“The good, the bad and the ugly” An opportunity for readers to discuss what they like and don’t like about a particular company in the domain space.
Each post will deal with just one company, readers are encouraged to share their positive and negative experiences. Suggestions for improvement are also encouraged.
One of the goals of the column is that company representatives will see how their customers think of them. This can lead to a conversation on fixing problems.
What is not allowed:
- Personal attacks on individuals at the chosen company
- Promoting a competitor
- Posting domains for sale
The company in the spotlight today is Afternic.
Founded in 1999
Purchased by GoDaddy 2013
I accidentally posted my Afternic review under the GoDaddy article, so I’ve reposted it here with just Afternic stuff and added some suggestions:
PROS
– Afternic fast transfer with GoDaddy is awesome, and being listed in the path of GoDaddy by default and listed as “premium” is huge
– $25,000 BIN price max is reasonable (compared to Sedo’s $10k)
– No max price limitation on “make offer” minimum
– I’ve never had a buyer back out of a sale
– Great customer support and service
CONS
– 6 day hold on funds before payment is too long. Other marketplaces pay the same or next day — this should be reduced by at least a few days, at least for names that end up transferred to GoDaddy where the name is protected.
– no ticket/tracking system for support
– domain management interface is bulky and having to scroll horizontally to view columns sometimes causes me to go back a page and lose my progress
– When you first add a domain, too many go straight into “pending review” and stay there forever (until you send an email).
– So many names show as “already listed” when I try to add them. You guys should implement a separate way for users to flag a domain that they just registered but cannot add because it’s already listed. Using the contact form every single time to get this fixed is annoying — create an automated process or a fast-track way to flag these and get them listed.
– Why can’t I change my user login username for security purposes? Maybe 2-factor auth at some point ?
– Can’t see the number of people that viewed our “sales landing page” — this is very useful to measure interest so please consider adding it!
Still my favorite marketplace that I’ve made the most sales on, but can use some changes!
UGLY:
“…….. having to scroll horizontally to view columns sometimes causes me to go back a page and lose my progress”.
Terrible in this day and age.
20% commission compared to 15% elsewhere.
I see no extra benefits.
Number of times viewed is important but lacking at Afternic.
I sell more domains thru S than A. I don’t know why.
Many times I could push a domain.
Don’t know if that convenience went away Dec.1 ??
Positive point.
Afternic is quicker to respond than S.
I have had buyers not pay.
Good: Owned by GoDaddy.
Bad: No adult listings allowed? GoDaddy auctions allows them.
Ugly: Premium Network listing removed for any change to domain name registrant whois info.
Adult just spams up listings, there are plenty of places to list adult names, use godaddy directly
Pros: Generally, I like Afternic’s management interface and the visual presentation of domains for sale. Customer service is responsive. I was also pleased that they terminated one domainer’s account when I paid his full asking price for a domain he had listed there. But he had second thoughts and refused to transfer the domain. Consequently, Afternic removed his portfolio from their sales database which was the appropriate thing to do, and I appreciate their response.
Cons: My only beef with Afternic has been mentioned already. It’s domains stuck in “Pending Review” after being added or later adjusting the domain sale price. The “pending review” really needs to cease. It typically requires a note to customer support which is inconvenient.
Overall, quite pleased with Afternic.
Agree pending review needs to hire a human to actually review, might cost them $30K in salary, but they will make it back in commissions.
Agreed, “pending review” needs to be fixed.
The “already Listed” is very annoying. I did make my very first aftermarket sale that got me into domaining as a web developer on thier Platform back in like 2006.
They are paying PayPal only. That is no good at all.
Why they dont send payment to Bank account like Sedo.
Very bad experience: I received an email offer to buy at $500 on GoDaddy Auctions (email sent by email belonging to GoDaddy) and was then asked to proceed with Afternic at $20 000. Definitely not using anymore.
Your post is unclear. Proceed with what at $20,000? $20,000 is clearly better than $500, so no idea what you are saying yet.
Always in review pending or hidden in listings
Need a bulk search feature for bulk editing / deleting.
Agree with all comments on pending review / already listed problems.
Need to improve the search functionality for buyers. Cannot search by length / price.
Make the change column arrangement permanent, save it so it doesn’t need to be done every time you login.
Support is excellent.
I’ve always had excellent customer support at Afternic.
Per sales, as an example, based on two very nice sales this past month:
1) Received offers for domains. I accepted hours later. Funds paid by Buyers immediately. I transferred domains into Afternic’s GoDaddy “escrow” account. Funds paid out to me within 20 hours.
I believe Afternic also does some vetting per potential buyers, as I’ve NEVER had a sale/transaction go bad, unlike on other platforms which I will name, but many can surmise.
I don’t believe Afternic has commented on how they are handling the movement of domains once the new rules came into effect Dec 1st. ( Has the ‘push’ procedure disappeared ?? )
I believe “S” said they are still looking at how to handle transfers.
I presently have one going thru “S” right now that is 13 days.
Still waiting for the buyer to acknowledge they have the domain.
Who else has gotten these types of emails:
——————————————————-
***, we need one more thing from you before we can list your domains. Please open for details.
==========================================
Authorize your participation in the Afternic program ==========================================
Dear ***,
Thank you for choosing GoDaddy as your Afternic Premium Promotion registrar.
Before your domain name(s) can be listed for sale on GoDaddy and other Afternic resellers, you must authorize your participation in the Afternic program. Please click the button below to log in and authorize.
Authorize Now:
https://[LINK]
The following domain name(s) have been requested for sale through the Afternic Premium Promotion network:
**EXAMPLE**.com
——————————————————–
So the email appears to mean that someone has requested your domain through Afternic for a “premium” promotion. Then if you authorize that, what happens is that your domain gets listed at a price they set themselves, and you have no control to edit it whatsoever. Moreover, the terms state that if someone comes along and buys it, the transfer happens immediately without any ability on your part to prevent it.
The first time I got an email like that I went along with it, but was shocked to discover the above. The domain got listed for only about 10% of what my own real asking price was, and since it was a very good domain someone could easily come along and do a buy-it-now for the low price Afternic had put on it. Since I could not get all this terminated right away, I had to transfer the domain asap in order to avoid that possibility.
So what in the world is the point of emails like the above if that’s how it’s going to be and you can’t even edit or have any say in the price that gets on your domain? I could have lost a great domain for much less than it’s worth from that.
Who else has gotten these types of emails:
——————————————————-
***, we need one more thing from you before we can list your domains. Please open for details.
==========================================
Authorize your participation in the Afternic program ==========================================
Dear ***,
Thank you for choosing GoDaddy as your Afternic Premium Promotion registrar.
Before your domain name(s) can be listed for sale on GoDaddy and other Afternic resellers, you must authorize your participation in the Afternic program. Please click the button below to log in and authorize.
Authorize Now:
https : // [LINK]
The following domain name(s) have been requested for sale through the Afternic Premium Promotion network:
**EXAMPLE**.com
——————————————————–
So the email appears to mean that someone has requested your domain through Afternic for a “premium” promotion. Then if you authorize that, what happens is that your domain gets listed at a price they set themselves, and you have no control to edit it whatsoever. Moreover, the terms state that if someone comes along and buys it, the transfer happens immediately without any ability on your part to prevent it.
The first time I got an email like that I went along with it, but was shocked to discover the above. The domain got listed for only about 10% of what my own real asking price was, and since it was a very good domain someone could easily come along and do a buy-it-now for the low price Afternic had put on it. Since I could not get all this terminated right away, I had to transfer the domain asap in order to avoid that possibility.
So what in the world is the point of emails like the above if that’s how it’s going to be and you can’t even edit or have any say in the price that gets on your domain? I could have lost a great domain for much less than it’s worth from that.
Reply
P.S. The “we need one more thing from you before we can list your domains” sounds like you requested something, but that is not so. The only thing that has been requested is the “[t]he following domain name(s) have been requested for sale through the Afternic Premium Promotion network:” with those emails.
Hello Everyone and Merry Christmas,
Let me start out by stating I am very much a Novice at selling domain names.
I have several domains listed at S*do as premium. It seems like all of my Premium listed names at S*do are priced higher at my domain name(s) registrar then I have them priced BIN at S*do. I try to set a realistic BIN so I have a greater chance of selling my domain(s) The thing is, I was never contacted, nor did I give my permission to S*do or my registrar to set my BIN to other than I originally had set it! I called my registrar tech support to get an answer to who was the responsible for the difference in the premium set price. I was specially told it was set by the the party where I parked it for sale at, which was and still is S*do. I email S*do and received a reply that it was my registrar who changed the BIN price. Can anyone shed any light upon this subject? I am trying to find out the truth. Like I stated, I am a novice at domaining, so if you reply to me, please try to explain it to me in simple English terminology. Thank you in advance. Gary T
Please allow me to try to explain this,
I have listed a domain at SedoMLS at $1,000.
But When I checked this domain at one SedoMLS partner,
I found it was listed at $1300 (in other currency),
So I contacted a Sedo support,
And I was told that that SedoMLS partner was allowed to get additional 30% even after they already get their share from the 20% commission.
So my domain buddies, please confirm this yourself and think twice before you list your domain through SedoMLS.
Pros
*A very expansive network of marketplacess.
*Same day, Quick Transfer is amazing when it works
*Good phone support
*Nice looking seller dashboard
Cons
*If you upload uwing bulk the spreadsheet it is difficult to understand and use. Too many columns. Too hard to select categories because there are so, so many.
*Takes way too long for them to get accepted for FastTransfer status
*Many domains get stuck in Pending Review mode, I get tired of called CS to get em fixed
*Ugly landing page when I change my NS to Afternic
*Price of the domain is not listed on the landing page. Instead it says ‘contact us’ which is a big turn off to buyers and prevents impulse purchases with a CC.
*Seller domain portfolio dashboard has issues:
**Just like GoDaddy a shortage of workspace. 25% of my screen is filled with logos and white space. We need workspace!!
**Hate scrolling side to side to see the columns, then scrolling up and down to find the domain or to change the page. Page change should be at top and bottom.
* *If I customize columns and save, they go right back to default when I log in next time.
I often got emails from Afternic titled with “Price Requested on your AfternicDLS Domain”,
But every time when I replid and quoted (not irrational, often in low x,xxx range),
they always did not even bothered to reply and update with a simple “the buyer said your price was high”.
This is not a code a so called “the world’s premiere” business should follow.
M (the first comment) pretty much nailed all the pros and cons.
The first con – 6 day hold on funds before payment is too long – really chafes. If Sedo can pay me within 48 hours of the sales completion (i.e. money in my account) there is no reason Afternic cannot do likewise. I really hate this about them.
Afternic has the best pricing options/categories in the industry, but the lack of pricing data on landing pages is a turnoff for impulse buyers, i.e., system 1 buyers. I keep hoping one of the marketplaces will enable a clean and clear statement of price and immediate availability, and that is not obscured by ads or fluffy images.
Their 20% commission rates are fine. I don’t care if companies in their network add their own markups because I don’t see prices as logical. It’s all freshwater valuation theory for sellers/investors anyway.
The lack of two-factor authentication for sign-ins is terrifying. S is no better.
Their banning process is illogical. They’ll ban a singular but not the plural, or vice versa. They will also ban a vanilla string because it has the word “woman” in it.
The seller UI lacks a happy path for adjusting portfolio prices. It can put you back at the beginning of the path too easily. Their pages load slowly and may not load at all for a 50-item-per-page display.
Overall Afternic is a great marketplace. Highly recommended.
I loathe the user interface. So much so, I stopped adding domain names to Afternic. I avoid Afternic and S now and just go with U, largely due to poor user experience. My time is valuable, sorry folks. If a buyer wants a domain name badly enough, they will type the domain name into their browser to find the U landing page with sales inquiry form or BIN with credit card capability for impulse purchase. Why use Afternic or S at all?
Add Bitcoin as a payment method.
I paid for a domain for $400 to afternic.com on Apr 17 2017.
Afternic has failed to transfer the domain to my registrar. about 10 days after I heard nothing from them I threatened them to open a dispute on paypal if they dont refund my money or transfer the domain to me. At that time They unlock the domain and sent me the Authcode, When I started the transfer they rejected the transfer in middle.
I opened a paypal dispute in return and Now they are not transferring nor refunding my money.
Afternic.com is scamming its customer.
Screenshot attached.
http://i.imgur.com/3bIXmpe.jpg
Is that your chargeback that you placed?
When I received no response from them after a long time I disputed the payment
AFTERNIQUE SEZ:
“Why sell your domains on Afternic? Lowest commissions in the industry.”
“SALES COMMISSIONS:
“20% ($15 minimum)
$0 to $5000
$1,000 +15% of amount over $5k
$5,001 to $25,000
$4,000 +10% of amount over $25k
$25,000 and over”
So if your domain is listed at $6000 you pay AFTERNIQUE $1750 which is above 29%!!!
If $25000, then you still lose 24,4% to Afternic’s commission!!! Worse than government taxation!
Lowest commissions in the industry? Really?
Talking about RIP OFF!
Beware:
Some registrars affiliated with the Afternic MLS program are *raising YOUR listing Afternic price on their own even when you set a Buy Now Price.
Afternic BIN $1000 at MLS registrar $1150…
Double dipping without domainers knowing.
IMO Diminishing to a point the possibility of a sale., also not sure if it is mentioned in their T.O S (Afternic)
(*extra 15% for them?)
I am expected to be paid the revenue which is 83 dollars I generated for the past 30 days and the payment date is 16th of this month but today is 18th I am yet to receive my payment
https://www.namepros.com/threads/some-afternic-partners-are-marking-up-your-domain-prices.1031130/
Customer service is lacking here. In process of selling a domain, but couldn’t complete transfer because the Afternic site was unresponsive. Asked via email for a phone call, but customer service would not respond to this request. Sold more than 25 domain names here and the service used to be better than excellent. But over the past few years customer service has steadily gotten worse. Probably the last time I will use these folks.
As someone who has tried twice now to purchase a domain through Afternic, I feel pretty strongly that they are not doing any favors for the sellers who are using their services.
In both cases I was looking for a domain for a small writing website; I’m a semi-pro online writer with over a decade of experience in publishing, SEO, ads, etc., not just the writing itself. I was lucky enough to partner up with someone else with similar experience, and we have a pretty decent budget. We found two URLs which were of low value in that they are somewhat long, have never been used, weren’t even registered until 2015 each, and use phrases that have no real meaning, i.e. you can search for these terms and find no hits.
We offered $500 both times, the same price as some pretty good names (including adult sites) that were selling at the same time, and both times the salesperson from Afternic refused to even pass on our offer to the seller, saying it was “unreasonable” but refusing to explain why. When we asked for a counteroffer for our $500, both times we were told the same boilerplate sentence: “Get back with us when you have a reasonable offer.”
Questions went unanswered and the entire process was sketchy. First they seemed desperate, calling and leaving two voicemails on each of our phones within an hour’s time, then sending several emails early in the morning. Once we told them what we were looking for, they all but disappeared, except to be insulting about the $500 offers.
I’m not saying the sellers in these cases would have been lucky to get $500 per domain, but the offers should have at least been passed on. If I were a seller, I’d be wondering just how many offers you received but never even heard about.
So with all these comments on Afternic does any have any better suggestions to sell their domains? What’s another successful solution, also can you list on Sedo and Afternic at the same time? I know you can’t list on Sedona if your names are registered at godaddy, what are the successful practices known in getting as much attention on your domain as quickly as possible? Thank you for any advice.
oh..sht! just had 2 domains saying its sold but i never got them registered……. and have no money at this time….what is the holding time for waiting for a transfer? is this thing legit? seems too good to be true?