It's not clear what happened, but Namecheap does not owe you anything and there are a plethora of court cases to back them up on that.
I purchased the domain at $31. They claimed this was a glitch and refused to honor the price they charged me. They then said the 'real price' was $3900. Once I agreed to pay this, the price then magically ratcheted up to $8000. At no point was I ever made aware that I was involved in any sort of negotiation. I bought the domain as a 'Buy now' and in my documented conversations with the support agent, they said I could proceed with purchasing it at $3900. Not once was I ever informed that I was now involved in an auction-style negotiation where my agreement to pay the $3900 was going to be viewed as merely a bid vs an agreed upon price.
Do you think the seller would have jacked the price up to $8000 had Namecheap not revealed my interest and intent in buying? Absolutely not. Now I have no leverage or negotiating power since Namecheap revealed my hand to the seller.
If it weren't for the alleged glitch, I could've just bought the $3900 domain as-is and I'm pretty sure it'd be active in my account right now vs the situation I'm now embroiled in.
Legality aside, Namecheap really screwed me over.
As far as Namecheap not owing me anything: really? They, at the bare minimum, owe me a refund of the $31 I paid two weeks ago for the domain they still haven't delivered to me.
Namecheap did not screw you over. Namecheap is just the middleman. They can't compel the seller to sell you the domain at the clearly erroneous price of $31. You tried to take advantage of a mistake in price and it didn't work out, and now you're trying to use HN to pressure Namecheap into honoring something that was clearly a mistake.
I purchased the domain at $31.
This is false. You made an offer to purchase a domain for $31 that had been listed before, and after, for over 100x that price. And clearly, the mistake was that the seller did not intend to list it on the Buy Now portion of NameCheap's domain marketplace for $31 when it was previously listed for $3900 (and for more after the mistake). The reason I bring up the courts in my earlier comment is that legally, NameCheap is not compelled to honor the $31 mistake price, nor is the actual seller of the domain. Nor are they morally obligated to honor the mistaken price.
Do you think the seller would have jacked the price up to $8000 had Namecheap not revealed my interest and intent in buying?
No, you tipped your extreme interest in buying the domain when you said you were still interested in buying it despite the 125x increase in price. This told the seller that you were price-insensitive and that they could raise the price substantially without affecting your interest. That's on you.
I used some history tools to figure out the domain that you were interested in and it's not worth it. Seriously. There are better domains for you out there for less. Don't get emotionally invested in the "perfect" domain name. Remember that Facebook was originally "thefacebook.com" and that didn't stop it.
They, at the bare minimum, owe me a refund of the $31 I paid two weeks ago for the domain they still haven't delivered to me.
No, the $31 refund is the only thing they owe you.
The main issue is misrepresenting errors on their side as legitimate transactions to communicate to the seller, which works exclusively to their advantage instead of acting as a neutral broker.
There should have never been any financial insight on the sellers side that they were willing to make a 125x markup because that misrepresents the reality of the situation: they were always willing to pay around the original listed price and saw the discounted moment as a suitable moment to act. In spite of this discount being their mistake, the poster still wanted to purchase at the original price. This then allowed them to misjudge the motivation of the customer and poison the sale by renegotiating to a higher price because of this perception, which they were never interested in doing. This also puts them in a strategically worse spot since some of their cards are now on the table.
The $31 is silly and everyone agrees it should be refunded. After that, OP tried to buy something listed for sale at a price and the company he tried to buy it from couldn't/didn't honor their quoted price and caused the price to go up more than double.
You've been clear that you don't think they have any _obligation_ to the OP. Do you think good faith negotiation is not a worthwhile thing in general or is there something specific about this scenario I'm missing? Is this a pedantic fight about the meaning of "owe"?
Agreed...
* collingreen 2 days ago | parent | context | flag | on: Ask HN: Namecheap charged my card, didn't deliver,...
You seem like you are supportive of bad faith sales which surprises me.
The $31 is silly and everyone agrees it should be refunded. After that, OP tried to buy something listed for sale at a price and the company he tried to buy it from couldn't/didn't honor their quoted price and caused the price to go up more than double*
This is false. NameCheap is just the middleman not the seller. They are listing a domain being sold by a third party which did not honor the sale. That third party increased the price.
Is this a pedantic fight about the meaning of "owe"?
No, neither NameCheap nor the seller owe the OP anything. It comes down to the way contract law works.