I believe it’s about time to add some legalese to domain name offer forms, such as those at the Uniregistry Market that I use primarily.
Offers attached to domain inquiries are binding, and yet there is rampant abuse.
When a domain contact form includes a minimum asking price, filling out that form with a number indicates that the offer is sincere and binding.
And yet, I’ve witnessed several occasions that utilize this method to circumvent the form’s mechanism of submitting a minimum offer; the form itself contains a lesser amount, or that offer is communicated later on.
So it’s important for would-be buyers to understand that reaching out about a domain’s availability and attaching an offer equals to a contract.
Should that offer be accepted, they are then obligated to proceed with funding the domain’s acquisition, and be in breach of the contract if they do not.
Of course, for this to be possible, a set of terms and conditions must accompany every contact form, and the form should not be submitted without acknowledging and agreeing to the terms.
Time is of the essence, and quite often it’s wasted by lowballers that show disregard to the rules of the domain investment game.
I use EFTY landers which indicate offers should be in USD yet I get offers quite frequently which based on their comments or amount and country of origin are obviously not in USD.
April 20th… 30000
April 14th…. 1000000 (presumably $1 million)
April 6th…. 85849995 ($85.8 million yeah right)
April 4th…. 735000 ($735k would be nice)
March 29th.. 123456 ($123k offer – SOLD!)
I agree, should be binding but what to do, is it worthwhile to sue the offender?
An offer cannot be a contract.
If it were. You would also be breaching the agreement, if you reject the offer.
An offer is the first step in a negotiation. A contract is only binding when two parties agree.
JJ – When you make an offer and I accept your offer, it’s an instant binding agreement.
How simpler can it get?
On the other hand, making an offer simply to circumvent the ability to submit a form is a waste of my time, not a real offer. That’s the point of this article.
Buyers should be bound to an agreement with Ts&Cs at the time they submit their communication and offer. That’s what’s needed.
I applaud Nat Cohen’s initiative to actually charge offer-makers $19.95 for the offer to go through. It’s brilliant.
And what about BIN listings. Got four “Payment initiated” emails within a week at Fabulous only to see them followed by “Sale cancelled by buyer” emails.
Yep, I too applaud Nat Cohen’s initiative to charge non-refundable fee.
Hey, sale goes thru, you can deduct fee from purchase price.
Mitch – Great point. Fixed price BIN is like e.g. buying an item on eBay – then reneging on the purchase. Not allowed per the rules.