FP - Sellers offering Money Back Guarantee on Flippa

[EliteIM]

Hey Everybody,

A lot of times, I would come across listings on Flippa where the seller would be offering Money back guarantee. For example, "This site would make you $XX in 1 month or you will get your money back."

So, I would like to know how reliable such claims really are and does money back guarantee actually works?

Thanks

[Bryan]

Check out Flippa's latest blog post. Andrew wrote quite a lot on the very subject.

But in a nutshell:

1. Make sure you read the conditions of all such guarantees. (and take note of stuff, such as you must stay with the existing hosting provider (at $100 a month?), you must do SEO exactly as the seller tells you to (submit articles 8 hours per day for a month?) etc.

2. Make sure that the seller is actually reputable. Contact the buyers of his previous sites (a VERY good tactic even when buying sites that don't come with a money back guarantee) to find out if they're happy.

3. Make sure that the duration of the money back guarantee is 45 days or less. After 45 days has passed from the date of sale, you won't be able to file negative feedback on Flippa and won't be able to open a PayPal dispute either.

All in all, sites that come with such guarantees are usually turnkey sites without any revenue and traffic. And guarantee or no guarantee, such sites are rarely, very rarely worth buying.

[iMontie]

They're all scams. I guarantee the guys who sell these sites always end up with tons of paypal disputes, frozen money, negative feedback, etc.

[Dean]

I never went with this "money back guarantee" thing. When I buy it it's because I'm sure I won't have to ask for my money back, or try not to - because this only leads to trouble like Montie said. Disputes, frozen money, etc.

[wheelerndealer]

from a sellers perspective would you put up a site with a guarantee? I notice lots of sites that sell for a good price have guarantees.

[Thomas]

from a sellers perspective would you put up a site with a guarantee? I notice lots of sites that sell for a good price have guarantees.

Never. I have no control over what a buyer decides to do with a site, so it would be foolish on my part (nor can I control variables such as Google). There's no way a seller can offer it unless they are being dishonest in my opinion.

[wheelerndealer]

thats what i assumed. I figured sellers that offer these guarantees are about that quick dollar hit. Getting a few hundred bucks per site then when there account gets banned or they face other issues they move on to something else or buy a new account

[MojoFlip]

I think this guarantee thing is another ploy just to get rid of the site fast for the seller, If something is that good, no one will offer this option at all.

[BrettM]

2. Make sure that the seller is actually reputable. Contact the buyers of his previous sites (a VERY good tactic even when buying sites that don't come with a money back guarantee) to find out if they're happy.

I highly suggest this, and the easiest method I've found (and please suggest others!) was to look at past auctions by the same seller, do a Whois on the domain(s) sold, and email the new owner. I'd say about 50 - 75% emailed back, and learned a lot... positive and negative.

3. Make sure that the duration of the money back guarantee is 45 days or less. After 45 days has passed from the date of sale, you won't be able to file negative feedback on Flippa and won't be able to open a PayPal dispute either.

PayPal's Buyer Protection policy seems to only cover tangible goods. (For all the info, look for the "Legal Agreements" at the bottom of any PayPal page, click "User Agreement for PayPal Service", and see the "PayPal Buyer Protection" (section 13).) Wouldn't stop me from putting in a dispute though! Anyone successfully do this with PayPal on a site / domain?

I also found out the process can actually be essentially extended to 65 days. 45 days to open the dispute, during which you and the seller attempt to resolve. Then 20 days from the day the dispute was open to escalate to PayPal, who take over.

Just note, if you don't escalate within 20 days, the dispute is automatically closed... so keep an eye on your dates. Better to be a day early then a day later here I'd say!

[bluey4]

I think you are right on the money there Brett. But I often wonder if you can even manipulate feedback. After all eBay stopped giving it so much weighting when accessing sellers. The important thing is to do as much due diligence as possible and make it as hard as possible for a seller to rip you off. Paypal will generally favor the buyer but it's true they do take a long while to do things.Make sure you buy and use the goods and not services tab when paying with paypal as in any dispute I have succeded with this has been the case. Not sure if it would have made any difference (just that's what I did). A guarantee is probably worthless but could be another course of regress but chances are you'll get little joy going that route.

I have always found in any dispute be prepared to compromise if you made some money deduct that from any refund you ask for. If you are keeping the site try and get a partial refund or even money's worth (depending on the type of site). Often you'll find a seller acted in good faith (not always) so be prepared to let them sort it out first before filling out claims and ranting and raving. Rarely putting someones back up gets results and if they outside your area chances are legal action won't phase them to much either.