Drops today - August 2013

[Ashman]

Anthony P are the terms 'private fixed bid client' and 'friends of Netfleet's officeholders' interchangable?

 

[neddy]

I will take your concerns on board and I will discuss this with the team tomorrow.

We did try your suggested possible solution for almost a year and it did not work out well. The extended bidding might help solve this issue so maybe we can compromise there. Alternatively we could use just try fixed bidding with a fixed end time.

Anyway I will discuss it further and I am sure we can find a suitable transparent solution, so we can all get back to domaining.

Fantastic! This is really appreciated Anthony.

 

[findtim]

Alternatively we could use just try fixed bidding with a fixed end time.

-1 , i feel another thread coming on

 

[neddy]

-1 , i feel another thread coming on

I totally agree with you Tim. I'm certainly not in favour of "fixed bidding with a fixed end time".

Just to clarify my previous post:

Fantastic! This is really appreciated Anthony.

This was purely in relation to Anthony being prepared to take expressed concerns on board, and discuss them with the NF team.

I am hopeful common sense will prevail.

 

[neddy]

Nice thing about that thread is that it will be purely hypothetical so lets have a go at it...

Can you give me some hypothetical issues with fixed bids for everyone?

In the hypothetical world I'd probably even make it blind too. Maybe you would get a daily list and you can only see your bids. Auction ends we try to catch them for you and after the catch is completed we inform you of your success or failure.

Purely hypothetically speaking guys...

Would you care to explain to me why?

Once again, I think this should have it's own thread in the Netfleet section. This is not relevant in "Drops today - August". Just like what happened for:

"Ending the auctions an hour early "

Could admin or a mod please shift?

 

[neddy]

Profit at the expense of alienating your core customer base will ultimately be shown to be "fool's gold". Particularly when one day the worm turns and some other drop catcher becomes more competitive. It will happen - you did it to Drop - and someone will do it to you one day. Imho.

I will take your concerns on board and I will discuss this with the team tomorrow.

Anthony, in the pursuit of trying to make you and your team understand how a lot of your core customer base feel, I thought I'd share this analogy (and sentiments) that another member sent me last night.

I think this is the start of many long winded threads about NF and its decisions on how it conducts business. It is conducting itself as a "Coles" without a "Woolworths" in the market.

The Coles / Woolies thing really sums the situation up imho. I wish I had thought of the analogy first!

 

[Cal]

Could admin or a mod please shift?

No worries, I've done this - here's the thread: https://www.dntrade.com.au/netfleet-com-au/8156-hypothetical-discussion-fixed-bids.html

 

[Scott.L]

I believed a registry couldn't compete in its own expiring domain auctions?

Did Netfleet bid on its own auction for the idiot who knew nothing about how to buy the domain?

 

[Bacon Farmer]

Somebody really wanted Herpes today.

Looks like Netfleet caught it.

 

[Lorenzo]

Somebody really wanted Herpes today.

I was unbelievably looking at the $13 bid and wondering how could that go so low...then BANG!

 

[findtim]

catchy name

 

[neddy]

I believed a registry couldn't compete in its own expiring domain auctions?

Did Netfleet bid on its own auction for the idiot who knew nothing about how to buy the domain?

Didn't see this before.

Let me answer your second question first as it's much easier. Disregarding the "idiot" part, the answer is yes.

Your first question is a little more complex. In simple terms, a registrar is generally speaking not allowed to register domains for itself.

But I imagine they complied with policy by obviously creating their own internal account for "the enduser" (with the enduser's concurrence). They used the enduser's entity name, but for some reason used a "Netfleet email address".

Within a few days thereafter, the NF email address was replaced by the enduser's own address. That technically complied with auDA policy.

It was the NF email address and huge disparity in bids (looking at the bidding history) that alerted some of us to what was happening. Not to mention peeing us off.

Here is the actual policy (it's not a long read): Clarification of Permissible Own Use Registration by Registrars (2008-11) Clause 1.2 is interesting - but lots of wiggle room there.

And this is the Code of Practice (a longer read!). Clause 4 is the applicable part. I believe that Netfleet are technically compliant.

But it still leaves a sour taste. Imho.

 

[FleurF]

A response to all comments last week; the constructive, the destructive, the mud slinging, the protective, the valid (and even those ridiculous comments from members who are not even clients and/or affected).

You may or may not have noticed that despite the fact that the fixed bidding button went up last week and some clients (new and old) choose now to use the fixed system, the pilot for our latest marketing initiative ended on Wednesday 8th August.

There have been a huge amount of changes at Netfleet over the past 5 months, all aimed to increase the size of the market for all of our sellers, educate end-users on the expired market, the aftermarket and the auction process and generally improve the liquidity and interest in the .au market.

Many of the changes have been behind the scenes. For example,

• an increase in marketing spend & activity
• an increase in industry advertising spend & activity
• an increase in blogs
• an increase in industry articles
• subtle changes to our website to ensure smoother processes
• major changes to our alerts and backorder system,
• technical improvements to our drop catching service
• clearer communication with end users with "how to guides"
• improved social media presence
• inroads into major media publicity and exposure.
• marked decrease in support ticket response time
• increased number of client support points

There are other slated site improvements that will be communicated via regular monthly newsletters (starting this month)

Over this same time, we have trialed some new initiatives such as,
1. Telemarketing to end users to advise them of Netfleet auctions
2. A buy now process
3. Domain broking to actively market aftermarket names to end-users on behalf of our sellers
4. Offering a premium fixed price service for end-users

The world of marketing has never been and never will be an exact science and I am a firm believer in trials and pilots to either prove a revenue stream prior to investing in expensive and time consuming development and/or to gauge future viability.

I don't make apologies for implementing marketing pilots and trials as until someone hands me a crystal ball, I won't be able to otherwise test ideas.

The constructive comments in the thread last week have been taken on board and until I have ironed out some processes in our premium fixed price service, I will not be starting the technical implementation of the system. When and if I do decide to officially launch the service - I will advise the market ahead of time.

Earlier this year and again over a series of phone calls with some clients, Anthony and I have said that if changes were made to the NF platform, we would inform the market. I stand by this and will do so; I'm happy to announce changes in blogs as I've been doing with changes to the platform since I started at Netfleet.

HOWEVER - I reserve the right to trial and test pilots and marketing initiatives BEFORE making formal changes to the Netfleet platform. Our recent sales pilot was just that - a pilot. You all have the right to express your feedback but please do not assume lack of transparency simply because we reserve the right to test new projects. I'm sure you all trial new projects in your various businesses each and every day.

I am aware of the constant scrutiny under which our platform operates, I am aware of competitors in the market, I also absolutely understand that the hardest job in the world is to be #1. We respect our very hard won current position in the expired auction market but are not ignorant enough to think that it will always be this way - and that is why we constantly trial new processes, upgrade our systems, improve our processes - it is simply best business practice to strive for constant improvement.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Netfleet leads the market in technology, in process design, in drop catching and in innovation.

Our intention as a company is to promote the .au market, create competition in the auction process and to generate profits for both Netfleet and the industry. Our intention has never been and will never be to raise the ire of customers.

I hope that I have addressed your concerns and if you would like to discuss further with me, please do so via response or email: fleurf [at] netfleet [dot] com [au] or phone (02) 9215 6156.

 

[neddy]

A response to all comments last week; the constructive, the destructive, the mud slinging, the protective, the valid (and even those ridiculous comments from members who are not even clients and/or affected).

You may or may not have noticed that despite the fact that the fixed bidding button went up last week and some clients (new and old) choose now to use the fixed system, the pilot for our latest marketing initiative ended on Wednesday 8th August.

There have been a huge amount of changes at Netfleet over the past 5 months, all aimed to increase the size of the market for all of our sellers, educate end-users on the expired market, the aftermarket and the auction process and generally improve the liquidity and interest in the .au market.

Many of the changes have been behind the scenes. For example,

• an increase in marketing spend & activity
• an increase in industry advertising spend & activity
• an increase in blogs
• an increase in industry articles
• subtle changes to our website to ensure smoother processes
• major changes to our alerts and backorder system,
• technical improvements to our drop catching service
• clearer communication with end users with "how to guides"
• improved social media presence
• inroads into major media publicity and exposure.
• marked decrease in support ticket response time
• increased number of client support points

There are other slated site improvements that will be communicated via regular monthly newsletters (starting this month)

Over this same time, we have trialed some new initiatives such as,
1. Telemarketing to end users to advise them of Netfleet auctions
2. A buy now process
3. Domain broking to actively market aftermarket names to end-users on behalf of our sellers
4. Offering a premium fixed price service for end-users

The world of marketing has never been and never will be an exact science and I am a firm believer in trials and pilots to either prove a revenue stream prior to investing in expensive and time consuming development and/or to gauge future viability.

I don't make apologies for implementing marketing pilots and trials as until someone hands me a crystal ball, I won't be able to otherwise test ideas.

The constructive comments in the thread last week have been taken on board and until I have ironed out some processes in our premium fixed price service, I will not be starting the technical implementation of the system. When and if I do decide to officially launch the service - I will advise the market ahead of time.

Earlier this year and again over a series of phone calls with some clients, Anthony and I have said that if changes were made to the NF platform, we would inform the market. I stand by this and will do so; I'm happy to announce changes in blogs as I've been doing with changes to the platform since I started at Netfleet.

HOWEVER - I reserve the right to trial and test pilots and marketing initiatives BEFORE making formal changes to the Netfleet platform. Our recent sales pilot was just that - a pilot. You all have the right to express your feedback but please do not assume lack of transparency simply because we reserve the right to test new projects. I'm sure you all trial new projects in your various businesses each and every day.

I am aware of the constant scrutiny under which our platform operates, I am aware of competitors in the market, I also absolutely understand that the hardest job in the world is to be #1. We respect our very hard won current position in the expired auction market but are not ignorant enough to think that it will always be this way - and that is why we constantly trial new processes, upgrade our systems, improve our processes - it is simply best business practice to strive for constant improvement.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Netfleet leads the market in technology, in process design, in drop catching and in innovation.

Our intention as a company is to promote the .au market, create competition in the auction process and to generate profits for both Netfleet and the industry. Our intention has never been and will never be to raise the ire of customers.

I hope that I have addressed your concerns and if you would like to discuss further with me, please do so via response or email: fleurf [at] netfleet [dot] com [au] or phone (02) 9215 6156.

Fleur, a lot of what you have said here is "spin" imho. No more, no less. You and others have obviously spent all day coming up with something you feel will "tick the boxes"
and make us all feel warm and fuzzy.

I think the long list of Netfleet achievements are admirable, and I hope that there are many more to come.

The only issue I took you to task on (as did others) was "competing with your own core customer base" in what I believe was an unsavoury manner. You gave us
no notice of this, despite the promises to the contrary that were made by Anthony after the "Eels" situation.

NF created a problem, and it was caught with its corporate pants down.

You now call it a "pilot". For reasons mentioned above, I'm disappointed by the spin. You only have to look at Anthony's responses on this thread from the beginning to the
end to see how he "ducked and dived" and didn't answer the core issues until he had no other option but to do so.

Moving forward, I'm glad that particular "pilot" is over. I also hope you understand that whilst the majority of us applaud your platform, all we ask for the future is that you
offer transparency and a level playing field for all.

I wish you all the best.

Cheers, Ned

 

[Ashman]

Fleur, a lot of what you have said here is "spin" imho. No more, no less. You and others have obviously spent all day coming up with something you feel will "tick the boxes"
and make us all feel warm and fuzzy.

Agree with you on this statement Neddy. If Netfleet just came out and said something like:

"Sorry guys we stuffed up but we are doing our best to correct our mistake..."

that would have been the best way forward from the outset IMO. All I have heard from Netfleet is spin and more spin and justifications of unethical business conduct.

Fleur do you personally think the actions of Netfleet regarding this matter have been ethical and are the best way for Netfleet to move forward?

 

[FleurF]

Fleur, a lot of what you have said here is "spin" imho. No more, no less. You and others have obviously spent all day coming up with something you feel will "tick the boxes"
and make us all feel warm and fuzzy.

Hi Ned,

You and others are absolutely entitled to your opinion, humble or otherwise and I'm always grateful for your feedback.

You clearly assume I have a great deal more time in my day than I do in reality. I wish I'd had all day to swan around drafting a letter!

As to 'myself and others'....this was penned by me in response to my marketing pilot - I don't need to have others hold my hand.

Regardless of individual opinion, my comments are not spin - I don't have the time or the inclination for such.

I was clear in my comments and I'm not going to rehash them but I too, look forward to moving onwards.

 

[findtim]

firstly i agree with fluer, ned and ashman ! weird hey?

what nobody seems to be seeing is that this ( NF changes ) are not going to stop ( i feel ) , coles didn't race out and say they were bringing out "hormone free beef" did they ! it caused a huge stir and a huge free marketing campaign for coles.

woolworths were pissed off, consumers started to wonder what they were eating with woolworths steaks, coles said prices wouldn't go up ( bullshit, they have )

just face it, NF are not going to tell us what they are doing so these threads will continue, drop won't feel the need either and any other player in the " potential" background will also no be coming out , ventraip have already posted a sneaky hint they are doing something........... who knows, this is all game playing.

fleur says

I reserve the right to trial and test pilots and marketing initiatives

........ forget about the rest of the post as this is the sentence that says it all, basically " i will do what ever i want" ........ and sadly at this moment in time they can.

i think everyone needs to pay attention to that sentence and plan/guess for the future steps that NF potentially will do, i know i have already and sept 2nd will be a major change in our marketplace.

i always say " don't hear what they are saying, hear what the MEAN by what they are saying" do that and you will read a completely different story.

tim

 

[neddy]

As to 'myself and others'....this was penned by me in response to my marketing pilot - I don't need to have others hold my hand.

Ok, so as I now understand it from your posts, the idea to compete against your core customer base was your idea? (bang.com.au; ebonyandivory.com.au and others)

Nothing to do with Anthony's professed desire to stop sniping by domainers?

Are you the fall "guy"?

 

[neddy]

Agree with you on this statement Neddy. If Netfleet just came out and said something like:

"Sorry guys we stuffed up but we are doing our best to correct our mistake..."

that would have been the best way forward from the outset IMO. All I have heard from Netfleet is spin and more spin and justifications of unethical business conduct.

I have disagreed with Ashman a few times in the past, but he has hit the nail on the head here.

Before I read this post, I said to a few close mates the following:

Why doesn't Netfleet just say: "I'm sorry - we stuffed up - we'll do better next time. We genuinely appreciate your concerns."

If they had done that, the PR damage would have been limited - and they would have got some positive kudos. It would have all been over ages ago.

Instead they have a thread with over 2000 views.

Just saying ............

 

[Scott.L]

I reckon Netfleet would rake in the cash if they offered us customised parking and forsale links to the auction rather than focusing on weird auction practices.