discuss Is Afternic Support Getting Overwhelmed?0)

[gericsb]

Lately I have been doing some domain buying/hand regging.

In a few cases, lets say 5/25 domains when I went to list on Afternic it said domain already listed.

Each time this happens, I send customer support an inquiry via the form on their website that I am the new owner, please remove current listing so I may add the domain to my portfolio.

In about 5-6 days I might receive a response.

I know Afternic has been growing and buying other businesses and am very appreciative to list my names there because of their reach and exposure.

But I am wondering if their growth has caused customer support to be overwhelmed since it seems like a long time for them to respond.

Anything else I can do to get my domains listed more quickly than bug customer support?

Does anyone else experiemce this?

Just wondering...

 

[Mister Funsky]

In about 5-6 days I might receive a response.

That is a pretty good time...I've had some things pending for 'repair' for over a month.

I'm so disgusted with the lack of response (if they wont respond to me, how are they doing with inquiries?) I've redirected over 1000 domains away from their landers.

 

[gericsb]

You know, I try to be sympathetic and think if their customer support is being swamped...

But they could do two things:
1. Automate the domain ownership process
2. Hire more customer support

In the meantime, when buying any future domains from NPers, I will probably request that the seller remove the current Afternic listing first.

I wonder if some sellers would be willing to do this? I certainly would.

What do some others think?

 

[Windoms]

Also takes 5-6 days to get a reply over here.
These days when you add domains to your uni portfolio, it automatically adds them to afternic and will say already listed in afternic if you try to add them. So theres that if you dont want to wait.

Also Ive never tried but I suspect everything will be instant if you call. Dont know if they treat under review and already listed issues by phone, they should.

 

[wwwweb]

I would think with all the Uni names coming into their integration, and probably working the internal namefind names, they are probably pretty busy. Their tech is a bit behind the times which can't help. The name conflict issue is huge, as people are losing customers who are buying auctions that are not owned by the right party, and then simply moving on. Serious sweep is needed to clean up this site, for themselves they can make a lot more profit thru this channel if it was working at capacity.

 

[dido90]

The same happened to me exactly

 

[griff]

emailed them last wednesday to remove some old listings, still no reply. shouldn't have to call to get such a basic thing done

 

[gericsb]

My latest query to customer support is about 7-8 days now.....

Perhaps calling is the way to get things done faster?

 

[dido90]

My latest query to customer support is about 7-8 days now.....

Perhaps calling is the way to get things done faster?

You can send them more than one time, I remember they replied to me after few days after my second query

 

[gericsb]

You can send them more than one time, I remember they replied to me after few days after my second query

Yes, I try not to bug too much.

I will do this next week if nothing happens.

Thank you

 

[gericsb]

Just wanted to provide an update.

After rougly 10 days Afternic support has just responded!

Not only have they taken care of requests to remove old listings that I sent awhile ago, they have also taken care of more recent requests too

It was as if when someone finally got to my account, they took care of ALL my outstanding requests.

I guess the key is to just be patient.

Thank you, Afternic!!!!

 

[Future Sensors]

Just wanted to provide an update.

After rougly 10 days Afternic support has just responded!

Not only have they taken care of requests to remove old listings that I sent awhile ago, they have also taken care of more recent requests too

It was as if when someone finally got to my account, they took care of ALL my outstanding requests.

I guess the key is to just be patient.

Thank you, Afternic!!!!

Interesting. At the same moment I also got mail from Afternic, with a bunch of deleted duplicates I asked them to remove during the last 10 days (each request filed separately on different days).

It seems Afternic is 'efficiently' bundling these user requests, but the waiting time is not convenient at this time.

 

[gericsb]

Yes, FutureSensors!

Based on your input, I agree that a Anic is probably bundling these types of requests.

While I would rather not have to wait as long, it doesn't affect me too much since I am doing this as mainly a hobby for now.

If this is your business and you hold a large portfolio of names and require the cash flow, I can certainly understand that waiting 10 days is certainly not convenient.

I hope they were able to take care of all your requests!

 

[freety85]

My oldest query is 13 days old now with 5 days the follow up, I guess they had less stuff working during the festive period. The one thing however I don't understand I receive emails when the name is expired and it is automatically excluded from the premium network.

it would be awesome delisting from the platform automatically the expired domains at least, I guess the ownership change is pretty difficult to verify when whois masked etc.

 

[Sourav Patel]

emailed them last wednesday to remove some old listings, still no reply. shouldn't have to call to get such a basic thing done

I also tried to list my domain, it said already listed. Contacted them through a website form, email and even Namesilo emailed them on my behalf but Afternic had not responded for 10 days neither removed the listing. I think these problems are arising just because there is no Ownership verification Process in Afternic and anyone can add any domain name even he does not own the domain.

I was wondering, as the domain is now owned by me, what if someone buys the domain from the seller listing. How does the seller provide the domain name? Does Afternic have to contact me or they just refund the buyer?

 

[gericsb]

I also tried to list my domain, it said already listed. Contacted them through a website form, email and even Namesilo emailed them on my behalf but Afternic had not responded for 10 days neither removed the listing. I think these problems are arising just because there is no Ownership verification Process in Afternic and anyone can add any domain name even he does not own the domain.

I was wondering, as the domain is now owned by me, what if someone buys the domain from the seller listing. How does the seller provide the domain name? Does Afternic have to contact me or they just refund the buyer?

I never thought about that!!

Would would happen if the domain sold in that timeframe?

 

[johnn]

Everyone forget one important thing. The support people get pay by the hour so if they response too quick then they will lose the job.

 

[tonyk2000]

In December, due to known issues with the speed of Afternic responses, I decided to call them. Normally I'd prefer to email, too lazy to call... Also, English is not my native or daily language, so I need to concentrate myself to switch To my surprise, somebody answered (and it was Saturday night in U.S.!), he actually understood what I needed and why, and, even though he did not fix the things in real time, he generated a ticket or something to another department, which was taken care of on Monday (~48 hours total). I never got a response to the original email sent to service@ though .

So, if an issue is urgent or at least important - then just call them...

 

[tomcarl]

Same here. This month I had to wait a couple of weeks to get domains removed from system where usually it be 1-3 days, but then they responded same-day a few days ago for another request.

They need to add automated verification via nameservers or TXT file for duplicate listings like everyone else has, would save them a lot of manhours which can be better spent elsewhere.

 

[freety85]

Now I have a simple removal query since 7th of January open, seems like the backlog cannot be reduced.

The definitely have to automate this if they are not willing to hire more staff.

 

[Chase M.]

Afternic is bad- everything is so broken (including support). I'm really hoping GoDaddy burns it to the ground.