Auction FAQ and Terms & Conditions

1. Who can bid on .ai domains?
   Anyone who makes a login on auction.whois.ai and deposits $100 can participate.
2. How much deposit is needed?
   Established reliable users who have paid for domains without fail for 6 months or more only need to deposit $100 to bid any amount. What we view as "high risk users" must deposit 25% of the amount they are bidding. This is everyone else. These include new users who have never paid for domains, or paid for domains for less than 6 months. Also, any users who had any domain that they won but did not pay for in the last 6 months is a "high risk user".
3. Where is the general .ai FAQ for normal registrations?
   The general FAQ is at faq.html
4. How do I deposit $100?
   Go to "account", then near the bottom where it says "Account credit" Click "add with credit card". Then enter $100 and click "Add credit". Then click "Pay Now". Then enter your credit card number and confirm.
5. There was a problem with my card
   Please wait 20 minutes before trying again. Often our system will correct a problem on its own in 10 minutes. If your balance is not increased after 20 minutes, and your online credit card statement shows that it worked, then send an email with the account name, time, and amount. We will fix it. If you did not wait, and now have two charges, we can fix that too. We will give you a $50 credit if there is a billing error like this as an apology.
6. Can I get a Credit Card refund if I don't win?
   You can keep your credits for following months. If it is within 3 months of when you paid you can have your deposit refunded to your credit card less a $20 fee. After 3 months my bank won't let me refund a card, so then we wait till after 6 months (to protect me against chargebacks) and can refund with Bitcoin (no charge) or Paypal (3.5% fee), or wire ($100 fee).
7. Can I get a wire refund if I don't win?
   If you paid by wire you can get a refunds by wire but there is a $100 fee on top of whatever is lost along the way in either direction. There is no time limit.
8. Can I get a BTC refund if I don't win?
   If you paid by Bitcoin then you can get the current dollar equivalent refunded less $20. So it is probably not be the same amount of BTC, since BTC price is unlikely to be the same. There is no time limit.
9. How can I get a full list of domains up for auction?
   Go to the main auction page and over on the right click on the word "export".
10. Is this account linked to any other account?
    No. Accounts on auction.whois.ai are stand alone accounts. However, if you have an account on epp.whois.ai and have a total auction win of more than $1000, and want me to move some credit from there to auction.whois.ai I will (at most once per month). If it is less than $1000 please just pay by credit card. If you want to do this the account on auction.whois.ai should have the same name and same email as on epp.whois.ai.
11. When are the auctions?
    The auctions start on the 4th Friday of the month at noon Anguilla time. They go for 10 days, so till noon the second Monday after that. With late bidding it can be extended.
12. What is the starting bid?
    The mimimum starting bid is $140 US. If you see $135 as current bid it really means nobody has bid yet. In that case the #bids is 0. Note the domain will have between 1.5 and 2 years till expiration.
13. How does the bidding work?
    Like ebay.com you specify a maximum automatic bid. If this is higher than the current bid your actual bid will just be $10 over the current bid. If someone else increases their bid over that then your bid could go up again, as long as it is below your maximum automatic bid.
14. What happens if there is late bidding?
    We don't want someone to be able to just bid a bit more at the very last second and win. The "maximum automatic bid" above mostly takes care of this but we also extend an the auction if there is late bidding. If there is late bidding the end time will be adjusted so there is an hour left after the last bid. So auctions may go past Noon Anguilla time on Monday, if they are active near the end.
15. What happens if nobody bids on a domain?
    Then it will be fully deleted. After this it would not exist but anyone could register it just like a new name someone thinks of.
16. When are domains that nobody bids on freed up?
    On Tuesday about noon Anguilla time, the day after most of the auction closes, any domains that were not bid on will be freed up. Anyone could register them after that. If you are interested in getting a copy of the names to be deleted each month click on "Export No Bid Auctions" on the "Current Auctions" page.
17. How long do you have to pay after the auction finishes?
    You have exactly 2 weeks from the time the auction closes. So if it closes at noon Monday, you have till noon Monday 2 weeks later. If there was late bidding and it did not close till 2:30 then you would have till 2:30. You should put credit in your account and then the system will attempt to use the credit to pay for domains in the AM hours. We did this so that payments are not going on when an auction is finishing as that had caused some urgent problems. Note that wire transfers can take a week. You should take care of payments right away. Do not wait till the end.
18. How do I wire money?
    See these wire instructions.
19. What happens if I don't pay for a domain I won?
    For each domain you don't pay for you forfeit $100 and the domain goes back to the auction pool for the next month. The system automatically puts unpaid domains into the next months auction pool after the 2 weeks payment period. The admin does not have the ability to extend the payment period, so please do not ask.
20. What happens if I only put enough money to pay for a portion of the domains I won?
    We will use funds in your account to pay for domains starting from the cheapest one till you don't have enough to pay for another domain and still leave us with the $100 fee for each of the remaining domains then we will collect the $100 fee for the remaining domains. Your account can go down to negative $500 from these fees. The domains we collect the fee for will go into the next month's auction.
21. Can I pay by anything other than credit card?
    Yes, you can also pay by wire transfer or Bitcoin. We have a video showing how to pay by Bitcoin. Go to payments for more information. Note for wire transfers that not all the money gets through, so you should either send extra or expect to do some small amount by credit card. If you are doing more than $5000 we really don't want you to use credit card. If you are paying by Bitcoin you will get 5% extra posted to your account as of Apr 10, 2023. This may change and we will try to keep this FAQ up to date.
22. How soon is the domain transferable?
    If you pay by Bitcoin or wire transfer you can transfer the domain right away. If you pay by Credit Card there is a 60 day delay before you can transfer; however, you can set the contact information and nameservers the day after you pay, so you can start using the domain right away.
23. How do you do a transfer?
    You click on the domain and then get the "auth code". Then you login at the registry you want to move to and do a "transfer" and enter in the domain name and the auth code.
24. Is there a transfer cost?
    The ".ai" registry changed the system so that it no longer charges when domains are transferred off auction.whois.ai. We would like you to move domains off this machine as soon as you are permitted to do so. This is effective as of apr 15, 2019 and not retroactive. Some registrars may still charge for these transfers. Note that if you have more than 50 domains you can get your own registrar account on epp.whoi.ai so you would not be charged for transfers away from auction.whois.ai. See epp faq. Note that epp.whois.ai will require money in your account before it attempts a transfer but if it is from auction.whois.ai to epp.whois.ai it will not use any money.
25. Can I just leave domains on auction.whois.ai?
    There is no way to renew domains on auction.whois.ai. We want you to move them off to a regular registrar account. This is part of why we don't charge regisrars a transfer fee. If you do not move them they will expire. Please move them off right away. Do not wait. There is no grace period for domains on the auction system as there is no way to pay late or at all. If the domain expires on auction.whois.ai it will go up for auction again.
26. How do I see what domains I still have on auction.whois.ai?
    If you click on "Active" in the "Orders" page you can see what domains you paid for that are still on auciton.whois.ai. Please move them off as quickly as you can.
27. How do I update contacts and nameservers?
    Click the Orders tab, then click the domain you want to update. Note that nameserver changes can take a couple hours to show up. Please be patient.
28. How do I put in a CNAME and a TXT record?
    These kinds of records go in the nameservers that you specify. At our site you just set the nameservers. Then go to where your nameservers are and configure all the records you want.
29. Does your company or employees bid in auctions?
    No, we do not. Nobody from The Government of Anguilla or anywhere else will be bidding just to manipulate prices on our behalf. We really just want to sell these and really do want a clean auction.
30. After an auction, how much time will the domain be paid for?
    There should be 1 to 2 years on the domain but you should move it off auction.whois.ai within 1 year.
31. Can I use 2 factor authentication to improve security?
    Yes. You can turn Authy for your account by editing your account details (click on your username in the menu bar after you log in). We will store a cookie on your computer so you don't have to do Authy each time. If you do not want this cookie then log out when you are finished and the cookie will be removed.
32. Can I just by a domain now for $X?
    We do not have any "buy it now" prices. All domains must go through the whole 10 day auction process. There is no shortcut or way to bypass this.
33. Is email required?
    If you do not enter a valid email then you will not get any important announcement about changes to the auction. In that case, you should be sure and read this FAQ each month.
34. How do I get the Auth Code to do a transfer
    You go to the order for a domain a domain. If enough time has passed, there will be a "Transer Auth Code" button that you can click on. If you paid by Visa or Mastercard it can take 60 days to show up. If you paid by Bitcoin or wire transfer it should show up faster. If you are an established customer it should show up faster.
35. How do I get an invoice?
    Click on the order for the domain and then at the bottom click on "Download order invoice".
36. This site looks similar to park.io.
    We have licensed a copy of the auction software from park.io, so it is indeed very similar.
37. What if Trademark or UDRP challenge?
    If you or your client owns a trademark that a domain conflicts with and you contact us before an auction starts we will transfer the domain to you. If you own foobar.xy and have a document proving a trademark on foobar and we can email you at something like you@foobar.xy then we will send you the auth code for foobar.ai if it was going to be auctioned but the auction has not started.
38. What if I bid on a misspelled domain by accident?
    If you can tell us with at least 24 hours before the end of the auction we can remove the domain. Nobody wants to buy misspelled domains, so please tell us if you see one even if you did not bid on it. If however it goes to the end you are responsible for your bid. So check the spelling.
39. How do I see how much I owe?
    If a user has an outstanding balance, the UI displays, "Outstanding Balance: $[balance]" in the "Account credit" section on that user's "Account Details" page (i.e., the page connected to the "Account" link in the navigation menu) during the 2 week payment period.

    If a user doesn't have an outstanding balance, the UI doesn't show this (to avoid unnecessary confusion) -- which is probably why the user doesn't see it now (because the unpaid auction was deleted and the user's account credit was charged $100 for non-payment).

    Aside from the UI displaying this information, when an auction closes, the winner receives an email that notifies him to add credit to his account.

    Additionally, the system emails every user with an outstanding balance multiple times before the 2 week payment period expires (after this payment period expires, the auctioned domains are released to be reauctioned, and the user is charged a $100/domain fee for non-payment).

40. What if my question is not answered here?
    If you send an email to vincecate@gmail.com with the special word AI3DOM someplace in the subject then Vince will know you have read the FAQ and answer your email. It also gets the email filtered into the high priority emails. He often answers other emails but gives priority to people who have read the FAQ. This is only needed on the first email.
41. Bank Merchant Website Disclosure
    1. Merchant URL: auction.whois.ai
    2. Merchant Contact: vincecate@gmail.com 1(264)497-3255
    3. Terms and Conditions - See rest of FAQ above
    4. Return/refund policy - $20 processing fee to refund unused balance.
    5. Delivery Policy - The domain will be activated within 3 hours of when you pay for it.
    6. Privacy Policy - We comply with the EU privacy policy about what information is given out by whois about the registrant for a domain.
    7. Card Mark Brand Usage: We only accept Visa and Mastercard.
    8. Complete description of good and services offered. We auction off ".ai" domains and register them. See FAQ above for more details.
    9. Transaction Currency - All prices and transactions are in US dollars.
    10. Security copabilities and policy for Transmission of payment card details. To make a payment a user is sent to a window where the information goes directly to the payment processor on a secure SSL connection. The card details are never on our website or in our servers.