- Impact
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So I wanted to try out the Chinese sales platform at 4.cn and submitted a few numerics I owned. It was one 5N and three 6Ns. I added my domains but 2 of them needed to be manually verified so I emailed Monica who was my assigned "broker".
She emailed me the next day and said all my domains had been verified. She continued to ask if I wanted her help in finding me a buyer. I anxiously agreed. I thought that since she was a professional broker she could get me the best price.
I don't want to get into specifics but the way the discussion unraveled it felt as if she was acting more as the buyer's broker vs my broker. Long story short we entered into a deal and I pushed the names the next morning after payment had been secured.
After names were pushed I checked the whois to make sure the buyer had accepted the merchandise. To my surprise the new owner appeared to be 4.cn themselves. I asked Monica about this and she told me it's because the new owner didn't have an enom account so they were holding the names for him. Really? The new buyer couldn't take 3 minutes to create a free enom account.
Anyway, that didn't really bother me too much. I mean yes it's messed up if my broker was buying names on behalf of herself and 4.cn. If true, that'd be a HUGE conflict of interest. But whatever, I was ok with the price. Not thrilled but it was good enough.
So then I asked when will the payment be sent. She said it will be processed soon. I asked when and she said once I enter in my bank details they will get started on it. That was good. However, a few hours later she says "the buyer is concerned about these domains being used illegally" Remember this concern had now been voiced AFTER the transaction was deemed complete.
Now that really really surprised me. Then she tells me we need to wait 2 days for the buyer to hear back from a security company to make sure the domains are not blacklisted. I was shocked. It's so simple to do a check on archive.org to see the history of any website.
All 4 of these numeric domains NEVER had a website on them. I purchased all of them on aftermarket auction sites 6 months ago. I have proof of this. I even created a video for her of me logging into my namejet account to prove this but it was no help.
So now I'm stuck sitting here at the mercy of 4.cn. It really seems fishy to me that they would favor the buyer in this situation. I really get the feeling THEY are the buyer. Which again would be fine if not for this fiasco of them questioning the safety of the domains.
I've asked her to simply push back my names since I don't want to deal with them anymore, however, she says she has to ask the buyer if that's ok. Hmmmm...if the buyer has doubts then simply push back my names and we're done with it.
That's where we stand now - no money, no domains. I'm hoping Monica replies to this post because I'm really getting nervous about this whole situation. I think there's so much dirty business that goes on at this marketplace that they are always paranoid with new sellers. In spite of them having my official ID on file they were still questioning my identity and the safety of these domains.
Moral of the story: If a Chinese investor insists on 4.CN or DN.com - do yourself a BIG favor and save yourselves from the huge headaches and insist on the industry leader, Escrow.com.
She emailed me the next day and said all my domains had been verified. She continued to ask if I wanted her help in finding me a buyer. I anxiously agreed. I thought that since she was a professional broker she could get me the best price.
I don't want to get into specifics but the way the discussion unraveled it felt as if she was acting more as the buyer's broker vs my broker. Long story short we entered into a deal and I pushed the names the next morning after payment had been secured.
After names were pushed I checked the whois to make sure the buyer had accepted the merchandise. To my surprise the new owner appeared to be 4.cn themselves. I asked Monica about this and she told me it's because the new owner didn't have an enom account so they were holding the names for him. Really? The new buyer couldn't take 3 minutes to create a free enom account.
Anyway, that didn't really bother me too much. I mean yes it's messed up if my broker was buying names on behalf of herself and 4.cn. If true, that'd be a HUGE conflict of interest. But whatever, I was ok with the price. Not thrilled but it was good enough.
So then I asked when will the payment be sent. She said it will be processed soon. I asked when and she said once I enter in my bank details they will get started on it. That was good. However, a few hours later she says "the buyer is concerned about these domains being used illegally" Remember this concern had now been voiced AFTER the transaction was deemed complete.
Now that really really surprised me. Then she tells me we need to wait 2 days for the buyer to hear back from a security company to make sure the domains are not blacklisted. I was shocked. It's so simple to do a check on archive.org to see the history of any website.
All 4 of these numeric domains NEVER had a website on them. I purchased all of them on aftermarket auction sites 6 months ago. I have proof of this. I even created a video for her of me logging into my namejet account to prove this but it was no help.
So now I'm stuck sitting here at the mercy of 4.cn. It really seems fishy to me that they would favor the buyer in this situation. I really get the feeling THEY are the buyer. Which again would be fine if not for this fiasco of them questioning the safety of the domains.
I've asked her to simply push back my names since I don't want to deal with them anymore, however, she says she has to ask the buyer if that's ok. Hmmmm...if the buyer has doubts then simply push back my names and we're done with it.
That's where we stand now - no money, no domains. I'm hoping Monica replies to this post because I'm really getting nervous about this whole situation. I think there's so much dirty business that goes on at this marketplace that they are always paranoid with new sellers. In spite of them having my official ID on file they were still questioning my identity and the safety of these domains.
Moral of the story: If a Chinese investor insists on 4.CN or DN.com - do yourself a BIG favor and save yourselves from the huge headaches and insist on the industry leader, Escrow.com.
