Over the past week bitify has been subject to a series of sustained and malicious attacks with the aim of preventing sales of certain types of products. Fake accounts were being created in order to purchase all “buy now” items without any intention of paying, but instead rendering the listings as closed.
As a result of this, bitify has been forced to change the flow of the buying process and introduce some new rules:-
- Purchases made via “Buy Now” will no longer deplete the quantity on listings until the buyer has paid for them.
- Buyers will now only have 48 hours to pay for their purchases. After 48 hours the payment page will no longer display the payment address. To make this clear, a 48-hour countdown timer is now dispalyed on the payment page.
- If funds are sent after 48 hours (or are delayed for any reason and arrive after 48 hours), we will cancel the purchase and the buyer will be emailed with instructions for obtaining a refunded.
- If more than one buyer purchases the remaining quantity via buy now, the first user to transfer funds to us will become the winner. The losing buyer will have their purchase cancelled and their coins refunded.
- For Sellers, the Awaiting Payments page will now only show unpaid items for 48 hours. After this they will be removed from Awaiting Payments as they can no longer be paid.
- Similarly for Sellers, the Sold Items page will now only show those items for which we have received funds. This page will no longer show any sales that have not been paid.
- Buyers are now restricted to having no more than two consecutive outstanding payments at any one time. You cannot bid on or buy now any other items until one of these are paid. If you have genuinely made a mistake in buying or winning an auction then contact the seller and request that they cancel the sale. An unpaid item gets void every 1 week. So, if you’ve purchased two items on a Sunday but not paid for them, you will not be able to purchase any items for another 168 hours, or one week.
- For all cancelled sales (whether cancelled by the seller or automatically by us due to late payment), buyers are now able to process their own refund. Buyers will be emailed a link to a page where they can enter their nominated refund address and have it processed. We will deducted the minimal network fee from the amount paid, but you will be refunded the remainder of what you have paid, including the escrow fee.
We hope that these changes will improve the experience for both buyers and sellers. Sellers will be happy that they no longer have to deal with non-paying buyers, and buyers will no longer need to contact support to obtain a refund if sellers cancel the sale.
Happy Bitcoining!
Team bitify