What would you do?

[pendragon]

3 months ago, I sold 5 names to an individual who paid in good time.

I have instigated the transfer half a dozen times but the buyer never completes.

Emails to him now bounce back as the address is no longer valid.

I have tried other addresses I have found for him and his company/employer but I never get a response.

What is my obligation in terms of holding them indefinitely/renewing/not reselling etc ??

 

[martin-s]

If it were me (and assuming the names weren't super valuable), I would change the registrant name, mark the names as no longer required and let them expire if I did not hear from him again.

If I did eventually hear from him, I would process the transfer as normal.

 

[Lovekraft]

I've a small number of domains in this situation too. Paid for but the buyer either never responds or never gets round to accepting the transfer. I don't really want to let them expire as they are too good to but it is frustrating having to constantly chase them.

 

[RobM]

'...I don't really want to let them expire....'

If the buyer paid you for them I would email him to say they're about to expire and to sort out transfer... then let them expire even if they're good.

 

[Edwin]

Depending on the value of the deal I would renew them, then explain what you've done and make it clear you won't do so again. If the original amount paid supports it, I'd send the notification "officially" (signed for snail mail) so there's absolutely no chance of any comeback down the road...

 

[Edwin]

I've a small number of domains in this situation too. Paid for but the buyer either never responds or never gets round to accepting the transfer. I don't really want to let them expire as they are too good to but it is frustrating having to constantly chase them.

If the buyer's paid, it's no good thinking of them as still yours. The responsibility, yes (in part) but the ownership, no... So anything you choose to do should be to discharge your responsibilities, not with a view to ever "keeping" them.

 

[Lovekraft]

If the buyer's paid, it's no good thinking of them as still yours. The responsibility, yes (in part) but the ownership, no... So anything you choose to do should be to discharge your responsibilities, not with a view to ever "keeping" them.

I don't have a view to keep them at all, as far as i'm concerned once it is paid for it is no longer mine. I just don't want to have to stump the renewal fees and be responsible for them any longer. Thankfully a few businesses contacted me just before Christmas when they were less busy and I managed to have a few transferred over all in that 1 week, there's just 1 or 2 lingering still!

 

[Edwin]

What I do, which might help a little if you have access to a similar setup, is that I change our standard "for sale" lander to something like "Sold - if you were the buyer, then contact us to transfer this domain" (I fiddle with the wording from time to time). I also put one up if they have finished the transfer but not yet updated the nameservers "Sold - if you are the buyer, then thank you again and please note that you need to change your nameservers away from ours."

 

[findtim]

live and learn, its something you should have in the agrrement, a timeframe to transfer or the domain reverts back to you and no refund is given.
if its about to expire and you renew i'd say its yours.
make sure you keep all correspondence, i always ask for a contact number from the start once you know a sale is going to happen.
tim

 

[RobM]

if its about to expire and you renew i'd say its yours.

I would be very careful about that. Nominet (supposedly) take a dim view of registrars renewing domains that don't belong to them then keeping them for themselves. It would only take the previous owner to prove that he paid you for the domain, and you decided to keep it after expiry, and I suspect you'd be looking at a tag suspension.

 

[WineLoverLondon]

Wouldn't the smartest way to handle this is to pre-empt it all from happening? E.g. place this clause or thereabouts in the print on the invoice - 'if you do not accept the domains within 30 days you will forfeit the right to a refund, and the domains will either be let to expire or resold'

I dunno, I'm not a lawyer. But simple workaround

 

[signature]

I had a buyer transfer a name but left it on my TAG, a year later, I renewed the name and send them an invoice for the cost, I got a reply stating that they have paid for the name, I explain the name is still on my TAG and I renewed it to avoid it been dropped, they paid and move the name to another TAG few weeks later.

Just to add, I have completed a Nominet transfer few times with emails from Nominet confirmation, did not bother to check the whois, only to receive another transfer email from the seller. This happened few times.

 

[Edwin]

If you sell a reasonable number of names, perhaps establish a small "idiot fund" with a portion of the proceeds i.e. set a couple of pounds aside from each sale to cover contingencies like this. If it really only happens very occasionally, it should be ok to dip into the fund for renewals.

(Just like many shops in the real world have a contingency for "breakages", for example.)