So you THOUGHT Flippa was shady?

[S-B]

Sorry in advance, Kevin. Should have had your people leave me alone.

Flippa has been the subject of much controversy over the last 6 months. Speculative talk has ranged from shill bidding to bloated sales reports. Most of the accusations are pure garbage but the company is sketchy as hell.

While you might be thinking that I’m bitter because I haven’t any luck there, you should know that I moved $75,000 of domains in 6 months. At one point, I was the first to go to bat for them all because I try to show some loyalty when someone is taking care of me.

However, I recently had my Super Seller status revoked “due to comments made towards other users.” In fact, this is due to my response to the auction where an individual claimed to have an offer on a 3 day old domain of 10,000 bitcoins — that’s $2,500,000. Apparently, calling out a scammer is grounds for retaliation from the business.

I suppose this is because Flippa values net revenue more than customer satisfaction.

Now that you know my motivation I will move on and share a little bit of insider information.

If you’re paying full price for listing fees and upgrades you have been scammed.

They have gone on the defensive in the past by saying that they “subsidize” upgrades for their top sellers. Subsidize is a cute word for giveaway.

I received somewhere between $3,000 to $5,000 in “subsidies” — as a private seller — over 6 months. At one point, I received $2,000 in credits at one time.

Now I won’t lie, sometimes I had to pay for listings. When I did, I still got hooked up. For every upgrade or listing I purchased I received 2 free.

So when I paid, which was rare, I paid 1/3 of what you’ve been paying. I’m sure you now see why some people make a killing off their platform while others have lost hundreds of dollars per listing.

Oh you thought Editor’s choice was for good domains? Nah. It has been a filter for friends of Flippa.

When I sold on Flippa’s platform, I was given Editor’s Choice for nearly all of my domains. Why? Because I asked.

I know some of you noticed that only 3-5 people showed up when visiting that page. Some might not care but others might understand the value of this.

Domains at Flippa sell for much more when given the Editor’s Choice designation.

Oh so you suspect shilling? I’ve known many users who have shilled their way to a profit. It doesn’t benefit Flippa to eliminate shilling. High sales mean higher success fees.

Simple as that.

Straight up scamming? Yep.

I’ve reported verifiable scams to customer support and I didn’t hear back until after the auction closed. They stated that it was now the buyer’s responsibility to report the sale if something fishy occurred.

Hmmmm.

Would the buyer receive a refund? No. Would the seller be suspended? Yes. Would Flippa still profit? Damn right.

At the end of the day, you can choose to use their platform of boycott them.

I will choose the latter.

P.S.

Have you been curious about what Flippa has been doing?

They are working on adding small business to their platform.

Yeah. Dump money into selling physical business without verifying any of their claims.

That should work. Everyone is honest. Right?

 

[loredan]

@FlippaDomains The company is clearly being run into the ground. I can make a potential 7 figure offer if I can see financial statements. Flippa needs help.

With a 7 figure budget you can build from scratch a "brand new and much better Flippa" , no need to clean up somebody elses mess.

What Flippa needs is a strong competitor so they'll stop bossing the niche - a shame that FreeMarket's project never took off the ground imo .

 

[FlippaDomains]

Just wanted to announce, as I have been approached by a few more sellers looking to move BrandBucket portfolios at auction:

While the auction in question, which ended successfully on Flippa, was allowed by Flippa and BrandBucket (and thus allowed to finalize), both marketplaces are in agreement that moving forward with these kinds of portfolio sales would not be in the best interest of buyers and sellers on either platform.

On Flippa's end, if a domain from said portfolio were to sell outside of its live auction, it contradicts everything I wrote above - about us not ending live auctions, and also making sure that assets IN a live auction are NOT being sold/bought elsewhere concurrently.

It is because that latter angle is so difficult to guarantee (at least 100% of the time), and also for a few other notions that Michael @ BB and I agreed on, that Flippa will no longer be facilitating or welcoming these portfolios for sale on our platform.

It was an experiment that I, and I alone, proceeded to go ahead with - marking the portfolio in question as one of my Editor's Picks. I appreciate everyone's dialogue on this, as well as your understanding about the rules now in place.

 

[FlippaDomains]

There was nothing unclear to me so not sure why you are replying to me with that. I said I hate to see people have to cancel auctions, and BrandBucket needs to have a freeze option, or say no if your domain is on BrandBucket you cannot run an auction on Flippa, if you do, we will remove the name from BrandBucket.

Wasn't meant to be towards you, I know you understand what I'm saying

 

[Mr Dobalina]

With a 7 figure budget you can build from scratch a "brand new and much better Flippa" , no need to clean up somebody elses mess.

What Flippa needs is a strong competitor so they'll stop bossing the niche - a shame that FreeMarket's project never took off the ground imo .

Business is an interesting thing. You don't know the state of their financials. I would guess they are way over-leveraged and struggling to service their debt. They have a brand, traffic and the backend already built out. Acquiring, then constructively shaking the debt off the balance sheet would be the way to go even if re-branding the site was necessary to make up for their terrible reputation. I'd love to see their statements. I would genuinely be interested in an acquisition.

 

[FlippaDomains]

I Agree with you...

I haven't had a bad experience with Flippa to date. When buying domains now I find that NP auctions gives me more of a peace in mind to avoid the potential shill bidding even if it isn't happening at Flippa as much as we think or if it is happening at all now???

However that being said there are some very good domain GEMs at Flippa and I find that a PM and negotiating a BIN and getting the deal done is much better for me. IMO... I've had no problems with Flippa Escrow...

I guess there are different experiences that vary from person to person... However reputation is everything and it seems that Kevin is doing his best to answer customer concerns on this blog... That's all we can ask for and hopefully it helps to resolve and fix customer concerns...

Not everyone is going to be satisfied and that happens in business...

Thanks. As I've been stating, I'm working this week to catch-up-to-speed places in our ToS that need updating. Any concerns other than the ones placed in this thread should be addressed with me via PM, and I can cull those and report back with how we're making improvements.

 

[FlippaDomains]

Business is an interesting thing. You don't know the state of their financials. I would guess they are way over-leveraged and struggling to service their debt. They have a brand, traffic and the backend already built out. Acquiring, then constructively shaking the debt off the balance sheet would be the way to go even if re-branding the site was necessary to make up for their terrible reputation. I'd love to see their statements. I would genuinely be interested in an acquisition.

We're doing just fine and you should be more careful with misinformation you're suggesting.

 

[Mr Dobalina]

We're doing just fine and you should be more careful with misinformation you're suggesting.

Look at your most recent year's balance sheet and divide Total Liabilities / Total Equity. Is the answer double digits?

 

[FlippaDomains]

Look at your most recent year's balance sheet and divide Total Liabilities / Total Equity. Is the answer double digits?

Not for me to say, nor you to know. But keep making numbers up, be my guest.

 

[Mr Dobalina]

Not for me to say, nor you to know. But keep making numbers up, be my guest.

Harbottle probably doesn't let you see that information anyway so it's okay.

 

[DU]

While the auction in question, which ended successfully on Flippa, was allowed by Flippa and BrandBucket (and thus allowed to finalize), both marketplaces are in agreement that moving forward with these kinds of portfolio sales would not be in the best interest of buyers and sellers on either platform.

On Flippa's end, if a domain from said portfolio were to sell outside of its live auction, it contradicts everything I wrote above - about us not ending live auctions, and also making sure that assets IN a live auction are NOT being sold/bought elsewhere concurrently.

It is because that latter angle is so difficult to guarantee (at least 100% of the time), and also for a few other notions that Michael @ BB and I agreed on, that Flippa will no longer be facilitating or welcoming these portfolios for sale on our platform.

It was an experiment that I, and I alone, proceeded to go ahead with - marking the portfolio in question as one of my Editor's Picks. I appreciate everyone's dialogue on this, as well as your understanding about the rules now in place.

I know this won't stop the practice point blank because sellers will always skirt lines and test boundaries but this does actually mean the guidelines of the TOS against double selling are in place and will not allow flagrant violation. The double selling policy is a critical part of an digital auction.

I'm actually impressed that two platforms actually talked and came to the only logical conclusion. I doubt Namepros will do the same so that puts you +1 I know this thread causes you lost weekends but I do think that you are making a concerted effort to make the platform better while trying to meet the concurrent needs of supporting your business growth. I've seen lots of improvements made - it's not perfect but I would argue that few places are.

For what it's worth - I think you're doing a pretty good job of spending a lot of time here. I hope your employers appreciate how hard you have it sometimes and you get some credit for that.

Double-listing, addressed below (in the non-auction, offer/counter-offer, buy/now section) is allowed

Not sure how it is allowed in the buy now section which runs the same risk? I guess we'll wait for the new TOS.

 

[Jen-Sin]

@FlippaDomains,

Now my account is suspended.
My $2k+ money is stuck, my domain already transferred to buyer.
My ongoing auctions are disrupted.

And an empty email with just the subject of Account Suspended.

And now Flippa is telling whoever seeing my profile that I have possibly violate terms of conditions.

I use an Escrow service for a peace of mind. Are all these actually right and legal?

 

[JamesCrew]

@FlippaDomains,

Now my account is suspended.
My $2k+ money is stuck, my domain already transferred to buyer.
My ongoing auctions are disrupted.

And an empty email with just the subject of Account Suspended.

Show attachment 20156

And now Flippa is telling whoever seeing my profile that I have possibly violate terms of conditions.

I use an Escrow service for a peace of mind. Are all these actually right and legal?

So instead of resolving things with you, Flippa has decided to mess things up, and big time! WOW

From the looks of it, things aren't going no where positive for Flippa.

 

[FlippaDomains]

So instead of resolving things with you, Flippa has decided to mess things up, and big time! WOW

From the looks of it, things aren't going no where positive for Flippa.

@JamesCrew I like how you think this is all some sort of behind-the-curtain mastermind at work. Looking into it now, @Jen-Sin

 

[JamesCrew]

@JamesCrew I like how you think this is all some sort of behind-the-curtain mastermind at work. Looking into it now, @Jen-Sin

Kevin, it looks like that you are the only guy left for Flippa to make things right, and the others are doing their job making it worst for others and for you too.

Appreciate what you are doing and hope to see you resolving Jen-Sin's issue along with other legitimate ones.

PS: It would be better to hire individuals with experience in the domaining industry for customer support, would be a big help for domain flipps at Flippa.

 

[FlippaDomains]

I know this won't stop the practice point blank because sellers will always skirt lines and test boundaries but this does actually mean the guidelines of the TOS against double selling are in place and will not allow flagrant violation. The double selling policy is a critical part of an digital auction.

I'm actually impressed that two platforms actually talked and came to the only logical conclusion. I doubt Namepros will do the same so that puts you +1 I know this thread causes you lost weekends but I do think that you are making a concerted effort to make the platform better while trying to meet the concurrent needs of supporting your business growth. I've seen lots of improvements made - it's not perfect but I would argue that few places are.

For what it's worth - I think you're doing a pretty good job of spending a lot of time here. I hope your employers appreciate how hard you have it sometimes and you get some credit for that.


Not sure how it is allowed in the buy now section which runs the same risk? I guess we'll wait for the new TOS.

Thanks, much appreciated, with plenty more to do - and coming soon, as mentioned, some needed updates to T&Cs.

Regarding the Buy/Now section, that one's much simpler than disobeying the rules of an auction (especially one that's met reserve).

I trust that sellers will be courteous, honor timestamps and the marketplace that delivered their first offer.

I'll just state once again, however, for those of you keeping score at home...that anytime you accept an offer on platform, auction or non-auction, it is binding.

@FlippaDomains,

Now my account is suspended.
My $2k+ money is stuck, my domain already transferred to buyer.
My ongoing auctions are disrupted.

I've got you sorted out, @Jen-Sin ~ Reinstated and will be speaking to the lads at PromisePay tomorrow to figure out why so many ID checks, how to untangle that and get some insight moving forward on why this is affecting so many of you.

Kevin, it looks like that you are the only guy left for Flippa to make things right, and the others are doing their job making it worst for others and for you too.

Appreciate what you are doing and hope to see you resolving Jen-Sin's issue along with other legitimate ones.

Thanks, but I am surely not the only one in the company who cares, and there isn't anyone trying to make things worse. There are some growing pains and inconsistencies across products and features, but we're smoothing it out.

 

[Jen-Sin]

I've got you sorted out, @Jen-Sin ~ Reinstated and will be speaking to the lads at PromisePay tomorrow to figure out why so many ID checks, how to untangle that and get some insight moving forward on why this is affecting so many of you.

Thank you for reinstating my account so quickly in the middle of your night.

 

[FlippaDomains]

PS: It would be better to hire individuals with experience in the domaining industry for customer support, would be a big help for domain flipps at Flippa.

We're onboarding new CS team members now, and are always looking for qualified candidates - anyone interested can drop me a line if they happen to reside in San Francisco, and possibly the West Coast in general (we'll entertain remote).

Thank you for reinstating my account so quickly in the middle of your night.

@Jen-Sin You are a trusted customer, and I apologize that the processes in place on PromisePay's end seem to be so complicated. Apparently, you triggered a new threshold of transactions (which is a good thing!) but for some reason, needed to provide yet again your identification.

We're working with them to see how this process can improve. The good news is that, as far as I can tell, there are lots of alterations in the works that should do away with some of these current practices.

More on that in weeks to come.

 

[Weber]

Hello Kevin. Speaking of PromisePay, considering that they are a separate entity, why not provide an internet accessible account, especially since they store user's personal information. Also, where can we find their terms of use and privacy policy in regards to using PromisePay with Flippa.

 

[FlippaDomains]

Hello Kevin. Speaking of PromisePay, considering that they are a separate entity, why not provide an internet accessible account, especially since they store user's personal information. Also, where can we find their terms of use and privacy policy in regards to using PromisePay with Flippa.

Good questions. I'll find out. If I take too long to get back here, there's always their direct line, [email protected] [ and this may be of use? https://promisepay.com/policies/ ]

 

[DomainGist]

@FlippaDomains The company is clearly being run into the ground. I can make a potential 7 figure offer if I can see financial statements. Flippa needs help.

Business is an interesting thing. You don't know the state of their financials. I would guess they are way over-leveraged and struggling to service their debt. They have a brand, traffic and the backend already built out. Acquiring, then constructively shaking the debt off the balance sheet would be the way to go even if re-branding the site was necessary to make up for their terrible reputation. I'd love to see their statements. I would genuinely be interested in an acquisition.

You sound like a bit of a fantasist. Not a criticism as such, I'm a pisces so I'm guilty of the same.

Even if flippa still had a 'burn rate' of some of sort it would be unlikely to be adding debt but rather burning through investor capital.

Even if seven figures was enough to buy out flippa that's only a fraction of the investment that would be needed to turn around a company which was burning cash, as you'd also need to continuously throw money at it to cover losses during the turnaround.

I doubt that a 7 year old business with 20 employees and 2 offices is yet to reach break even point, even a technology business, and if they haven't then that means they've already got backers with very deep pockets.

If flippa were in financial trouble (which seems to be completely made up by you?) the first thing they'd do is consolidate their workforce into one location to significantly cut costs. That would be a clear indicator of liquidity problems.

I doubt they'd have opened their San Francisco office in 2013 before they'd reached profitability and if we ever hear news of an 'exit' I doubt it will be for less than 8 figures.

 

[Messiah]

@PugDomains - That guy is a troll.. I have already put him on the ignore list.. He is the guy who is currently selling NicotineAddict.com on Flippa...

 

[HeyNow]

I doubt they'd have opened their San Francisco office in 2013 before they'd reached profitability and if we ever hear news of an 'exit' I doubt it will be for less than 8 figures.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-haggen-bankruptcy-20150908-story.html

Largest grocery store expansion to bankruptcy in less than one year.

"Analysts say the chain underestimated its competition and failed to anticipate the many alternatives Californians have when it comes to food shopping."

Now, groceries aren't domains, but Haggen defied logic expanding that fast without doing their homework.

If consumers aren't getting value, and those executives in charge are somewhat clueless about the market in which they exist, if a healthy percentage of potential customers feel they are considered sheep waiting to be sheared, then anything can happen soon after expansion.

 

[Jen-Sin]

What happens if my auction ends when Flippa was experiencing technical difficulties?

 

[JudgeMind]

What happens if my auction ends when Flippa was experiencing technical difficulties?

if the sale was unsuccessful you should be credited price of all upgrades and have your listing relaunched for free. imo

 

[Messiah]

guess it was for short period of time.. site is working fine for me now...