Eventually the domain fell into ruin and actually became a porn site for a while.. heh After which it was picked up by BuyDomains.com a domain squatter – the bane of the internet (Sorry guys, I think very little of your business model). They were offering to sell the domain at a “reasonable rate”. So seven years later, on a whim and completely for nostalgic reasons since the market is dead, I sent off an email asking how much they wanted for the domain.

I got nothing in response, except to find myself suddenly on their spam list. (Thankfully I used a disposable email address because I’m sure they sell that crap.) Eventually I get a message which is from Peter Lamson, their “Senior Vice President and General Manager” .. the head squatter! I sent him an email saying that I hadn’t actually got a quote yet.. just spam.

He seemed nice enough and forwarded me to the right people..

At this point I’d like to take a time out and say, what the hell?! Their market is selling domains (at ludicrous prices) and in order to buy a domain you must send them an email… to which they don’t respond?

I mean if that was your primary contact method shouldn’t you .. oh I dunno.. respond?! You know if your sales are low maybe you should look into that a tad, don’t ya think?

Anyway, so after Peter, I got an email from David Helgeson which said the following;

Thank you for touching base with us.

This domain is currently priced at $64,000.00.

Let me know that this quote made it out to you and how that price works for you.

Thanks

David Helgeson
Sales Executive, BuyDomains.com

Well there David.. I got the email.. uh.. is that price in pesos? I mean really.. Are you serious?

If I were asking to buy the domain “Google.com” shortly after Google went belly up (riiight), then maybe.. after all that’s an extremely valuable company. But Palavista.com?! I know EXACTLY what that domain is worth.. I created it. I am the one that made a small business out of it, and ultimately sold it.

The price you’re asking is just retarded.. It’s completely unrealistic, and a foolish business choice on your part. You’ve just priced that domain out of reach. And I mean out of everyones reach. No one will buy that domain, Ever.. Why would they? You can pick another one, that you haven’t squatted and for the low low price of $70 a year ( or whatever the current going rate is.. )

I hate the whole domain squatter thing.. I think it’s retarded.. especially since there is case law that says it can be taken away from you. Changemusic / Raremediagroup owns the IP for palavista. They could very likely sue you and get the domain for free. It’s been done – heh probably to you guys..

I guess your business model is based on hope and stupidity.. You offer a price that is half my annual income and just hope that I’m stupid enough to go for it.. Or you praying that some company will come along and buy it – again why would they.. see the above.

Retarded. If you guys just offer a more reasonable price you might actually sell some of these things. Here was my response;

David,

As the former owner of that domain, and the creator of palavista.com in the first place. I can tell you without any doubt what so ever, you will never get that price for that domain. You could drop several of the zero’s off the end and still not get that price – It’s simply not that useful of a domain.

At most I would purchase it for nostalgia purposes.. I’ll leave you with my initial response upon seeing the price;

Bhahahhahaha .. Good luck with that..=)

-Jason

I seriously hope that if they ever do sell it, they send me a big fat F*ck you email saying how much they got for it. That would amuse me if I was completely wrong and someone bought it for $64 grand. It wont happen. But I’d love to be wrong.

I’d rather have higher prices on products that actually work, rather than deal with your shit..

Why would you do this? If customer A buys a $100 joystick, takes it home and tries to use it – only to find out that there is a short in the cord making the joystick unusable – a two part joystick that requires power to both devices is oddly not very useful if one of the devices doesn’t get powered – it’s perfectly reasonable for him to take it back and get another one. Probably happens all the time. When he returns it they always ask what the problem was – why do you ignore it?!

No no.. just box it back up, maybe some other sucker will buy it..

In steps me, customer B – as in Boob – who purchases the new joystick blissfully unaware that it had been previously purchased and stuffed back into the box god knows how many times..

Fry’s USED to put stickers on the box saying that “this product has been previously opened”.. yeah they don’t do that any more.. Now they dress up the box as it was and stick it back on the floor, obviously with out doing ANY checks what so ever.. And not disclosing in any way what so ever that they item you’re purchasing as NEW, isn’t.
So when I got home – 55minute drive ONE WAY – and opened my new joystick, the bags and twisties and what not inside were all akimbo and clearly not how the factory would have packed it. Not a good sign. My first thought was; Well shit – this has been previously opened.. even though they sold it to me as if it were new.. Bastards..

And guess what.. its broken to boot – completely unusable. The device had nicks and scratches on the outside of it and the cables had very clear shorts in it.
So now I’m forced to return it – JUST LIKE THE FIRST GUY!

Why do this Fry’s? All you’re doing is pissing off customers..

Do you just count sales? I mean does this count as 2 sales for you .. whoo hoo… Never mind the fact that it was returned twice so the bottom line is still zero.. no no.. its two sales we can report! Go us! is that it?

Or do you expect the customer to troll the rest of the store and buy other things while returning their defective product? ’cause here’s a clue.. they don’t. They are pissed off that you have inconvenienced them and forced them to come when they didn’t want to.. so the last thing they want to do is buy something else from you that they probably will just have to return again..

IT’S BAD BUSINESS! And if it happened only once or twice.. I could forgive that.. Hey people are just human and make mistakes.. woops that one got put back on the shelf by mistake.. but no.. this happens CONSTANTLY at Fry’s.. It’s got to be part of your store policy or something; “We only return stuff to the manufacturer if its been returned to the store 10 or more times.. ”

Well guess what – you’ve lost a customer forever. Others that I know have also sworn off your crappy store and if you keep this up no one will want to shop there.

There are quite a few other stores that do what you do – only better. Your low prices aren’t worth the bullshit of having to return everything, and I do mean everything. With the exception of a pair of memory sticks that I got at Fry’s (also had been pre-opened) I have had to return everything because it was defective.. Never again. I’d rather pay the extra one or two percent and know that the product I got was worth a damn..

Today I will return this joystick and demand a refund, at which point Fry’s.. You’re dead to me.