Need ideas re domain situation, maybe $$$ inside
 

( I just posted the same on a domain forum, figured it won't harm posting it here too. I wrote about it on GFY in the past too but this is a longer post now ).

So I email some guy about a domain, he agrees to sell it, we negotiate a price etc - in summary about 15 emails sent from both sides.
I bought lots of domains in the past but the seller looks like one of the most serious and honest ppl that I've dealt so far.
So we agree on using Escrow, I send the wire transfer to them.. and the problems start, cuase Escrow changes accounts in the meantime and the wire gets returned to me after 2 weeks, then I have to resend it, so overall there's a 1 month delay with securing the payment by Escrow.

So I email the guy saying that the payment finally arrived to Escrow and we can move on, and this is his reply from August 10th.




So after waiting 1 month, I agree to wait 5 more days.

*** > Since then I submitted the transfer request, he didnt confirm it, so I sent 5 emails asking if he's back and what's going on, Escrow also emailed him twice, and left two voice messages on his two different phone numbers, and still there's complete silence from the seller's side.

But again, he sounded so serious and honest and we exchanged so many emails that I can't believe, he backed out of the deal for some reason, because in that case - he would just let it know to me or Escrow - he spent so much time on the correspondence with me before that IMO he simply wouldnt behave like that ( ignoring us ).

He said he's occupied with an offline biz ( so that's been the reason why he didnt develop the domain name I am buying ), but I can't imagine him being so busy with it suddenly for 3-4 weeks so that he cant even get online, as he promissed he will do on August 15th.

I've spent hours searching for the guy on the web, tried to contact him few days ago through the Secretary of an Florida organisation where he is a member to, but no reply.

Overall, buying this domain is priority for me now, so don't tell me to stop wasting my time with it, especially since domains are things that I spend my time on anyway.

This guy can be dead ( I even searched some online obituaries recently lol ), or f.e having some family tragedy, car accident or whatever and that would explain his silence.

Other than that - even if he got a better offer for this domain suddenly ( althoguh unlikely since he's been having it 8 years and I am basically paying his asking price for it ) he would notify me, and withdraw from Escrow ( that's quite unfair though, but as Dombuyers case from few months ago showed - unfortunately possible).

Anyway, I spent days thinking about it, but maybe I missed sth, so any serious person with some serious theories why he isnt replying or innovative ideas how to contact him in some alternate way - appreciated :)

Or maybe someone from the experienced domain buyers had a similar situation before?

I think many thinks can have happened. Like you said, may be he is in the hospital, dead, a dead in his family, lives in New Orleans, etc.

Sounds like the guy was serious enough and like you said, if he wanted to screw you in some way, he would have done that by now. So that's not too likely.

I would say one of the things you could do is visit him and see what is going on. Do you have his home address? If he's not there, ask the neighbours if they know something. Of course it all depends on how much this domain is worth you and how far you live from the guy.

What is the domain name?

:1orglaugh , I dont think so :)

Anyways Polish, I have no idea, email and phone are the 2 alternatives when u live far away from each other. Unless you know someone who lives close to the guy.....

if he agreed on escrow i dont think he had/has any plans on screwing you. Now the thing is after some time escrow will return you back the money. If the guy returns you can re-do the deal more likely, if not forget the domain.

polish_aristocrat, why not try to send him a registered letter & a fedex'd letter - both with signature receipt. If he signs for both envelops 1) you'll know that he's received your letters 2) If he doesn't reply or contact you - then he has no intention of following through on the deal.

What good is that? At least you'll know not to 'hope' to get the domain or wonder what happened to him.

Obviously I'm not going to name the domain here.

I know that there's one person on GFY who lives there but i don't know her good enough to even consider asking her to drive by his home or office at this moment, and I am not sure if he would like it anyway, assuming sth happened to him, then he won't like it that I am trying to contact him so desperately over a domain purchase.

Soul Rebel, the money is sitting in Escrow's bank account, they make interest money with it, why would they return it to me so fast? They said it's up to me when I want to cancel this transaction, but I don't want to cancel at all!

Sending a registered letter - I might considder it, but I'm located in Poland now.

thanks for all suggestions, I know it's nearly impossible that suddenly someone comes with a revolutionary idea, since I spent already 2-3 weeks thinking about it.

Might have gotten a better offer meanwhile, some people think it's better not to reply at all than to explain a backstabbing