warning Namecheap.com's Marketplace Questionable Policy

[silentg]

I was part of a domain auction and ended up losing the auction to another bidder. That winning bidder tried to sell the domain before paying for it and didn't pay for the auction at the end since they couldn't find any offer within 2 day time period.

I was offered the domain for purchase but the problem was that the winning bidder had 17 bids in total and they only voided the winning bid. They wanted me to pay $2915 without removing the other bids. I went back and forth with their customer service team and they wouldn't see the issue. Worst of all their customer service team wasnt even reading the support ticket properly before sending the reply.

See the screenshot: Winning bidders bids are highlighted:

It took a twitter post and couple of days for them to notice the issue:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1505495549293871104

when they asked me to pay for it, they said there wouldn't be any penalty:

and then when they cancelled the auction the next day, they sent me the opposite e-mail:

This is their policy not to cancel bids.

This post is to warn others when you're offered to buy a domain that winning bidder didn't pay. Check the bidding history before paying.

 

[silentg]

same bidder is active in so many auctions right now

https://twitter.com/x/status/1652359452815654912

 

[jamesau]

Faced same issue yesterday, Was bidding on a name. I was the first bidder, a guy came and keep outbidding me. Yesterday I received a mail about the non payment of auction. His all bid should be void, since there are two of us. Namecheap told me to pay my highest bid. I did not want to lose the domain. SO I PAID.

Thanks for sharing Avijit. This definitely sounds frustrating when you want the name but don't get a fair price.

I have been in this situation and even though I wanted the name I did not pay.

Amazingly the domain was re-auctioned a few days later and the very same bidder (who did not pay the first time) was able to win the auction again.

By the end I just did not bid against this user because the outcome was always the same. They bid me up to the top of my proxy, then a few days later I get the bill as the second placed bidder.

And yet this account is still active when I know they have skipped the bill on at least a dozen auctions.

 

[blogspotter]

I had the same issue. I didn't even know and have paid for a couple names before but I got two runner up bids today by the same bidder.

Worse, they don't penalise the first bidder soon enough but will penalize the runner up.

This is highly unfair.

 

[Shimmy]

Keeping the shill bids in the price in unethical. Your thread title is way too polite, but thank you for the warning.

 

[karmaco]

While I agree NameCheap should ban non payers and not force 2nd bidders to pay, this kind of nonsense happens everywhere by unethical domainers. Bid your max and walk away. Don’t engage in a bidding war.

 

[silentg]

NameCheap CEO has taken action against this.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1525150952524812293

 

[silentg]

49448
Another auction without paying bidder. This domain got relisted for auction again.

This bidder "b9d2acc80da8" is still an active at NameCheap. Even though the bidder should've been banned, he/she is allowed to bid up auctions. Reported it to them yesterday and no action has been taken.

 

[mdent]

These bidders are doing god's work in my opinion. Perhaps their trolling efforts will force NameCheap to change their questionable auction policies.

All bids by non-paying bidders should be removed, not just the last one, this is common sense. Repeat non-payers should be blocked forever from the auctions platform.

 

[inforg]

Dynadot auctions do this too if I am not mistaken. You have the option to pay for it or let it go.
Everyone else dropped out at 799 - that is really what you should get it for in a fair process. Their auction, their rules though. Been there. I usually just walk rather than feel some kind of way about it. Especially with a $$$ gap this much.

 

[Avijit Roy]

Faced same issue yesterday, Was bidding on a name. I was the first bidder, a guy came and keep outbidding me. Yesterday I received a mail about the non payment of auction. His all bid should be void, since there are two of us. Namecheap told me to pay my highest bid. I did not want to lose the domain. SO I PAID.

 

[silentg]

Shill bidding is still making place. One of the weirdest thing is NameCheap allows commenting on auctions. Shill bidder is so proud:

same bidder in another auction:

 

[jamesau]

Thanks for highlighting this @silentg.

I have just had my account (customer since 2004) banned today due to these bizarre business practices.

So I can assure you there is a (harsh) penalty.

I have been asked to pay my top proxy bid in a number of auctions where the other bidder was non-paying.

I understand the Namecheap marketplace is new and not perfect, but despite numerous attempts I was unable to reach a support team member who could understand why this was unacceptable.

Perhaps we can get an official response from Namecheap as to why it is a policy to force users to pay for proxy bids when the other bids are not legitimate.

@tamar Would you be able to get an answer on this?

 

[silentg]

The CEO is active on twitter > https://twitter.com/NamecheapCEO
He didn't respond to me but if everyone start tagging him then he will do something.

 

[silentg]

They have finally banned the bidder and cancelled the new auctions.

 

[GoKaizen]

I've been monitoring NC auctions and I agree with @silentg.

Shill Bidding is going on at NC.

 

[silentg]

2023 and this is still happening

https://twitter.com/x/status/1613239087087104000

 

[silentg]

Bidder is still active and bidding on auctions:

 

[silentg]

Here's their response. No auction integrity. You might not get the domain so therefore buy it at inflated price.

 

[silentg]

@Acroplex is discussing about domain front running on Twitter

Those who got affected by shill bidding at Namecheap post here >

https://twitter.com/x/status/1509527663739871232

 

[silentg]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1524787799353958401

More domaines are coming forward with this issue.

domain bloggers are not covering this problem like they covered snapnames and halvarez scandal I. 2009/2010.

 

[silentg]

Same bidder that didn't pay for it before is now bidding on the domain again:

Support and product manager responded to my tweets saying they took action. Looks like they did nothing.

 

[silentg]

More than $7,000 profit is why they keep ignoring the shill bidding. More bids and more money in their pocket.

 

[Soofi]

I’ve spent five figures on NameCheap expired auctions over a period of six months and now feel ripped off!!

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

@silentg You really are an auction sleuth!

To maintain integrity with any auction site, wouldn't it make sense to only offer the losing bidder the domain at the price minus any other bids from the alleged "highest bidder?" Mandatory payment by the previously losing bidder doesn't make sense, when the highest bidder backs out.

After all, if the highest bidder did change their mind, isn't it possible that something may be wrong with the domain that they figured out after they placed the winning bid?

Whether this is a shill bidder or overly-exhuberant auction participant is unclear. Either way doesn't it affect the credibility of this platform and the domains they are auctioning?

And, absolutely, it makes sense for this repetitive non-paying high bidder to be removed from their system.

Thanks for raising awareness to this recurrent issue on the Namecheap auction site.