Hi all

I sold a site on flippa ( ny first sale ) to a buyer well over 2 months ago.I did everything as to flippas terms and conditions etc , i advertised the site , i had bids on it , and a certain buyer won the auction. I then spoke to the buyer through flippa messaging , at first it was quite a challenge receiving replys from the buyer.

I zipped the site/database etc and sent the buyer a link to download the site , i gave him links to sites which would help him set up the website on his host etc , as i wouldnt have a clue how to do that,i can set up wordpress on my host etc , but as regards to sql databases etc , its straight over my head.

After i had zipped the buyer , the site , i then received a message saying " How do I setup this site? What kind of hosting do I need? Do I need Linux or Windows, Frontpage Extensions, Apache ? " . So then im thinking this guy has just paid $xxxx for a site , and doesnt understand that he needs hosting etc.He hadnt even sorted hosting out etc , he just thought it was just plug and play.

2 weeks after the auction he still hadnt set up hosting etc.Eventually he did set it up , and then he sent me login details etc for his cpanel and said " im going away , please set me up whilst im away " , question is i havent a clue , ive told him this previously.

Now im receiving messages saying , im phoning the police , im scamming him , im contacting my lawyers etc , i even received a phone call at 4am in the morning , which i didnt realise was him untill i checked the number when got up.

Im just wandering now what to reply to this buyer , i really want to give him a piece of my mind,but all along ive been calm and tried to help the best i can.If i could set up the site on his hosting then i would , but i havent got a clue how to , hes saying its corrupted or something, but surely he has to change something in the database , for it to work ?

question is , what do i do , and should i be concerned , what shall i reply to him now after these threats etc ? im not a scammer , i like him am a novice , who made a first sale on flippa , and should be enjoying it , but im not

thanks

bcg

It will take you 10 minutes to know how to set up website on his host.

Why didn't you just set him up on your own host and charge him 10 bucks a month for the privilege?
Now the level of trouble it is for you to use a cpanel to install a wordpress site i can't comment on. It just sounds weird you can use your own host, you're even capable enough to google install tutorials but you fail totally using them yourself?

It sounds abit iffy.

Originally Posted by loamigad

Why didn't you just set him up on your own host and charge him 10 bucks a month for the privilege?
Now the level of trouble it is for you to use a cpanel to install a wordpress site i can't comment on. It just sounds weird you can use your own host, you're even capable enough to google install tutorials but you fail totally using them yourself?

It sounds abit iffy.

what sounds iffy ? like i said , i can set up wordpress from scratch , click on it and install ? i dont even go into my cpanel then , i just login to wordpress,and build a site from there .

Isnt setting up datbases , sqls etc etc ,a little different than wordpress ? and yes i am capable of googling install tuturiols , is the buyer capable of doing that also ? Im guessing by the sounds of things youve sold many sites on flippa , and set them up for the buyers , without any problems ? maybe you could point me in the right direction

thanks

Nope i never sold a site on Flippa in my life.
I am however fairly* computer savvy.
But you can't deny you made a big mess of things. Your number one priority should always be to keep the customer satisfied, even if you sold them snake-oil.
And you quite frankly dropped the ball there.

And now what you'll need.
"how to setup a mysql account on cpanel"
Account / database
Maybe a "how to setup a new website on cpanel"
How to import / export a mysql database phpmyadmin

That should bring you the tutorials you need for this.. job.
Now just follow them and hopefully someday you can install sites without sucky scripts and avoid messing things up when selling them aye?

*That's always objective

Oh sorry , my mistake , i thought you were a veteren flippa seller , thanks for the advice though , on what to type into google , and search for , i might take that on board , and hopefully wont mess things up whilst searching

Thank you again for your input

Originally Posted by loamigad

Nope i never sold a site on Flippa in my life.
I am however fairly* computer savvy.
But you can't deny you made a big mess of things. Your number one priority should always be to keep the customer satisfied, even if you sold them snake-oil.
And you quite frankly dropped the ball there.

And now what you'll need.
"how to setup a mysql account on cpanel"
Account / database
Maybe a "how to setup a new website on cpanel"
How to import / export a mysql database phpmyadmin

That should bring you the tutorials you need for this.. job.
Now just follow them and hopefully someday you can install sites without sucky scripts and avoid messing things up when selling them aye?

*That's always objective

This is to be expected from flippa buyers. The way I do it is I host it all for them and set it up all for them that the way to make sure they can't screw it up. I would either call him
and say you apologize (lame I know...but required here) and offer to set it up for him or he can give back the site and you will refund him. I'm sure there are people here that would love to buy your site and give you way less headaches.

Originally Posted by hgear

This is to be expected from flippa buyers. The way I do it is I host it all for them and set it up all for them that the way to make sure they can't screw it up. I would either call him
and say you apologize (lame I know...but required here) and offer to set it up for him or he can give back the site and you will refund him. I'm sure there are people here that would love to buy your site and give you way less headaches.

No offence, but that's a stupid idea. Why would you waste your time by refunding someone who doesn't require a refund and then going to sell the site again to someone else?

Just set the site up for him, apologise for the misunderstanding and move on. Whatever you do, don't offer a refund, you'll waste hours selling it again.

Originally Posted by meathead1234

No offence, but that's a stupid idea. Why would you waste your time by refunding someone who doesn't require a refund and then going to sell the site again to someone else?

Just set the site up for him, apologise for the misunderstanding and move on. Whatever you do, don't offer a refund, you'll waste hours selling it again.

No way was i going to offer a refund , like you said he desnt require it , flippa has even been back to me and said that everything i did was to there terms and conditions etc.I think we are finally getting somewhere now ( the buyer and myself ) , i know one thing , im certainly going to learn how to transfer a site from one host to another , im not going through all this again , lol

regards

Originally Posted by blackcatgill

No way was i going to offer a refund , like you said he desnt require it , flippa has even been back to me and said that everything i did was to there terms and conditions etc.I think we are finally getting somewhere now ( the buyer and myself ) , i know one thing , im certainly going to learn how to transfer a site from one host to another , im not going through all this again , lol

regards

Yep, definitely do that.

What I tend to say is something like: "If you let me know your hosting details, my team will move the site over to your hosting free of charge. Alternatively, if you'd rather move the site yourself I'll give you the host details and a month to transfer. If you give my team the go ahead it will take less than 12 hours to be on your server."

Originally Posted by meathead1234

No offence, but that's a stupid idea. Why would you waste your time by refunding someone who doesn't require a refund and then going to sell the site again to someone else?

Just set the site up for him, apologise for the misunderstanding and move on. Whatever you do, don't offer a refund, you'll waste hours selling it again.

No offense taken my philosophy is that time is money if someone is taking more time then it's worth, for me at least, it's easier to just refund him and move one.

Ideally, you want to try to make the buyer happy without refunding but there are cases where it's just easier to move on especially if the transaction is not a big one.

Was this an empty wordpress site? or did it have pages of content? You could have just used the database that it was already setup for.

It was a full site , with content , all sorted now though , paid someone $5usd to move it for me

If only he could of been bothered in the first place to contact me , it would of all been done a long time ago

phew , not going through that again , lol

thanks all

nice, glad ya got it straightened out