Over the years I have received about 50 “Certified Offers” From Network Solutions.
If your not familiar with the product, Network Solutions offers a method for buyers to contact buyers and to make an offer a domain.
For the privilege the “buyer” has to pay NSI $19.95 PLUS plus 5% of the final agreed upon price paid by the buyer in the case of any offer under $25K and for offers over $25K the buyer has to pay $69 plus 5%.
Of the 50 offers or so I’ve received from NSI under this service almost all have been in the $100-$200 range and went unanswered by me.
However the other day I received an offer for $1,200 so I thought I’d pay the game.
So I countered with $9,998.
The Buyer countered with $3K.
Now the service is done.
When NSI sent me the e-mail with the $3K counter, my choices were limted to accepting the offer of $3K or rejecting the offer.
I can’t counter the counter offer
I’m done.
That’s all the buyer gets for his $19.
One offer, one counter and the service is over, the buyer’s $19 is gone.
NSI site says about its Certified Offer Service:
“””Flexible & Fast — A limited number of counter offers are allowed between the buyer and seller to speed the negotiation and finalize the sale”
Limited number?
Looks like the limited number is 1 offer and 1 counter and done.
I don’t understand why NSI would limited the number of offers or counters to any number much less 1 and 1.
If they get 5% of the sales price wouldn’t they want to get as many completed sales as possible?
What does it cost NSI to send out an e-mail with counter offers from the buyer to the seller and from the seller to the buyer that they have to put a limit on it?
I don’t get it.
Do you>
Only had one experience with Netsol’s service. The initial offer was under $200. I sensed it was an automated system so I countered with $1000. They countered two additional times at higher levels about $150 higher each time as I stuck with my $1000 sale price. So within a period of ~36 hours I had three successive offers. I countered again with $1000 and then didn’t hear back for a few days. I thought I had blown the opportunity to sell a .Net which now I would probably sell for a few hundred dollars. Then I received a message they had accepted. I’m not sure why there was such a delay between my final counteroffer and their acceptance. Perhaps $1000 was higher than they really wanted to pay but they ended up doing so anyway. In either case, it was nice to pay no commission on a $1000 sale.
A couple of months ago I received a $100 offer using Godaddy’s domain buying service so I figured I could play the same game even though I was only going to shoot for a few hundred on this domain. It turned out even that was too much as they gave me one counteroffer and then cancelled. Every negotiation is different.
Leonard
I’m not talking about the offers and counters I’m talking about the NSI service that only allowed the buyer to place one offer, allowed me to make one counter and allowed the buyer what turned out to the only counter he was able to send under the system.
I didn’t know that I was only going to be allowed one counter and I doubt the buyer who spent the $19 knew he was only allowed one offer and one counter
Oddly,
I called NetSol last week and asked about this service.
I had my eye on a domain and I believed the WHOIS email to be outdated.
They put VERY LITTLE effort into this service.
In fact, all they do is contact the email address listed on WHOIS.
If the WHOIS has a dead email — then the deal stops there.
They did say that if there is no intitial contact… if the WHOIS email isn’t correct, then I won’t be charged.
I didn’t feel like paying $69 for NetSol to email someone when I could do it myself.
I was hoping that NetSol had alternative contact emails and phone numbers, since the domain owners are their customers.
I was very disappointed in what this service offered and I obviously decided not to waste my money on it.
They really COULD do some damage if they offered a way to contact account holders at NetSol in which the WHOIS email is dead.
I’d pay $69 if I knew they had an “in”.
Oh well.
Aron
When I first started buying domains I thought they had an “in.” They sent the email to a dead email address, charged me, and would not refund the money.
All I can say is that is pretty damn stupid! Really, how hard is it to send an email. Like you said, I’d be emailing back and forth for however long it took to earn the extra 5%.
#FAIL
Mike,
Maybe buyer choose option ‘take it or leave it’ or something like that. It looks pretty stupid if only one negotiation circle is possible.
Stefan
Had a sale for 18K once through their service, don’t like the service but the offer was too good to pass up.
Yeah, I’d say their service is broken if limited to one counter-offer. That’s just pointless.
Available
Then that is what the offer should say when it’s sent to the seller.
However, the offer is silent on this making it look like it hit its numerical limitation it briefly refers to on NSI site
Here’s another secret: the offers aren’t so certified. They claim that they are guaranteed because they hold the funds up front. But I settled on a domain sale for about $2500 a few years ago, and then NetSol told me later they couldn’t collect the funds.
I had the same thoughts when I received one of their certified offers two weeks ago on 4tify.com Mike.
Initial low offer comes in at $2500.
I counter at $19,500.
They counter at $10,000; with my last–and foolishly only–offered options being to accept, reject, or do nothing and let the counter expire.
No more counters available; to me or the buyer.
So I reject.
Which is too bad, ’cause I was willing to let it go for something between the 19.5k and the 10k.
Buyer loses out. I lose out. NSI loses out.
NSI always had lousy users experiences.
For anyone that registered domains back in 1990s… remember getting all those papers in the mail from the company. All useless.
Ever try to transfer a name back then? I wanted to travel out to the company and slap people.
Ever try to register and manage multiple domains at NSI? Good luck.
Ever see ANY NSI employee at ANY domain conference ever?
NSI is one of the worst domain companies out there… right next to 1 and 1 and register.com.
Andrew
That happened to me once as well, agreed upon deal, no funds ever came and a month later NSI wrote to tell me the deal was dead.
“What is the 5% transaction fee for?
For all successful Certified Offer Service PLUS transactions, Network Solutions will charge the Buyer a 5% transaction fee and the Seller a 5% transaction fee based on the final offer price agreed upon by both parties. The transaction fee is essentially Network Solutions payment for the negotiation and processing service provided.”
For the $ 19. program, the buyer pays an add’l 5% sales commission.
With the $ 69. Plus program (over 25K), the buyer pays 5% and the seller pays 5%.
They turned the economical principle of ‘economy of scale’ upside down.
It cost more to do a more expensive transaction than a lower cost transaction.
Even though it is minor, they have the fixed cost of the domain transfer to netsol if it isn’t already there.
Someone at Netsol heard that following a contrarian strategy for the domain market will make them more successful at brokering domains.
Netsol is the same incompetent company as they have always been!
I remember getting hundreds of domains starting in 1996, and deleting them every 44 days, re-registering them, and never ever getting charged upfront.
Sure they sent me THOUSANDS of letters asking for payment, but they would simply never enforced them – they even sent 3 sets of paperwork via post when they could have just as easily emailed customers with payment requests – your US tax dollars hard at work as usual (may the good Lord save your beloved country, cause that’s your last hope at this point!).
This company is obviously run by the biggest tools in the domain industry and they have squandered all of the initial goodwill and market visibility they had built over the first 5-6 years of the commercial Internet (kinda like Netscape 1995-1998 trying to sell everyone crappy, overpriced server software on the default homepage – FAIL!).
IMHO, Netsol was the #1 poorest run company of the entire 1900s century. It is only fitting they continue the quest to keep that top spot again this time around!
They have been a failure forever – I can’t believe they are still in business! Good thing their engineers do one thing right – keep those COM/NET root servers running (knock on wood!)
If anyone reading this is still a Netsol customer, you are surely in need of a full mental health evaluation…
I have only one domain with netsol now but have had a few in the past but I found a few things funny here. 1: that people think netsol still runs com/net root servers, as opposed to VeriSign… it’s not 1999 anymore people, they don’t do any of that.
I also have domains at GoDaddy, and as a domain name reseller have dealt with their certified service.. I believe the service you’re paying for at all of these places is basically so that if you agree on the price, and you and the seller finalize, there is a known company that will make sure the buyer gets his domain, and the seller gets his money. Nothing more.
I am actually not a fan of netsol for a few reasons, none of which have to do with any of the idiocy being discussed here. Out of curiosity, I checked their site about this service, clicked “Learn More” and low and behold…. I learned more! They clearly tell you what you’re getting. lol @ people who don’t care to read about what their buying then complain after they bought it. And an even bigger LOL at people that think these companies have some magical way to get in touch with people who let their information become outdated.
It’s a wonder you even manage to get yourselves online. 🙂
Hi Folks,
I work for Network Solutions. Wanted to stop by and say thank you for the feedback both in Michael’s post and the comments conversation here. Definitely sending this to my colleagues here to evaluate how we can keep improving our service. . I want to also add to the conversation by saying our focus is on small business and the products we have offer them a way to get online and succeed.
Thanks,
Shashi
Shashi
Glad to hear someone is listening.
If you want the details regarding the domain I was talking about so you can see how limiting the Certified Offer is contact me privately.
Netsol and Godaddy make tons of money from offering unneeded and redundant upsells to their uneducated customers. Does it matter that NetSol closes the deal or not between domain buyers/sellers? No, they’re now CHARGING their customers to get this service, and the “uneducated” are participating in this, yet further bruising the domain industry’s image as being con men and useless when their customers get angry after not resolving what they paid to do – bid on a domain name. NetSol fits that to a T.
I like the fact you reminded me, EmBee, of the article I wrote on this very same problem with NS 8 months ago, and should have followed up: http://www.successclick.com/how-not-to-sell-a-domain_2009_06_16/
More surprising was that Adam Strong called this out a year before!
Be sure to read the COMMENTS on my blog and the post from a NetSol representative promising that NetSol was “working” on the problem.
It’s like we gave them an idea on how to make even more money from noobies, and not do a thing to address the problem other than profit from it without satisfying BOTH SIDES! It’s really sick, and I’m surprised anyone (the millions of new domain buyers) haven’t seen the complaints about NetSol. If you’re a domain buyer, BEWARE!
Yes; thanks for your thoughts, Shashi.
As can be seen with my example of 4tify.com above, there’s likely a good chance a deal could be worked out if you or one of your colleges would like to take a couple minutes to get in touch with the buyer.
Good to have NSI listening to what the domainer community is saying.
Hi Stephen,
Sorry there has been no update from us to your post from July 2009 . Will circle back when I have news. Now I am off to hound the product guys 🙂
Shashi
@Sashi,
Uh huh. Please make sure the comments here don’t help NS find another way to profit off confusion and frustration amongst the uninitiated, okay?
I have a feeling google chrome browser won’t be good for type-in domain names.
What do you think?
You are spot on.
In the name of helping the web surfer (at least the new web surfer wanabe) the google browser once installed will suggest a particular website / domain name to the person which types in some letters into that browser (google will sell those ads to their advertisers and make BIG money that way).
The SMART web surfer will not fall for the crap google style but instead will type in the FULL web address / domain name into the browser and get to the website he or she has chosen – this is what I do.
Surf the Web the Smart way – Simple things in life are meant to be simple and Easy.
I am having some issues now regarding a recent transaction. I received an offer for $500 on Thursday for one of my domains. I countered with $25,000 and the offer was accepted by the buyer. I am now told that NS is waiting for tax information from the buyer before they proceed with the transaction. I don’t get it. I assumed that “certified” meant that they had all of the information they needed intact in order for the two of us to make a transaction. I am starting to get worried that this whole thing is going to fall apart. Any thoughts on this latest news?
@ Eric – it’s far from certified. Here was my experience
http://domainnamewire.com/2006/07/07/not-so-certified-offers-from-network-solutions/
I was wondering if someone who has completed this process could email me? I have some questions and am in desperate need of help. Thanks.
Eric
I think the NSI e-mail that they have an agreement to buy your domain is meaningless.
The buyer as far as I can tell on that platform has full rights not to follow through with their offer with no downside.
Andrew, I found your article on google search and wound up leaving a comment lol.
MHB – Yeah, it has been very frustrating. I just assumed it was a done deal and now all of the sudden the buyer needs to fill out “tax paperwork.” I mean it may be true, yet regardless it is far from the certified offer I thought I was getting.
Eric
You not making an assumption based on air, your rightly making assumptions from the e-mails your receiving from Net Sol, which indicate that you have a firm deal, when you do not.
Its not your fault it’s their fault.
MHB – Thanks, but wow very disappointing. The money would have made a huge difference and I mean huge in my life.
Eric
I Understand, which is why I wrote the post in the first place.
On the other side there is the potential buyers who believe that when they pay Net Sol the $20 or $70 per offer, they have some magical way of getting the owners of the domain to accept there $100 offers because its a “Certified Offer” from Network Solutions.
It pretty much a lose/ lose situation as far as I can tell for both Buyers and Sellers
Thanks again for the replies. At this point I’ll expect the worst. Hopefully it all works out, but I have very little hope after what I have read here. Thanks for all of your help and insight.
Great news MHB. Everything went through. It wasn’t easy, and I may have lost some hair, but the check has been processed and is on the way.