It’s no secret I like plant and gardening related names. In addition to straight up plant names and other gardening keyword names to my portfolio, I like to add names that have a nice flower sounding name to them. SeedHouse, Hortica, etc. One name came up a year or two ago that I thought sounded nice. AgriFlora. Agriculture. Flora. Perfect combo.
It turns out that AgriFlora is a business in Florida that deals in tropicals, grasses and other plants. Unfortunately they have had a little trouble paying their bills. The results was a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and along the way, dropping their domain name which I picked up. I actually thought the company had folded and was no longer doing business. I may have been wrong because I received this inquiry on the Internet Traffic price inquiry form
Buyer’s Message:
Your telephone number 305-477-0291 has been disconnected. Mouldtec, Inc. shipped you our flower buckets and lids in January 2012. The bill has not been paid.Please provide us with good telephone nunber so that we can communicate with you.
R. W. Del Olmo
President
I have to admit this is my first bill collector looking for the original owner. I am even more surprised that the emailer thought that the inquiry form was a suitable format to use to get paid. It tells me that either Agriflora has shut down all forms of communication or that the guy that is owed money hasn’t a clue on how to do a little research and get an alternate phone number or email address. I don’t feel bad for him either way because Agriflora declared bankruptcy in 2010 and he just sold them pots and lids this past January. I was really hoping the inquiry I received was a potential buyer but maybe I have one. A person that wants to use it to slander the company that owes him money.
I’ve had companies from China offering to advertise everything from LED lights to microfiber cloths on my “site” (in very poorly worded English, of course).
Once, I picked up the dropped domain of a local college (the college now has a new domain). I still get emails from students seeking admission details, as well as the stray resume.
Careful with certain domains that belonged to real brick and mortar companies. You might be inheriting the troubles of their previous owners.
Always good to check for Trademarks also before buying expired names like these. In this case there is a Trademark on AgriFlora so if the TM-holder wants it, they can take it back.
I try to stay-away from TM names like the plague as they can be a lot of trouble.
I had a similar issue when I bought an old-school 212 area code phone number to use with Google Voice.
The previous owner was a guy by the name of Carlos who I found out through some colourful voicemails from his landlord owed $3400 in rent, and from calls at all hours of the day and night that he ran a ‘massage’ business.