Shady Auction Result at Dynadot!

[kor]

I participated in the auction for the shieldvpn.com domain name on Dynadot today.

To pass the "bidder 12" proxy bid, I made bids in increments of $100 each. I finally gave $1011.11 and the system accepted it as the highest bid, after which the auction was over on my side.

However, the information e-mail I received said "You placed the second highest bid in the Expired Domain Auction for shieldvpn.com", then I reviewed the situation again and it seemed that there was no bidder after me on my screen.

I immediately went to live chat to inquire about the situation and was told that someone had bid $1036.11 right after me and that's why I lost.

If the last bid was $1036.11, why wasn't it showing up on my page?

Namebio records proving that the closing price is $1011, which was my last offer (https://namebio.com/shieldvpn.com)

Oddly enough, after the auction ended, "bidder 12"'s proxy bids after $550 just disappeared! And there was no outbid warning mail for the alleged last-minute bid. If a bid was placed after me (as there was no such bid in the history), the auction should have been extended by another 5 minutes. It did not.

The live chat representative could not answer these questions and tried to deflect the subject.

THIS IS SHEER FRAUD !!!

 

[alcy]

dyna is supposed to be reputable @Dynadot

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

The winning auction bid does sound a bit "fishy." Please update us after customer service investigates this further.
Sounds like you have a real reason to believe that you should have won.

 

[D Haynes]

@calebdynadot might be able to help.

 

[Caleb Tweed]

I participated in the auction for the shieldvpn.com domain name on Dynadot today.

To pass the "bidder 12" proxy bid, I made bids in increments of $100 each. I finally gave $1011.11 and the system accepted it as the highest bid, after which the auction was over on my side.

However, the information e-mail I received said "You placed the second highest bid in the Expired Domain Auction for shieldvpn.com", then I reviewed the situation again and it seemed that there was no bidder after me on my screen.

I immediately went to live chat to inquire about the situation and was told that someone had bid $1036.11 right after me and that's why I lost.

If the last bid was $1036.11, why wasn't it showing up on my page?

Namebio records proving that the closing price is $1011, which was my last offer (https://namebio.com/shieldvpn.com)

Oddly enough, after the auction ended, "bidder 12"'s proxy bids after $550 just disappeared! And there was no outbid warning mail for the alleged last-minute bid. If a bid was placed after me (as there was no such bid in the history), the auction should have been extended by another 5 minutes. It did not.

The live chat representative could not answer these questions and tried to deflect the subject.

THIS IS SHEER FRAUD !!!

Hello, Could you please DM me your username? I'd be more than happy to look into this and see what happened and if something went wrong!

 

[kor]

They admitted there was glitch in the auction and offered payment at the lowest possible bid.

However, I did not accept it because I did not trust the result.

 

[william]

Thanks for sharing. All of these sketchy auction practices need to be exposed publicly. I had many times on Dynadot where someone bids me up, doesn't pay, and I'm left paying the second highest bid anyway? Even though 30 bids before that were all that one person that never paid or wasn't even real.

 

[D Haynes]

Thanks for sharing. All of these sketchy auction practices need to be exposed publicly. I had many times on Dynadot where someone bids me up, doesn't pay, and I'm left paying the second highest bid anyway? Even though 30 bids before that were all that one person that never paid or wasn't even real.

Definitely needs to change. @calebdynadot can this be changed? If the auction winner doesn't pay surely ALL of their bids should be removed from the auction. Its a shill bidders wet dream.

 

[Caleb Tweed]

Definitely needs to change. can this be changed? If the auction winner doesn't pay surely ALL of their bids should be removed from the auction. Its a shill bidders wet dream.

So that gets a bit tricky. Our current stance is that we don't remove the winner's bids because it also hurts the integrity of the auction. For instance, one person or their affiliates can create two accounts and bid up the auction discouraging the rest to participate. When one does not pay, the other one gets the domain at a much lower price if we removed all the previous ones bids.

We've added a couple measures to help with this, both banning non-payers from participating in our auctions again (and not banning 2nd place bidders if they choose not to pay), as well as our last chance auctions for bidders to have another shot at the auction.

 

[D Haynes]

So that gets a bit tricky. Our current stance is that we don't remove the winner's bids because it also hurts the integrity of the auction. For instance, one person or their affiliates can create two accounts and bid up the auction discouraging the rest to participate. When one does not pay, the other one gets the domain at a much lower price if we removed all the previous ones bids.

We've added a couple measures to help with this, both banning non-payers from participating in our auctions again (and not banning 2nd place bidders if they choose not to pay), as well as our last chance auctions for bidders to have another shot at the auction.

I'd argue it's way more likely shill bidders will take advantage of the current set up than what your describing surely.

I guess (having thought more about it) the opportunity to shill bidders would only be an advantage to sellers in user auctions (assuming the second highest bidder rule still applies to them) and there aren't many of those that go to any kind of notable price.

Hmm OK maybe I jumped the gun.

 

[Caleb Tweed]

I'd argue it's way more likely shill bidders will take advantage of the current set up than what your describing surely.

I guess (having thought more about it) the opportunity to shill bidders would only be an advantage to sellers in user auctions (assuming the second highest bidder rule still applies to them) and there aren't many of those that go to any kind of notable price.

Hmm OK maybe I jumped the gun.

No worries, we don't have the second highest bidder rule in our User Auctions OR our Last Chance Auctions, so that isn't an issue!