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?

 

[bigdomainer]

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?

Thanks for the info, Shane. I always wondered how sellers were making any money while paying out the exorbitant costs associated with upgrades.

 

[disaac81]

I have had zero success there, mind you I did not not list great names, but only getting like 5 views makes it a no go for me now, sorry.

imo the platform has to provide the views and the traffic without you having to fork out hefty payments.

 

[S-B]

Shane, I'm disappointed you didn't bring this to my attention first. Our Marketplace Integrity department doesn't know you. They flagged your comment likely because you speak out and ruffle feathers, something I have defended before in the past. You are still in my mind a super seller, so I've asked them to send me the reasons they revoked your status so I can look into it.

Would like to address everything else, as I think you've conflated quite a bit:



I'd like to see the comment in question, please.

That listing was ridiculous, to put it mildly, but suggesting that we suspended you because we stood to profit from the listing is the weakest part of your argument: We all know that domain would never have sold. The seller made a choice to purchase an upgrade and was refunded since the listing was cancelled.



Yes, we took care of you -- as we do to all our loyal, repeat sellers. I've mentioned many times on here that we now work with anyone who inquires, via [email protected], and offer listing subsidies or free upgrades to those who qualify.

What does "qualify" mean?

With an influx of inventory, it's not feasible to "upgrade everything" -- So if a domain seller brings us something that we don't deem to cover the cost of an upgrade, we now tell them not to bother in purchasing one.

If someone wants to bring something of value to auction, we help them do so with subsidies or outright credits. But it's now more targeted to help the seller actually sell something. And again, this is available entirely to those who reach out to us to discuss prior to listing.

Upgrades are a major point of controversy and something that I personally want to change.

I guess I figured that by helping our sellers, were they to reach out to us first, that would help our company in turn. And just to set the record straight, we've augmented a lot of how this is done now (see below with Ed Choice) -- so the number of high-volume sellers that get discounts that you used to receive has dropped to zero. The most we do is a free upgrade here and there, or half-price -- again, pursuant to speaking with us first.



Yep, it was pretty loose back in the good 'ol days.

Now you'll see that Editor's Choice is capped at around 20-25 domains per month, with priority going to short, one-word .COMs. In an effort to promote our best inventory, we've cut back on how we award this.

If you want to blame someone for setting false expectations and how this was done in the past, that's all on me. I'm the sole Editor.

But moving forward, we're being extremely selective. If you deem your inventory -- or something else on the site that you see -- to be EC worthy, please bring it to my attention.



Again, this is something we need to be made aware of -- but if our system doesn't pick up cues (faulty IPs, triggers that we have setup, other security measures in place that I won't go into), it's unlikely that we'll "see everything all the time" -- We don't have a team that sits around and watches bids come in [and before you ask, @HeyNow , we don't employ a team that sits around and bids on things, either...)

This part of our reputation is our biggest albatross around our necks, as a platform -- and we've received a pretty sh*tty rap in the past. But if you saw things from where I'm sitting, it's drastically better thanks to our beefed-up team this past year.

The fact that you, Shane, were reprimanded for commenting is questionable, and like I said I'll look into whether that decision should stand; but when it comes to trust and safety on our platform, I rather have an aggressive and vigilant Marketplace Integrity team that acts first and apologizes later - I make no apologies for that.

Find someone at GoDaddy or Namejet and ask them to stop dodgy users on their platform; it's an impossible task in entirety, but we match or beat them on vigilance, I assure you.



Please send me proof via PM.

Wishing you well, Shane. Reach out privately anytime...

I'm too lazy to break this into separate comments.

First off, I want to be very clear. When I said shilling is rampant on Flippa I did not mean Flippa themselves took part. I thought I made that clear but perhaps I could have been more clear.

I am certain my comments in that auction were the reason for having my status revoked. It's the first time I've played with Flippa in probably over a month.

It's odd how when I finally comment on something and post a thread here about it that I suddenly am deemed unworthy.

Truthfully, I couldn't care less about the Super Seller badge. I do not plan on selling on the platform again.

However, my comment about the scam listing stands. As a matter of fact I brought it to your attention via Skype.

This post wasn't about me being a good guy or a bad guy. Truthfully, I will pursue any legal avenue to turn a profit. You can say I let down my fellow domainers, however, this is a business. We don't sit around, hold hands, or sing Kumbaya. If you would have turned down a hookup you are either lying to yourself or the worst business man/woman in the world. Hate me. Love me. Whatever.

 

[ImageAuthors]

Who's pretending?

Some people. Not me.

We're selling Internet domains not negotiating billion dollar deals.

Ethics don't depend on scale. If the auto mechanic deliberately overcharges me by $100, he's still dishonest. If I take $20 out of your wallet, I'm still a thief. Where I live, a state official embezzled $14k in campaign funds and spent the money at the casino. Given the size of the state budget, that's just a drop siphoned off from the ocean. Should we pat her on the back?

Someone loses a couple hundred bucks and its not going to change the trajectory of their life.

$200 in India means a lot. Many new domainers – the people who are just starting out and easiest to take advantage of – come from developing nations. Bilking them out of a few hundred here and there can add up to financial ruin for them.

If you want to get right down to it, what are the ethics of selling a domain for a 1000% profit?

Completely ethical. The same as selling any other collectible antique you might happen to own for whatever price a collector is willing to pay you. The markup is justifiable in terms of the labor spent on research, tools, and marketing – not to mention the risk of waste. A box of blackberries at the grocery store is insanely marked up. $5? My girlfriend grew up picking them for free in Washington where they grow wild. Same as domains.

How about the ethics of "cyber squatting".

Completely unethical.

We aren't in the most respected industry. It's ripe with scams and thieves, more so than any other business I can think of.

Is that a reason to excuse any misbehavior and cheat people? Or is it something real domain investors are sick of – something to be fought against by raising the ethical standards and transparency for the general public?

You want to have a line that doesn't get crossed?

Any human being without some such line is a threat to society. People can decide where their own lines for professional conduct are found, but they'd better decide.

This isn't the industry for that IMO.

Every area of life ought to be governed by ethics. Should we really allow certain kinds of financial transactions to be a morality-free zone?

 

[ImageAuthors]

I'm too lazy to go point by point, but clearly you live in a fantasy world with sparkly unicorns, pink bunnies, candy apple trees and Abba playing in the background. That's probably a fun place to live, so good for you. Me, I live in the real world and its dark and dangerous and in this industry, ethics are often an afterthought in my opinion.

I used to live underwater and sleep with my feet against nuclear missile tubes. Buddy, you don't know what realism is. Sparkly unicorns are for the people on land eating pizza and watching TV.

 

[m-i-k-e]

Alas my experience with Flippa has also been bad as both a seller and buyer. Despite winning domains through auction as well as selling domains through auctions nothing ever really changed hands between any parties. Both buyers and sellers backed out once it came time to pay the piper. All I am left with is a hole in my bank account from their steep listing fees.

Hope this helps.

I can one up this, my buyer paid (via Flippa Escrow), I pushed the name, but, it's Flippa that has decided not to pay me and keep the money.

I haven't used Flippa in months now but when I had, Flippa Escrow worked as you would expect it would, until it didn't

This time they asked me to send them a photo of me holding my ID. Apparently some people send them this as a "security measure". To me it creates a whole new security issue.. if I send that pic out once it's out there. What's stopping whoever has access to that image down the road from using that picture as 'proof' that they are me? Anyways I told Flippa that I won't send that picture to anybody, they already have a lot of info on me and I have already carried out my end of the bargain, the buyer has my name... yet still Flippa has my money.

They say they'll pay me if I send the picture of me holding my ID which seems ridiculous to me.

If you use Flippa Escrow and don't feel comfortable sending photos of yourself holding your ID to strangers on the internet take my story as a warning.

 

[DU]

Here's an auction :

https://flippa.com/5768384-business-in-a-box-brand-portfolio-valued-over-100-000

This has an EDITOR's comment from Kevin!

Here's a little comment from the seller:

*In the event that a domain listed above sells on Brandbucket while this auction is running, the seller reserves the right to remove that domain from this auction and replace it with a domain of equal or greater value."

Here's the FLIPPA rules:
You agree that if you, as a Seller, list a Digital Asset for sale via Auction, then, for the duration of that Auction, you will not advertise or offer to sell the Digital Asset through any other third party service or make direct approaches to potential purchasers outside Flippa.com.

Here's a Brandbucket rule:
No. By submitting and accepting your name for listing at BrandBucket you are agreeing to have BrandBucket as the exclusive seller for the duration that a domain name is listed, and listing the domain for sale elsewhere is prohibited.

So how does @FlippaDomains allow an auction to be held and give it EDITOR comments when the whole premise of the auction fails the basic rules? Perhaps Flippa has no rules at all? Perhaps it depends on who you know?

How do they allow a portfolio to sell when that portfolio is "unknown". I think that poopoopoopee.com might be as valuable as Valtrax.com. On second thoughts, one of them is a huge TM risk and the other one is just shit.

What a crazy platform Flippa is.

 

[Fliporium]

Thread marked as "Watched"!!

This will be a crazy ride, buckle up everybody. Thank you Shane I am looking forward to seeing what other shadiness will be shared.

 

[DomainGist]

He would have kept covering them if they just left him alone and didn't remove his Super Seller status.

A status which they pretty much gifted to him, in listing credits, which was the entire basis of the expose.

It was fine when he was benefiting, an outrage when he wasn't.

I see little point in kicking him whilst he's down though, one day he'll surely look back on this knee-jerk decision and realise that an employment reference from a major tech brand is not worth sacrificing for some rash point scoring which will have minimal long term impact on the other party.

He's damaged himself more than he's damaged Flippa, hardly seems worth it.

In San Francisco tech firms have 'gentlemens' agreements that when they part ways with an employee they agree not to tell future prospective employers how crap you were at your job, in return for the employee not telling the internet how crap their employer was.

That is an unwritten rule, and I'm not making it up either. Even if Shane was only a broker for a short time, presumably not too successful, being able to stick Flippa on your CV is a big deal.... he can't really do that now.

 

[NameOmnia]

Massive ego.

and totally failing to understand the difference between helping/educating and covering up scams/shady practices until it's convenient.
Success is reached when we, as people first and entrepreneurs after, are able to create win-win situations rather than win-lose ones.
Win-lose business models are indeed scams.

 

[imadoer]

I get so many questions in my mind...

Is this thread just for entertaining purposes?

Are we grown-ups or just a bunch of Illuminate-conspiracy-teenagers?

What's up with domainers with beards?

My avatar has a beard maybe I will become a pro now :D

 

[21x20]

Should we go back to registered letters?

If not, what other ways can these institutions implement anti-fraud measures?

But the point is that it's not really a valid "anti-fraud measure".

Once your documents have been scanned and sent via email, any disgruntled fool along the way can re-forward them off and use them to defraud someone else. People aren't supposed to send credit card numbers via unsecured email on the chance they could be stolen. Companies are not supposed to accept credit cards in unsecured ways -- to follow the credit card company guidelines even you must use an SSL server to accept a credit card number...

Meanwhile, credit card transactions are highly monitored and CC numbers are easily cancelled and changed in the case where one is stolen.

On the other hand: You most certainly can NOT change your ID or electric bill if it's stolen from an email or from some hacked site's database. Scanned documents can only be considered an "anti-fraud" measure the very first time you send them. Once they're out in the wild, they're no longer anti-fraud proof.

(Not too mention how easily anyone with photoshop can mock up any requested "scanned" document pretty quickly.)

 

[Beezy]

yikes.

 

[DomainGist]

Great thread, how did I miss it? My thoughts.....

1. Flippa have been ludicriously naive to employ a domain broker / bring somebody into their circle (wasn't Shane one of those for a while?) without getting them to sign an NDA of some description, because with one of those this comments like this: "They are working on adding small business to their platform" would not have been possible.

2. Unless they have, in which case they'll be on the phone to their lawyers.

3. Lets be honest, any of us with more than a few brain cells already knew that flippa premium listings were a rip off and that people like Shane and Ali have been allowed to profit greatly to spread the gospel and recruit more people to the bottom of the Ponzi scheme. Unfortunately no moral highground to be taken here by the OP, he's been complicit in this, he's played his own part in the very system that he so heavily condemns.

4. Alas, I'm grateful that he has shared this. I guess he qualifies as a whistleblower, and society needs those more than ever.

5. As admirable as becoming the domain worlds Edward Snowden is, I'd question the wisdom of using your real name when whistleblowing. It may have the unintended consequence of making you unemployable, because lets face it, there are not many businesses who are whiter than white, and there are no businesses who would be happy having a former employee/associate sharing their growth strategy with their competitors. And that does not just apply to the domain world, but the business world in general. Isn't making a name for yourself as a "whistleblower" on the internet, which never forgets, effectively like electing to give yourself a criminal record?

 

[HeyNow]

This guy wants everyone to boycott Flippa following his "revelations" . This guy has failed.

I seem to remember the guy you're talking about proud and pontificating about how he didn't care if clueless buyers got screwed by auction platform employees stealthily bidding against those outside, clueless bidders. After all, he's a "businessman," (yeah right). Dog eat dog out here, or some other nonsense spewing from his butt hole.

Now he's stuck to the side of the cesspool, drowning in the rancid soup he helped brew. Let him stew in it. He's earned it. The stench is apparent in every one of his posts here.

You're correct. That guy "has failed."

I hope his dog was able to escape.

 

[discobull]

Oh, it helps.

Hopefully you'll learn not to hand your hard-earned cash over to a company that makes money from you and your property whether or not your domain sells there, and has no accountability when the buyer or seller craps out of the deal. No need to change policy, they already have your cash, and that's what it's all about.

Stop paying fees. Like real estate brokers, domain auction platforms should make nothing (nada, zip, zero) until a sale is complete. Just like real estate. Just like major-league domain sales.

Just think about how sleazy it seems making a few hundred bucks off of you then telling you that you're out of luck 'cause the buyer or seller changed his/her mind. And by the way, we're keeping the fees we charged you! Hahahahahahaha!

The interesting thing about Flippa is that they don't even pretend that their platform works. If you search through the forums you'll find them berating customers who expect to get sales simply by putting up listings and buying $350 upgrades. The message is that if you want to get a sale on Flippa, you have to be prepared to also do your own mailings. In other words, you have to supply Flippa with the domain, pay Flippa a $9 listing fee, pay Flippa a $350 upgrade fee, supply Flippa with a buyer, and then pay Flippa a 10% commission.

To me, that sounds like way too much aggravation. I figure I can save myself some time and effort by skipping the listing and simply sending Flippa a check whenever I get a sale on my own.

 

[HeyNow]

Are you going to NamesCon?

No, I'm not. I wouldn't give nickel one to the current crop of domain conference organizers or sponsors for that matter. The organizers and sponsors (of which Flippa is one) have supported and included ethically-challenged "guest speakers" and panel "experts" whose credibility as "experts" and motivations for bestowing their worldly knowledge on the rest of us is now suspect. Flippa's sponsorship probably cost Flippa a few bucks, and guess where that money went? From the outside looking in with no inside knowledge, it appears that, in the past, it went to individuals like Adam Dicker. You expect me or any participant here to overlook the current controversy surrounding that individual as though it's all stuff that happened within the last few weeks? That shit (what I consider ethically-challenged behavior) goes back years. And guys like the organizers of Namescon, other domain conferences, and sponsors like Flippa have, to me, appeared to overlook a lot of crap perpetrated on me and the rest of the "outer circle." Some of us in the outer circle have been screaming for years about this nonsense, and the conference organizers have either had their heads buried in the sand or have been clueless all along. Either way, it shows me and some of us that they are certainly not "experts" about what's going on in the domain aftermarket industry. And if they've been looking the other way and holding their noses while they hire guest speakers and panel members, then that's even worse.

Dude, you work for a company that allows its employees to bid at Flippa auctions as long as the seller knows about it. What about the potential buyers like me? You're okay with keeping us in the dark about the possibility of auction platform employees driving up prices unbeknownst to us? While that's the case, you'll never see me supporting a conference at which Flippa is a sponsor. Sorry my friend, it just wreaks of potential fraud and shill bidding, whether or not fraud or shill bidding is actually occurring. In the past the company you work for would get the benefit of the doubt, but not with the latest revelations about Adam Dicker, the Snapnames scandal history (hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars of shill-bidding and no one went to jail), and the Godaddy TDNAM auction scandal with their VP bidding against clueless customers. If I stole $50 from a grocery store, I'd be taken to jail in handcuffs. AFAIK, no one ever went to jail for any of this crap. That shows me the industry is okay with it. You're okay with it? Then you'll not get one red cent from me and probably lots of others.

 

[Jen-Sin]

@FlippaDomains, why is Flippa asking to verify my identity again when I had previously provided my identification?

According to AUSTRAC, "Know Your Customer" (KYC) identification process is required by financial entities for new customers when opening an account to prevent or detect money laundering activities. It can also reduce other types of risks to a business.

Under the ongoing customer due diligence (OCDD), entities need to determine when and in what circumstances additional KYC information should be collected, updated or verified.

After 10+ transactions in Flippa, my transactions are now considered unusual or suspicious or high-risk that I need to provide identify verification again to ensure my account remains under my control?

Earlier identify verification, phone verification and credit card verification and other forms of checking like IP monitoring are not enough to confirm my identity?

The process should not be the reason to hold back rightful payment from auctions and sales. If a risk has been identified, shouldn't OCDD be conducted before any sale and not during the release of funds?

Now it has became a situation where I have to be compliant to this request in order to receive my funds.

I understand that integrity of a marketplace is important. But sometimes I feel Market Integrity of Flippa views and treats all users as potential fruadsters first and valued customers second.

Even big marketplaces like GoDaddy and Sedo don't demand the kind of verification Flippa requires.

Hi @Jen-Sin ~ Sounds like you may have triggered a new threshold of transaction totals you've thread through the platform. I believe they need to re-evaluate every so often, though because their department is separated [PromisePay aka Flippa Escrow is a separate company, just so everyone's clear], you'll need to reach out directly. Best way to get in touch with any questions or concerns is via [email protected]

@FlippaDomains,

Now I received a note from AirTasker.com via Flippa support that my account may be suspended if I don't provide my identification. The intent of Know Your Customer is to know your customer and mitigate possible business risks. Can Flippa explain how am I a higher risk customer now? I have completed 10+ transactions with 100% feedback, and your company has already verified me via my email, full name, credit card, telephone, and all my social medias, and earlier, I have verified my identify prior to my first Flippa escrow transaction. Even my PayPal email is my verified email and my bank account provided is under my name. All these are still not enough for the company to know me as a customer? Even IP checks are able to flag suspicious accounts, but can't determine I'm the actual person using my account? How about a phone call to my verified number to check?

How many other separate companies are involved? First PromisePay, now AirTasker.com.

And now my $2+k and my account are been placed on hostage. Why is it that Flippa loves to treat customers as potential criminals? I've chatted with you many times about this, but things don't seems to improve but getting ridiculous. How many more good people is Flippa going to lose? It's not about upholding market integrity and apologising later. Will anyone like getting slapped in the face and getting an apology later? These are definitely not honest mistakes but intentional procedures that no longer makes sense when implemented to the extreme.

If PromisePay is not Flippa and Flippa is not PromisePay, why use the name Flippa Escrow? And PromisePay is able to have my Flippa account suspended or banned?

Can Flippa please share how such practices are the standard industrial regulations? Aren't EYC and OCDD a process prior to using the service and not just before release of funds?

Flippa is quick to ban and suspend accounts, but half the time, slow to respond. Market Integrity was able to flag more suspicious activities this year, but with the increased threshold, it has achieved a negative experience overall. Just the last few pages alone, there're already a few users who felt the consequences were not warranted. What about those users who don't read this thread nor know you but were handled a ban and/or suspension with no recourse?

In the last 4 months alone, I have been banned once, threatened to be banned twice, and now a note of possible suspension with my money held on hold. Market integrity is important, so is customer experience. We are not criminals.

Please please please please please review the current processes. Good Market Integrity is supposed to increase confidence in the marketplace, not the reverse knowing that money paid can be forfeited or funds held.

 

[iowadawg]

I will wait for Flippa to reply.
So I can have some good laughs maybe...

 

[AndyM]

I have to say that I have been very disappointed with the upgrades and the premium listing prices. I paid out $340 for a premium listing and received only a total of 3 bids. As the domain never reached the reserve I went to re-list "for free" only to realise it's only a basic listing now, if I want my listing to be premium again I have to pay another $340.....an absolute con! Definitely going to look elsewhere to sell my domains.

 

[RogueWriter]

Truthfully, I will pursue any legal avenue to turn a profit. You can say I let down my fellow domainers, however, this is a business. We don't sit around, hold hands, or sing Kumbaya. If you would have turned down a hookup you are either lying to yourself or the worst business man/woman in the world. Hate me. Love me. Whatever.

Lol, I always, always appreciate brutal honesty from someone, that is something to respect.

Years ago I pointed out one of my profitable sites to someone here on np, as an answer about affiliate marketing, an example of how to develop a site. Within, I would say a week of that, someone had built a duplicate of my site on the same keyword / different extension, and I spent the next several years competing against that idiot. Its okay to not give your competitive business advice out on an open forum, and you shouldn't if you do not want others to immediately act upon your advice.

 

[biggie]

i think

those who used the service, played a part in promoting the service.

and as the user base grew, so did the hype

that hype fed the listings, which fueled the frenzy

cuz, in the minds of domainiers, they sold names.

as the reported sales continued, it spurred the tiered fee structure

premium listings, editors choice, super sellers....this ball was rolling!

perks, are what makes shit happen sometimes, who gives them and who gets them, can always be a problem for the non-receivers, but if you aren't a participant, then you don't get caught-up.

and that's really the crux of this epishit, folks got caught-up and cuz an insider spilled the beans, some wanna step on em.

if you still in it, then you still in it, if you're unhappy, either get out or lobby for the changes you want.
but hating the messenger won't affect the service.

imo....

 

[briguy]

Not at all. This has actually motivated me to start a blog where I can freely rant (stay tuned).

I'd say after ~10,000 views, ~200 replies, and ~75 likes on the original post that I've succeeded.

Makes me wonder if that was your plan/agenda from the start of this thread. Start a controversial thread about a site that you had good/bad experiences from (probably made some good money from this site)..let human nature take over (liker/haters of this site and you clashing), fuel the fire, let human nature take over..more fuel..then subtly mention a upcoming blog....(something that a exprience promoter would do)
Anyway just my opinion..

 

[Jen-Sin]

I'm a marketer, bro. Nothing more and nothing less.

It's exactly this reason why the insurance industry has a bad name and honest agents are been looked down.

Likewise, this thread shows why our industry will only get more tainted without accreditation.

 

[Kate]

If I must send ID I always put the name of the website in the background (as a visible watermark).
This does not prevent ID theft but at least it makes the scan not reusable, thus the thieves will probably move on to the next victim.