Back in 2016 we started a series here that looked at the best and worst about companies in the domain industry. Over the last 30 months a lot has changed at many companies so we are revisiting the good, the bad and the ugly.
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
Positives -distribution across multiple registrars as well as automated transfer without seller involvement
Suggestions for improvement:
-ability to sort or filter domains by price and make bulk price changes to all of or a selection of domains listed at a certain price
-explanation as to why domains are “under review” and not showing
-.Com domains registered at Go daddy still give me a message that domain is not eligible for rapid transfer until it is transferred to Go daddy (perhaps because it is Wild West Domains?)
Good:
Afternic sells, probably better than anything else
Bad:
Payout time
No automatic ownership confirmation, why do both sellers and Afternic employees have to waste so much time on this?
Ugly:
User interface. It is the absolute worst. Whats with all these “slide on hover”? People making such interface decisions should be subjects for capital punishment!
The domain lists – 50 per page should be a default minimum, with options for 100, 250, 500, and make it remember the user’s choice! Doesn’t Godaddy have enough money to hire a qualified frontend engineer able to implement this?
Why can’t the logo and the word “Afternic” be changed to “GoDaddy”.
” the domain is for sale, please call Afternic…..” and when you clicked the top banner it goes to Godaddy and powered by Afternic.
Please change all the wordings to GODADDY!!
and there is no BIN display so we don’t know whether it was sold for that BIN or they negotiated for more money.–no transparency
Potential buyer—need to display the email address and the IP
Good: They sell
Bad: Everything else
I registered my first domain name in 2001 and have, since 2008, dedicated a great deal of time and money in developing my 800 name portfolio, and I have never sold a name on Afternic. Not one.
And now the behemoth bully, Godaddy with it’s 70 K name Berkens portfolio purchase and its’ 50 K name Ham portfolio purchase has commoditizetd domains where mean prices for virtually all .com names is $2500 ish.
NOT ONE SALE MADE ON AFTERNIC IN OVER 11 YEARS!, FOR ME,
But, considering that the domain name community at large has blackballed me and my attempts to sell domain names, any and all comments “I” make will be an instant where those reading here will in, rejoice and ( he deserves what he gets)
The domain name business?
ripe with crooks and crooked companies….
laugh it up
Robert
Can you share your domain list plz
why? so you to, can shit all over my names
short list of 800
I have done my homework and I can guarantee you and anyone other domainer that, in the last 8 years, I have hand registered the most premium portfolio of domain names of every domainer on the planet.
NOT EVEN CLOSE!
I don’t need your confirmation nor condemnation .
There is only one reason you would ask for a list of my names, and that is to shit on me and my names.
Spare me!
Pros: All the stock photos on the main page are hot.
Cons: EVERYTHING else about the Afternic platform (i.e. this platform absolutely SUCKS). Bob Parsons would be turning over in his grave is he was dead and not selling $10000 golf clubs.
Absolutely the worst user interface ever used anywhere on the planet – and while I didn’t think it was possible, it actually got worse after their “upgrade” a couple of years ago to the current “web 2.0” design. Trying to manipulate anything in my portfolio is a nightmare, even logging is an exercise in complete frustration. Have you ever tried to delete your portfolio? Change the minimum bid on 1800+ names? And only 50 domains displayed per page max? WTF? Even CGI Federal could have done a better job… My suggestion? Burn it down and start over.
I could go on and on and on, but I’m not bitter, I just moved my stuff to Sedo and Uniregistry, That old lie is wrong… It’s not me Aftrnic, it’s definitely you.
Call it Godaddy – thats obvious and would carry weight when a buyer sees that in trust factor
Bad:
The absolute worst interface their is on the planet
So many issues its pointless to list
Should just pay Schilling money and use his coding
yup worst worst interface- UNi has the best UI
change the wordings to GOdaddy!
So what taking Afternic so long to make these simple changes??
Good: Have huge reach, have expanded support in international regions, reasonable minimum commission. Love that their reps on NPs interact regularly with the community, at times investing a lot of time in individual issues.
Bad: Should handle getting old listings off in some better way (even with small portfolio have repeated had to contact and wait since previous registrant left them up). Also, would like that fast transfer applied to more TLDs.
Ugly: I’m not keen on their UI, and don’t like, or use, their landers, although they have gotten better. I might go back to using them, maybe.
Pros: The reps I’ve met a various functions are really good guys, unfortunately they don’t seem to have the capital to push changes to all areas of the awful Afternic platform.
Cons: The Afternic platform. The UI was most certainly designed by a non-domainer trying to modernize the older (slightly better working) interface. Potential buyers (and everyone else on the planet) know GoDaddy, but Afternic has no name recognition, and maybethat’s why GD doesn’t want to rename it, because they know how bad it is?
Suggestions for improvement: Start over
I can say I have moved most of my names over to DNS/Uniregistry in the last couple of years. I’ve also used Sedo and like the simplicity and ease of both of those systems over Afternic.
This is not a post names for sale thread and no comments with lists of names will be allowed, it was right at the top of the post.
Good: Afternic’s four-tiered price structure is a generation ahead of the competition:
Buy now
Floor
Reserve
Minimum bid
With a rapidly changing portfolio, it is quicker and easier to use Afternic to catalog my price expectations than with an Excel spreadsheet. When a price inquiry comes in on another market, I check it against my tiered prices on Afternic.
Bad: Slow speeds and a display limit of 50 domains per page make Afternic/Portfolio/All Domains/ tedious to use.
Ugly: GoDaddy is unable to leverage their inventories across the enterprise. My domains listed for sale on Afternic do not always appear as available for purchase in EMD searches on GoDaddy, despite being registered at GoDaddy, managed by Afternic’s name servers, and priced on Afternic with BIN premium listings. For domains registered and hosted elsewhere, I have even less confidence that they will always appear as available on GoDaddy in response to an exact-match search query.
UniRegistry has some QA/QC tools built into UniMarket. Afternic could go beyond Uni by adding these tools and more, and which would confirm to sellers that their Afternic inventories are showing up in EMD, keyword, and/or wildcard searches on GoDaddy.
Good?????
Bad – nothing intuitive and user friendly on Afternic
Afternic is owned by GoDaddy. Yet I have to manage two accounts. SEDO doesn’t require two accounts for MLS and Non-MLS listings. On SEDO you just click a checkbox to add MLS. Wow how innovative, ahead of their time! (if the year was 1999).
I would agree with many of the comments about the UI design of the site. Seems they stopped designing it back in 2007 or 2008.
I have ALWAYS had a problem with them on they payout times. We know that they accept the money from the buyer and then instantly transfer the domain, but why do they need 7-days to schedule a payout? For a technology firm (GoDaddy), they seem incapable of fixing the situation. OR, maybe they just like using the ‘float’ on the money they have collected. I am sure it is in the 10’s of millions.
Even with their 7-day late payment to the sellers, there is ALWAYS a problem at the last moment (extending the payout 2 or 3 days more). I have sold a dozen of domains on the platform, and every-single-time, there is an issue at payout. I have never changed where my payout goes, but i have to re-input it every time due to some ‘technical glitch’ that occurs on the payout day.
What really ticks me off is that they say that and ACH payment takes 2-5 days to post to your account. I asked one of their support staff if his payroll check is deposited via ACH. He confirmed yes. I asked him if he has to wait 2-5 days beyond payroll day to actually get his money.
The US financial system has ACH’s occur the same day. There is absolutely ZERO reason that it should take 2-5 days (unless they don’t release the funds until 11:59pm on payout day, and it is a Friday, so the next business days is Monday (2-3 days later).