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. We view everyone else as as "high risk users". 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 domains that they won but did not pay for in the last 6 months is a "high risk user". The "high risk users" must deposit $100 or 2% of the amount they are bidding for each domains, whichever is larger.
3. What happens if I don't pay for a domain I won?
   For each domain you don't pay for you forfeit $100 or 2% of the bid amount, whichever is larger. 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.
4. Where is the general .ai FAQ for normal registrations?
   The general FAQ is at faq.html
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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 additional fee) or Paypal (3.5% fee), or wire ($100 fee).
8. 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.
9. Can I get a BTC refund if I don't win?
   If you paid by Bitcoin then you can ask vincecate@gmail.com for a refund and tell him your auction account email/number/name and the Bitcoin address to send to and he will give you a refund. Note if you got a 10% bounus that will be reversed and there is also a $20 fee. Also note that your refund will be at the current USD/Bitcoin exchange rate so you will end up with a different amount of Bitcoin as the exchange rate will no doubt have changed. There is no time limit.
10. 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".
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. What is the starting bid?
    The mimimum starting bid is $140 US. If you see #bids is 0, it means nobody has bid yet, and you can start the bidding at $140 US. Note the domain will have between 1.5 and 2 years till expiration.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. When are domains that nobody bids on (nobids) 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 after the auction has ended. You can also get past nobid lists.
18. 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.
19. How do I wire money?
    See these wire instructions.
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. The system sometimes gives a bonus for Bitcoin and will tell you the bonus if there is one. If you pay by Bitcoin note that each time the system gives you a new Bitcoin address and you must send to the new address for it to register the payment correctly. Do not just send to the old address a second time. If this happens Vince can clean it up but it is extra work and may not happen fast enough for an auction, so please use the new address each time.
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. As of 11/14/23 we have started disabling the DNS 60 days before epiration to give another sort of warning notice.
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. DAX bids and Dynadot
    Dynadot is promoting these auctions on their website using their DAX platform. All the bids from the DAX user are coming from users on the Dynadot website and users from other sites using the DAX platform. If you are a registrar that would like to show these auctions on your site, please send an email to dax@dynadot.com to receive information about integrating with the DAX platform.
33. Can I just buy 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.
34. 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.
35. 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 "Transfer 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.
36. How do I get an invoice?
    Click on the order for the domain and then at the bottom click on "Download order invoice".
37. 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.
38. What if we have a Trademark or UDRP challenge?
    If you or your client owns a trademark that conflicts with a domain at auction and you or your client own at least 4 other TLDs for that domain then if you email us a copy of the trademark and the list of TLD domains at least a day before the auction finishes we will send you the auth code to get the domain. It is easier for us if you can do this before the auction starts, so please try to do that.
39. What if I bid on a misspelled domain by accident?
    It is a common thing to have domains with funny spellings. You are responsible for your bids as explained in this FAQ/terms-and-conditions. Please check the spelling before placing your bid.
40. 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. Along with the users account balance, and the outstanding balance, the system will show "Additional Funds Required" so a user knows how much more money is needed.

    If a user doesn't have an outstanding balance, the UI doesn't show this (to avoid unnecessary confusion).

    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 $100 or 2% of the winning bid for each domain that wasn't paid for (whichever is larger).

41. 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.
42. 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.