Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  04/25/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  TurnCommerce, *** is currently guilty of committing Cybersquatting (AKA "Domain Squatting") and has purchased domains which were previously owned by individuals and which domains are analogous with those person's first and last names. ex. firstnamelastname DOT com or firstname-lastname DOT com etc TurnCommerce, *** purchases and holds these domains through NameBright, and they do not use these domains for legitimate business purposes, and instead hold them ****** in hopes of charging exorbitant prices to return them to their original owners. This practice is illegal as per the **** Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of ****. TurnCommerce, *** is profiting from these illegal domain acquisitions and is therefore a criminal enterprise.They claim to be based in ******, **. If they truly are a **-based business, they have no right continuing to operate if they so blatantly breaking consumer protection laws for their own profit. Basing a business around blackmail and extortion should be condemned in this country.I implore Better Business Bureau or other interested parties to investigate this issue further, and to take legal action on behalf of the individual domain owners whose domains have been squatted on and whose lives have been made worse as a direct result of the criminal actions of this organization. These stolen domains should be returned to the open market to be purchased for their original values, ex: $19.99 and not $2,999

  Business response

  05/11/2022

  ************************* Woude is not a customer of ********************** *** or its subsidiaries.  We have never had any known communication with **************** Woude and given his vague statements we are unable to identify what domain he may be upset about.
  
  Further, we find this submission to be a direct violation of the BBB.orgs terms and conditions, specifically sections 2 and 5, as it is rather clear that the complainant is submitting knowingly untrue statements in violation of ******** law.   Pursuant to the ******** Revised Statutes, TurnCommerce finds the written comments made by **************** Woude to arise to an actionable defamation case and should these statements be publicly published on the BBB website, TurnCommerce will be forced to pursue litigation with regard to *************** Woudes engagement in Slander, as well as against the BBB for knowingly publishing **************** Woudes defamatory statements.

  Customer response

  05/19/2022

  Hi,
  
  My name is ********************* Woude and I posted a complaint on BBB with regards to TurnCommerce, *** and their record of committing domain squatting ( "Cybersquatting" ) which seems to be a core part of their business model.
  
  As you may or may not be aware, domain squatting is the act of purchasing a domain in bad faith, with no intents of using the domain for a business purpose, but instead with the sole intention of pressuring the original owner to buy back the domain at exorbitant costs.

  
  According to the ** Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of ****, cybersquatting is "registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else."
  
  Cybersquatting is against the law. There is no argument for why TurnCommerce, *** would want to own nickvw.com besides to sell it back to me for a profit. Since they purchased it back in 2014, they have not used it for any business purposes, but continue to renew it every year.
  
  I was previously the owner of nickvw.com . I purchased this domain because I am a website designer and developer and was using the website to host an online portfolio of my work. When I was late to renew my domain, TurnCommerce, *** swept in and purchased it before I could and offered to sell it back to me for around $2,500. I originally purchased the domain for closer to $15, and TurnCommerce, *** can only reasonably profit from selling it back to me. This is a textbook example of domain squatting, because I was using my name, **** VW, as a personal trademark for my web design business.
  
  I want to respond to complaint hosted here: https://bluecomplaints.bbb.org/Manager.aspx?m=51763398&chk=c6Ov3TcmO2PMXDf7IoJgyA but the complaint is closed.
  
  What can I do to get the complaint reopened?
  
  With Regards,
  ********************* Woude

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩