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

 

[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.

 

[BrandingGo]

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

 

[Madjid]

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....

 

[Dane]

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....

It still -- and will always -- boggle my mind as to why they shut down Dan and kept Afternic open with the promise of someday making Afternic just as good as Dan was.

 

[Patryx]

I sign up Afternic one month ago, but now I cannot sign in.
I have a domain on Godaddy I want to sell on Afternic, but if I can't sign in, what can I do?
Yesterday I wrote to Afternic service, I'm still waiting an answer.

I think to delete Afternic from my horizon.

 

[forge]

I have a domain on Godaddy I want to sell on Afternic, but if I can't sign in, what can I do?

You should be able to log in (AF) using your Godaddy credentials.

 

[forge]

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

Have you done this before?

 

[Zavian]

We need a bunch of domainers to buy out GoDaddy Inc and fix these issues.

 

[wwwweb]

how hard is it from a technical standpoint, to link the dan checkout, to a godaddy type checkout with more payment options?

 

[kor]

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.

Aftermarket platforms only have one job to do; to perform the domain name and money transfer safely and quickly. However, you are incapable of even doing such a simple task.

If you have a system that does not work and causes problems for all parties, then do not put it into operation.

 

[yueding]

It still -- and will always -- boggle my mind as to why they shut down Dan and kept Afternic open with the promise of someday making Afternic just as good as Dan was.

It sounds like a joke

 

[Dane]

It sounds like a joke

If only it was...

 

[Garet]

Only thing Afternic has going for it is REACH.

Only thing Afternic has going for it is REACH.

This absolutely resonated with me. I could not agree more.

GoDaddy is not a particularly good registrar. Afternic is now is just the name of GoDaddy's sales platform -- it's not a site and not a marketplace -- and Dan was far better for sellers in terms of reliability, usability, and features. Actively using push to facilitate sales and faster closes? I can't imagine GoDaddy ever moving to that model.

Why do I use GoDaddy and Afternic? Reach. Period. Full stop. If GoDaddy didn't have the reach and market share, these threads would be silent because we wouldn't tolerate the bugs, heavy-handed policies, and fixes scheduled for Q1 of 2027 (subject to change).

Boost seemed to launch just as the platform got less reliable and buggier. That might just be my perception but what tone deaf timing.

Super Bowl advertising? Yes. That's the type of things that will keep them in the game. As sellers, we would rather see fixes but big $$$ ad spend will support the reach and brand awareness. Businesses will be aware of GoDaddy and search there. We, as sellers, want our names in that search path.

I agree with the consensus that it would have been better if Dan had simply been rebranded as Afternic/GoDaddy rather than be slaughtered. I have to wonder though if GoDaddy would not have messed that up technically too. One would think that Dan could have scaled under competent technical management. Does GoDaddy have that?

 

[bmugford]

For the first time ever, I actually filled out the customer survey.

The first section, I gave a generous 1.
The second section, a well earned 0.

Under "What is the primary reason for the answer you just gave?", I provided a link to this thread.

My ratings are based on the general Afternic support during this transaction.

With that said, James and my @GoDaddy account rep were helpful in moving the transaction along. I have no idea how long it would have taken without their intervention.

 

[NicTraders]

We need a bunch of domainers to buy out GoDaddy Inc and fix these issues.

I suspect we would all be retired if we had that sort of money.

 

[Dane]

For the first time ever, I actually filled out the customer survey.

When I received my survey via email I couldn't wait to fill it out. But when I clicked on the link it took me to a page that said "It looks like you've already filled out this survey." Are you kidding me? I had to laugh.

With that said, James and my @GoDaddy account rep were helpful in moving the transaction along.

I gotta say, James is the only positive aspect of GoDaddy. They need to clone him (a few dozen times).

 

[biggie]

Super Bowl advertising? Yes.

Hi

if the clowns at gd have the cash to buy supa bol ads, then surely, they could pay somebody to fix this bull

it's about priorities and apparently, fixing their bugs is not at the top of the list.

imo...

 

[kor]

James is the only positive aspect of GoDaddy

Frankly, what I observed was just softening the atmosphere with fancy words like "we'd like to, we'll be happy, we'll consider" and acting as a buffer between the evil company in question and domain name investors.

I am aware that many things are out of his control and that he acts as an intermediary. However, this still cannot deny the reality of the absurd situation GD is in.