Yesterday we posted about Toxic.com, and several other domains, that had come back into auction at NameJet.com, due to non-paying bidders and the problem that this situation creates.
Today Steve Brown, General Manager of NameJet.com, responded to that post as follows:
“””We’ve been taking a harder stance against non-paying customers excluding those with non-payment issues from participating in new auctions and from winning auctions where they were already participants. We are in the process of rolling out a new non-payment policy to further address these issues, especially recurring non-payment. We recently made unpaid auctions more visible when a customer logs in (to supplement the email notifications we already send). Within the next 30 days the current non-payment fees will be replaced by severe account restrictions once an auction becomes past due, followed by account closure if the auction remains unpaid by the published deadline. In summary, the new policy is when you win an auction you must pay or your account will be closed. We recognize that this issue is very important to our customers.””””
We are glad that Mr. Brown recognizes this a problem that has to be addressed.
However we are still waiting to hear and hope it will be part of the non-payment policy, how domains will be awarded in non-paying bidder situations; how quickly a non-paying bidder will be barred from bidding; and in the case of a non-paying bidder, if Namejet.com will credit other winner bidders by any additional amount they were required to pay because of the non-paying bidder bid in their particular auction. For example lets say that the non-paying bidder in toxic.com bid on a domain, iloveyou.com, which you won for $5K but on which the non-paying bidder was the second highest bidder. In my opinion fairness would dictate that the non-paying bidders bid in iloveyou.com should be disregarded and the winner of that auction should the domain without regard for the non-paying bidders, bid.
We have other suggestions for change for Namejet.com which we made in March and you can read here.
If you have any other suggestions or comments for NameJet.com I would suggest placing comments below, as you can be assured Mr. Brown will read them.
Better system in place to prevent RENEWED domains from going to auction. This I assume was the case here: http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/582098-namejet-took-back-my-lll-com.html
Secondly, and I’m sure part of the first request… removing the domains when renewed and not leaving them on the site “for a couple days” as bait.
There is only one fair way to sell a domain that is won by a non-paying bidder:
Re-auction the domain with as much notice and publicity as it was originally given.
1. The auction house cannot simply give it to the under bidder because ALL of the non-paying high bidder’s bid are invalid.
2. So, take it down to the second under bidder and give it to the underbidder at one bid increment above the second under bidder? WRONG. That second under bidder might have bid a few more increments higher if he/she was not over bid.
Say the domain goes like this:
#1 bidder (non-paying winner) $3k
#2 under bidder $2900
#1 $2800
#2 $2700
#1 $2600
#2 $2500
#3 second under bidder $2400
Maybe #3 would have bid to $3k but saw #1 was at $3k so he/she didn’t bid. So, why should #2 get the domain for $2500 and #3 get shut out of his/her chance to own the domain? VERY unfair to the second under bidder.
3. The domain auction needs to be re-auctioned with plenty of advance notice and publicity that brought the original bidders. Anything less would be unfair to all parties except for the #2 under bidder.
Is this how Namejet plans to re-auction toxic.com?
Rob
Who should be able to participate in the re-auction only those who were in the first auction or everyone in the world?
Good question.
I’m not sure I have strong opinion either way. That’s why I suggested that the auction be marketed with the same publicity as the first one.
So, I guess anyone who puts in a back order. There can be no favoritism to anyone that’s why non-paying bidders need to be banned from all future auctions since they cause so much of a hassle.
While each of the various “award-it-to-one-of-the-other-bidders” approaches suggested above do seem problematic, at least one aspect would be most fair & reasonable:
Only those who made the decision to bid in the original auction should be allowed to bid on any subsequent re-auction/s.
If you didn’t make the commitment to join in the first time around, why should you be able to join in in (the) later round/s?
No reauction. Period.
Why is it so hard to comprehend that you null and void ALL bids entered by the winning bidder.
Who cares about bidder 3 getting a fair shot? Bidder 3 had a fair shot while the auction was running but bidder 2 beat their high bid. Then Bidder 1 got into it with Bidder 2. You go back to the point bidder 2 bested all other bidders.
This is the fair set up. But the auctioneers don’t like it because they loose money. In some cases, big money. Lets say the non-paying bidder came in at $3,500 but ran the auction up to $6,000 against bidder 2. The auction house will say that it should be awarded to bidder 2 at $5,900.
BULL!
ALL bids entered by bidder one are voided going back to when bidder one entered. Thus, the auction’s LEGITIMATE BIDDERS and BIDS are the deciding factor.
The auction house looks at this as loosing money. They lose nothing by keeping the legitimate bidders happy and coming back.
The auctioneers lose when they start creating an air of suspicion.
Why would the auction house close the auction and only allow people who were in on it the first time ? Open it up to the world. . . It’s a “DO OVER” so do it over. The whole auction was a farce if even 1 bidder backed out. Don’t give it to bidder #2. . . no way. If you can’t open it up for the rest of the world then just auction it in your “walled garden” again. . .
btw, I just don’t get why there is still a “window” that we have to put a “backorder” . Just open it up and auction the domains as openly as possible where anyone can bid at any point during the auction.
For all their faults and previous problems, I have to commend godaddy auctions. They are the only ones I really know where I can walk in at the last minute and still bid on a domain . . . all the other ones I have to be watching days in advance to know what’s what and when a name is going. . stupid imho and for the auction houses they are likely losing money on these.
Oh yeah and to the best of my knowledge godaddy gives bidder #2 a chance to buy the name at their last bid when someone pulls out. I’ve gotten a couple this way. Never seen any GD names reauctioned. Does snap still reauction names or just keep them for themselves ?
^If auciton were open to everyone anytime I would stop wasting hours every day going through piles of rubbish to find few hidden gems. Because in the end some lazy dogcunts would snip the domains from under my nose. I would start rather another biz where lazy cockroaches can not leach of my hard work.
Nice to here that, because i see some domains go high in prize like mad. and we just get away from those domains without bidding. with this policy we can bid on domains with a confidence