Apparent SnapNames glitch worked to my advantage

Quite often I use SnapNames as one of the domain backordering services of choice.

Although over the years they have lost a significant part of their ability to beat every single competitor in the field, they are still quite reliable.

After placing a bid for a domain during its expiration period, SnapNames managed to catch it.

I received no email notifications about the event, and upon logging into my SnapNames account the domain was being auctioned, with me as the high bidder. I actually became aware of the auction on the 2nd of its three days.

The auction went through without any raising by the other bidders, and about 20 minutes before the end of the auction today, I received a notification email:

“Domain name auctions have started which end as soon as Nov 15, 2013 12:15 PST

The domain names you back-ordered have been acquired. As a result, a brief auction will take place for each domain name to determine to whom the domain name will be awarded. The end times for these auctions are listed below and are approximate. Be sure to check on the last day of the auction for the actual end time. Note that if multiple equal bids are received, the first bidder wins the opening bid.”

The email from SnapNames was thus delayed by 3 days, clearly by a system glitch that allowed me to get the domain without any interference from other bidders.

Moral of the story: always log in and monitor your account, including any live auctions and don’t rely on email notifications.