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

 

[J.D.]

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.

But are you boosted?
It's all about the boost.

You make a great point about shutting down on the weekends.
Yet, until they feel more financial competition; I doubt they will change policy.

 

[johnn]

The solution is simple. Just replace Afternic software with Dan software.

 

[wwwweb]

The solution is simple. Just replace Afternic software with Dan software.

They also have uniregistry, which had a working app 5 years ago.

 

[wwwweb]

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?

What do you think the superbowl angle will be, my guess is alt extensions, and gtld's, they know they have better margins, and they usually get them with one auto renew.

 

[J.D.]

What do you think the superbowl angle will be, my guess is alt extensions, and gtld's, they know they have better margins, and they usually get them with one auto renew.

GoDaddy is heavily promoting their Airo product.
In the year of AI-powered this or that, it'd make sense.

Last year, a single 30-second Super Bowl ad will cost $7M.

Expect GD renewals to increase to $30 per domain next year.

 

[internext]

somebody at gd needs to be fired.

They probably got a bonus tied to cost-cutting initiatives. This is what happens when priorities shift from customer satisfaction to shareholder profits. Keep feeding the pig.

 

[Zavian]

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

What do you mean? Anyone that buys GoDaddy Inc to fix the issues will not be retiring for a long time.

 

[Dane]

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 hear ya, but he has helped me out on multiple occasions when nobody else would.

I am aware that many things are out of his control and that he acts as an intermediary.

I do not envy his position, especially here on NamePros.

However, this still cannot deny the reality of the absurd situation GD is in.

No argument there.

 

[NicTraders]

What do you mean? Anyone that buys GoDaddy Inc to fix the issues will not be retiring for a long time.

I mean, the market cap of GD is something like US$25bil. If I even had one thousandth of that amount I would not be buying GoDaddy. I would be retiring. But yes, if you decided to buy GoDaddy in order to fix it, you'd have your work cut out for you for a very long time.

 

[BigTree]

Anyone knows where can I find, a basic thing like sales invoices in afternic account?

 

[Patryx]

They probably got a bonus tied to cost-cutting initiatives. This is what happens when priorities shift from customer satisfaction to shareholder profits. Keep feeding the pig.

On Amazon customers are considered and treated better than sellers (Oct. profit $15,3B).
Google algorithms point to users' needs and satisfaction. (profit $80B).

Then, why GD should shift from customer satisfaction to shareholder profits?

No satisfaction, no festa! Sooner or later too much fat will make you die.

 

[trelgor]

Lol.

 

[trelgor]

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....

Keep the somebody and fire the rest.

 

[yueding]

Keep the somebody and fire the rest.

I totally agree

 

[BigTree]

You

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.

I have the same problem, the domain was transferred many days ago and still no payment.

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

I really want to leave this garbage afternic too.
Whats the commision at Atom? What about landing pages?

 

[bmugford]

So, I want to review a similar service to show what the Afternic Custom Checkout Link should be.

I agreed to buy a domain and the seller recommended using @DaaZ, so I gave it a shot and was very impressed.

https://daaz.com/blog/daaz-secure-domainnames-with-daaz-domain-marketplace

There is a 5% transaction fee. Either party can cover it or it can be split.


11/21 12:42AM -

Buyer starts the transaction.


11/21 12:46AM -

I agreed to terms and submitted payment via credit card.


11/21 12:50AM -

DaaZ contacts me and asks for my transfer preference (push or AUTH code). I choose AUTH code.


11/21 1:04AM -

DaaZ provides the AUTH code and I start the transfer.


11/21 1:30 AM -

The transfer completed. The domain is in my account.

The entire process from start to finish took 48 minutes.

Afternic took around 10 days from start to finish with basically no communication.


Overall Thoughts -

• These service offerings are very similar, but the difference between Afternic and DaaZ was night and day. One took 10 days and one took under an hour.
  
  
• The communication between DaaZ and me (the buyer) was great.
  
  
• If small players in the field can figure it out, why can't the multi-billion dollar company?
  
  
• DaaZ easily earned their commission.
  
  
• DaaZ offers better support hours. Transactions don't die over the weekends like with Afternic.
  
  Great Customer Support: 7 Days a Week
  Our service hours are as follows:
  Monday to Saturday: 04:00 AM GMT to 5:00 PM GMT
  Sunday: Only domain transfer assistance.

This is the level of service you should be striving for @GoDaddy.

Brad

 

[Future Sensors]

I agreed to buy a domain and the seller recommended using @DaaZ, so I gave it a shot and was very impressed.

That's a great experience indeed. Thanks for sharing. Which imported lead service are you planning to try next?

 

[bmugford]

That's a great experience indeed. Thanks for sharing. Which imported lead service are you planning to try next?

I am not sure, but you can probably guess which one I am not planning to use again unless they make major improvements.

Brad

 

[Future Sensors]

I am not sure, but you can probably guess which one I am not planning to use again unless they make major improvements.

Based on your recent inactivity in the dedicated thread (yes I noticed, and it's unique) I think I know the answer to that.

 

[Dane]

Overall Thoughts -

• These service offerings are very similar, but the difference between Afternic and DaaZ was night and day. One took 10 days and one took under an hour.
  
  
• The communication between DaaZ and me (the buyer) was great.
  
  
• If small players in the field can figure it out, why can't the multi-billion dollar company?
  
  
• DaaZ easily earned their commission.
  
  
• DaaZ offers better support hours. Transactions don't die over the weekends like with Afternic.
  
  Great Customer Support: 7 Days a Week
  Our service hours are as follows:
  Monday to Saturday: 04:00 AM GMT to 5:00 PM GMT
  Sunday: Only domain transfer assistance.

This is the level of service you should be striving for @GoDaddy.

Brad

Wow. Just wow.