Problems, Bugs and Fixes at Afternic - Report Problems Here

[carob]

I suggest a new thread titled Problems, Bugs and Fixes at Afternic - Report Problems Here. Then we can all list our issues so Afternic have to fix them. These Afternic probs have been repeatedly flagged up across numerous threads on here over a period of time, including the need for 2FA. Godaddy own Afternic and have the resources and motivation to fix it - this risky mess is unacceptable and reflects badly on their brand.

For info, Afternic keep reverting some of my domains to "In Review" status for no reason, and I only know that if I log in there to check on them. Until I then ask support to take them out of Review they are not listed for sale and will not sell at Afternic.

@Joe Styler When can we expect Godaddy to take action on Afternic, including implementing 2FA?

 

[Joe Styler]

You can. You can also email [email protected] and they can look into the sale for you.

 

[ET76]

PM sent, thanks @Joe Styler

 

[Sameh]

Here is the latest update.

I confirmed that at least 10 domains were deleted from my account. All of them were added this month to my Afternic account. All of them I asked Support to remove them from the recent owner's account. They did remove them and I added them to my account but they were deleted from my account yesterday. The exact same issue happened last month and the month before it. I informed them about the same issue before several times but of course, nothing happened! Afternic Support replied back (while I was writing this reply) asking me which domains were deleted so they can investigate.

The exact same issue happened again and again and again, .....

I noticed the domain count in my Dashboard has gone down. I checked the domains I added in May and at least 5 of them were deleted from my Afternic account without any notification.

All of them were domains I added this month and I asked Afternic to remove them from recent owner's account. They did and I added them to my account then they deleted them from my account!

 

[nitg16]

@Joe Styler

I cannot authenticate/link afternic account with my godaddy account.

It says: "Username or Password is incorrect."

I have entered correct afternic username and password multiple times but each time it shows the same error.

I did reset my afternic account password before attempting to link it with GD domain manager.

It seems like when linking with afternic, GD system is still expecting old afternic password (which I forgot and hence performed a reset.)

 

[Arca]

I'll look into the payment field and see what I can find out.

Thanks for looking into this @Joe Styler, and sorry to bring it up again but would it be possible to get his done shortly? It's just a matter of changing one incorrect sentence for the sake of accuracy and congruity.

Domains are intangible assets. In most jurisdictions, profits arising from the sale of capital assets are covered under profits tax or capital gains tax.

Selling an asset has nothing to do with "online advertising income." This would be covered under income tax.

Profit tax/capital gains taxes, and income taxes, are not the same. They represent different tax rates. Not only is the incongruity between the nature the transactions that result in these gains, and what you label them as when you pay us, causing banking issues as I detailed in a previous post, it also causes taxation inconveniences.

Your Afternic terms and conditions state that “seller is responsible for applicable taxes … you incur for the participation in the activity conducted over our website.”

But you are making it more difficult for sellers to easily carry out this responsibility when you mislabel payments to sellers as "online advertising income," which is under income tax, while the sale of domain names is covered by profits tax or capital gains tax laws. The inward wire transfer advice issued to us officially labels payments as "online advertising income." This document is important for taxation documentation purposes, but you when you label the payment as something it is not, you are creating a piece of documentation that contradicts the nature of the domain transactions that gave rise to the funds you are sending us.

Can you please stop labeling the proceeds arising form the sale of intangible assets as “online advertising income”? Rather than “online advertising income” how about labeling them to something accurate in accordance with what the payment is really for, such as "proceeds from the sale of domain name assets"?

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler

I cannot authenticate/link afternic account with my godaddy account.

It says: "Username or Password is incorrect."

I have entered correct afternic username and password multiple times but each time it shows the same error.

I did reset my afternic account password before attempting to link it with GD domain manager.

It seems like when linking with afternic, GD system is still expecting old afternic password (which I forgot and hence performed a reset.)

[email protected] should be able to help you with that.

 

[Joe Styler]

Thanks for looking into this @Joe Styler, and sorry to bring it up again but would it be possible to get his done shortly? It's just a matter of changing one incorrect sentence for the sake of accuracy and congruity.

Domains are intangible assets. In most jurisdictions, profits arising from the sale of capital assets are covered under profits tax or capital gains tax.

Selling an asset has nothing to do with "online advertising income." This would be covered under income tax.

Profit tax/capital gains taxes, and income taxes, are not the same. They represent different tax rates. Not only is the incongruity between the nature the transactions that result in these gains, and what you label them as when you pay us, causing banking issues as I detailed in a previous post, it also causes taxation inconveniences.

Your Afternic terms and conditions state that “seller is responsible for applicable taxes … you incur for the participation in the activity conducted over our website.”

But you are making it more difficult for sellers to easily carry out this responsibility when you mislabel payments to sellers as "online advertising income," which is under income tax, while the sale of domain names is covered by profits tax or capital gains tax laws. The inward wire transfer advice issued to us officially labels payments as "online advertising income." This document is important for taxation documentation purposes, but you when you label the payment as something it is not, you are creating a piece of documentation that contradicts the nature of the domain transactions that gave rise to the funds you are sending us.

Can you please stop labeling the proceeds arising form the sale of intangible assets as “online advertising income”? Rather than “online advertising income” how about labeling them to something accurate in accordance with what the payment is really for, such as "proceeds from the sale of domain name assets"?

I let the accounting team know and they looked into it. I do not think it will be changed in the near future as there are other items on their list to get done that is taking development time. I would think that showing your accountant or tax authority the record of sales in your account with us will suffice. It would probably be better because it shows the actual amount and domain name and date of the sale. You would most likely need this information as well if you are trying to use the domains as a capital gains tax, as you would need to show the specific asset, date it was acquired and divested and amounts for both.

 

[Josh R]

My names are also getting automatically removed after I add them.

It's likely happening to everyone.

 

[Joe Styler]

If you email [email protected] they can look into it for you.

 

[Josh R]

If you email [email protected] they can look into it for you.

If it's happening to so many others, I'll just wait for it to be fixed

 

[Brands.International]

Well, that feature with max 50 names dosplayed on the page....it would be really nice to have that increased at least for 1k on the page...if we have 1000 names there, and do some price update, we need to do it 20 times, for each page of 50 names separately ...what is the point of that?

 

[richtrading]

Has anyone else noticed that afternic parking contact form has stopped working?

Each of our domains has the banner text "This domain is available for sale. To purchase, call Afternic at +1 781-314-9607 or 844-886-1722. Click here to inquire." When we click, we go to the foresale.html page and submit details to test

Impossible to submit a contact enquiry... does this explain why not many offers this month...

 

[Joe Styler]

I haven't heard anything about this. Can you put the domain name here or send it to me so I can have someone take a look at it and see what is happening?

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

I love Afternic
Got my first sale there and I just got a call from them

I will help them to fix there issues

 

[nitg16]

@Joe Styler

Thank you for responding, my earlier problem was fixed few hours later. However I am having a new problem.

I recently linked afternic account and then used the new beta "domain listing service" option on godaddy to list a domain on both afternic and godaddy in one go.

Now after successfully listing the domain, I can see it on afternic but it is nowhere to be found on godaddy auctions or premium domains.

What is strange that the "manage listing" view shows that it has been successfully "listed for sale" and also provides a direct link to this domain on godaddy auctions. However after clicking on this link, godaddy auctions page mentions that they are unable to find this domain.

The old "Premium listing" option is gone for good after linking to afternic account. So currently, there is no way to use GD premium listing service.

I have listed another domain with new beta DLS service and got the same result. Domain is visible on afternic lander but not on godaddy as a premium or auction listing.

I have read the help articles but couldn't find any further information on this. Customer support doesn't help at all as they have no clue what's going on.

 

[richtrading]

I haven't heard anything about this. Can you put the domain name here or send it to me so I can have someone take a look at it and see what is happening?

Hi Joe, We emailed [email protected] yesterday - but Service team have not responded.
domain is AceCakes.com
Thank you for looking into this.

 

[richtrading]

Few Afternic 'issues' today. Reproduced each twice to be sure :-

1. https://www.afternic.com/login
Nothing happens when clicking login.
Workaround is to go back to the homepage, and use the login popup window.

2. On Afternic transfer page the following link doesn't work
"message a TA Agent. "
Nothing happens when clicking the link


Can Afternic staff reproduce the issues please?

 

[Arca]

I let the accounting team know and they looked into it. I do not think it will be changed in the near future as there are other items on their list to get done that is taking development time. I would think that showing your accountant or tax authority the record of sales in your account with us will suffice. It would probably be better because it shows the actual amount and domain name and date of the sale. You would most likely need this information as well if you are trying to use the domains as a capital gains tax, as you would need to show the specific asset, date it was acquired and divested and amounts for both.

@Joe Styler - This would take someone less than 5 minutes to fix.

International wire transfer uses the MT103 SWIFT message format.

You simply need to pull up your Afternic SWIFT payment to sellers template, locate field 70, which in your case it will state “online advertising income”. Delete that and type in “domain sales proceeds” or “proceeds from the sale of domain name assets” or something else along those lines. Then hit save. That’s it. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes to complete!

It’s in no way a complex task and takes no “development time”, it’s just a matter of changing one sentence in a pre-existing template. Even if whoever you delegated this task to have other things to do, this requires practically no time at all for them get done. They can just take a 5 minute break from what they are doing, pull up the template, and be done with it.

There has got to be one person out of GoDaddy’s 6000+ employees who can take 5 minutes out of their day to do this right away. And if there's nobody at GoDaddy who has time to spend 5 minutes on fixing an issue that affects millions in payments sent around the world, I would be grateful if you could personally take 5 minutes out of your own day and get it done.

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler

Thank you for responding, my earlier problem was fixed few hours later. However I am having a new problem.


I have read the help articles but couldn't find any further information on this. Customer support doesn't help at all as they have no clue what's going on.

Right it is still in Beta. You can manage the domains via Afternic if you do not see them as able to manage in your GoDaddy domain control center. You will no longer see any GoDaddy premium listings because those are going away. The Afternic listing acts as the premium listing used to. Buy Now price shows up the same on the GoDaddy purchase side for buyers searching for domains. Payment and commissions are the same.

The auctions may not show up for a day or two. They have to sync across Afternic's whole network of sellers of which GoDaddy auctions is one and they have to clear GoDaddy's rules to be ok to list, such as a trademark filter.

 

[Joe Styler]

Hi Joe, We emailed [email protected] yesterday - but Service team have not responded.
domain is AceCakes.com
Thank you for looking into this.

OK I see it. I will certainly let them know.

 

[Joe Styler]

Few Afternic 'issues' today. Reproduced each twice to be sure :-

1. https://www.afternic.com/login
Nothing happens when clicking login.
Workaround is to go back to the homepage, and use the login popup window.

2. On Afternic transfer page the following link doesn't work
"message a TA Agent. "
Nothing happens when clicking the link


Can Afternic staff reproduce the issues please?

If you are using a browser in incognito mode, one that blocks cookies, etc we do not support that. Typicaly the error you are seeing happens when someone is using a private window or a software that blocks things making it act similar to a private window. That is not something we are going to fix.

 

[richtrading]

If you are using a browser in incognito mode, one that blocks cookies, etc we do not support that. Typicaly the error you are seeing happens when someone is using a private window or a software that blocks things making it act similar to a private window. That is not something we are going to fix.

No, just a regular browser Chrome, not incognito. Easy to reproduce every time. All other websites and logins working perfectly..

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler - This would take someone less than 5 minutes to fix.

International wire transfer uses the MT103 SWIFT message format.

You simply need to pull up your Afternic SWIFT payment to sellers template, locate field 70, which in your case it will state “online advertising income”. Delete that and type in “domain sales proceeds” or “proceeds from the sale of domain name assets” or something else along those lines. Then hit save. That’s it. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes to complete!

It’s in no way a complex task and takes no “development time”, it’s just a matter of changing one sentence in a pre-existing template. Even if whoever you delegated this task to have other things to do, this requires practically no time at all for them get done. They can just take a 5 minute break from what they are doing, pull up the template, and be done with it.

There has got to be one person out of GoDaddy’s 6000+ employees who can take 5 minutes out of their day to do this right away. And if there's nobody at GoDaddy who has time to spend 5 minutes on fixing an issue that affects millions in payments sent around the world, I would be grateful if you could personally take 5 minutes out of your own day and get it done.

It is much more complex than you think and likely not something we are going to do anytime soon as you are the only one I know of asking about it and you can easily show your accountant accurate records of what your payments were for using the account sales history.
We would have to clear it with legal and accounting compliance, check with international stake holders, and work with the third party payment system we employ to pay non US customers and our own development teams.
We have to balance all the requests we get against our own internal projects and what makes the biggest difference for the most customers. We try and find a balance that helps improve our overall product for the most people.

 

[Joe Styler]

No, just a regular browser Chrome, not incognito. Easy to reproduce every time. All other websites and logins working perfectly..

I just tried Chrome a couple times new instances and it worked fine for me. I am not sure why it is not working for you if you have nothing as a browser ad on or blockers that impact it.

 

[nitg16]

Right it is still in Beta. You can manage the domains via Afternic if you do not see them as able to manage in your GoDaddy domain control center. You will no longer see any GoDaddy premium listings because those are going away. The Afternic listing acts as the premium listing used to. Buy Now price shows up the same on the GoDaddy purchase side for buyers searching for domains. Payment and commissions are the same.

The auctions may not show up for a day or two. They have to sync across Afternic's whole network of sellers of which GoDaddy auctions is one and they have to clear GoDaddy's rules to be ok to list, such as a trademark filter.

Just after your reply, I checked the domain again and now I can see it on auctions. It took nearly 4 days though.

When I look up the domain in search bar in GD homepage, it shows that domain is already taken. There is no BIN price or premium listing for the domain. Just a handful of related domains are shown. It has been like this since I first listed the domain using new DLS service four days back.

So current status is:

Afternic lander and listing: working
Godaddy auctions listing: working
GD premium/BIN listing from search bar: not working

Another thing I noted is that floor price is visible on afternic listing which contradicts new DLS rules:

"Floor Price: The lowest acceptable sales price our sales executives can negotiate without seeking your approval. This price is not viewable to buyers."

The floor price shown on afternic is what I set in new beta DLS manager. However, GD auctions is showing a floor price 65% of BIN. It seems GD auctions is not honoring the floor price I set and and is setting it at 65% which is done when when there is no floor price is set by user.

I know it is in beta but just wanted to let you know about these issues.

Thanks again for your response.