Afternic is a scam. I've been a customer of Godaddy for almost 10 years and have purchased many domains through Godaddy. I listed one for sale 3 years ago that was valued at $3000. This was through the Godaddy marketplace in 2023 and it was without an agent's assistance, as it was a direct sale listing (meaning the potential buyer can negotiate the sale directly with me, the seller). I want to reiterate that I had never heard of Afternic until a week ago when I was notified over the weekend by a strange email that my domain had sold for $3000 and was in the process of being transferred. The next day I got another email confirming that the transfer had completed. When I looked into the sale details, it stated a 30% commission, so instead of getting paid $3000, I was to only get paid 2100? I immediately thought that this was a scam or phishing email and made numerous calls to Godaddy support. Finally after days of trying to reach somebody I was able to speak to a supervisor who told me that at the time when I listed the domain (2023) Afternic wasn't being used as a third party affiliate for domain sales. That transition occurred fully about a year ago. So suddenly without any notice, my domain sale went from a direct sale/no commission to all-of-a-sudden having a 30% commission fee and magically selling. There were no emails notifications nor anything in writing from Godaddy nor Afternic. So not only did they take almost a $1000 commission without my approval, my domain sold well under the Godaddy valued amount. This is criminal. On top of that, it took me five days to finally get in touch with someone from Afternic as Godaddy management kept giving me wrong mails and wrong phone numbers to reach Afternic. Even Afternic's own web page gives incorrect contact information. The manager that called me back admitted that likely the selling policies for domains had changed in the last year but that it is my responsibility to continue looking at the agreement and contract for changes. That is another legal fallacy. If terms and conditions are changed in a contractual agreement, it's up to the the main party, in this case Godaddy, to inform me of such and they never did. I will be filing a claim in small claims court and I'm also going to be notifying the Better Business Bureau. I will also be leaving this review under Godaddy, as they're the parent company and know exactly what they're doing in this scenario. Which is illegal.
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Afternic, a GoDaddy brand, is the world’s premiere domain marketplace, listing more than 20 million premium domain names available for sale and receiving more than 75 million domain searches each month—more than any other domain marketplace.
Whether you are a domain buyer or a domain seller, Afternic is the most trusted name in domains.
