Namejet and Anthos Chrysanthou Renege on Huge Sale

[Cronus]

Last Wednesday and Thursday, Namejet auction activity was dominated by more than 1,800 LLL.net and LLL.org domain names for sale. Most didn't meet their reserve prices, but many did sell at high values (pet.org for $34,100, see.net for $15,700, ccc.net for $9,600, lab.org for $7,901, etc.) I personally bought 8 names for a total price of $16,778. These were private portfolio names, not expires.

My credit card was charged last week, but today I got an email that my purchase of 3 of the 8 names was "canceled". It sounds like the seller had second thoughts or decided to sell some to another party, even though the reserve prices chosen by the seller were met! When you agree to sell your domains this way, you are entering into a binding contract that you shouldn't be able to back out of. Especially after the buyer has already paid! Cherry picking the sales to only honor the ones which you like is particularly egregious!

The origin of these domains is rather murky. They belonged to Marchex for years, then these 1,800 LLL's were transferred to GoDaddy a couple months ago. Most use GoDaddy's privacy service to hide the owner's identity. But they seem to have missed privacy on some domains, which showed "Lease Domains, Inc." as the owner. That company seems to be run by domainer Anthos Chrysanthou in Chicago.

I called Anthos today at the number in Lease Domains' whois. He admitted to being Anthos Chrysanthou, but then became extremely evasive. He refused to confirm whether he was the owner/seller of the domains, but asked about my interest in them. When he found out that I was upset about the canceled auctions and that I just wanted wanted to receive the domain names for which I paid more $16,000, he said "there is nothing I can do for you" and hung up on me.

Namejet says they will refund the money, but I still feel wronged. Even though I only won 8 domain names, I spent many hours researching all 1,800 and rearranged my whole schedule last week to accommodate the bidding. Anthos and Namejet should honor all the sales, not just the ones which were taken to the stratosphere in bidding wars. If they wanted more, they should have chosen a higher reserve price. Even if someone bid more to them directly after the auction, they should honor the auction results.

Did anyone else here win names in this bogus LLL Namejet auction? Did the seller also renege on some of your buys? Does anyone know more about the murky way that these domains were transferred from Marchex and soon ended up in this giant Namejet auction? Does anyone know more about Anthos Chrysanthou or "Lease Domains, Inc." (leasedomains.com). The whois contact also references some "DNMAgroup".

 

[tonecas]

welcome to NameJet

one a more serious note, on the domains I sampled, DNMAgroup/LeaseDomains didn't seem to be the new (?) owner of that lot of domains but got listed in the same time frame. can you point one were you made the connection?

in any case I am sad to hear your story. but it seems that this is what we are destiny to get when we, as a community, let a bunch of guys make the rules and play with them.

good luck,
tonecas

 

[Cronus]

Hi Tonecas. Most of the new listings used GoDaddy "Domains By Proxy" randomization service to hide their true owner (examples: acx.org, aeh.org). But they seem to have missed some--for example, abz.org and adh.org list Lease Domains as the owner. Of my three "canceled" purchases, one shows Lease Domains as the owner and the other two are "Domains By Proxy".

I agree with you that we are destined to get this sort of treatment if we put up with it. That's why I'm trying to fight it! And in this case, I'm sure many big players got hit too. I only won 8 of the 1,800 LLLs, but dozens of them sold.

 

[snoop]

Very poor form by this seller, and namejet to allow a sale to be cancelled. I'm guessing you probably have some legal rights (read the T & C's) though I doubt it is worth chasing up.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

Namejet is MUCH worse than Snapnames. I recently won an auction (as the only bidder), but suddenly it went to "Wish List"

The Namejet rep was very evasive when I asked about it, but I kept pressing. He finally said that the owner renewed the domain. However, the info in the Whois does not support that contention.

I will never bid on a Namejet auction again. At best, Namejet is secretive, non-transparent, and evasive; at worst, it is full of thieves and thugs.

*

 

[ezimedia]

Wow.. that is wrong.. and I am sure you could hold namejet liable, in order to get what you paid for... have you read over all their Tos.. have you contacted a lawyer to see what options you got if you want to fight this.

 

[garptrader]

If a buyer reneges on a sale, what action does Namejet take? But when the tables are turned...

 

[GoQuickly]

I had this happen at namejet, they are generally there to list any domain that is currently in registrar that is pending delete or pending renewal. The TOS says they are a vendor and can't guarantee the sale of a domain if the registrar it resides at decides not to release them.

What could have happened is the domains could have been expiring from Anthos account at one registrar and he was waiting for it to transfer them to GoDaddy... I wouldn't suspect fowl play.

Just expect namejet to not always have the domain you are buying.

I've had to contact the registrar directly on pending renewals before after namejet didn't receive the domain for auction.

 

[Green Moon]

Namejet TOS says, in part:

NameJet is not an Auctioneer. Although we state that the Site includes online auctions, it is important to realize that we are not a traditional "auctioneer." Instead, the Site acts as a venue to allow parties to offer, sell, buy and register domain names, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of pricing formats, including a fixed price format and an auction-style format commonly referred to as "online auctions" or "auctions." We cannot ensure that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction. Consequently, we do not transfer legal ownership of domain names from the seller to the buyer. Also we do not and cannot guarantee the acquisition of any domain name through our auction process.​

Not surprisingly, they have been pretty thorough in shielding themselves from any responsibility.

It is likely that any action would have to be directly against Lease Domains, Inc., which is an Illinois corporation whose registered agent and president is Anthos Chrysanthou at 14014 Tod William Dr, Orland Park IL 60462.

Chances are, you would have to bring suit in Illinois, so you would need to hire an Illinois attorney. Chances are, the costs would not be worth your while, but that is up to you. That is probably what a buyer who refuses to perform is counting on.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

Chances are, the costs would not be worth your while, but that is up to you. That is probably what a buyer who refuses to perform is counting on.

A trial would probably not be worth the cost, but that is true for each side. Is the current owner willing to spend a lot of money defending his perceived right to keep the domains?

There may be a positive response from a simple legal threat and that wouldn't cost much.

Beyond that, DomainsByProxy/GoDaddy requires a court order to turn over ownership info and the court can't serve him until then. So it would take a bit more than simply filing a lawsuit for him to back down and settle out of court.

Keep us updated.

 

[main]

Cronus, sorry to hear that you have to deal with such shadiness.

Namejet is shady. Take a look at the recent threads in the expiring domain forums.

http://www.namepros.com/expired-domains/690343-domain-won-namejet-paid-then-refunded.html

http://www.namepros.com/expired-domains/690005-sole-bidder-namejet-pre-release-name.html

Namejet is obviously aware of these kinds of issues as they happen regularly. They train their support staff to intentionally give you the run around with useless responses.

They're not not interested in good business. Hopefully they change the way they are doing things or that karma catches up with them.

 

[Ms Domainer]

A trial would probably not be worth the cost, but that is true for each side. Is the current owner willing to spend a lot of money defending his perceived right to keep the domains?

There may be a positive response from a simple legal threat and that wouldn't cost much.

Beyond that, DomainsByProxy/GoDaddy requires a court order to turn over ownership info and the court can't serve him until then. So it would take a bit more than simply filing a lawsuit for him to back down and settle out of court.

Keep us updated.

*

I know for a fact that GoDaddy will turn over Proxy info with JUST a threatening letter from a lawyer.


All kinds of horror stories over at NoDaddy.

*

 

[harkster]

When one plays in the cesspool it is only natural they get $hit on. This business has become so unbelievable dirty it messes my mind up.

Anyone with any morality or ethics ain't got a chance in this dirty racket.

$0.02

 

[snoop]

When one plays in the cesspool it is only natural they get $hit on. This business has become so unbelievable dirty it messes my mind up.

Anyone with any morality or ethics ain't got a chance in this dirty racket.

$0.02

The industry has always been somewhat dirty, this kind of things isn't new.

 

[Cronus]

First, I'd like to thank everyone for your comments. I'm glad I'm not the only one disappointed by these actions of Namejet and the seller. Since I started the thread, I should update you all on the resolution:

In addition to posting on the forums, I made some phone calls to Namejet and posted support tickets. Eventually their new general manager Matt Overman called me. He said that the seller had sold some of the domains through other channels and apparently didn't bother/remember/know to remove them from the Namejet auction. I think sellers, particularly those dealing with multi-million dollar portfolios, should be expected to know basic auction rules (e.g. don't sell what you don't have). But Namejet seems a lot more forgiving, sigh. Matt appologized, but didn't offer to do anything more. He claims that they are going to start taking control of private domain names before auctions to ensure this doesn't happen again. I sure hope so!

After about a week, Namejet refunded the $5,875 that I paid for the 3 canceled auctions. It is ironic that one of them was sad.org (the others were sit.org and hcg.org). Yesterday, Namejet finally delivered the five non-canceled LLL's that I won. I consider this a cautionary tale about dealing with Namejet (and especially this seller), but I'm moving on and considering this episode over. Thanks again for all your comments.

 

[Acroplex]

The entire LLL sale was a clusterphuck. Very few domains that even ended at prices above the Namejet Reserve were allocated to their winners. Knowing Anthos personally, I'd be disappointed in learning that he reneged on a sale through Namejet.

 

[tonecas]

just one note: I don't think the owner was Anthos according to what I could see from historical whois records.

in any case it is a very lame action to renege on a sale like this.

regards,
tonecas

 

[BeautifulDomainNames]

Cronus,

I am truly sorry to read about this misfortune. This kind of garbage has been going on for quite some time. It's actually shameful for both the seller and Namjet.

*

Namejet is MUCH worse than Snapnames. I recently won an auction (as the only bidder), but suddenly it went to "Wish List"

The Namejet rep was very evasive when I asked about it, but I kept pressing. He finally said that the owner renewed the domain. However, the info in the Whois does not support that contention.

I will never bid on a Namejet auction again. At best, Namejet is secretive, non-transparent, and evasive; at worst, it is full of thieves and thugs.

*

I don't blame you. The biggest reason Namejet gets away with this kind of practice is because we allow them to.

Chances are, you would have to bring suit in Illinois, so you would need to hire an Illinois attorney. Chances are, the costs would not be worth your while, but that is up to you. That is probably what a buyer who refuses to perform is counting on.

This is another reason why they continue to get away with it.


- Dar

 

[Acroplex]

just one note: I don't think the owner was Anthos according to what I could see from historical whois records.

in any case it is a very lame action to renege on a sale like this.

regards,
tonecas

The entire thread is directly blaming Anthos for specific acts. If this is incorrect then the OP needs to amend the thread, its title and to issue an apology to Anthos Crysanthou.

 

[Cronus]

just one note: I don't think the owner was Anthos according to what I could see from historical whois records.

Well his company, Lease Domains, has been listed in whois as the owner of many of the LLL's this whole time. For example, Lease Domains still shows as the owner of hcg.org, which is one of the domains that I "won" at auction but never received. I also called Anthos on the phone (before posting) to make sure I got the facts straight, but he refused to talk to me.

Anthos is an active domainer and is certainly welcome and encouraged to come onto this thread and explain his role in all of this. Or he can PM me if he thinks anything I've said is wrong and wants me to post a correction. I have done my best to make sense of the limited information available.

 

[Acroplex]

Cronus, what's confusing is that the domain you mentioned, hcg.org, has nothing to do with the mass auction of LLL net/org domains by Namejet of Marchex-owned domains, such as pet.org/lab.org/see.net/ccc.net etc.

 

[Cronus]

Cronus, what's confusing is that the domain you mentioned, hcg.org, has nothing to do with the mass auction of LLL net/org domains by Namejet of Marchex-owned domains, such as pet.org/lab.org/see.net/ccc.net etc.

I'm not sure why you say that, since there were about 1,800 LLL.net and LLL.org domains auctioned that day, and many (hundreds?) of them showed (and still do show) Lease Domains as the owner. For example, abz.org and adh.org were also in the auction and still show Lease Domains as the owner in whois. Those two didn't sell because they didn't meet the reserve price. Hcg.org did sell (to me), but Namejet and seller failed to deliver the domain. At least Namejet eventually refunded the $5,875 that they charged my credit card for hcg.org, sit.org, and sad.org.

 

[Acroplex]

sit.org and sad.org are domains owned by Marchex, they have nothing to do with Anthos and Lease Domains.

However, as I was a bidder on both auctions, I can see a user "hax" won them both, surpassing Namejet Reserve.

What was the official explanation by Namejet? Ultimately, that's the issue with bidding on a platform that has made its name for auctioning expired domains, and all of a sudden bidding on domains that are owned by third parties.

 

[tonecas]

I'm not sure why you say that, since there were about 1,800 LLL.net and LLL.org domains auctioned that day, and many (hundreds?) of them showed (and still do show) Lease Domains as the owner. For example, abz.org and adh.org were also in the auction and still show Lease Domains as the owner in whois. Those two didn't sell because they didn't meet the reserve price. Hcg.org did sell (to me), but Namejet and seller failed to deliver the domain. At least Namejet eventually refunded the $5,875 that they charged my credit card for hcg.org, sit.org, and sad.org.

Cronus, the fact that those particular domains got auctioned on the same day does not mean that they belong to the same owner. I could not find any connection between them but I also haven't done any in deep analysis.

in fact, there were so many domains put on auction in those days that even frequent and protected scammers on NameJet stop listing their names because they would not get any attention.

For what I saw so far is that almost 2,000 domains were on Marchex's account and then moved to someone's GodDaddy account with Whois privacy set.

those domains you mentioned belonged to iREIT that sold some domains in SnapName's auctions in the first months of this year.

if Anthos failed to sell you the domains then maybe we have in fact two distinct owners that decided not to go through their obligations.

this would even be more shameful...

regards,
tonecas

 

[sdomains]

Hey guys. Having a similar issue with NameJet now. I was wondering how long after the auction ended did you make payment? Please either respond to this post or private message me. Thanks!