Pheenix.com - Drop Catching Service - Please Share Your Experiences

[Neophyte]

I just signed up with Pheenix.com, a new drop catching service by the owners for FreshDrop, and would like to know your experience with them. Has anyone won a domain with them? Any issues in getting the domains put in your name/in your account?

 

[gorilla_bob]

Hi All,

Just want to make sure that at this point, although we have been known to beat the 3 major drop catchers, if you are trying to benchmark us with them, most likely the results won't be as good.

We do have a roadmap in increasing our catch ratio and our team is hard at work on this.

Where we really shine right now is that if you are backordering against smaller drop catchers such as Godaddy. We seem to be doing quite well in that area.

Hope this helps.

Tan

 

[Neophyte]

I don't want to come off as a complainer, and taking the Pheenix pricing structure from the whois is a start, but it doesn't go far enough. Like I said before, the only mention of Pheenix should be in the whois where it says "REGISTRAR: Pheenix." I don't want any references to the fact that Pheenix caught the domain, or if my END USER wants to become a domainer, he/she can join Pheenix and backorder a domain for $18.95. I support this service and want it to succeed, but once the domain is caught and paid for, it belongs to the domainer, not to Pheenix, so the domainer should have the option as to whether this information should be included in the WHOIS. If the domainer is looking to develop or transfer the domain out, he/she may not mind the Pheenix proomtional info the Whois. However, if the domainer is looking to flip the domain, then having that information is a hindrance because the buyer can go to the Pheenix site to see that the backorder price is $18.95. Again, I like Pheenix, but my buyers don't need to know that I got the domain from their service. Other dropcatchers don't do this, and though Pheenix is trying to be a unique service, those other dropcatchers are right. There are other ways to advertise. I think there will be a mass exodus of domains being transferred out of Pheenix because of this.

Also, would anyone who has caught domains using Pheenix be willing to share some of the names they've acquired? I have put Pheenix to the test, and while it is good with lower value names, it is not competing with SN and NJ, and I have even lost names to AR and GD. Maybe the focus should be on increasing registry connections so Pheenix can catch some of the better names once in a while. I know they won't beat the big players all the time, but at least a few times would be nice. This is my experience; if anyone has acquired a high value name through Pheenix please comment.

 

[Arca]

Pheenix just "caught" a domain for me, 5 days after it dropped. The domain dropped on December 11. I checked WHOIS, and it was registered by Pheenix today, December 16. It took them 5 days to be able to register the name after it dropped, and I've been charged $29 for a name that has been available to hand-register for $9 for the past 5 days... They really have no shame in how they conduct their business (regging a name 5 days after it drops can hardly be called a "drop-catching" service and it is certainly not worth $29, when I could have done it for $9 myself, five days ago).

 

[BOBAH]

Pheenix catch almost all of the liquid domains. i cannot catch anything! i hate them

 

[DomainVP]

Used Pheenix for the first time in a long time, and it caught a domain over SnapNames, DropCatch, and NameJet.

I was shocked.

It had another order on the name and went to auction; the other bidder didn't place another bid and I was the first to place the order so I won.

It looks like the additional registrar power has helped them actually be competitive again.

 

[Name Trader]

Stub,

Great ideas. I think disclosing bids if there are multiple bids on it may be a good idea for later. For now, all bids will remain private as we have no current plans on disclosing bids.

Well I think when you start accepting multiple bids per domain, you will need to address this issue one way or another. I think disclosing the number of bids to the bidders when there are multiple bidders is the way to go. But not disclosing the number of bids to non-bidders should also be the way to go. Of course this is a integrity vs money grab decision.

---------- Post added at 06:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 AM ----------

I joined Pheenix only because it was first come first serve model basis. I would simply stop using Pheenix once the multi-bid system is implemented. There won't be any difference between Snap/NJ and you guys.

You could increase the cost for first come first serve but multi-bid system is just ridiculous.

There could be a whole lot of difference between Pheenix and SN/NJ. Pheenix could have integrity. But that remains to be seen at this stage.

I think going multi-bid is inevitable. But if they implement it in a different way than SN/NJ, it doesn't need to be bad.

I think disclosing the number of bids to non-bidders will only encourage people to go to SN/NJ where there might be no bids. At least until the time that Pheenix is regularly beating them

 

[Neophyte]

As you know, I love the service, and wish it could always be first come, first serve. However, I do have a concern. Many domainers use services such as yours to catch names that they can resell to end users for a profit, not necessarily develop themselves, That said, when a potential buyer does a whois search for a domain caught with Pheenix, here is what they see:

--------------------------------------------------------------
Pheenix.com - We backorder domain names.
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Another Great Domain caught by Pheenix!"

Visit www.pheenix.com if you would like us to
catch domain names for you.

Backorder Pricing:

.com/.net $18.95
.tv/.cc $58.95
-----------------------------------------
I know that you guys have to promote the service, but I wouldn't want end users (or anyone else for that matter) knowing that I used Pheenix to catch a domain and what I paid to catch it. It is a hindrance to sales. Please remove this from the whois records, and allow the domainer the option to have this included or not. Thanks.

Edit: I know that Pheenix is acting as registrar, so I know the name Pheenix will be mentioned, but the other information listed above is definitely not friendly to a domainer trying to sell domains and should be removed from the Whois records.

 

[Neophyte]

I mentioned this several days ago and it was not acknowledged or addressed by the Pheenix rep. This needs to be removed from the the WHIOS records....immediately! We didn't ask that this be put in, and it is hindering sales. I had an end user inquire about a Pheenix-caught name a few days ago. I quoted him a price (and no, it was not outrageous...a couple hundred dollars) and POOF...buyer disappears. Savvy end users who know how to check WHOIS see that I paid $18.95 to backorder the domain and will want to offer $20 or $25. That is how some people think. If you don't remove this, I think you will lose customers, and domainers will not want to touch it.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Pheenix.com - We backorder domain names.
------------------------------------------------------------------


"Another Great Domain caught by Pheenix!"

Visit www.pheenix.com if you would like us to
catch domain names for you.

Backorder Pricing:

.com/.net $18.95
.tv/.cc $58.95

 

[gorilla_bob]

Blake,

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I think we can do this. Give us 24 hours to make the appropriate changes.

Tan

 

[GiftedDomains]

First of all , its GREAT that you are listening to your customers and made fast updates to the whois.
Appreciated.

Psychology plays a huge role in this game and even if you have a $$.$$$ domain and even if it shouldn't be important how much previous owners paid or how they got that domain,,,, thats just how it is: if people see that you got it very cheap, they want it cheap and start to discuss and whine and lowball and ..... you don't want to deal with all that. So this will make things easier now. I guess its an ok compromise now with which both domainers and you can live. I guess we all understand that you need some marketing to start off things.

 

[discobull]

WHY IN THE WORLD DOES PHEENIX AUTOMATICALLY LOGS ME OUT AND NEEDS ME TO LOGIN AGAIN AFTER 5 MINUTES?

I AM ****** TIRED OF LOSING MY LIST OF BACKORDERS EVERYTIME I SPENT SOME TIME COMPILING A LIST OF BACKORDERS AND WHEN I HIT SUBMIT, BOOM LOGIN AGAIN.. WTF!!

I have typed this in CAPS because I am really pissed off right now as I have to go through this process everyday now. Should I just stop using Pheenix after spending over high $xxxx with you in past 6 months?

care to fix this?

Why not just compile your list on a text editor of some kind and then copy and paste it into Pheenix when you're ready?

 

[discobull]

and why not fix the system? and what is the need for logging out within 5 minutes?

I'm not arguing against them fixing the system. I'm making a suggestion intended to help you deal with the current problem until they fix it. My apologies for offending you.

 

[Paul123]

I have just joined up with these guys and placed a back order for tomorrow. I like the simple style of the site and the price is OK.

Let's see how successful they are but all good so far. All made very simple and transparent.

Best,
Paul

 

[muttus]

Hi NPs,

My experience with Pheenix is that they are not very successful on higher demand names. I have back ordered every LLLL, NNNNN, and some sought after brandables and the score is 1/44 since last week so I stopped. The UI is simple, price is cheap but as long as they do not catch .... not much I can recommend. Also my Browser is warning me about some outdated security protection system Pheenix has. I am bit worried

 

[Name Trader]

ICANN have procedures in place these days to move the domains to another registrar if the existing registrar goes down.

 

[Arca]

Used Pheenix for the first time in a long time, and it caught a domain over SnapNames, DropCatch, and NameJet.

I was shocked.

It had another order on the name and went to auction; the other bidder didn't place another bid and I was the first to place the order so I won.

It looks like the additional registrar power has helped them actually be competitive again.

Interesting. I usually backorder around 500-700 domains each month with the various dropcatchers, and all of these are also backordered with Pheenix, as either full price or discount backorders (majority are full price backorders). Their current catch rate for me is only about 3-5%, and that’s actually a marked improvement compared with a few months ago (before they added a bunch more registrars to their arsenal), so they still seem to be underperforming compared with how many registrars they now have.

Pretty much everything they catch for me go to public auctions, so the outcome is no different than if dropcatch.com get them.

If Pheenix gets stronger/more competitive, it's not going to benefit domainers at all IMO, now that they do public auctions. A domain that gets caught by Pheenix and goes to a public auction is generally going to sell for a lot more than one that gets caught by SnapNames and goes to a closed private auction. A weak Pheenix and a less competitive Dropcatch, with a stronger SnapNames/NameJet would be the ultimate scenario for domain investors, as final sales prices are much lower in private auctions (the people who win auctions at Pheenix and Dropcatch would often not have been participating in the auction at all had the domain gone to a private auction). Just my view on it. Not rooting for Pheenix to become more competitive, as it's pretty much just the same as Dropcatch becoming more competitive...

 

[DomainVP]

Interesting. I usually backorder around 500-700 domains each month with the various dropcatchers, and all of these are also backordered with Pheenix, as either full price or discount backorders (majority are full price backorders). Their current catch rate for me is only about 3-5%, and that’s actually a marked improvement compared with a few months ago (before they added a bunch more registrars to their arsenal), so they still seem to be underperforming compared with how many registrars they now have.

Pretty much everything they catch for me go to public auctions, so the outcome is no different than if dropcatch.com get them.

If Pheenix gets stronger/more competitive, it's not going to benefit domainers at all IMO, now that they do public auctions. A domain that gets caught by Pheenix and goes to a public auction is generally going to sell for a lot more than one that gets caught by SnapNames and goes to a closed private auction. A weak Pheenix and a less competitive Dropcatch, with a stronger SnapNames/NameJet would be the ultimate scenario for domain investors, as final sales prices are much lower in private auctions (the people who win auctions at Pheenix and Dropcatch would often not have been participating in the auction at all had the domain gone to a private auction). Just my view on it. Not rooting for Pheenix to become more competitive, as it's pretty much just the same as Dropcatch becoming more competitive...

I agree.

Any dropcatcher that implements public auctions on backorders is not a friend to the domain investor. I don't blame them for looking out for #1 but by doing that it certainly does us no favors.

There is no fate worse than DropCatch. If you aren't competing against a flurry of domainers, then you have to consider that HugeDomains might have their eyes on your domain as well. Either way, when it goes to auction expect the profit to be sucked out of most domains.

Pheenix would be the same except they rarely catch anything worth value.

 

[Paul123]

Any dropcatcher that implements public auctions on backorders is not a friend to the domain investor

Enough said.

Best,
Paul

 

[TERADOMAIN]

@gorilla_bob

After reading all this I thought let me check if I have any of my name with them. I found out I have 1 name with them. I tried to transfer out the name from pheenix to godaddy and I got authorization code which is not correct as per Godaddy. I tried to initialize transfer out 3 times and all 3 times I received different authorization code which is not correct/valid as per godaddy. One more amazing thing is there is no option to unlock your domain in pheenix.

@gorilla_bob can you please help me as well as other friends with all these issues??

Thanks

 

[gorilla_bob]

Stub,

The list of backorders is not disclosed and kept private.

Tan

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I joined Pheenix only because it was first come first serve model basis. I would simply stop using Pheenix once the multi-bid system is implemented. There won't be any difference between Snap/NJ and you guys.

You could increase the cost for first come first serve but multi-bid system is just ridiculous.

 

[invented]

I joined Pheenix only because it was first come first serve model basis. I would simply stop using Pheenix once the multi-bid system is implemented. There won't be any much difference between Snap/NJ and you guys.

You could increase the cost for first come first serve, but multi-bid system is just... tiring.

This.

This, I concur.

 

[gorilla_bob]

Gifted,

The system will attempt to debit your balance first. If there is not enough funds in your balance, it will then charge your credit card. The balance left in your account is 100% completely refundable upon request.

For the second question, yes you may buy more domains to make more money. But you will need to promise your loved ones to take them on an even BIGGER vacation!

Tan

 

[gorilla_bob]

Dj,

Try to enter a domain name that is worthless to see if the system takes it. If it does, it's probably because all the other domains that you wanted has already been backordered.

We'll be moving to a multi-bid system very soon, so you won't have this issue.

Tan

 

[Blake]

I have to say I have been very impressed with pheenix and catching names so far it's been 6 of 6 with 2 more being ordered today. My only problem has been mentioned above this showing up in the whois all over is just ridiculous:
------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
Pheenix.com - We backorder domain names.
------------------------------------------------------------------



"Another Great Domain caught by Pheenix!"

Visit pheenix.com if you would like us to
catch domain names for you.

Backorder Pricing:

.com/.net $18.95
.tv/.cc $58.95

------------------------------------------------------------------
Pheenix.com - We backorder domain names.
------------------------------------------------------------------

I can understand the need to advertise but please rethink doing it this way .....as it is I can't move the name for 60 days but if this remains in the whois I will certainly not keep it with pheenix. Otherwise you have a great service that I would continue using....so please consider removing this please.

Blake