When bidding on auctions at Go Daddy most are under the assumption that when the auction closes their bid responsibility ends.
In a recent Namepros thread that dealt with buyer’s remorse, members shared different experiences with certain auctions they participated in.
One member stated that three days after an auction ended they were sent an email that the winning bidder did not pay and they were given the bill to pay. The member siad they purchased something else in the meantime and called their rep to remove the bill. Another member talked about being pleasantly surprised that he lost an auction but then then had the chance to buy it much cheaper than the auction close. The high bidder did not pay and he got the opportunity to buy it where they started bidding against one another. So after stopping at $3,000 he got the name for $400.
I had someone a few weeks earlier email me that Go Daddy sent them a bill and that they had to pay it.
I read all the terms of service agreements and it does not say what the responsibility is with relation to paying for a name after losing the auction.
I spoke to Paul Nicks and he said that technically your bid is binding until the auction comes to completion. Completion being the name has been paid for not the auction closing time. Paul said with expired auctions since only Go Daddy is the financial beneficiary they will take the price back to where the bidding war began. Public auctions do not have the same mechanism because that is customer money.
So in the example above the member got a chance to pay $400 because even though he went as high as $3,000 the non paying, winning bidder has all their bids voided. So the price goes back to where the two way bidding started. In a public auction the price would have been $3,000 the highest bid made.
I expect the terms of service agreement to eventually update and let members know what their bidding responsibilities are when an auction closes.
Yes, this needs to be clarified.
When someone loses a bid, he or she often moves on and goes for an alternate domain.
It’s not fair to hold the second highest bidder responsible.
I think offering the second bidder the option to purchase is a good idea, though.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for the article. It is always good to get some clarification out there around the auctions. I think there may have been some misunderstanding around the way this works so I wanted to flesh out a couple scenarios that should help explain the way the auctions work.
– Most importantly there are very few auctions that don’t conclude with the winning bidder paying for the auction. Last I looked it was sub 1%. We have a robust system of pre-validation and live bid validation that is automated and manual.
Closed Auctions for expired domain names:
– If the winning bidder fails to pay, we offer the domain to the Second Highest bidder for a period of 24 hours, at their option, there is no demand or any type of enforcement if they do not want to purchase the domain.
Closed Customer listed domain:
-Never offered to any bidder other than the winner. We do not even have a mechanism to do so built into the auctions. Our philosophy is that the seller deserves top dollar for the domain and we want them to attract the full bid potential of the domain.
Live expired domain or customer listed domain auction:
-We actively watch live auction bidding and remove any bids we find that are deemed to be fraudulent. As stated there is a robust system in place to validate bidders up front so there are very few of these bid removals, but we reserve the right to ban bidders and remove their bids mid auction if we see them involved in shill bidding for instance. (someone bidding up their own listing).
-If you are part of a live auction and you are outbid by a fraudulent bid we may remove this bid making you the high bidder again.
This is very rare. Less than 1% of total auctions are impacted by some kind of bad bid, this is a small percentage of that less than 1%.
So if you are bidding on an auction that has not ended you should keep an eye on it until it completes. Your bid is live until the auction ends. If you are part of an auction that has completed you are not under any obligation to pay, you have an option in certain cases to purchase an expired domain as the second highest bidder.
I would say the conversation I had with Paul did not sync up 100% with your comments here. We absolutely talked about public auction second place bidder getting an option. Others have said they were sent a bill and in some cases were fourth highest bidder.
Thanks for clarifying