dschall, I am surprised. I would have thought Flippa would delete the account of someone who was obviously a cheat. Or maybe their definition of a cheat varies from mine. Perhaps he successfully argued ignorance of the rules or something else.
OTOH, maybe Andrew had a good reason and could fill us in ...otherwise there'll be people getting ideas like the one you suggested of exploiting a rule that Flippa doesn't seem to be policing.
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This was second listing of this site by seller, and the first one he used a reserve price. must be the something else. I give up.Perhaps he successfully argued ignorance of the rules or something else.
What a joke.Originally Posted by dschall
Thanks for the update, and the confirmation that Flippa still has issues with actually enforcing their own rules.
Hi all.
The seller did indeed argue ignorance which resulted in this initial dispute ruling. However the sale was from a relist that did include a reserve (ie the seller manually reduced his reserve when relisting) so the ruling was revised a day or so ago - ruled in favor of dschall, seller forfeits all listing fees and relist options and gets to enjoy some enforced time-out from the Flippa marketplace. Selling without a reserve may be a great way to attract bidders but not following through has pretty well screwed this guy's ability to sell it for the price he's after any time soon ...
Does this ruling come with an attempt from Flippa to force the seller to sell the site for the agreed upon price?
KenW3 (August 31st, 2011)
Flippa can't really force him to do anything - apart from taking him to court which isn't cost effective. In fact, forcing a seller to do something may not be in the buyer's interest because of the (already pointed out) scorched earth option available to the seller.
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I know, but they can threaten a lawsuit and see what happens.
It looks like the only winner here is Flippa.
They can threaten, but a small timer in Florida isn't going to quake in his boots at the prospect of a lawsuit from an Australian firm in an Australian court for $200. Especially if he faked his ID and Flippa can't trace him!
I'd be more concerned about the customer service aspect. The customer clearly pointed out the problem that this was a deliberate flouting of the rules by someone who demonstrably knew about reserves and how to use them. The Flippa employee who dealt with it seems to have ignored (or not read) that part of the complaint and accepted the seller's pathetic ignorantia juris plea. Or maybe there was no employee involved in the initial decision. The benefit of the doubt is given to the seller even when there's no doubt about his "guilt".
It took a complaint here and Andrew's personal involvement for the right thing to be done. It shouldn't be so and there may be lessons here for the customer service team.
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If the seller was from Australia on the other hand the courts here would deem it a legal auction and it site would have to be handed over for the cost at the auction. (Only if the seller was from Australia)They can threaten, but a small timer in Florida isn't going to quake in his boots at the prospect of a lawsuit from an Australian firm in an Australian court for $200. Especially if he faked his ID and Flippa can't trace him!
That to me is definitely something that Flippa needs to have a long hard look at, if everyone can put a no reserve and then back out if the price isn't high enough that could be a major problem. Banning the user wouldn't really work, they can just reopen a new account under someone else's name, maybe they have to ban the domain and have a serious examination of any new sale involving that domain.
I confirm that Flippa did change there ruling "...due to further information being received that seller was aware of Reserve Price policies."
Seller's account suspended for 1 month, website will not be permitted to be relisted for sale. Meh.
Sure felt like this to me, I appreciate Andrew's help but shouldn't have came down to that.It took a complaint here and Andrew's personal involvement for the right thing to be done. It shouldn't be so and there may be lessons here for the customer service team.
I got all kinds of info on the seller and have all kinds of G Alerts set to follow seller around if he trys to sell it elsewhere.
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