Warning against a member...

[Coral Cove]

I strongly urge any of you going into business with Dejan Lesicar (NamePros member @venturefile.com and owner of sites like sexydress.us) to be very cautious. He is about to cost our company Brandroot a lot of stress and money as we pursue serious legal action against him.

In short the details are as follows:

4/08/2014 - Dejan creates a Brandroot account
5/09/2014 - Wuvo.com is accepted and listed for sale at a price of $6750
09/29/2014 - Dejan requests that Wuvo.com be removed from Brandroot because "The name was accepted to an auction event."
10/14/2014 - Brandroot receives a $3,000 offer for wuvo.com
10/14/2104 - Dejan rejects and reminds us that he removed his name

We then remind him of his contractual obligation of keeping Wuvo exclusive to Brandroot for a period of 30 days following the request of removal.

10/15/2014 - In the interested buyer impatience he raises his offer to $4500.

Dejan is intrigued and writes, "Thank you for the update. That is a decent offer and I will seriously consider it." For several days Dejan is unresponsive, ignoring several of our emails.

10/22/2014 - In a matter of minutes of informing Dejan that he is no longer welcome to sell at Brandroot and that Wuvo.com will be removed, Wuvo.com sells at full price for $6750.

10/22/214 - Dejan decides that he does not want to sell Wuvo at Brandroot and that my email stating that his name was removed ended his contractual obligation with Brandroot (which the email in no way stated).

Our financial loss due to Dejan's unprofessionalism is not the concern. Brandroot is now left with one very unhappy customer threatening us with litigation. We have informed Dejan that we will stop at nothing, "making this venture of [his] a lot more expensive and stressful than [he] thought possible."

You've been warned. Dejan Lesicar is very capable of leaving you in one sticky situation if you enter into business with him.

 

[discobull]

I didn't expect anything less from the Nancy's at NamePros. The overall sentiment is for this swindling domain owner Dejan, which was very much expected at this forum, and not for the individual who put out almost 7k for a domain and now has lost any chance of getting it.

You're confusing 2 issues. Whether the domain seller breached your terms is separate from the question of whether or not you handled the situation well and the fact that you're being criticized for posting here does not imply that anyone is sympathizing with him. It just means that people don't think you're handling this very well, pure and simple.

Generally speaking, what you'll find is that when a customer posts a complaint about a business, that that will be perceived as a public service, but that when a business posts a complaint about a customer that will be perceived as vindictive and unprofessional. That may not seem fair and you may not like it, but that's a reality of life. The only exception might be when a customer does something really egregious such as committing credit fraud, but even then the posting would need to sound professional and be free of personal attacks.

Additionally, when a business owner starts publicly exchanging insults with people, that always backfires on the business owner -- ALWAYS. That's because behaving professionally means keeping your cool and not letting your emotions get the best of you. Nobody wants to do business with someone that's quick to roll around the mud. Try for a second to imagine the CEO of a major corporation handling things the way have. It's unthinkable, and there's a good reason for that.

I know that you're upset and that you feel cheated, but you should really give some thought to handling things differently in the future because it makes little sense to respond to the loss of a deal by doing further damage to your business.

Just so we're clear, I mean this as constructive criticism so please refrain from responding with an attack. Cheers.

 

[Tia Wood]

 

[Nem0]

I believe this thread was a learning experience of what NOT to do.

Yeah, I learned that I shouldn't have sold Wuvo to Dejan as cheap as I did! O.o

 

[Coral Cove]

I am sorry for insulting the NamePros community and offending all those involved with this thread and any other readers who were offended. It was foolish and brash of me to call all of you Nancy's. I have the utmost respect for all the sellers at Brandroot and for NamePros members, even though my comments in this thread may not have reflected that. I understand that @Archangel and others were probably responding out anger towards my lack of appreciation for them and I have reactivated @Archangel account (and will offer 10 free listings and a featured spot at Brandroot for one of his domains) should he want to continue to sell at Brandroot. I certainly got out of hand and regretfully accept the repercussions of my actions here. I apologize for acting so childish and offensive. I hope I can somehow earn the forgiveness of the NamePros community in the near future. I am truthfully ashamed of my actions.

 

[biggie]

this could bring negative publicity.

threatening to take actions like that, is a valid reason not to use such services.

best to let it go and move on, rather than trying to destroy a members credibility because they don't want to sell thru your website.

imo...

 

[Paul]

@Rader, your outspoken nature has a nasty habit of earning negative attention for you and your company. While I would normally remove a thread directly attacking another member in this way--we have trade reviews for a reason--I don't think that will be necessary here. I hope next time you will consider approaching such situations with more tact and less aggression. It is certainly possible to defend your position without creating so much tension between you and your potential customers. Clearly, this demonstrates a disconnect between you and your target audience, to which I hope you will adjust.

It's worth noting that every sizable business takes unfair losses. They budget accordingly: it's not worth their time, money, or effort to defend themselves to the bitter end in all situations. Having tried many strategies, they've found that early exits yield better long-term results. Of course, this isn't true in all cases; however, with everyday disputes, you're probably better off favoring your customers and being a bit more lenient. From the perspective of a customer, I take careful note of which businesses cooperate with my requests, especially when I give them a hard time. The more forgiving they are with my difficult requests, the more I will favor them over competitors, even if their prices are higher. I put a lot of value in good customer support. When a support representative gives me the impression that the company cares more about long-term business than an individual sale, I gain confidence that I chose the right company for the job.

 

[S-B]

lol why exactly do you think that? I have no interest in closing this thread.

I did not even know BrandRoot existed until now. This may have something to do with my general disdain for brandable domains. Please do not interpret this as an attempt to dismiss your business. This is just my first experience with your brand. Do you think that slinging insults at fellow domainers makes me want to signup with your website? Hell no.

You may think that NamePros makes up a fraction of your customer base but you are forgetting how the support of this forum could multiply your revenue. This is such a small niche and in the matter of hours you have ruined your reputation on one of the largest domaining forums. Does this seem like a smart business tactic to you?

I think you have forgotten that your business requires a steady stream of quality domains. Without that stream, you cannot make any sales. With those sales, there is no income. Without any income, there is no business. I know this is a fallacious argument but I think it still makes my point clear. You NEED our support.

 

[Jeeps]

The best thing to come out of this thread was the "Namepros Nancy's" comment. Man, that was funny. :D

 

[Archangel]

I have news for you: Without domain owners, your site wouldn't have domains to sell. And I'm pretty sure 95% or more of your uses are NP members. You need to be wise: alienating NP users will only hurt and will not help. Use common sense.No offense, but you're coming across as an asshole.

I have news for you, the users at NamePros are not our only customer base. And the ones ranting in this thread certainly aren't our prime sellers.

 

[bmugford]

The OP has made a mockery of NamePros, its members, and staff.

First of all he posts personal information about a private transaction between his company and a client.

Then when he got negative responses he resorted to name calling and insults.

Obviously realizing how poorly this reflected on him, the OP has entered cleanup mode. He started editing his original posts and changed his username not once, but twice. First he changed it to "The Moon" and now "Saturn".

Potential clients deserve to be able to read this thread and know who they are dealing with.

The fact that NamePros has facilitated the scrubbing of this thread and made it private makes me lose a lot of respect for this forum.

Brad

 

[Josh R]

After reading this thread I will definitely never use brandroot.

This is all very unprofessional.

 

[gina ferrano]

I'd like to formally apologize to my mother, whose name is Nancy (I love you mom) for the utter ridiculousness, and the negative connotations associated with your name.

 

[biggie]

Clearly, this demonstrates a disconnect between you and your target audience, to which I hope you will adjust.

that's the difference

it's "his" personality, his "ego" that has caused the disconnect.
he, in his mind, got bigger than the user base.

which is why such comments were made towards np members in general

however, in that narrow vision, he forgot to see that np members are also members on "other" forums.
some publish their own blogs, some have sold 6-7 figures in domains, they own ppc companies, aftermarket venues, domain name journals, etc, etc.

so, your statements can offend a wider portion of the domaining community than you realize, while providing a clearer picture of the potential negative ramifications and entrapments, of doing business with you.

humble-up dude,

Good Luck!

imo....

 

[WritersWrite]

...I didn't realize the extent of personal attacks that some people make here, including using my photo and private accounts elsewhere. Those ones sure have a lot of time on their hands.

You mean like using a client's account information to launch an extensive personal attack against him on this site?

 

[Name Trader]

I think a client who starts a trademark application before the domain is in their hands is either an idiot or telling lies.

 

[WritersWrite]

I wonder if "brandrooted" could ever catch on as a term referring to a situation where a company sabotages themselves with ill-advised posts online that insult their customer base.

 

[Blake]

I just read over the whole thread and I will never use brandroot.com for the simple lack of professionalism. Also did anyone else read ventures reply and notice that he claims his name was purchased as a domain? What do you plan on doing with that domain? I for one think you have done way more damage to your company then having 1 disgruntle customer in such a short time period.

Then you have the audacity to slander ALL members of namepros that express their opinion? You do realize that these same members more then likely got your business off the ground? Just saying that if your so concerned with customers....well you just insulted about 30%+/- by slandering this community. At any rate your lack of ethics/professionalism/etc show me enough to avoid you and your business ventures like a plague.

Blake

 

[WritersWrite]

Whether the apology was sincere or not, the multiple name changes over the course of two days make it impossible to take Brandroot seriously as a business.

As they say, the cover-up is sometimes worse than the crime.

If you are not willing to stand behind your words, then your words are worthless.

 

[hookbox]

10/22/2014 - In a matter of minutes of informing Dejan that he is no longer welcome to sell at Brandroot and that Wuvo.com will be removed, Wuvo.com sells at full price for $6750.

Not sure how there can be any legal action when you cancelled his account and removed the name. Once that happens there is zero recourse and he is free to do what he wants with the name.

 

[DomainVP]

Personally, I don't think all of this was worth the $2000 loss (30%).

@Rader you have had a lot of support here from the NamePros community, I'm actually very surprised that you brought this to the NamePros forum; you had to know that this was going to get trolled.

Almost everything does.

You could literally start a thread and give away a $x,xxx domain, and someone would respond detailing how cheap you were for not giving away a $xx,xxx domain.

I've spoken with Dejan pertaining to names on multiple occasions and he has always conducted himself very professionally, and he has had some pretty good sales recently.

I think you are both two very business minded people who just banged heads.

From a completely outside perspective; if this happened to me I would have banned the seller and reached a personal settlement to regain marketplace entry.

I wish you both luck in this.

 

[Paul]

*ehem* Now now, let's not get carried away. Rader does have a valid argument, even if its presentation was in poor taste. You don't have to agree with him, but you should at least refrain from showing the same aggression that you dislike in his original post.

 

[Kate]

So again, I would love to get your feedback on why you believe Brandroot thrived because of you. Our prime focus has ALWAYS been buyers and never sellers. We have never once advertised to get sellers at Brandroot. 0% marketing was put behind sellers.

So what have you been doing at Namepros for the past 18 months ? Simply put, NPers are your suppliers and they add up to your bottom line. NP has representatives from the whole domain industry. The scope of things is larger than just a domain forum.

The whole purpose of your thread was to name and shame a client you have a beef with. It didn't work so why keep digging yourself into a hole. You are dragging us in a private dispute for no good reason I think. Maybe it's unfair to you, but NP is not the proper venue to settle this business issue.

[Sorry, but I have zero tolerance for those who tirelessly work to defame our business. Now you can freely post your objections and empty ridiculing knowing now that you have a very good reason to.

I think you are clearly losing your temper, something I have noticed on at least one other occasion. Good business is about nurturing and mending relationships, not burning bridges.
Perhaps you should refrain from posting and let the thread die, especially if a lawyer is handling the case (you are only making his job more difficult).
You did create this thread and you built up the drama.

And you keep changing username, what exactly are you trying to achieve ? It gives me an impression of immaturity and the way you handle things is unsettling. A legit business doesn't hide by changing name twice a day.
Nothing against you but please take a breath and keep a cool head.

The problem is that you've been clearly ruthless and threatening. You said:

We have informed Dejan that we will stop at nothing, "making this venture of [his] a lot more expensive and stressful than [he] thought possible."

This is so wrong.
This is not going to earn you any sympathy in court. You have a lawyer ? Let the lawyer handle the case. Don't take the law into your own hands.

 

[.NJ]

 

[S-B]

I didn't expect anything less from the Nancy's at NamePros.

Not smart to burn bridges with your customer base.

 

[Rado_Ch]

So, to summarize all this - you went to a forum full of nancy's that you don't really care about to rant about a client that did you wrong, got called out on multiple flaws of your TOS which should be the bases of your whole operation and your idea of dealing with the issue is threats and malice... smooth, really smooth...

I for one am always a supporter of looking in an issue from both sides before objectively giving opinion and even though you probably have the rights to be upset your total lack of professionalism and proper tone has certainly won you no sympathy. So whatever the reason for your post here, I don't believe it was well defended.