Problem solved

[Web Trader]

I've been in the game over 20 years now and am not some newbie. I've had my share of bumps and scrapes, and this is by far the worst ever - even worse than infamous "RegisterFly" for those who are even old enough to have lived through that.

On Friday I went through all the normal motions to buy a domain registered at Domain.com and pay the BIN in full via verified PayPal I've been using for years and years, and years. The price was in the $x,xxx's. The domain was also listed with the same BIN at SnapNames, Afternic, and is listed at Sedo. However, the path of least resistance appeared to be just buying it directly at Domain.com itself, where you could (purportedly) do so at the BIN there. So I did. Or so I thought. (No, I will certainly not be saying what the name is.)

Instead of accepting my payment, instead I got an email saying this nonsense:

"It looks like something was amiss with your payment information. We are currently manually reviewing your transaction and we will email you shortly regarding your recent payment for your [redacted] account.

No need to contact us; We will be in contact within 24 hours regarding the next steps."

Needless to say, they most certainly did not contact me. But I tried to contact them through most of the weekend, using their inconvenient and customer-unfriendly chat feature. And all I got was nowhere, they wouldn't even tell me what the *alleged* "something amiss" was to even address it, until finally today one of them told me something ridiculous about IP addresses not matching billing address and such, as if that's even a thing when people do business all over the world, use VPN, have businesses in different locations, and the whole reason why PayPal and credit cards even exist is in large part to enable people to complete transactions no matter where they are, etc. How absurd. No domain industry company has ever done anything so ridiculous in all my 20 plus years, because it makes no sense.

I was not even able to just buy it as any NORMAL transaction would occur on Afternic or SnapNames just to get it done, and the Sedo listing is only make-offer with an asking price, not a BIN option. Domain.com apparently disabled all those other BIN options after my good faith effort to purchase and pay. Ironically, I had originally stated my concern that someone else could buy it while they were doing their "review" for which they originally refused to even tell me what the issue was, during the first chat session.

I had originally almost just bought it as any normal transaction through one of the listings, but I had thought surely it would be good to just buy directly at Domain.com, and I figured it would be nice to try them for the first time too. And was I ever wrong. Absolutely appalling.

If they don't do the right thing and honor the sale and my good faith effort to pay in full I definitely intend to pursue every possible remedy. This has been the worst and most appalling episode regarding such matters of my entire online business life since 2001, and I'm not exactly any newbie or without past bad experiences with dirty tricks and corrupt people and practices in this industry.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Perhaps the key here is to stay calm, and see if ultimately you can get the billing sorted out along with getting your precious domain.

Unless this was a fake listing, or all of a sudden a much higher bid came in, why wouldn't the company not want this sale completed. After all, the commission would likely be decent for them.

So, again, hopefully it will be able to be sorted out promptly in your favor.

 

[Web Trader]

Perhaps the key here is to stay calm, and see if ultimately you can get the billing sorted out along with getting your precious domain.

Unless this was a fake listing, or all of a sudden a much higher bid came in, why wouldn't the company not want this sale completed. After all, the commission would likely be decent for them.

So, again, hopefully it will be able to be sorted out promptly in your favor.

LoveCatchy you have apparently lost track. The domain was sold by BuyDomains.com itself, the owner and lister then, and the transfer out from Domain.com, the previous registrar, was already completed by BuyDomains.com itself, on Tuesday 4/11/23. I bought it, i.e. my company, paid BuyDomains.com in full another way besides PayPal (noticed the payment also fully cleared today), and it was transferred to my company's account with a new registrar. The original Domain.com sales listing itself and every other venue's listing were always legitimate, listed by BuyDomains.com, the owner and seller of the domain. What took place yesterday, Wednesday 4/12/23, was that Domain.com then charged my PayPal account $x,xxx's for a domain that was: 1. no longer in their possession or under their management; 2. which they no longer had any ability or right to sell on behalf of BuyDomains.com or anyone; 3. was already registered to a new entity; 4. and which had already been bought and fully paid for and transferred away from them the very day before on 4/11/23. You would think they also knew full well they no longer had the domain to sell when they did this yesterday too. Domain.com should not have done what they did yesterday, and a timely refund of the false/erroneous charge is needed. It's now the same as if Domain.com charged my PayPal account $x,xxx's for a box of air instead of what the box was supposed to contain just because they could. So let's say, for example, the domain cost $10,000 full price, BIN. What has just occurred is the equivalent of having already paid BuyDomains.com the BIN of $10k (minus a discount given as mentioned above), BuyDomains.com itself handling the transfer, but then Domain.com erroneously (or worse) charging my business another $10k the very next day for a box of air that was never agreed to. A box of air that can't even be delivered to any buyer either no less.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Sounds pretty simple overall.
The marketplace was Buydomains.com. You paid them with a non-Paypal method. BuyDomains.com had the registrar, Domain.com, transfer the domain.
You were then charged also by Domain.com through your Paypal account.

So basically is sounds like Domain.com needs to refund your Paypal charge, before they drive you AND the rest of us crazy!

I truly hope that Domain.com provides the refund due to you very quickly.

 

[Web Trader]

Sounds pretty simple overall.
The marketplace was Buydomains.com. You paid them with a non-Paypal method. BuyDomains.com had the registrar, Domain.com, transfer the domain.
You were then charged also by Domain.com through your Paypal account.

So basically is sounds like Domain.com needs to refund your Paypal charge, before they drive you AND the rest of us crazy!

Even that's being generous, and it's even simpler than that. The transfer was handled entirely by BuyDomains.com too. One of their senior operations specialists gave me the auth after I paid, I used the auth, and the specialist expedited the transfer release. A well done matter by everyone involved with BuyDomains.com as mentioned above. And yes, Domain.com needs to refund or cancel that PayPal charge.

 

[Web Trader]

Does this make any sense at all to anyone?

BuyDomains.com has intervened with Domain.com to get them to refund the bad charge to my PayPal account, which unfortunately also cleared with my bank today, so the funds are definitely gone for now.

I had also filed a PayPal dispute.

The "problem" now is that apparently BuyDomains.com has been told something that seems like there's no way it could possibly be true or make any sense at all:

I attempted to proceed with the request with refunding the items from Domain.com. However, we've returned with an error that there's currently an open dispute for the charge with PayPal. The client would need to resolve or cancel the dispute with PayPal before we're able to refund the transaction.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Does it make any sense at all, that PayPal does not allow the very thing a disputing party is requesting unless the dispute is dropped or cancelled? Is that even the tiniest bit credible or plausible? I've done one or more PayPal disputes before, and have never heard of such a thing, nor does it appear to make even the slightest bit of sense, at all.

Is not BuyDomains.com itself even being lied to by someone at Domain.com, just to get me to cancel the PayPal dispute?

If anyone can prove otherwise - i.e. that it makes any sense at all and is true that PayPal will not even allow a "seller" to refund a charge for which a refund is being sought unless the disputing party drops and cancels the dispute - please show me and let me know.

 

[BaileyUK]

As frustrating as it sounds It does make some sense.

By raising the dispute with Paypal. They (paypal) will try to freeze the amount in dispute, if It hasn't been paid-out. This then restricts them (the payee) from issuing the refund or cancelling the transaction until paypal arrive at a decision on the complaint . Without wishing to cause any offence, A lot of this thread reads as if a little bit of patience at several steps may have prevented a lot of subsequent problems.

 

[Web Trader]

Thanks for your reply. Well I definitely wouldn't say that, but I have to run out soon so I can't take time to fully reply now (edit: briefly back now, going out again). Just quickly I received something about an error message from PayPal for a partial refund, which does make sense that PayPal would not allow if the whole amount is under dispute, so right now that is still a question mark to me. (Turns out for the wrong transaction and amount which have nothing to do with me.) But I will reply to you fully when I get back.

 

[Web Trader]

Update: before I was about to run out again just got two refund emails from PayPal refunding the total amount and a follow up email from one of the folks at BD. Now the matter does appear to have been solved, so I can change the thread title again, to "Problem solved."

 

[karmaco]

Does this make any sense at all to anyone?

BuyDomains.com has intervened with Domain.com to get them to refund the bad charge to my PayPal account, which unfortunately also cleared with my bank today, so the funds are definitely gone for now.

I had also filed a PayPal dispute.

The "problem" now is that apparently BuyDomains.com has been told something that seems like there's no way it could possibly be true or make any sense at all:



Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Does it make any sense at all, that PayPal does not allow the very thing a disputing party is requesting unless the dispute is dropped or cancelled? Is that even the tiniest bit credible or plausible? I've done one or more PayPal disputes before, and have never heard of such a thing, nor does it appear to make even the slightest bit of sense, at all.

Is not BuyDomains.com itself even being lied to by someone at Domain.com, just to get me to cancel the PayPal dispute?

If anyone can prove otherwise - i.e. that it makes any sense at all and is true that PayPal will not even allow a "seller" to refund a charge for which a refund is being sought unless the disputing party drops and cancels the dispute - please show me and let me know.

They are blowing smoke. If they issue you the refund through PayPal the dispute automatically gets closed. Do not close the dispute. Escalate it to a claim if they refuse to immediately issue a refund.

 

[Web Trader]

They are blowing smoke. If they issue you the refund through PayPal the dispute automatically gets closed. Do not close the dispute. Escalate it to a claim if they refuse to immediately issue a refund.

Thanks for your comment, karmaco, but it's all squared away now. Looks like you just didn't see this most recent update: https://www.namepros.com/threads/problem-solved.1299578/post-8897218. Long story short, some details not included, etc.