warning Unfair Afternic commission

[Igor Gabrielan]

I was contacted by an Afternic broker to buy a domain for his client. I wasn't even registered on the website afternic.com. Naturally, this domain was not in their listings or marketplace. The domain was sold for $25,000. Afternic wants to keep a 30% commission from me. Their rules are that the buyer pays the broker $99 + 20% of the sale price.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1953750227581546632

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

I am still confused about what you are trying to say. Did you hire a broker and were contacted by your broker or did you not have anything to do with godaddy or afternic and were contacted by them out of the blue?

This should all be worked out before you agree to anything. If you have not transferred the domain do not do it if you are unhappy with the fees and accept no money.

The broker contacted me himself. I did not hire him.

 

[fka1080405]

I probably had domains car.ai store.ai space.ai on my closed Afternic account.
Can find them on the Afternic website?

I can't find any of those domains via Afternic and trying to buy them via GoDaddy shows the GoDaddy Broker Service purchase option.

I guess a possibility is that there's a bug in the GoDaddy system, and when purchasing the domain broker option, it flags the deal internally based on the domain being listed in Afternic (even if deleted) and so the broker thought this was an Afternic deal even though it wasn't and that's why they mentioned gross... but it seems unlikely.

All I think you can do is reach back out to the broker (not the Afternic transfer agents) and ask for clarity. Explain that the domain wasn't listed with Afternic and you did not have an Afternic account and so it must be a GoDaddy Broker Service deal and the buyer must have paid the 20% commission and therefore no commission should be due from you.

Anyway, given you are so successful and have such an incredible, valuable portfolio, you should probably hire someone who speaks English to handle your negotiations on your behalf English is a stupid language and mistakes like this will happen often if you are finding it difficult to understand the messages being sent.

 

[xwat]

OK, so recently, just because I started to get back into this I listed several domains for sale with godaddy. I did not know this meant that they would automatically be listed on afternic.

I had some domains listed on afternic in the past but that was a long time ago and I do not even know my account.

After seeing a post on here about the afternic boost I immediately logged into afternic and removed the boost which is added automatically!

I then raised all of the prices on listed domains by at least 50%. I plan to list them on SEDO with a more reasonable brokerage fee (15%?).

I have no desire to use Afternic after seeing such high brokerage fees.

Fees on top of fees on top of fees. Maybe I will just create my own lander with a direct contact.

I am sorry this happened to you.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Do you agree that in this case GoDaddy+Afternic is claiming $99 + 50%?

 

[xwat]

Do you agree that in this case GoDaddy+Afternic is claiming $99 + 50%?

No because I am not exactly sure what happened here. Reading your posts I am not sure if you had an agreement in place or not. Also you should have clarified this during the negotiations.

I am following this to find out if someone figures out what actually happened here.

 

[Gabriel360]

This deal was handled terribly by the GoDaddy employee.

First of all, it sounds like she encouraged you to create another Afternic account. That was unnecessary for the deal to happen.

By the way, @Igor Gabrielan can you confirm that the first contact was through email and NOT Afternic platform.

Because if you were contacted via email or your website, then they really screwed you.

Secondly, the broker should have advised you to change the Nameservers to Afternic before the deal was finalized. Especially if the domain name was not actively listed on Afternic in the first place.

Thirdly, what exactly was the purpose of opening with an offer of $20k and then including a valuation of $270k?

That's basically making an offer and then including empirical evidence that your offer sucks.

Also, the buyer definitely had MORE money to spend on the domain name.

Finally, you agreed to a gross of $25k. Even though you did so based on a misunderstanding of the message, you still did so.

Gross = Total payments from the buyer.
Gross = Net + Commissions.

The misunderstanding here is due to language barrier. Even though the broker handled the entire deal in a terrible way, it doesn't seem like they were being intentionally malicious.

This entire problem stems from (broker's) incompetence and (your) misunderstanding.

Fact is you don't write like someone who can't immediately tell the difference between Gross and Net. And the broker likely had no reason to assume that to be the case.

Especially when you confirmed in a second email that you were willing to accept the $25k gross offer.

I hope GoDaddy resolves this in a way that favours you. But next time, make your desire CLEAR by stating that the $x amount is what you wish to RECEIVE in your account.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

We use the words netto and brutto.
And if net is similar to netto, then gross is not at all similar to brutto.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

The email you see above is the first contact regarding this domain.

 

[Timkh]

What if the broker made a deal with a buyer for a higher price (say $50k), bought the domain from Igor for $25k and then sold it to the buyer. Sounds unlikely, but...

 

[DomainRecap]

If this domain was NOT in your Afternic account prior to the offer being made by a GD Broker, then you have a serious beef with them, as nothing could have been done on their platform to promote or highlight your domain.

At that point, asking for 30% is both disingenuous and unethical, as this was an outside inquiry and their "buyer pays" guideline should apply.

And from what you said, GD is trying to take 30% from you and 20% from the buyer - holy double-dipping Batman!

 

[URL Stream]

Show attachment 280773

When you read her emails was it in english or did you also click on 'translate to Ukrainian'?

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Regarding the $270k appraisal, we had an agreement that the broker would not bother me if the domain appraisal was lower than the appraisal https://www.atom.com/domain-appraisal.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

When you read her emails was it in english or did you also click on 'translate to Ukrainian'?

Sometimes I click, sometimes I don't. Gross translates as brutto, but it's still a foreign word that isn't very well understood. I think I was fascinated by the fact that it was a Godaddy broker, and I knew from the previous that they don't take commissions.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

It seems to me that if they took 50% = 30%+20% from the seller and the buyer, then it is definitely a scam, and they have no other way to hire a broker except to pay him 20%.

 

[Domen]

Regarding the $270k appraisal, we had an agreement that the broker would not bother me if the domain appraisal was lower than the appraisal https://www.atom.com/domain-appraisal.

Why they use Atom Appraisal tools, or they feel unconfident to use GoValue tools.? They should share the commission with Atom

Wish your problem fixed soon and congrats on your sales. I own .AI domain too, atom appraise $345k

 

[alcy]

Why they use Atom Appraisal tools, or they feel unconfident to use GoValue tools.? They should share the commission with Atom

Wish your problem fixed soon and congrats on your sales. I own .AI domain too, atom appraise $345k

igor is special
he only owns good. ai names

not like rest of us peasant folk

 

[GoDaddy]

Hi Igor
Thanks for raising this — we’ll work with our team to gather the relevant information, and connect with you as soon as possible.

 

[DomainBFF]

It seems to me that if they took 50% = 30%+20% from the seller and the buyer, then it is definitely a scam, and they have no other way to hire a broker except to pay him 20%.

I have been following this across X and NP. Commenting to see how this shakes out/follow as if this is the case there is a serious issue and will be the last straw for me with Afternic. Have already pointed NS to spaceship but this would be disgusting.

 

[bmugford]

I was contacted by an Afternic broker to buy a domain for his client. I wasn't even registered on the website afternic.com. Naturally, this domain was not in their listings or marketplace. The domain was sold for $25,000. Afternic wants to keep a 30% commission from me. Their rules are that the buyer pays the broker $99 + 20% of the sale price.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1953750227581546632

Hi Igor1
Thanks for raising this — we’ll work with our team to gather the relevant information, and connect with you as soon as possible.

So, a @GoDaddy broker contacts a domain owner regarding a domain that is not even listed for sale on Afternic...

Is that not a "Domain Broker Service" offer? If not, where did the lead come from?

I will give @GoDaddy a chance to do the right thing. It's complete nonsense to charge a 30% fee in this situation.

Brad