information My frustrating first experience with Afternic Custom Checkout Link.

[bmugford]

This thread is going to detail my first experience with Afternic Custom Checkout Link.

This involves a relatively small $1,800 sale.


11/4 (morning) -

After agreeing to terms with the buyer, I created a Custom Checkout Link via my Afternic account.

I had to confirm with @GoDaddy that this was still a valid method, as the link created was a Dan.com link not Afternic.


11/5 (morning) -

The buyer used the link to pay for the domain.

(I would not know about this for a few days.)


11/8 (morning) -

The buyer reached out to me and asks for a status update. They provide proof of payment from 11/5.

Up until this point, I had no idea that the buyer had paid.

There were no updates provided to me or the seller by GoDaddy/Afternic. There were no status updates on the domain in my Afternic account.

At this point I reached out to my contacts at GoDaddy, including James and my GoDaddy account rep.

James escalated the issue, and finally later that day the domain appeared as "SOLD" in my Afternic account.

Like with normal sales, I was instructed to unlock the domain and provide the AUTH code.

I did that. Then nothing happened.

The domain was not transferred. The domain didn't go into pending transfer.

I called my GoDaddy account rep and was told they were looking into it. Towards the end of the day, I was updated that nothing is likely to happen over the weekend.

So, I contacted the buyer myself and apologized for GoDaddy's slowness and lack of updates.

As expected, nothing happened over the weekend.


11/11 -

I followed up with GoDaddy about what was going on. There were no updates.


11/12 -

Finally, I was contacted by Afternic TA and asked to manually start a push to their account.

I did that, and the push was accepted by Afternic TA towards the end of the day.

I contacted the buyer and let them know.

At this point, I asked the buyer if GoDaddy had any communication with them via the entire process.

Their response -

"No - We haven't received any correspondence from GoDaddy."

So, in over a week after submitting payment GoDaddy had no communication with the buyer.

Meanwhile, I had many contacts with the buyer reassuring them the transaction is in process and apologizing on behalf of GoDaddy.

If I was the buyer in this situation, I probably would have felt like I was getting scammed after a week with no communication.


11/13 -

Afternic confirmed they sent the funds. I expect them to arrive tomorrow.

From start the finish this transaction will have taken almost 10 days.



Overall Thoughts -

• It's odd that Dan.com was shut down, but they are still using a Dan.com link for an Afternic transaction. GoDaddy confirmed that they will be replacing the Dan.com links with Afternic.com in the near future.
  
  
• The lack of communication with the buyer and seller is unacceptable. I had to take the role of communicator, because GoDaddy didn't do it. I found myself apologizing on behalf of GoDaddy several times.
  
  
• This type of transaction could have been completed in hours via Dan.com. Meanwhile, Afternic seems to add inefficiency to the process.
  
  
• The Custom Checkout Link has been a disappointing process that reflects poorly on me as a seller. It looks like I am dragging my feet, when it is @GoDaddy.
  
  
• The support tries to be helpful, but I think GoDaddy, Afternic, and Dan.com (the checkout link) seem to have poor communication with each other regarding the transaction status.
  
  
• I think it's reasonable to say that GoDaddy didn't really do much to earn a commission on this sale, not even 5%.
  
  
• I would have just closed some other way if I knew it was going to be such a pain.
  
  
• GoDaddy is a multi-billion dollar company. It's well within their resources to actually have employees working on weekends. People are online all days and times now from around the world. The entire world doesn't shut down just because it is a weekend.
  

I hope @GoDaddy makes the required changes to improve this process.

Brad

 

[johnn]

Nothing is new. They have too many problems and it looks like they don't know how to fix it.
I hate to call it stupidity but by fixing it they will increase the revenues.
I am not sure why is so hard for them to understand????

 

[Dane]

Awful. Just awful.

I miss Dan.com...

 

[Acroplex]

But but ...Super Bowl!

 

[Future Sensors]

But but ...Super Bowl!

Also during the weekend.

 

[biggie]

Afternic Custom Checkout Link.

Hi

per your experience...
maybe it's intentional, to discourage sellers from using it.

if it did everything like dan and we started manipulating it to our advantage, surely rate would go up or they'll remove it.

imo...

 

[Dane]

...to discourage sellers from using it.

It worked.

 

[Gabriel360]

Afternic is a shitty platform that exists solely because of the monopolistic grip of GoDaddy on the domain name market.

Only thing Afternic has going for it is REACH. Other aspects of Afternic suck.

You should NEVER use Afternic to facilitate a transaction you've already negotiated outside the platform.

Atom would have been a better choice. Commission is just 4.5% for imported leads.

Afternic is a necessary evil for sellers because of its reach. Remove the necessity and it's just evil. And should not be used.

Afternic turned a simple escrow process into rocket science.

Very inefficient!

 

[forge]

0:45 will make your skin crawl or send you flying in hysterics.

 

[bmugford]

Hi

per your experience...
maybe it's intentional, to discourage sellers from using it.

It worked.

You should NEVER use Afternic to facilitate a transaction you've already negotiated outside the platform.

Atom would have been a better choice. Commission is just 4.5% for imported leads.

I was comparing it to something like Escrow.com.

I figured it would just be easier for the buyer to close via Afternic/GoDaddy.

On a transaction of this size, the difference in fees between Escrow, Afternic, Atom, etc. is pretty minimal.

I also wanted to just test the service out in general.

Brad

 

[Dane]

I figured it would just be easier for the buyer to close via Afternic/GoDaddy.

I would have thought the same. So much for that theory...

 

[Kyle Tully]

Disappointing but can’t say unexpected result with everything that has been going on with Afternic lately

 

[Lox]

From start the finish this transaction will have taken almost 10 days.

A self-absorbed company & ruthless by using (else's) Live domains-for-sale for testing purposes.

 

[Vimal Kumar]

I would really like to see Afternic's response to this experience. It is scary as a seller. If I do not see any response, I would use other platforms for own leads.

 

[Domain Home]

I’m right there with you, like literally the same! Did all the same stuff, Afternic acted the same way. Domain transfer went through yesterday, but still no payment! Usually close private leads in a day on DAN.

 

[names2sell]

I'm loving AtomPay custom links. 4.5% commission and there is 24/7 chat support. Transactions are usually completed in less than an hour and money is ready to withdraw. Occasionally for international buyers they will verify payment and it takes a couple hours more but there is always great communication.

 

[kesen]

Atom is better.
We moved all domains to Atom now.
Afternic with too many unexpacted problems.

 

[NicTraders]

This thread is going to detail my first experience with Afternic Custom Checkout Link.

This involves a relatively small $1,800 sale.


11/4 (morning) -

After agreeing to terms with the buyer, I created a Custom Checkout Link via my Afternic account.

I had to confirm with @GoDaddy that this was still a valid method, as the link created was a Dan.com link not Afternic.


11/5 (morning) -

The buyer used the link to pay for the domain.

(I would not know about this for a few days.)


11/8 (morning) -

The buyer reached out to me and asks for a status update. They provide proof of payment from 11/5.

Up until this point, I had no idea that the buyer had paid.

There were no updates provided to me or the seller by GoDaddy/Afternic. There were no status updates on the domain in my Afternic account.

At this point I reached out to my contacts at GoDaddy, including James and my GoDaddy account rep.

James escalated the issue, and finally later that day the domain appeared as "SOLD" in my Afternic account.

Like with normal sales, I was instructed to unlock the domain and provide the AUTH code.

I did that. Then nothing happened.

The domain was not transferred. The domain didn't go into pending transfer.

I called my GoDaddy account rep and was told they were looking into it. Towards the end of the day, I was updated that nothing is likely to happen over the weekend.

So, I contacted the buyer myself and apologized for GoDaddy's slowness and lack of updates.

As expected, nothing happened over the weekend.


11/11 -

I followed up with GoDaddy about what was going on. There were no updates.


11/12 -

Finally, I was contacted by Afternic TA and asked to manually start a push to their account.

I did that, and the push was accepted by Afternic TA towards the end of the day.

I contacted the buyer and let them know.

At this point, I asked the buyer if GoDaddy had any communication with them via the entire process.

Their response -

"No - We haven't received any correspondence from GoDaddy."

So, in over a week after submitting payment GoDaddy had no communication with the buyer.

Meanwhile, I had many contacts with the buyer reassuring them the transaction is in process and apologizing on behalf of GoDaddy.

If I was the buyer in this situation, I probably would have felt like I was getting scammed after a week with no communication.


11/13 -

Afternic confirmed they sent the funds. I expect them to arrive tomorrow.

From start the finish this transaction will have taken almost 10 days.



Overall Thoughts -

• It's odd that Dan.com was shut down, but they are still using a Dan.com link for an Afternic transaction. GoDaddy confirmed that they will be replacing the Dan.com links with Afternic.com in the near future.
  
  
• The lack of communication with the buyer and seller is unacceptable. I had to take the role of communicator, because GoDaddy didn't do it. I found myself apologizing on behalf of GoDaddy several times.
  
  
• This type of transaction could have been completed in hours via Dan.com. Meanwhile, Afternic seems to add inefficiency to the process.
  
  
• The Custom Checkout Link has been a disappointing process that reflects poorly on me as a seller. It looks like I am dragging my feet, when it is @GoDaddy.
  
  
• The support tries to be helpful, but I think GoDaddy, Afternic, and Dan.com (the checkout link) seem to have poor communication with each other regarding the transaction status.
  
  
• I think it's reasonable to say that GoDaddy didn't really do much to earn a commission on this sale, not even 5%.
  
  
• I would have just closed some other way if I knew it was going to be such a pain.
  
  
• GoDaddy is a multi-billion dollar company. It's well within their resources to actually have employees working on weekends. People are online all days and times now from around the world. The entire world doesn't shut down just because it is a weekend.

I hope @GoDaddy makes the required changes to improve this process.

Brad

I sit here shaking my head as I read that. But then I remember it is GD and wonder why I am at all surprised. The fact is, they are incredibly consistent as a business. Problem is, they're consistent in all the wrong ways - poor service, lack of communication, glitches and issues galore ... pretty much a system that doesn't work and management that doesn't care.

 

[Future Sensors]

Congrats on your sale

 

[yueding]

$1800 is really a big deal

 

[GoDaddy]

Hi Brad,
Thank you for sharing your experience. We're sorry you had the delay that you did. It’s clear that the process didn't meet the standards we aim for.

The delay you encountered stemmed from the current dual-system setup, where the Custom Checkout Link runs through the Dan.com system, connecting to Afternic. In your case, unfortunately, an error arose during the connection, which resulted in a delay in the transaction being able to process. While this was cleared, it meant the transaction took longer than expected.

We're in the process of shifting the Custom Checkout Link over to GoDaddy.com links. This change is designed to create a seamless, single-system approach with improved communication and efficiency for all parties. While we expect this to happen within the next month, this timeline is subject to change.

We're coupling that with planned improvements to our TA system that will bring more automation to these transactions, again improving efficiency.

Again, we're sorry about your experience, and we take on board the feedback you've raised. We hope the new system will bring the changes you're anticipating, and we'd love to see you use Custom Checkout Link once we've switched over.

 

[BYYP]

I tried several times (between 2019-2022) to purchase domains through afternic checkout no luck. Their platform is broken.

 

[Domain Home]

Hi Brad,
Thank you for sharing your experience. We're sorry you had the delay that you did. It’s clear that the process didn't meet the standards we aim for.

The delay you encountered stemmed from the current dual-system setup, where the Custom Checkout Link runs through the Dan.com system, connecting to Afternic. In your case, unfortunately, an error arose during the connection, which resulted in a delay in the transaction being able to process. While this was cleared, it meant the transaction took longer than expected.

We're in the process of shifting the Custom Checkout Link over to GoDaddy.com links. This change is designed to create a seamless, single-system approach with improved communication and efficiency for all parties. While we expect this to happen within the next month, this timeline is subject to change.

We're coupling that with planned improvements to our TA system that will bring more automation to these transactions, again improving efficiency.

Again, we're sorry about your experience, and we take on board the feedback you've raised. We hope the new system will bring the changes you're anticipating, and we'd love to see you use Custom Checkout Link once we've switched over.

What about my case? The buyer has been using the domain for three days now, and I’m still waiting for my payment!
I've sent you the details of the domain via DM.

 

[bmugford]

Hi Brad,
Thank you for sharing your experience. We're sorry you had the delay that you did. It’s clear that the process didn't meet the standards we aim for.

Thanks for the response.

The delay you encountered stemmed from the current dual-system setup, where the Custom Checkout Link runs through the Dan.com system, connecting to Afternic. In your case, unfortunately, an error arose during the connection, which resulted in a delay in the transaction being able to process. While this was cleared, it meant the transaction took longer than expected.

The overall slowness was a major part of the problem.

The slowness + lack of communication made it much worse.

I had no idea what was going on. The buyer had no idea what was going on.

When I talked to people at GoDaddy, it took awhile for them to figure out what was going on.

Also, the domain moved to "SOLD" on Afternic on Friday 11/8 (morning). The transfer process did not work, and it was not fixed until Tuesday.

My @GoDaddy account rep contacted someone at Afternic on Friday. No update.

Saturday. No update.
Sunday. No update.
Monday. I followed up. No update.

On Tuesday 11/12 I finally received push information when Afternic TA emailed me.

That was the delay after the transaction was already passed over to Afternic.

We're coupling that with planned improvements to our TA system that will bring more automation to these transactions, again improving efficiency.

I am concerned that "automation" might just make the communication even worse.

Again, we're sorry about your experience, and we take on board the feedback you've raised. We hope the new system will bring the changes you're anticipating, and we'd love to see you use Custom Checkout Link once we've switched over.

I think what @GoDaddy really needs to take away from this is sure the process needs to be streamlined, but the current communication level is not acceptable.

Also, transactions should not just die over weekends.

I have no idea if the transaction would have been completed at this point if I didn't contact people to try to move it forward.

Brad

 

[biggie]

While we expect this to happen within the next month, this timeline is subject to change.

Hi

it shouldn't take that long to fix it.
you already have the code/script, all you have to do is move it over to afternic.

somebody at gd needs to be fired.

imo....