new gTLD M/V/P.one sold (I think GoDaddy and Escrow don't need money )

[abdou01]

Hello,
First of all, excuse me for my poor English and for this long story,
I bought m/v/p.one on June/2015, I put it in several marketplace and forgot it I even forgot that I have set a BIN price on GoDaddy ($5000)
Last monday (5th March), I received two emails from Escrow.com and two emails from Godaddy (Godaddy in Chinese) !!

I thought it was a scam and asked GoDaddy to translate the email (I don't trust Googletranslation )
So they told me that the name m/v/p.one (hosted on namesilo) was sold on the GoDaddy marketplace, and buyer selected Escrow to complete the sale.

In Escrow there were $1000 (GoDaddy) + $20 (International bank wire) fees so I should get $3980, I accepted Escrow ToS, but the buyer did not select payment method!
I contacted the support to see if this was not a fake transaction and contacted @Joe Styler here for help, both of them asked me to not transfer the domain if the buyer does not pay.

I needed to contact the buyer to understand why he did not selected the payment method but in Escrow I had one name (Anonymous) so I don't know who is the buyer,

I checked my GoDaddy sales area, and saw that it was possible to contact the buyer, so I contacted him and he replied (by email) that he has to verify his escrow account (Tier 2) before he select the payment method.

User email was @163.com and I received his email in my Spam folder, so I was 99% sure it was scamer from China who try to steale my domain.

He asked me to create another Escrow transaction so we can deal directly, I created this second Escrow transaction and selected "fees paid by buyer" (@Joe Styler I think you should disable "contact buyer" option )

Even with this second transaction the buyer did not select payment method, he told me that he can't verify his account because all his ID are in English and he has to translate it. (I told my self that this is not possible, Escrow should already have chinese clients, and I was 99,99% sure that the buyer is trying to steal my domain or even ask me for money in order to complete the sale (certificate) )

But I received an email when he tells me that Tier 2 verification is done, but he can't pay more than $5000 (because buyer pays escrow fees), and he can't use his credit card, he sent me this screenshot:

I didn't believe my eyes, So Escrow is refusing c.c money from Russia and China, but I think that Escrow.com follows US law rules, which is normal!

The buyer asked me if I have another payment method, I suggested paypal and he accepted ! but I was thinking how can I secure the transaction so he can't scam me (anyway I paied $9 for the domain + $18 for 2y renewals, so I will lose $27 and my time in total), :

But Surprise ... he sent me the money even before I prepare the paypal bill

And when I checked my paypal account:

Now the domain was transferred to GoDaddy but I am still seeing my whois infos instead of seller infos, I asked him to update this. @Joe Styler is this normal that I am still seeing my Whois informations while the domain belongs to a Chinese buyer?

Lessons learned (or to be learned ):
1) GoDaddy should send the sale notifications in the language of the Seller, (Why should I receive an email in Chinese? the Chinese is the buyer not me!)
2) GoDaddy does not need to hide buyer informations in Escrow while allow us to contact them in the Sold Items area ...
3) Escrow.com should review its policy (payment limitations, accepted payment methods, countries, verification process ...) if they want to gain more money I don't say that they should not respect US Law
4) Not all Chinese are liers or scammers
5) ".One" domains are Great gTLD domains so I am happy that I bought ++ 1 word or LLL .one domains between the launch date and June 2015. and I am very happy when I see that some of my sold domains are used by End Users (Optimum.one, Playboy.one (personal blog) ...) So could you (NP staff) add ".One" as a prefix for this post please?, I see several gTLD but not ".One" so I choosed "Various". thank you,

@Michael Can I report this sale on namepros? what proofs do you need? because I don't have Escrow transaction as you asked me before for "Optimum.one"

Thank you,

 

[themavrick]

Congrats!

So, it means this sale wouldn't make it to NameBio.com.

 

[Joe Styler]

So if I understand what you are saying you sold the domain on our marketplace and then started another transaction with the buyer outside our system so you wouldn't have to pay us or escrow the fees associated with the sale and you are now asking us to help you complete the transaction?

 

[abdou01]

@Joe Styler In the first line I said "Please excuse my poor English"
The buyer who asked me to use paypal because he can't use Escrow (Country limitation + Credit Card limitation), I have no problem if the transaction was completed with GoDaddy fees.
And I don't ask you to help me completing the sale, because I already sold the domain. I asked you yesterday not today !!
Sorry!

 

[abdou01]

And I was honest and said what was wrong with your process, You hide buyer identity in the escrow transaction, but you authorize seller to contact buyer in the completed sales area !!
I say this so you can review your process, if you want I can pay Godaddy the necessary fees, I have no problem !

 

[mad409]

Good sale, thanks for sharing.

 

[abdou01]

@themavrick Proofs sent to Michael who published the sale on Namebio, Thank you @Michael

 

[AIS01]

Congrats...

 

[h2ov]

And I was honest and said what was wrong with your process, You hide buyer identity in the escrow transaction, but you authorize seller to contact buyer in the completed sales area !!
I say this so you can review your process, if you want I can pay Godaddy the necessary fees, I have no problem !

Why ask him to ask you to pay the fees? You should have already done it yourself. Just contact their accounting department and say you want to pay it. Also, you should not have moved the transaction out of their system without talking to them first. You know you can always reach Joe with a few clicks.

 

[abdou01]

Why ask him to ask you to pay the fees? You should have already done it yourself. Just contact their accounting department and say you want to pay it. Also, you should not have moved the transaction out of their system without talking to them first. You know you can always reach Joe with a few clicks.

@h2ov And how do you know that I didn't contact GoDaddy in order to pay the fees? I used the chat yesterday and the support did not know how to handle my request because it was special, they told me that they will send me an email, we'll see...

And I already contacted Joe, and I didn't moved the transaction out of their system, the buyer who did because it was impossible for him to pay, Escrow does not accept Chinese Credit Card (did you see the screen shots ?)
@h2ov You are a new member and you have 3 posts! your 3 posts defend Joe, so I would like to know, are you his lawyer or Joe himself? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Joe Styler]

I do see the resemblance on the suit in the pictures but I hardly wear a tie and his avatar has one I barely have enough time to answer as myself anyway I don't think I could handle multiple accounts. I will have someone from the auctions team reach out about the commission they will know how to help you. Congratulations on your sale.

 

[Ategy]

@abdou01 .. You need to be very careful with certain types of PayPal transactions. Many of them are reversible for several months afterwards. If I were you I would contact PayPal immediately to confirm how long the transaction is cancellable by the buyer.

I know the 60 day transfer lock is automatic when registrant info changes, not 100% sure if it is also locked when transferred but without any WhoIs change.

Issues with GoDaddy automations and communications are unfortunately just the cost business with the world's biggest registrar. I do feel your pain on that side. That being said, unless they specifically refused to help you with the transaction, or there was a technical problem preventing the transaction, then I'm pretty sure nestled in the terms somewhere it likely says transactions initiated by them are entitled to commission (didn't actually check .. but I'm 99% sure that's not something they would have left out .. lol). Definitely get an understanding from them that the commission would be refunded if the PayPal transaction does not go through or gets cancelled. And since GD are taking your commission, then see if the domain can be locked IMMIDIATELY for the 60 days if it isn't already (although I unfortunately think even that won't be long enough to cover the PayPal cancellation grace period).

Congrats if the sale is genuine .. unfortunately given all the details I'm thinking there's a good chance this transaction is fraudulent. Good luck with PayPal .. hopefully together with a GoDaddy lock and PayPal limiting cancellation to under 60 days you will be completely covered.

 

[alcy]

@abdou01 .. You need to be very careful with certain types of PayPal transactions. Many of them are reversible for several months afterwards. If I were you I would contact PayPal immediately to confirm how long the transaction is cancellable by the buyer.

I know the 60 day transfer lock is automatic when registrant info changes, not 100% sure if it is also locked when transferred but without any WhoIs change.

Issues with GoDaddy automations and communications are unfortunately just the cost business with the world's biggest registrar. I do feel your pain on that side. That being said, unless they specifically refused to help you with the transaction, or there was a technical problem preventing the transaction, then I'm pretty sure nestled in the terms somewhere it likely says transactions initiated by them are entitled to commission (didn't actually check .. but I'm 99% sure that's not something they would have left out .. lol). Definitely get an understanding from them that the commission would be refunded if the PayPal transaction does not go through or gets cancelled. And since GD are taking your commission, then see if the domain can be locked IMMIDIATELY for the 60 days if it isn't already (although I unfortunately think even that won't be long enough to cover the PayPal cancellation grace period).

Congrats if the sale is genuine .. unfortunately given all the details I'm thinking there's a good chance this transaction is fraudulent. Good luck with PayPal .. hopefully together with a GoDaddy lock and PayPal limiting cancellation to under 60 days you will be completely covered.

in most cases, buyer has around 6 months for chargeback... through credit card companies.

which is precisely why paypal some 2-3 years back changed their open claim window from 60 days to 180 days (6 months).. so they can minimize #chargebacks and have people just file cclaims instead.. thus saving themselves around $100 fee for each chargeback. it's all about the money. not really you.

cheers

 

[abdou01]

Thank you @Ategy.com and @alcy I will check this with paypal !