Selling Domains On Flippa Is Becoming A Headache

[ak12]

I've been selling domains on Flippa for sometime now without any issues mainly because I screen buyers but recently one slipped through who would not respond or send payment. I filed a dispute with Flippa and was surprised by the result. The buyer told Flippa that the "content had changed by the end of the auction" (which was not true). So they cancelled the dispute, buyer was not obligated to go through with the sale and I was still stuck with the success & listing fees as if it was my fault. Yes you heard it, a buyer can get out of a domain only auction by stating the content had changed on the domain if there is content on it even though you are only selling the domain.

When I approached Flippa about this, they said that I could only solve it with the buyer by contacting him to agree to a mutual cancellation. The same buyer who wouldn't respond in the first place all of a sudden does to agree to a mutual cancellation, go figure. So now I have had to file another dispute to cancel the listing altogether in order to get the success fees waived and to relist it. What a headache it is to deal with non-paying buyers in the first place and then on top the way Flippa chooses to handle it.

The real issue here is that Flippa stated that a domain auction can only have a domain parking page on it, nothing else...not a website or any other page for that matter. I couldn't find any rules stating this and wondering if anyone else heard of it. I see many domains listed that contain from domain parking pages, 1 or 2 website pages to full blown sites on Flippa and elsewhere and don't see what the issue is about it. I never heard that Sedo, Godaddy or anyone else expect a domain to be parked before you could sell it in their marketplace so why would Flippa have an issue about it in theirs. They should understand that if a seller can't get the price they want for the domain, they may not want to keep it parked and if they already have some pages on it don't want to remove them to lose rankings or the potential it can show to a future buyer. Obviously they don't understand domain sales (or don't want domain auctions listed) and maybe should remove it from their marketplace if they are going to restrict sellers in this way.

And if they have deadbeat bidders who don't want to honor auctions they shouldn't accept their lame-brain excuses and shaft it to the sellers.

[Andrew]

Hi @ak12.

Never happy to learn of a less-than-awesome outcome on a sale. The initial dispute was canceled as the buyer had indicated they were still willing to proceed. Not sure on what happened since but the dispute will no doubt result in a free relist and canceled success fee - I've added credits to your account to cover a new listing if you're in a hurry.

It remains up to the user as to whether they wish to list as a domain or a website (Sedo/Godaddy only do the former so avoid this distinction). If you do relist as a domain, it may be best to avoid statements such as "The site is included with the domain sale if the buyer chooses". I expect that was the cause for confusion with the buyer in this case.

Hopefully your next sales goes more smoothly ...

[Clinton]

Hi ak12, welcome to experienced-people.net. /thanks to Andrew for his quick response.

And if they have deadbeat bidders who don't want to honor auctions they shouldn't accept their lame-brain excuses and shaft it to the sellers.

Flippa does have many non-paying buyers but it's always been the case that Flippa is very pro-seller rather than pro-buyer, IMO.

The real issue here is that Flippa stated that a domain auction can only have a domain parking page on it, nothing else...not a website or any other page for that matter. I couldn't find any rules stating this and wondering if anyone else heard of it.

I've not heard of this rule. Did that come from Flippa staff (they are not always right)?

[ak12]

@Andrew

I wasn't expecting a reply from Flippa here but I really appreciate that you took the time to do so.

Your support staff said the reason the dispute was cancelled is because the buyer said the content was changed and you are saying it's because the buyer said he would proceed. I am a bit confused about this part because he never replied to me until I offered him a mutual cancellation, after discussing with your support staff about the cancelled dispute, so I really don't know what his reason was, just stated what your support staff told me.

Sure I could take out that part in my listing but I don't think I'm confusing anyone about including a site if they choose because all my other domain sales that have been won were successfully completed. And the buyers always wanted whatever content was on the domain, which usually wasn't more than a few pages and nothing really fancy either, just they were happy that they got something extra with the domain sale.

I think though, in this case, I made a mistake in accepting this buyer's bid without checking him out carefully. He was fairly new to Flippa and probably just impulsively bid and then changed his mind after a night's sleep and then scurried to find an excuse to back out as soon as he was called up on it.

Also, I just need clarification on the content part and maybe your support staff needs to be aware of this too just in case wrong information was given to me. And that is, can a domain only auction have content on the domain, whether a few pages or a full blown site, or it specifically has to be a domain parking page? I wouldn't think this should matter, I just want to make sure that I can list my domains with content as a domain auction.

Sure credits are always much appreciated

Flippa does have many non-paying buyers but it's always been the case that Flippa is very pro-seller rather than pro-buyer, IMO.

I've always felt this before too but was taken aback in this case. Any other NPB disputes I have filed in the past have always been in my favor as the seller, as I wouldn't file one unless it was necessary to, so I do give credit to Flippa for that. It is scary though that a reason like the "content has changed" can be accepted on a domain sale to cancel a dispute. What if it was listed as a website and the buyer claims the same and then sellers should really be worried, even though a google cache could prove otherwise unless was a brand new site. Should we be taking dated pictures of every page on our site for proof?

I've not heard of this rule. Did that come from Flippa staff (they are not always right)?

It most certainly did and was very surprised by it. I would never have thought of it myself since I always presumed I could list any domain with a site as a domain or website auction.