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?

 

[JudgeMind]

still fails to load for me

 

[Jen-Sin]

My no reserve auction ended during the technical difficulties.

We will never know whether would there be a new bid, new bidder or a bidding war, but that is when sellers all hope to see in an auction. I can't even adjust my BIN towards the end of the auction.

 

[Weber]

I received a virus warning when attempting to connect to their site about 90 minutes ago. What the...

Nothing to do with the thread title. Just a heads up.

 

[FlippaDomains]

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

My no reserve auction ended during the technical difficulties.

We will never know whether would there be a new bid, new bidder or a bidding war, but that is when sellers all hope to see in an auction. I can't even adjust my BIN towards the end of the auction.

That shouldn't have been possible. All auctions were extended.

 

[Weber]

..

 

[Weber]

Flippa is back online, but it's not working correctly. Looks like source code is being displayed after choosing domains link.

 

[Jen-Sin]

That shouldn't have been possible. All auctions were extended.

Hi @FlippaDomains,

You can check when the site was down, and when my auction ended.

Even if the auction was extended by the duration of the downtime, it might have helped little, as the bidders, seller etc did not receive any notification that the site was back up. The site was still intermittently up and down several hours after my auction.

For example, if a bidder wanted to bid at the last few minutes, the site went down with 10 minutes to go. Would a bidder keep refreshing the page until the site is back up? Most likely the bidder would give up after a few tries of error messages.

As a seller, I wanted to lower my BIN price and/or to make comments to entice interested buyers, but I can't do that. Minutes later, I received a notification and email that my auction has ended.

These were the frustrations I felt.

Maybe no one would place a new bid nor clicked on the BIN, but we would never know.

Or I'm just unlucky that Flippa went down during the closing of my auction.

We pay listing and commission not to get into such disruption to our auctions.

My humble suggestion: when the site is down (for less than 1 hour), extends all auctions entering the final hour by one hour, and notify all watchers, bidders and seller when the site is back up with an extended hour.

 

[HeyNow]

Going through an update of our ToS this week. Will be addressing this (employee involvement) in the days to come.

Well now, let's see. Hmmm, "Going through an update of our ToS this week." That statement was made Dec 1st I believe.

So did you actually follow through? Or was your statement on Dec 1 merely lip-service.

 

[FlippaDomains]

Well now, let's see. Hmmm, "Going through an update of our ToS this week." That statement was made Dec 1st I believe.

So did you actually follow through? Or was your statement on Dec 1 merely lip-service.

Following through, yes. We'll have updates in the coming month. I'm not the one in charge of updating, and cannot control the timeline; though I have cleared a major update that should please you, in particular. More soon.

 

[FlippaDomains]

My humble suggestion: when the site is down (for less than 1 hour), extends all auctions entering the final hour by one hour, and notify all watchers, bidders and seller when the site is back up with an extended hour.

I really thought that everything had been extended. I apologize if this was not the case. Let's PM about the auction in question and how I can help further.

 

[Jen-Sin]

@FlippaDomains, for my latest auction. A bidder placed a bid in the last minute and I managed to accept the bid before the auction ends. Why isn't the auction extended?

 

[FlippaDomains]

@FlippaDomains, for my latest auction. A bidder placed a bid in the last minute and I managed to accept the bid before the auction ends. Why isn't the auction extended?

Auctions only extend if a new bid(der) exceeds the max bid / proxy bid already in place. Let us discuss off thread so we can check the logs and see what happened. I owe you some other correspondence as well. Back in town now. Talk soon

 

[gareth1614]

How can I avoid the $25 international transfer fee they're charging for me to receive payment?

Is this only if you use bank transfer? If so I want to use Paypal. It's a couple of years since I sold on Flippa so can't remember. @FlippaDomains

 

[JamesCrew]

I have a question @FlippaDomains , would appreciate your resposne

Considering my account is over 4 years old but with no transactions, if I make a sale of over $1K, $5K or $10K, would Flippa ask me to provide my personal documents at the time of withdrawing/transferring my funds from Flippa to Paypal/Bank? Or I can withdraw without any questions asked. Documents like Passport, Personal ID, and etc.

Sorry for the irrelevant post here guys. This questions was bothering me for days, lol.

 

[FlippaDomains]

How can I avoid the $25 international transfer fee they're charging for me to receive payment?

Is this only if you use bank transfer? If so I want to use Paypal. It's a couple of years since I sold on Flippa so can't remember. @FlippaDomains

If speaking of Flippa Escrow, please direct questions to [email protected] -- they can best answer them.

I have a question @FlippaDomains , would appreciate your resposne

Considering my account is over 4 years old but with no transactions, if I make a sale of over $1K, $5K or $10K, would Flippa ask me to provide my personal documents at the time of withdrawing/transferring my funds from Flippa to Paypal/Bank? Or I can withdraw without any questions asked. Documents like Passport, Personal ID, and etc.

Sorry for the irrelevant post here guys. This questions was bothering me for days, lol.

No, good question. We're in the process of letting new(er) sellers or first time transaction peeps like yourself know *UPFRONT* that you *will be required* to provide documentation via a KYC (Know Your Customer), as required by banks, as required by PromisePay (aka Flippa Escrow). This request occasionally boomerangs back if you continue to reach higher transaction value thresholds ...I do not know what those are exactly, but for clarification on this as well as which specific documents you need to relay (though I believe it is just Photo ID or Passport), please also reach out to [email protected]

 

[Dondomainer]

I sold a domain flippa, they gradually have been taking my information, like my address, phone number, name, confirmation of my paypal business card and now they ask me for my bank account, but I do not feel comfortable with this last, I think it is too much to get payment through PayPal, which has already been confirmed ( $5 fee for two days )

I can not contain the damage in case of theft, so for me is unacceptable.

 

[Dondomainer]

Flippa say :

Unfortunately, the $5.00 charge that you mention doesn't verify your identity.

The reason we ask for your bank details (and photograph or other identification, if necessary) is to identify you and your business (if applicable).

This is to ensure that we remain compliant with government bodies such as the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in relation to the relevant financial sanctions law.

These details are run through a fraud and risk screening process known as KYC (Know Your Customer) to determine whether you (or any other customer) may be engaging in identity theft, financial fraud, money laundering, or terrorist-financing activities. We are required to do these checks to remain in compliance with financial and governmental regulations.
-----------------------------


Ok, and if the $ 5 is not to confirm my account, why they lie ?

 

[FlippaDomains]

We're addressing this issue here now:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/flippa-and-his-curious-solution.910490/page-2

 

[HeyNow]

Following through, yes. We'll have updates in the coming month. I'm not the one in charge of updating, and cannot control the timeline; though I have cleared a major update that should please you, in particular. More soon.

That statement was made December 20. The "coming month" has come and gone. Do you have updates to TOS regarding Flippa employees bidding against clueless Buyers? Or was your Dec 20 statement merely more BS?

 

[FlippaDomains]

That statement was made December 20. The "coming month" has come and gone. Do you have updates to TOS regarding Flippa employees bidding against clueless Buyers? Or was your Dec 20 statement merely more BS?

Yes, it's being worked on - I'll PM you.

 

[HeyNow]

Yes, it's being worked on - I'll PM you.

To any interested reader here, I read the PM from FlippaDomains and you can probably infer why he doesn't want to post here, but rather keep the conversation private. I'll tell you that my feeling is that his PM to me doesn't reflect well on him nor Flippa. It's another case of lack of transparency. He wants to pick and choose what is aired in a public forum. What does that tell you about what he has to say?

 

[Dave_Z]

What does that tell you about what he has to say?

Whatever anyone wants to infer, maybe.

On the other hand, the fact that FD responded to you---despite your calling his Dec. 20 statement as BS---ought to tell you something. Whatever that something means to you, anyway, especially when he can always ignore you and everyone here.

Or is ignoring a preferred option?

At any rate, only time will tell whether or not Flippa will update their TOS or whatever else FD said. Obviously, any to all of those won't stop anyone from deciding whatever and then acting on that decision.

As long as everyone decides what's best---despite what others think.

 

[FlippaDomains]

To any interested reader here, I read the PM from FlippaDomains and you can probably infer why he doesn't want to post here, but rather keep the conversation private. I'll tell you that my feeling is that his PM to me doesn't reflect well on him nor Flippa. It's another case of lack of transparency. He wants to pick and choose what is aired in a public forum. What does that tell you about what he has to say?

I reached out privately because we once had a constructive, amicable discussion in that manner -- but shame on me to think I could assume you would actually take me seriously.

I wanted you to know some details I'm not yet willing to share publicly.

Not because they reflect poorly on anyone; but because (as I told you - and the actual reason I chose to keep my message to you separate), I am no longer going to broadcast a timeline for changes until I have received the greenlight that they are in production on our end.

I'm eager to see what your reincarnated lines of attack will be, since our product changes will render your current ones useless.

 

[HeyNow]

I reached out privately because we once had a constructive, amicable discussion in that manner -- but shame on me to think I could assume you would actually take me seriously.

I wanted you to know some details I'm not yet willing to share publicly.

Not because they reflect poorly on anyone; but because (as I told you - and the actual reason I chose to keep my message to you separate), I am no longer going to broadcast a timeline for changes until I have received the greenlight that they are in production on our end.

I'm eager to see what your reincarnated lines of attack will be, since our product changes will render your current ones useless.

Gibberish to me.

When Godaddy was finally outed for allowing employees, including its own VP in charge of TDNAM auctions, to bid stealthily at those auctions, it took Godaddy about 10 minutes to change the policy. No kidding. They did it IMMEDIATELY after they were outed, and I must also add they were embarrassed. They knew the extremely negative aspects of such a policy, and changed it immediately.

For you to try to convince us this is some hairy-ass task, that telling employees not to bid at auctions of their employer is a long, protracted process, is utter nonsense, IMHO. However, if indeed a company is making lots of money with such a policy in place, because of that policy, then it becomes obvious why the policy remains, in this writer's opinion.

 

[FlippaDomains]

For you to try to convince us this is some hairy-ass task, that telling employees not to bid at auctions of their employer is a long, protracted process, is utter nonsense, IMHO. However, if indeed a company is making lots of money with such a policy in place, because of that policy, then it becomes obvious why the policy remains, in this writer's opinion.

For the 812th time, we don't employ our employees to bid on auctions. But there's nothing I can say or promise you that would ever make you stop telling everyone that it's happening.