. Case and point, he even stands up for namesilo reputation on nP, even when @namesilo is too disengaged to respond. (even though @namesilo was aware of the thread)

And you might want to edit your thread title, because the only visible scam here are your words about NameSilo.

Lastly, @Kristaps @ NameSilo
If you are wondering how namesilo can win nP best registrar one year, and then nosedive reputation wise after the acquisition, look no further. This thread, and the response, is a prime example (imo) of the downfall to the registrar that was so promising. <I'm sorry I feel this way>

 

[Chris Hydrick]

To put things in more visual terms of how namesilo CLEARLY deceives its bidders to outbidding themselves.

After I refresh page to see if I was still high bidder, a red error code would continiously appear saying, "You must bid at least $X" leaving me to assume, because of the red error, that I was outbid, and needed to continiously bid. However come to find, I was only bidding against myself, continiousy extending the timer every few minutes.

https://www.namesilo.com/Auctions?auction=ZmVmBGZ3ZmtmBGZlZmH=335r18n48p5o757rsrqro6888968q782

After bidding on a domain, I see.

<<<>>>

Due to a known GoDaddy glitch, some domainers have been taught to refresh auction screens.

Upon refresh, to see if I'm still winning, I'm met with a ⚠ You must bid at least $

Also, @Kristaps @ NameSilo how long has You are currently the high bidder been displayed for? If a recent addition, can I ask why the team felt it necessary to add? Yet keep the reportedly deceptive ⚠ You must bid at least $ prominently displayed?

 

[Recons.Com]

@namesilo

This is beyond dirty. Shouldn't even be technically possible to bid against yourself as consensus practice at ANY auction place for any product.

This had to be given special thought how to walk the razor blade to come across as still legal while duping people and then hypocritically come here and write you are not sure how to fix it without adding more problems.

 

[branding]

Shouldn't even be technically possible to bid against yourself as consensus practice at ANY auction place for any product.

I agree with everything else discussed. I don't think it's an intentionally confusing UI but yeah. Definitely time for improvement.

I highlighted this specific quote from you as I actually like this bug/feature since they don't offer proxy bids. I sometimes intentionally outbid myself.

 

[namesilo]

Do you see how patronizing responses to feedback might not be helpful? Perhaps, accepting responsibility, and being accountable might be better suited?

It was certainly not our intent to patronize or come across as condescending in any way - sorry about that. We are always appreciative of users providing feedback about how we can do better. To be perfectly candid, we didn't realize this was such a common problem as we have only seen a handful cases like this over the past couple of years. However, from the feedback on this thread, it appears to be a more common issue than we realized and we will work on a solution.

Due to a known GoDaddy glitch, some domainers have been taught to refresh auction screens.
Upon refresh, to see if I'm still winning, I'm met with a ⚠ You must bid at least $

Hmm it appears that when you're refreshing the page, it's trying to re-submit the bid again for that auction. We have sent over this issue to our tech team to investigate further and debug.

This is beyond dirty. Shouldn't even be technically possible to bid against yourself as consensus practice at ANY auction place for any product.

With our current "max bid" system, we have heard of cases where bidders want to sometimes bid again (even if the highest bidder) so they can bid the max and prevent others from outbidding them. With our upcoming "proxy bidding" system, this will likely become less relevant so we will re-evaluate.

 

[karmaco]

They just need a proxy bid system and this won’t happen. Either way they need to fix it. Their auctions are not worth the hassle in my experience. On a side note, they lock a transfer day 1 expiration

 

[Recons.Com]

It was certainly not our intent to patronize or come across as condescending in any way - sorry about that. We are always appreciative of users providing feedback about how we can do better. To be perfectly candid, we didn't realize this was such a common problem as we have only seen a handful cases like this over the past couple of years. However, from the feedback on this thread, it appears to be a more common issue than we realized and we will work on a solution.



Hmm it appears that when you're refreshing the page, it's trying to re-submit the bid again for that auction. We have sent over this issue to our tech team to investigate further and debug.



With our current "max bid" system, we have heard of cases where bidders want to sometimes bid again (even if the highest bidder) so they can bid the max and prevent others from outbidding them. With our upcoming "proxy bidding" system, this will likely become less relevant so we will re-evaluate.

This is BS! Bidding again, especially when you tell them they MUST to win, shouldn't reset the time or make them pay more. Their total amount at current bid should be minimum increment above the next bidder. I assume you never been to an online auction, never bought anything on Ebay? How can you even start such a service without most crucial and basic feature as proxy bid???