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A few things today, it has been a strange day for me.
* Have you ever shut down your computer at night and everything was working just fine, then when you start it up in the morning it’s not, like things changed when you were sleeping, what is up with that? That was me today, I think I have it all back to normal now but that seems strange to me.
* I got paid for a name I sold at GoDaddy but the name has not finished transferring yet, there are no serious issues it’s just taking the buyer and registrar a long time to get the transfer finalized, I guess if there are no complaints GoDaddy just schedules payment, that seems strange to me.
* I have tried to list some new gTLDs for sale at GoDaddy a few times in the last few months, as of today I still can’t, it says “Invalid entry, missing or unsupported TLD”, am I doing something wrong? If not that seems strange to me.
* My partner sold a name at Sedo and the buyer requested a transfer, it was transferred to an obscure registrar, the contact info didn’t change and the buyer was not responding to requests to change the info and Sedo wouldn’t pay until the contact info changed or the buyer confirmed control of the domain, that seems strange to me.
* I decided to play catchup today and list some domains at Sedo that I got recently, but they wouldn’t take, the “suggested price” thing wouldn’t resolve, it just keeps trying but never finishes, I thought I was having personal problems, especially considering I was having computer issues today, but I talked to a friend and he can’t add names either, figures it’s on the day I finally decide to play catchup and list some names, that seems strange to me.
* And last but not least, my home connection is a satellite connection, they are wiring for fiber optics and it should be ready soon but in the meantime satellite sucks, I have the super connection at my studio in town, it is about 30 minutes away, sometimes I will go to my studio just for the connection, if I have something that I absolutely have to do like win a great domain in an auction I head to town, the satellite connection is not dependable enough and it can be slow sometimes.
Also if I have to download anything significant or backup my site I do it at my studio, my satellite connection will punish me for what they consider excessive bandwidth, like I said satellite sucks, today I had to do some of that stuff, besides backing up my sites and doing some large file transfer stuff I also had some time critical stuff I had to take care of, in other words I had to get to the studio which is 30 mins away in 50 mins, normally that would not be a problem, but today right when I was getting to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge that I have to go over to get to my studio, the cops blocked the bridge.
Somebody had jumped to their death, it’s not unusual, it’s a great bridge over a great river and the 900 foot fall pretty much insures a successful suicide so people drive from miles around to end it all on this bridge, unfortunately I have had many encounters with suicides on the bridge, I should probably start planning for it.
Once we were driving by and there was a truck sitting in one of the lanes on the 2 lane bridge with the door open and the truck still running and no driver in sight, some guy had pulled up in his truck and got out and jumped, we were the first on the scene, it was strange. It was later reported the guy stayed up all night at the Indian Casino and lost all his money and couldn’t handle going home to the family.
Another time we pull up and there is another abandoned truck blocking one of the lanes on the bridge and the first sheriff had just gotten on the scene, this time the truck was locked, but there was a suicide note on the front seat, I wish I had got a picture of that suicide note, the jumper was a Los Alamos scientist, no casino gambling this time, it made national news and there was alot of speculation and suspicion as to why he commited suicide, apparently it might have been job related, working at Los Alamos National Labs as a scientist is not a normal job, the suicide note never got released to the public.
I am not sure who jumped today or why, I just know I had to wait over an hour for them to get the crane all situated to pull the body up, it’s harsh sitting there watching some dead person getting craned up in a stretcher and all I could think was I need to get to my studio because I have an auction I am participating in that is ending soon, couldn’t you have jumped on another day? Anyway like I said it was a strange day for me…
Here are the domain picks dropping on April 30th 2014:
AustinTeaParty.com – It rhymes with Boston Tea Party
bShirt.com – Single random letter with a big word?
DCNA.com – Washington DC is Not/Available, they don’t do much anyway
EcologicalConstruction.com – I like eco and green building domains
EstrogenCream.com – Here is a huge product domain for you, $19k Estibot value
Filmix.com – Nice brandable, not sure about TM, $9.3k Estibot value
GirlFoot.com – For those of you with a foot fetish, a popular fetish
LetsInvestigate.com – Group investigation?
NeoMovement.com – It’s a modern way of saying new movement
NursingHomesFlorida.com – I can only imaging how many of these are in Florida
OVNJ.com – Something New Jersey?
ParadiseBeach.com – This is a huge domain with a huge $35k Estibot value
ProMedic.com – I like the pro prefix and who wants an amateur medic
SkinCareInc.com – I have sold a few inc suffix domains, skin care is huge
WeMakeIt.com – Good name for those of you that make something
Divining.net
BizCredit.org
CarPros.org
CD1.org
HotWAP.org
iCoverage.org
iOpt.org
OralSurgeons.org
Publicists.org
TechLogic.org
VideoCon.org
WWE.org
Bathrobe.me
Charcoal.me
Chiapas.me
Configuration.me
Deployment.me
Epidermis.me
Injection.me
Microwaves.me
Minimalism.me
Neurosis.me
Railroads.me
Recipient.me
Roadway.me
Secretarial.me
Strata.me
Tricycle.me
Wineries.me
Flamenco.tv
LiveWebcast.tv
Raunchy.tv
Transmission.tv
Wanking.tv
ChiliPepper.info
Hubble.info
Rollerskate.info
Make sure you also check out Domain Shane’s Big List of names and Domaining.com for some other great domain blogs and domain name lists.
Domain of the day: Psych.me – Make me an Offer!
Thanks for visiting…
I tried one at GoDaddy to add new gtlds and couldn’t.
One other day I managed to add a few.
Now I go to add all my domains and I can’t!
I can’t stand go daddy!
Why do I even bother…
About your computer in the night:
That is why I never restart or shutdown…
Last time my computer was up for 60 days and I did a restart.
The case is that now TDNAM seems more popular and more active than sedo, probably because offers many payment options so have to list there as well
Go Daddy is the no 1 registrar so people are used to buying domains there.
Mark, what a weird day you had! :), you know, life is full of weird things here and there, hope you feel better now.
Personally I don’t use GoDaddy for selling names, they are too slow to process and pay for my tastes, and, as far as I know, they don’t offer international wires as a payment option.
Sedo is not bad, I sold a few there in the past.
We offer a brokerage service now, so we are working directly with Escrow.com.
To cheer you up, let me offer you some good whisky đ
It’s not like Castello bros 3.1 mln $ whisky.com sale, but it’s not bad either đ
My Domain of the Day: WhiskyForSale.com
Make me your best offer!
“I have tried to list some new gTLDs for sale at GoDaddy a few times in the last few months, as of today I still canât, it says âInvalid entry, missing or unsupported TLDâ, am I doing something wrong? If not that seems strange to me.”
It seems like all they are doing their best to make hard for you put up for sale nGTLDs. Even DNS seems doesn’t display the usual forsale banner on nGTLDs’ landing pages…
DNS does display the for sale banner on landing pages. Try visiting e.estate.
I think DSN has some bigger issues these days, just check this DomainSherpa thread in case you don’t know it: http://www.domainsherpa.com/discussion-20140424/
I’ve decided to remove all my domains from their platform for now.
DNS (not DSN), sorry for the typo.
They have since changed the default so that you don’t send an email to buyers about new gtlds.
As far as I see, that’s not the main issue at DNS … here we are talking about using your leads, and acting without authorization, overriding the customer …
And, by the way, in my account that default pre-checked default option under Dismiss you are talking about is still there …
Dismiss/Ignore/OK: no action
Dismiss/Not Sold/[Tick] Message Buyer/ok: sends this email
Isn’t this what you are seeing?
Kosta,
If you check under Dismiss/Not sold you can read “Mark the inquiry as having no hope of sale.
Do not use for junk inquiries, but for cases where the buyer and seller will never arrive at a price.
We recommend sending the buyer your Uniregistry Affiliate Plus link (included by default).
You will earn a commission when they register alternate names after clicking through.”
Under Dismiss/Not Sold (tick) message buyer you can see the pre-checked option Adam was talking about, which says “Target buyer for alternate TLD extensions”.
The text of the email is: “I have given it some thought and I would like to propose a much more affordable option for you: an alternative domain.â¨
Click here to review several quality options.”
But, as I said, that’s not the main issue.
I think readers of that thread at DomainSherpa can judge by themselves.
In my account this option is not prechecked now.
It used to be.
I don’t know if DNS is contacting our leads.
If they do then we have a serious problem.
Can someone address this officially on their blog so we can get to the bottom of it? It seems that’s the only way to address misbehavior these days.
Tony,
This issue was discussed on Domain Sherpa a few days ago. Adam Dicker was under the impression that DomainNameSales was sending emails to his self brokered leads, however that was not the case. He was doing it himself by choosing to dismiss a lead. He did not realize he was doing it because he was opted into the service. We realized the problem, and fixed it.
I went into detail about it, but would be happy to talk to you personally 1.800.818.1828 x6261 or skype JeffreyMGabriel if it makes you feel more comfortable.
That applies to anyone on this blog.
No one has emailed any of your leads without your permission. You can see Adam Dicker on the 16th minute of yesterdays show say that DomainNameSales handled the issue professionally, and fixed it.
http://www.domainsherpa.com/discussion-20140501/
You can also see the comment I wrote to Adam Dicker which I copied and pasted below.
Thanks for your comments. I think there is some confusion here, and this is being taken out of context.
In the DomainNameSales system we implemented an option when a seller on our platform dismisses a lead it would send an email template to the buyer offering them an alternative. When an in-house Broker or a Self Broker uses our platform when âDismissingâ a lead it is in essence saying there is no chance of a sale. There will be no follow up, we will not make any calls, or send any communication to that buyer.
Myself, and tech have checked your account. No one broke into your account, no one from DomainNameSales sent an email. It was triggered by you choosing dismiss, then the email was populated in front of you like any other template, then you scrolled to the bottom, chose OK (send)âŚ
The message on there is very clear, and again it shows the template to our users before it is sent.
This is the message that is made very clear to you, our customer, before you choose send:
âMark the inquiry as having no hope of sale. Do not use for junk inquiries, but for cases where the buyer and seller will never arrive at a price. We recommend sending the buyer your Uniregistry Affiliate Plus link (included by default).
You will earn a commission when they register alternate names after clicking through.â
You could have opted out of this email as the default was opted in at the time. We have now made the default opted out so what you think of us stealing a lead never happens again. By all means we have no interest in disrupting our customers negotiations!
Any customer of ours will see this by choosing âdismissâ in their own leads on our platform. I am providing pictures of this to Michael Cyger for him to see as well.
Adam, you are a valuable customer of ours, a pillar in the domain industry, and we appreciate your business. I surely hope that you do not think this is how we do business. If you still do I would like to do my best to rectify this situation, learn from it and go forward. Your comments made us aware of what we needed to change, and we made the adjustment.
Great show btw!
If anyone else has questions I am happy to talk.
Jeffrey M. Gabriel
Vice President of Sales | DomainNameSales.com
O: 1-800-818-1828 x 6261
D: 1-345-623-6261
S: JeffreyMGabriel
Tony,
I asked Jeff Gabriel, VP of Sales at DNS, to send me their brokerage terms of service, also to see how they can manage our leads (I’m not talking only about old leads) and data.
I got the following (kinda weird IMHO) reply:
“Andrea, I am not sure I understand what your looking for. When you assign a lead to DomainNameSales you are asking for a group of highly trained, and skilled professionals to use their discretion to make as many sales as possible at the highest prices possible. It means that you are asking us to represent you. There is a tried and true method we use. As I said before it seems as if it is not a fit for you. If it is not a fit for you, you can use other services.”
Then I asked again for the their brokerage TOS, this is my email:
“Jeff,
What Iâm asking to see is simply your brokerage TOS.
You are offering a brokerage service, so you surely have a brokerage TOS.
When you represent somebody there should be a set of rules to follow, which both parties have to specifically agree to.
Just to mention an example of brokerage TOS that you surely know: http://www.sedo.com/us/about-us/policies/domain-brokerage-services-terms-and-conditions/
My question is very easy: where can I find your brokerage terms of service?”
I’m still waiting for a response …
If you are referring to their Dev Blog, I posted once and never got a reply.
Frank blog (Seven Mile) last post is currently closed for comments.
Frank, I think you should show up and explain personally the situation, posting here or on the DomainSherpa thread.
We are waiting for your point of view …
Our terms of service are located under SETTINGS then SERVICE AGREEMENT in your account.
Have a great weekend everybody!
Jeffrey M. Gabriel
Vice President of Sales
DomainNameSales
Since I like to be fully transparent on this issue, please find below my latest email exchanges with Jeff Gabriel, VP of sales at DNS.
It’s up to readers to judge.
MY EMAIL:
“Jeff,
Sorry, but it looks like you are pretending not to understand the point here, mixing up different things.
The terms of service you are now mentioning are those under Account Settings > Service Agreement, which only refers to the âbuy-it-nowâ service and the name syndication.
In the Service Agreement page is clearly specified that âThis service agreement enables features on the site such as:
– Domains and portfolios which are “buy-it-now” at the list price
– Syndication of names on our partner network.
Please agree to the DNS Service Agreement below IF you would like to use these features.â
I donât use those two services, and therefore Iâve never agreed to this DNS Service Agreement.
So all your comments about this are totally groundless, misleading and out of place.
As you know, even if I donât agree to this Service Agreement, I can use your brokerage services.
And, if I agree to another specific option, under Auto Assignment > Old Lead Management, I can also use your Old Leads service.
Therefore we have 3 different levels of Service Agreements, two of which are optional.
What I was asking you to see are the terms of service which relates exclusively to your brokerage service (NOT to the âbuy-it-nowâ service, the name syndication or the old leads management).
Before moving to self-brokering my names, I was using DNS brokers (your fee was still 10% at that time), so what I want to see is the TOS which I agreed to initially and which refers to your basic brokerage only, with no additional options included.
Could you kindly provide me your generic brokerage TOS, the one we agree to when we were accepted as DNS-IT customers?
Furthermore, a direct intervention of Frank on the DomainSherpa thread or elsewhere would be welcome, in order to clarify if DNS is using its customers leads to promote/sell, without client specific authorization (also with âpre-checked boxesâ and similar hidden stuff), its prop domains and services.
Thank you.
Best regards.”
JEFF RESPONSE:
“Andrea,
The overall service agreement is not limited to “buy it now” and name syndication.
It says:
“By electing to use listing, brokerage and sales fulfillment services provided by Domain Name Sales Corp. (DNSC), a corporation of the Cayman Islands, you agree to the following terms and conditions with Domain Name Sales Corp. and with any BUYER intended as a beneficiary hereof.”
You have elected to use our brokerage service to broker your names.
And if you were not clear on what “brokerage” means:
“1. Definitions
DNSC Services shall mean (a) Brokerage: negotiation services provided by the DNSC brokerage to negotiate with prospective buyers of domain names through listing atDomainNameSales.com””
We disagree, and there is no point in continuing this conversation. As you apparently do not agree with our terms of service, nor do you believe I am being sincere with you, it is clear you do not want to use our services. I noticed you removed all of your domains from your account. Would you like me to close it for you?
I attached all of your leads as well. You can have them.”
MY EMAIL:
“Jeff,
Let me tell you that there is a big time gap in what you said.
The Service Agreement mentioned in my previous email, which you are referring to, highlighted by an orange âNEWâ tab, appeared on your site only when you introduced the syndication option, in Oct 2013, while my account was opened in Oct 2012.
Usually, by participating in or using this kind of services (parking, brokerage, etc), you agree to be bound by a TOS, which is clearly listed in full on the company site, in order to allow customers to read and understand it.
Well, your site did not listed any TOS before Oct 2013.
Transparency in the TOS is a key element in this type of businesses, while lack of it leads to abuses, malpractices and unfair commercial practices.
As regards your (ridiculous) statement âif you were not clear on what “brokerage” meansâ, itâs enough to mention that I was successfully dealing with brokers on the stock market when you were still a student, and itâs all said.
As regards my account, sorry, but at the moment Iâm not planning to close it.
Your latest statement âI attached all of your leads as well. You can have them.â is really self-commenting.
As regards the leads case, maybe Iâll email Frank directly, since your customers are still expecting clear answers on that, as you can also see here: http://www.domainpicks.com/21475/domain-picks-dropping-on-apr-30th-2014/
Thank you.
Best regards.”
IMHO, in order to avoid these type of issues, DNS should add to its Terms of Service a specific provision (clause) which clearly states that DNS agrees not to use, in whatsoever manner, its customer leads to promote or sell, or to induce to purchase, directly or indirectly, its own (proprietary, owned by Name Administration BVI, and by directly and indirectly related parties/companies) or third party (not related to the customer) domains and services. In the event of a breach of this term/obligation, their customers shall have recourse to any remedy at law available.
In the event a customer wants to allow DNS to use his/her leads, there should be a specific OPT IN clause, to be agreed by the client.
In this special provision DNS should clearly indicate which products/services they can sell/promote using customer leads.
This is because leads are owned by customers, if DNS wants to use them they have to ask for a specific authorization.
Have a nice day!
Totally on board with your suggestion, Andrea.
I don’t want DNS contacting my leads for alternative domains. That is just not ethical.
Tony,
you know what …
today DNS disabled (closed) my account, without any notice … lol …
and despite the fact that I clearly stated that I was not planning to close it, as shown in my email exchange with Jeff Gabriel, VP of Sales at DNS.
Unfortunately for them, I’ve already taken all the screenshots I needed, which are available if you are interested.
For all the folks around, if you still have doubts, IMHO this says a lot about how they do business …
It’s up to you to judge …
Andrea,
You removed all your domains from your account and stated you disagreed with the terms of service you agreed to in order to setup the account. If any of our customers did that we need to end our relationship or what is the point of having them?
In the history of your time with us which was a number of years you had a total of 24 inquiries. That means you have received 24 people who were interested in buying your domains over that period. You also had 88 tech support requests, and countless other customer service requests. That is the most of any of our customers. I felt that no matter how much we tried to service you as a client we could never be to the standard that your 24 inquiries require.
I highly suggest that you hire a team of Brokers to handle this volume so they can provide the level of service, expertise and knowledge you require.
We wish you luck in your future endeavors.
what a coincidence you closed it now … lol
We both know it’s not a question of how many inquiries I got in the 19 months (Oct 2012-May 2014) or how many support ticket I opened, all with demonstrable and tangible reasons.
I think people who read this can judge by themselves.
Next time you should hide better your “inconvenient truths” …
It’s the old story of conflicts of interest, lack of transparency, etc … nothing new under the sun …
Good luck to you!
P.S.
Jeff,
If you have nothing to hide, and DNS, as you say, doesn’t use its customers leads, why don’t you modify your Terms of Service to include a specific provision concerning the treatment of leads, as I suggested before?
Otherwise, why people should believe you?
Your statements could easily be just empty words … salesman words, not binding for anyone, written on sand …
Latins were used to say “verba volant, scripta manent”, if you know what it means.
And we know how easy is to manipulate or hide things in the digital world …