Sav Official Thread

[Nick R]

Hello NamePros community! We are creating a single thread where we can share announcements in, talk about product updates, people can ask questions and host a great discussion on all things domains!

 

[NYK]

@Akbarrr I know how it will go. They managed to scare away all other bidders with their fiasco the last couple of days. And they will start buying very cheap now. I am canceling my auctions, because I don’t want to sell to them for pennies. You have a problem with the renewal fee, I personally don’t.

You are right!

 

[Anton Naydenov]

Another name sold for pennies to w_w_909b80 - parts.xyz for $393 USD. A name that the seller probably registered for at least $500 USD, and which probably generated loss of at least $123 USD after commissions. The bidder w_w_909b80 and whoever or whatever is behind them managed to scare away all other serious bidders (using the fake j_x and other fake accounts) in order to buy cheap as many as possible names without competition. At the same time lots of bidders now simply don’t have the money to participate in auctions, because Sav have blocked thousands of dollars in their bank cards for unspecified period of time. What’s been happening is a plunder that has been assisted indirectly by Sav. You should know this.

j_x_942e4f = w_w_909b80 = b_c_5385d5

Same people are behind these (and a few more) accounts. And they’re the people who destroyed the marketplace in order to make it possible to get what they wanted almost for free. The whole theatre from the past 10 days is initiated and orchestrated by them.

I want @Nick R to shed some light on these 3 accounts. Do they use the same payment methods, do they log in from the same country, do they log in from the same (or similar) IP addresses?

The scheme is as follows - if they don’t like the price (when price goes too high) they simply block the sale by placing extremely high proxies from fake accounts. The auction repeats after 3 days. Every next time the auction repeats there are fewer and fewer bidders, because normal bidders eventually stop bidding on repeat auctions, as they look suspicious. They make the auctions repeat until the price is low enough, and they can buy the name very cheap.

 

[silentg]

@Anton Naydenov

w_w_909b80

Do you have links to auctions that this bidder had won recently?

 

[NYK]

Another name sold for pennies to w_w_909b80 - parts.xyz for $393 USD. A name that the seller probably registered for at least $500 USD, and which probably generated loss of at least $123 USD after commissions. The bidder w_w_909b80 and whoever or whatever is behind them managed to scare away all other serious bidders (using the fake j_x and other fake accounts) in order to buy cheap as many as possible names without competition. At the same time lots of bidders now simply don’t have the money to participate in auctions, because Sav have blocked thousands of dollars in their bank cards for unspecified period of time. What’s been happening is a plunder that has been assisted indirectly by Sav. You should know this.

j_x_942e4f = w_w_909b80 = b_c_5385d5

Same people are behind these (and a few more) accounts. And they’re the people who destroyed the marketplace in order to make it possible to get what they wanted almost for free. The whole theatre from the past 10 days is initiated and orchestrated by them.

I want @Nick R to shed some light on these 3 accounts. Do they use the same payment methods, do they log in from the same country, do they log in from the same (or similar) IP addresses?

The scheme is as follows - if they don’t like the price (when price goes too high) they simply block the sale by placing extremely high proxies from fake accounts. The auction repeats after 3 days. Every next time the auction repeats there are fewer and fewer bidders, because normal bidders eventually stop bidding on repeat auctions, as they look suspicious. They make the auctions repeat until the price is low enough, and they can buy the name very cheap.

Exactly! They are partners in crime! This is exactly what happened to my domains in auctions last week (as well as others) and none of them were paid in the end! Both of them appeared in many auctions and if they don’t like the price then j_f ends up winning and nobody needs to be responsible and no one end up paying! Just an example attached!

 

[NYK]

We as seller should hv the option whether to restart or not! It’s not on sellers advantage to restart second round when u can see there is a setup! @Nick R

 

[Anton Naydenov]

@NYK Yes, I agree. Some of my names have been in repeated auctions for more than a month now. Sav pretty much turned my domains in hostages. I cannot try to sell elsewhere, because even if I find a buyer, I can’t take the name out of auction and transfer it to them. I don’t want my auctions to be repeated. If a name doesn’t sell the first time I don’t want Sav to repeat the auction. It should be up to the seller to decide to repeat or not. I have never seen another marketplace that would forcefully keep your names in constant auctions until the end of time.

In regards to your screenshot. w_w uses fake accounts (like j_x) to set up high proxies and then pretends that he is trying to outbid the fake account that they actually created. It’s pure theatre. Just look at the amounts - $1222 bid, followed by $3333... They raise the price on purpose - so they can scare other bidders away. They perfectly know that the proxy is much higher because they’ve put it there. They will keep making your auction repeats until there are no other bidders left who would fight for the name, and at some point they will try to buy your name for $200-$300, or even for less. Remember what I said. The whole theatre is to eliminate competition and to discourage other bidders, so that they can buy cheap.

 

[NYK]

@NYK Yes, I agree. Some of my names have been in repeated auctions for more than a month now. Sav pretty much turned my domains in hostages. I cannot try to sell elsewhere, because even if I find a buyer, I can’t take the name out of auction and transfer it to them. I don’t want my auctions to be repeated. If a name doesn’t sell the first time I don’t want Sav to repeat the auction. It should be up to the seller to decide to repeat or not. I have never seen another marketplace that would forcefully keep your names in constant auctions until the end of time.

In regards to your screenshot. w_w uses fake accounts (like j_x) to set up high proxies and then pretends that he is trying to outbid the fake account that they actually created. It’s pure theatre. Just look at the amounts - $1222 bid, followed by $3333... They raise the price on purpose - so they can scare other bidders away. They perfectly know that the proxy is much higher because they’ve put it there. They will keep making your auction repeats until there are no other bidders left who would fight for the name, and at some point they will try to buy your name for $200-$300, or even for less. Remember what I said. The whole theatre is to eliminate competition and to discourage other bidders, so that they can buy cheap.

Sad but true! Totally agree!

 

[Recons.Com]

Another name sold for pennies to w_w_909b80 - parts.xyz for $393 USD. A name that the seller probably registered for at least $500 USD, and which probably generated loss of at least $123 USD after commissions. The bidder w_w_909b80 and whoever or whatever is behind them managed to scare away all other serious bidders (using the fake j_x and other fake accounts) in order to buy cheap as many as possible names without competition. At the same time lots of bidders now simply don’t have the money to participate in auctions, because Sav have blocked thousands of dollars in their bank cards for unspecified period of time. What’s been happening is a plunder that has been assisted indirectly by Sav. You should know this.

j_x_942e4f = w_w_909b80 = b_c_5385d5

Same people are behind these (and a few more) accounts. And they’re the people who destroyed the marketplace in order to make it possible to get what they wanted almost for free. The whole theatre from the past 10 days is initiated and orchestrated by them.

I want @Nick R to shed some light on these 3 accounts. Do they use the same payment methods, do they log in from the same country, do they log in from the same (or similar) IP addresses?

The scheme is as follows - if they don’t like the price (when price goes too high) they simply block the sale by placing extremely high proxies from fake accounts. The auction repeats after 3 days. Every next time the auction repeats there are fewer and fewer bidders, because normal bidders eventually stop bidding on repeat auctions, as they look suspicious. They make the auctions repeat until the price is low enough, and they can buy the name very cheap.

Here is another thing to consider that SAV is probably "in bed" with the shill bidders.

How can there be a non-payer and even multiple times, if the money for everyone is apparently pre-blocked by SAV? Meaning, the bidder has effectively paid to SAV even for them to be able to place that final bid and win. Imagine now the crazy amounts to be blocked given how many auctions the shill bidder wins. So the money is there, SAV has pre-authorized it and has full rights to close the transaction, as the bidder has agreed by signing contracts and there is a tracking trail proving that they have committed.

SAV wouldn't block money for honest non-winners and let the shill cheater get away with no-block special arrangement. Or would they?

 

[Traderas]

I rly don’t understand. When you place a bid they charge your card. If that is the winning bid they charge you again. Why? Why don’t you keep the money you charged in the first place? You charge me for the chance of winning, I win, you should keep what you have already charged. It is so simple
All these illogical changes sounds very suspicious to me

 

[Ariff BD]

@Nick R
/ sav staff/ sav. com

This id j_x_942e4f
who own auction for my domain trek . xyz but didn't pay, still bidding for other domains like shopping365 .xyz

is not he supposed to be restricted to bid?

Why is he bidding?

Even I am banned to bid for not paying just once.

That is very unprofessional & fishy.

Can you please check!?

guys please tag sav so he notices my imortant comment

 

[silentg]

@Nick R

1. Dec. 19: First screenshot was posted on Twitter. The winning bidder j_x_942e4f didn't pay.

Dec. 24: If the bidder j_x_942e4f didn't pay first then why is he allowed to participate in other auctions.

More auctions with the same bidder:
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/587832/security.xyz
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/595178/metalobby.xyz
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/590946/webdesign.xyz
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/591332/regnow.xyz


w_w_909b80 is seen on auctions where the other bidder is. This bidder also won one of my domain auction on Dec. 24. I'll just have to wait until to Monday to find out if they paid or not.


Stop doing the auctions over and over again until you can fix the shill bidder issue.

 

[Akbar]

@Nick R

1. Dec. 19: First screenshot was posted on Twitter. The winning bidder j_x_942e4f didn't pay.


Show attachment 206803

Dec. 24: If the bidder j_x_942e4f didn't pay first then why is he allowed to participate in other auctions.
Show attachment 206804

More auctions with the same bidder:
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/587832/security.xyz
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/595178/metalobby.xyz
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/590946/webdesign.xyz
https://www.sav.com/auctions/details/591332/regnow.xyz


w_w_909b80 is seen on auctions where the other bidder is. This bidder also won one of my domain auction on Dec. 24. I'll just have to wait until to Monday to find out if they paid or not.


Stop doing the auctions over and over again until you can fix the shill bidder issue.

The user j_x is banned they confirmed to me 2 days ago via support... but the thing is first I don't think they have the option to remove someone from the active auction and all his proxy bids, I think they simply don't have that option within their auction code, or else those have been removed long ago.

About the second bidder "w_w" I saw a few auctions he won and paid cuz I see them on Namebio...

Here's another thing with Sav, I think the transfer process is not automated even if the domain is registered at Sav, someone manually pushes them at Sav I know this because 2 people raised the same question a day ago here that the domain was not in their account even after they paid for it.

So you'll find out on Monday if the user "w_w" paid or not if not please do post here about it...

 

[silentg]

If the bidder was banned then all auctions with their proxy bids should’ve been cancelled right away.

 

[Akbar]

If the bidder was banned then all auctions with their proxy bids should’ve been cancelled right away.

You are right but I don't think they have this coded in their auction.... this is my thoughts may be I am wrong until they clarify themselves on this.

 

[Akbar]

I rly don’t understand. When you place a bid they charge your card. If that is the winning bid they charge you again. Why? Why don’t you keep the money you charged in the first place? You charge me for the chance of winning, I win, you should keep what you have already charged. It is so simple
All these illogical changes sounds very suspicious to me

You are right and I totally agree, I'll try to clarify why this is happening. So, a year ago they use to have a system where you would be charged for every bid you place but they discontinued this system later.

Now, due to a lot of shill bidders, they brought the same system back but with little changes, here are the changes:

1) If you have a sales/buy history with Sav, you are not required for "pre-auth" on bids until that limit. For example, if you have a history of $5,000 with Sav in the last 120 days, then you can bid freely without any pre-auth up to $5,000, to bid above you will be charged a pre-auth and you can bid up to three times more without next pre-auth. (example you bid $5100, you will be charged $5100 and you can bid upto $15,000 without any pre-auth, to bid more than $15,000 you will be charged again and so)

2) Right now, when you are charged a pre-auth the refunds will take place once the auction is ended.

3) Nick said they will work on a change where one someone gets outbid, the charged pre-auth will be voided and refunded back. So I suggest you use your Paypal balance rather than your card because the refunds are pretty much instant with Paypal balance and 3-5 days with card transactions.

 

[Anton Naydenov]

@Akbarrr

1) They said accounts that were at least 120 days old and with payment history won’t be pre-authorized automatically. Not true - a few people already told me that their bids were pre-authorized even when their accounts should be old enough. Example - one of my friends has made his first purchase at Sav on 5 August. He has 120+ days history and enough purchases. And still every bid he placed after the changes has been pre-authorized.

2) Again not true. Pre-auths are released if not claimed by the merchant (Sav). Which means that they will probably have to manually release them. Example - if you win an auction at $100 they will charge $100 anyway, and no matter that you have placed bids before that in the same auction that were pre-authorized. Let’s say you put $25 > $50 > $75 > $100 - you will have $250 blocked in your card for something that you actually bought for $100. The other $150 will have to be released back manually. Which means possible mistakes - I advise everyone to keep track on amounts that should be refunded. Sav will miss to refund certain % of pre-auths. Not intentionally, but mistakes happen when you do such things manually.

3) Refunds take much longer than 3-5 days. I’d say 7-10 days based on my experience.

One of the biggest problems will occur when Sav start banning bidders for not paying the auctions they won. At the same time Sav are holding same bidders’ money blocked for auctions they lost, plus for interim bids. This will start happening tonight. We will have lots of users blocked for not paying $100, when Sav have blocked $1000+ in their cards. The new system is Catch-22, as i already said. I expect a wave of banned bidders from tonight onwards. They will be mainly bidders that wanted to pay, but couldn’t - because Sav blocked their money.

 

[Akbar]

@Akbarrr

1) They said accounts that were at least 120 days old and with payment history won’t be pre-authorized automatically. Not true - a few people already told me that their bids were pre-authorized even when their accounts should be old enough. Example - one of my friends has made his first purchase at Sav on 5 August. He has 120+ days history and enough purchases. And still every bid he placed after the changes has been pre-authorized.

2) Again not true. Pre-auths are released if not claimed by the merchant (Sav). Which means that they will probably have to manually release them. Example - if you win an auction at $100 they will charge $100 anyway, and no matter that you have placed bids before that in the same auction that were pre-authorized. Let’s say you put $25 > $50 > $75 > $100 - you will have $250 blocked in your card for something that you actually bought for $100. The other $150 will have to be released back manually. Which means possible mistakes - I advise everyone to keep track on amounts that should be refunded. Sav will miss to refund certain % of pre-auths. Not intentionally, but mistakes happen when you do such things manually.

3) Refunds take much longer than 3-5 days. I’d say 7-10 days based on my experience.

One of the biggest problems will occur when Sav sarts banning bidders for not paying the auctions they won. At the same time Sav are holding bidders’ money blocked for auctions they lost, plus for interim bids. This will start happening tonight. We will have users blocked for not paying $100, when Sav have blocked $1000 in their cards. The new system is Catch-22 as i already said.

1) This is what it says on Sav FAQ - We will calculate the total dollar amount of your purchase history older than 4 months ago. This will be the maximum total amount you can bid on active auctions at a time without a pre-auth being placed.

I am guessing what this actually means is "the total dollar amount of your purchase history for the last 120 days" and not 121 or 125 days old, they calculate this only in the last 120 days.

2) This is again from Sav FAQ - A pre-authorization is a temporary hold placed at the time of the purchase that will either be adjusted when the transaction is finalized or disappear.

3) This is why I suggest using PayPal balance rather than a card, refunds are instant with PayPal balance.

 

[Anton Naydenov]

@Akbarrr Don’t believe everything you read. Changes were implemented urgently and Sav didn’t think of all the details. Then after that they went on holidays. Once they are back on Monday, they will have to deal with even bigger mess. People have said “the devil is in the details “.

Also not everyone uses PayPal (there are lots of countries where PayPal is not even available). To me personally PayPal is a very expensive option because of their shitty currency exchange rates. For example my main currencies are British pounds and Euro, not US dollars. @Nick R somehow thinks that his customers are mainly Americans, while the truth is that only small percentage of his customers are actually USA based. Sav are based in Chicago, but their customers are from all over the world.

 

[Akbar]

@Akbarrr Don’t believe everything you read. Changes were implemented urgently and Sav didn’t think of all the details. Then after that they went on holidays. Once they are back on Monday, they will have to deal with even bigger mess. People have said “the devil is in the details “.

I am not sure what you mean by “the devil is in the details “ but once they are back I am sure they will fix the pre-auth in a better way and I will also add a big list of things I've seen and post them for consideration by Mon or Tue.

 

[Anton Naydenov]

@Akbarrr In simple words I mean that the new system is idiotic, and creates more problems than it solves. Read my posts and you will see why exactly I think the way I do. I gave enough examples. Also you must be new if you believe everything that Nick says. They won’t fix anything on Monday or Tuesday. If you really believe they will, you are simply being naive, and you don’t know anything about Sav and about the way they work.