Bidders complained they couldn’t participate.
If you think you won one of the domains in the Thought Convergence auction yesterday at NameJet or SnapNames, you might be in for a rude surprise.
Due to technical issues yesterday afternoon, NameJet and SnapNames will extend some of the auctions that have already closed. The company posted on Twitter yesterday:
We are aware auctions on our platform were impacted today by a technical issue. We apologize for any difficulties our customers experienced. We will be extending the ending date and time of the impacted auctions and all participants will be notified.
— SnapNames (@SnapNamesDotCom) December 9, 2021
Multiple Domain Name Wire readers reported issues with the platform yesterday. Here’s an example:
Namejet should definitely redo today’s auctions. I personally was unable to access the bidding pages of specific auctions or the main My Auctions page and was unable to place any bids after approximately 3:45pm. Continual page loading, “under maintenance” messages, and the error page featuring that sketchy guy with green shades. Both desktop and mobile had issues preventing bidding after 3:45pm…
I bid through the SnapNames app yesterday until about 1:30 PST and didn’t experience any issues, but clearly, there were issues across the platforms. I “won” four auctions, only to find out they have been extended.
The auctions will now end today (Thursday), barring any other technical issues.
NameJet and SnapNames are dated platforms now operated by Newfold Digital. Auctions are run simultaneously across both platforms. When systems like this fail, it’s a losing situation for everyone involved: the sellers, the disappointed buyers, and the platform.
they need to start banning people who fail to pay for their regular expired auctions. its going on for a long time now…
Bank wired my payment last night. This is “crazy” s–t!
I’ve learned to not count your domains, until the URL is in your possession.
Too many strange ‘technical’ difficulties or suspected shill bidding on aftermarket platforms to trust a mere “You are the Winning Bidder” alert.
I can’t even login to my Namejet account, one that spent so many thousands for the past two decades…
“they need to start banning people who fail to pay for their regular expired auctions. its going on for a long time now…”
Yes.
And another problem is private sellers who do not deliver domains to the winning bidders that purchased them at auction. It is unclear whether such sellers – or brokers who represent them – are penalized at all for not delivering domains that bidders won and paid for. It is often up to the buyer to determine whether they have received a domain they paid for at Namejet. My personal experience is that some domains that are bought then slip through the cracks and are not delivered presumably a result of the owner not performing their responsibility to transfer the domain. Namejet does not seem to always consistently identify these undelivered domains and provide refunds in such instances when they are warranted. I may be wrong and Namejet does have a control system/policy in place, but I have seen several instances in which undelivered domains have slipped through and I had to proactively notify them, many months after the fact, that I never received a domain that I had been billed for and paid.
This was really bad for aftermarket perceptions in general, and a shameful showing for NameJet on the whole as a customer experience.
I acquired some names yesterday for clients (or so I thought) and communicated the prices. Today, I had to spend thousands MORE to obtain those in re-auctions to meet those commitments.
NameJet’s failure to competently handle this auction has and will be cascading into an expensive cost in finance, time, and overall market trust and sentiment.
I wonder how many of the Day 1 / Day 2 “winners” on many of the domains will be tangled in lawsuits with NameJet and or each other on some of the better names.
Something to consider.