Wow, I really got screwed.

[GiddyUp]

Listen to this one: I bid $420 on a name on Afternic VVWL.com, that was up to around $230 at the time. I said, I might as well give it a shot, Im sure it will go up to thousands of dollars since it is an LLL.com. Before I knew it, I had received confirmation that I won the auction for $240. Of course, this name was actually v v w l .com, a terrible LLLL.com not worth nearly $240.

The seller would not loosen the agreement and I confirmed with someone else here on NP that they too had the same problem with the name! I told Afternic and they said in the future they would put spaces in between the letters, but clearly after the other bidder had this same problem, they did not. ITs very deceiving to the eye, as VVWL.com looks like WWL.com! Needless to say, after much arguing, I had to pay for the name.

 

[webfreak]

If it was listed as vvwl.com on Afternic and not wwl.com, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are bidding on the name you think you are. If there were any details in the listing that would lead you to believe it was an LLL.com, then you may have a case. Regardless, if there were no details that said that it was an LLL.com, you should take up the issue with Afternic, not the seller.

Finally, do you really think an LLL.com would stay around low-mid $xxx unless something was really wrong with the name?

In the future, copy and paste the domain into Word or whatever to make sure you're bidding on the name you think you are.

 

[chimaera]

Sad story but it goes to show that you need to do your research.

 

[GiddyUp]

Thanks for your response. Yes, clearly I understand that this is mostly my fault, its just a frustrating situation. I have been dealing mostly with Afternic, I simply explained the situation to the seller and asked him to just put it back up for auction. Apparently he had just done this "favor" to someone else who had mistakenly bid on on the name and wasn't willing to do it again. It just seems immoral to go through with such a sale knowing I made a mistake and have no interest or use with the name.

Its like: "Tough luck, I know you don't want the name, don't need the name, and made a mistake in bidding on it, but I'm going to squeeze as much as I can out of you because of the mistake you made"

Oh well, I guess it is just tough luck.

 

[Premium]

I saw this as well, and when I saw the bid I knew the person was unaware of it being a 4 letter .com! That unlucky person was you :td: Sorry to hear about this, be more careful next time!

 

[nmr86]

thats really bad luck bro..

 

[slugraduate]

I think it a bit sleazy that the seller knew there was a problem with the listing the first time and failed to address it in the description the second time around. This just screams that he purposely failed to address it hoping to catch a someone not looking. Yeah, it's the bidders responsibility to look closely, but the seller knew what he was doing.

 

[whitebark]

Sorry to hear that. Good lesson for others - buyer beware - do your homework!

 

[NickSE]

wow I almost did the same thing when I saw it for sale, I feel your pain!

 

[estibot.com]

Sure, I agree that buyer beware, and do your homework as it's not always pretty out there, but in this case the seller should have agreed to relist the name.

Business is not about screwing people over. It's not even about buying as cheap as possible and selling as expensive as possible.

Business is about providing services or goods that someone needs for fair market price and making a profit, all the while providing value to the society in general.

Now, if someone decides they are willing to pay $1,000,000 for vvwl.com, that's OK. Then it's a reasonable price for them.

But if they mistakenly bid for a name that's something other than they thought, they should be refunded.

Look, say you buy a pair of shoes, your foot size is 8 1/2. You march out with a brand new pair of Nikes, but notice at home that they're size 9 1/2. You curse yourself, march back in the store and explain the situation.

How many shoe stores would not change the shoes or, if they were fresh out of 8 1/2, NOT refund your money? Not many shoe stores that are in business for the long term anyway.

It's not about screwing people over. The guy made a mistake but for fairness' sake he should be refunded. The seller is at fault; he knows there was a mistake, and he even knew there was possibility for misunderstanding with his listing, but still took advantage of it. Afternic is at fault for not mediating this case.

One word: Greed.

 

[nmr86]

good reply there josh_1

 

[chimaera]

Is this the listing? If so, I really can't see how you would mistake it for WWL.com ...

http://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=14920608

 

[floatingworld]

Is this the listing? If so, I really can't see how you would mistake it for WWL.com ...

http://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=14920608

hmm nor do I. The listing looks very clear to me.

 

[Sabre]

Taking away the Domain Name "v v w l.com" part, the VVWL.COM does look remarkably like WWL.COM.

I'm presuming the buyer only saw the VVWL.COM part of the listing?

 

[chimaera]

Plus the fact it was in the "Acronyms, 4+ characters" category.

Sorry, but if I were the seller I wouldn't have let you off either.

 

[RJ]

Is this the listing? If so, I really can't see how you would mistake it for WWL.com ...

http://www.afternic.com/name.php?id=14920608

Since the OP complainted, Afternic added spaces between the lowercase letters on this part:
Domain Name VVWL.COM / v v w l.com

Look at this in Arial font:
vvwl.com is not the same as wwl.com

Arial makes vv look a lot like w when displayed without the space. There was another thread a few days ago where someone else made the same mistaken when viewing it.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

-RJ- beat me to it

Bottom line, the listing was changed - or the format of that listing is different than it appeared when I first looked at it.

OP, I agree that in all cases where it is a domain name that COULD be confused, the seller/agent should take every reasonable care to make sure that the bidder/buyer knows exactly what it is they are getting. I think there have been at least 2 other threads this week from folks confusing 4 letters for 3 letters (A "cl" for a "d" , methinks...) at Sedo as well.

-Allan

 

[scrsteven]

The listing was changed. I saw this and had to copy/paste the domain into Word and change the font to verify it was NOT a 3 letter .com. I almost bid but my little check saved me

 

[user-7256]

RJ: That's an excellent point. Dang, I think that was fault on Afternic's part.

Although I have an annoying habit of highlighting text I read, not everybody shares that habit (which can distinguish different letters) and the buyer shouldn't be responsible for this....

 

[winst]

Auctions are not like retail stores. You can return items to a retail store for any reason, but you can't return something after an auction. That's the way auction works.

On a positive note, $240 for a LLLL.com is not that bad.