Yes, I’m a whistleblower. Just over two weeks ago on the 28th September I wrote an “Open Letter To Netfleet” which outlined some serious allegations. The “comments section” is interesting to read because it contains responses from the new General Manager of Netfleet (Jonathan Gleeson).
To summarise briefly, I alleged that a Netfleet employed telemarketer had used supposedly private information relating to other customers bids to elicit a higher bid from an enduser.
After initial denials, they fessed up with a corporate statement on the 1st October (this had Melbourne IT written all over it imo).
And did I cop it from a certain person shortly thereafter! I received an abusive text from Mark Lye at 6.07am the morning after this statement had been posted on their blog. More on this shortly.
Quick Corporate Summary
For those not aware, Netfleet is now owned by NETALLIANCE PTY LIMITED ACN 134 314 373. This is effectively a joint venture between Melbourne IT (a publicly listed company who bought out NetRegistry); and Mark Lye. There are two Directors from Melbourne IT ( Peter Findlay and Bruce Tonkin); the other two Directors are Mark Lye and Michelle Lye.
Originally, Netfleet was founded by David and Mark Lye, and they used Publishing Australia Pty Ltd as the ownership vehicle. When NetRegistry bought 50% of Netfleet, David Lye “officially and technically” stepped away from being involved with Netfleet, though new General Manager Jonathan Gleeson says he consults to the board. His wife Michelle is a Director. Mark Lye is still a 1/3rd shareholder in Publishing Australia.
Transcript Of Text Messages
2/10/15 at 06:07 – Mark Lye to me:
“I hope you’re ready for the truth Ned. Thank you anyway for trying to fuck my family business. I am relentless . * you can’t quote me on that you piece of family digging shit. My family hurts not that you would ever care”
2/10/15 at 06:38 – me to Mark Lye:
“Excuse me Mark? I simply reported a clear breach of confidentiality from your telemarketer. That was not acceptable, and makes me wonder how long that has been going on?”
2/10/15 at 11:10 – Mark Lye to me:
“You have hurt me and my family Ned and I hope you realise that. You can hide hide behind your agenda but I want you to know that there’s my family your attacking not some conspiracy. I have never dragged out anything like that. It’s hurts Ned shroud it as you like there is nothing that warrants that”
(Spelling mistakes, grammar etc are exactly his)
2/10/15 at 11:15 – me to Mark Lye:
“How have I hurt your family Mark? I presume you read my email this morning? As I said on my blog the other day, I don’t intend pursuing the matter further unless something else rears its ugly head. All I did was expose something that shouldn’t have happened. Fix the problem and let’s move on”.
Those texts from Mark Lye are extremely unprofessional and totally unacceptable to me.
He is a Director of a company that is 50% owned by Melbourne IT (a publicly listed company). To send those texts the day after a formal expression of contrition has been made on their blog diminishes the value of what was said. Imho.
Would Peter Findlay and Bruce Tonkin send texts like that? I don’t think so. Do they condone what Mark Lye said? I hope to hear from them that they don’t.
Other Threats
Over the years, I believe many people have been threatened and intimidated by David and Mark Lye. Most commonly these have been threats of banning people from the Netfleet platform (if you question their modus operandi). I am one of those.
I have been told that David and Mark hold dirt on me, and if I ever cause trouble for them, they will use it. How pathetic is that?
They are both incredibly smart guys with what they created in Netfleet. But given that Netfleet is now owned 50% by a public company, you have to play by the rules. You cannot be both a poacher (domainer) and a gamekeeper (registrar).
I hope and believe that Jonathan Gleeson is the man to bring the necessary corporate governance to Netfleet. But whilst he is still effectively controlled by Mark and David Lye, that is never going to happen imho. Unless Melbourne IT steps in.
Melbourne IT – what say you?
Surprised it was Mark that sent the texts and not David. I’m sure they have a dartboard with your face on it.
Ha ha – would have had to change it a few times by now. 😉
Investigation required
Well that was smart sending an abusive text all on record now.
Express public criticism of a company action or policy within the domain industry, and the response often seems to be:
(1) Smear the critic as a conspiracy theorist;
(2) Insinuate that the critic has ulterior motives, an “agenda”, some ax to grind making him “anti-” whatever company is criticized;
(3) Emphasize how criticism of a company affects somebody, some public face of that company, personally.
All of those tactics deflect attention from the issue being criticized. All of them were applied to me after I mildly criticized Flippa. And all of the same ad hominem or diversionary arguments have tumbled out in these text messages from Mark Lye to Ned O’Meara.
Instead of histrionics and excuses, all of this energy could be put into evaluating a problem and fixing it. I have no prior opinion of Mark Lye whatsoever. Whatever his objectives and legitimate self interest, with these text messages he has only shot himself in the foot. Blunders can be apologized for. Problems at Netfleet can be measured and fixed.
Public discussion of such problems is not an attack on anybody’s family. The domain community has a lot to learn still about how to handle public criticism fairly, objectively, and constructively.
You write really well Joseph. Good grasp of the issues.
This is alarming…
I can can confirm I too have been the recipient of intimidation because of my concerns about David, his telemarketing and his possible knowledge of bid values.
Thanks for speaking out Jono. I hope more people do – I know there are quite a few out there.
@Robert
You and Joseph write so well. Have to get you both on as “guest bloggers”!
Let’s not forget one very important fact in this whole unsavoury business. I’m not just a blogger – I have been one of Netfleet’s top three clients over many years. I have spent a good 6 figures with them.
That is a truckload of money, and therefore gives me every right to question them over what has happened. I believe I (and others) potentially have a claim against them if certain past conduct is proven.
Don’t shoot the messenger Netfleet. Take what has been said on board, and fix it for everyone’s sake. Reparations where necessary. Surely you want me to spend another 6 figures in the future?
How stupid are people to put comments like that in texts….
I thought that dumbness went out with Shane Warne.
This reflects badly on Melbourne IT as you are judged by the company you keep
I’ve spent a good 6 figures with them as well over the years and it’s very sad that none of their team are in here talking about the problem.
So much for their change in culture.
And I’m sure like any good company who has any focus on reputation management, they have monitors on their brand so whenever Netfleet or Melbourne IT are mentioned anywhere, alerts would be sent. They have to know about these posts but choose to ignore them. It’s a clear case of head in the sand and hope the world goes by. Not the best way to handle criticism.
Compare this ‘silence’ to what a real company who cares about their customers looks like. Here’s an awesome short article written by a customer of Qantas. Now Qantas has been hit hard by it’s own set of problems in the past, but just take a look at this story. Any company would be proud to see this kind of response from one of their customers – and how does reading it make you feel about the brand – such a difference when companies actually try to make an effort: http://bondstreetgrp.com/social-media-customer-services-qantas
Imagine if Netfleet really did become customer focused. Wouldn’t that make an awesome change instead of … silence … ?
@Rudy
Again, thanks for a well thought out post. Loved the Qantas story.
I had a telephone discussion with Jonathan Gleeson early this morning to give him a “heads up” that this story was going to be appearing today.
He also said to me (and I believe him) that he had been going through outstanding questions posted on Domainer, and intended to respond tomorrow. We have agreed to summarise those questions and answers in a new article.
That’s a positive step imho.
Unfortunately, as some wise contributor said, Jonathan got a “hospital pass”. But he’s now leading the team, so he needs to pick himself up, dust himself off, and make a plan to get back into the game.
“Trying to fuck my family business. …..My family hurts not that you would ever care”
Is he for real? Did he care about Greg’s family and the hurt he caused to them? Doesn’t appear to care about ned or his family let alone worried about the pain caused to the families of others that may have overpaid or been gazumped at NetFleet?
If a DIRECTOR of an ETHICAL entity like Qantas, Optus, BHP or even Melbourne IT threatened and abused a client (anyone actually) in such a manner, undoubtedly the DIRECTOR would be instantly dismissed / forced to resign and issue a public apology.
Melbourne IT – what say you?
Where is accountability for a director’s actions? I’m a client of Netregistry and Netfleet. Frankly the conduct brought to light disgusts me. Something needs to be done. Netfleet won’t do it unless forced to. MelbourneIT needs to act.
It’s extraordinary behaviour from a company director. Things have to change.
Here’s another beautiful “I stuffed up and we’re really sorry” letter that came out just 30 minutes ago from international merchant Clickbank.
Seriously how can anyone stay angry with a company when they put their hand up and say ‘we stuffed it’. http://view.sys.clickbank.com/?j=fe6311707666007f7c17&m=fe68157074600d7c7412&ls=fdeb1d7870640c7b75167970&l=fe5a1679756d0c7c7316&s=fe0115707765007c7716797
Hmm link didn’t work too well – try this: http://bit.ly/1OFC12E
Thanks for the link – what a great response by Clickbank. Not only did they acknowledge they did wrong; they they said they “had listened” to their customer base.
In 2009 I brought to attention of another “insider trading” incident and instead of dealing with the issue and addressing my concerns, i was instead smeared and abused by Mark Lye.
INSIDER TRADING 2009: https://www.dntrade.com.au/threads/insider-trading-netfleetgate.10229/page-2#post-76433
I have also spent 6 figures with NetFleet, yet stopped using their platform about 18 months ago as I have no trust at all in netfleet, its directors and staff, and in April I moved nearly 2,000 domains from them to another registrar.
I want to know how many domains have been acquired via netfleet using “inside information” by Publishing Australia, Mark & David Lye and any other entities or people related or “technically unrelated” to them.
I also want to know how much i have overpaid for my domains and how many times i have been gazumped using the NetFleet system.
DISCLOSURE: I have used NetFleet in the last 18 months to acquire about 10 “must have” domains.
It’s time for the truth and enough of the lyes.
It is a very unfortunate last name in the light of all this. 🙂
Well Ned
I see that Netfleet has taken up your idea of being more transparent, they have become as transparent as the Submarine races are, Melbourne IT must be so proud of their partners, let’s all see what happens next, now thy don’t even give us the auction prices straight away, mmmmm more of the Submarine races.
@Alan
I will be writing a new article next week regarding their latest changes. And hear I thought they were listening. Obviously not.
Also going to be listing a whole lot of unanswered questions. I was hoping Jonathan was going to be a breath of fresh air – unfortunately foul air is still prevalent.
Given that you’re a company director, what did you think of the abusive texts from Mark Lye? Is that in the manual? 😉
It’s not in any manual that I have ever seen or read, but neither is a lot of other things that I have seen happen at Netfleet, I’m sure Melbourne It would be taking steps to clear this up as a public company you cannot afford to be associated with actions like this, being a public company is so far removed from being a private company. Kerry Stokes had problems during his transformation from private Ace to public at Channel 7
@Robert – as mentioned, already got a whole new article on the go entitled “Has Netfleet Gone To The Darkside?”.
Ned, there’s no doubt that this kind of behaviour is shcking and inexcusable.
But I have to ask – why did you wait nearly two weeks before posting these texts?
@Andrew – the simple answer is that I was weighing up the potential retribution and consequences of posting them. I think you would understand what I mean by that.
After taking counsel from some sensible friends both here and overseas (in the business); I ultimately decided that nothing had a chance of changing unless I did post them.
Having said that, nothing will change unless Melbourne IT decides that their brand is being tarnished. That’s the sad reality.
Fair enough Ned.
I’m still shocked that Mark sent something like this – I would have imagined that it was upsetting to be on the receiving end.
Joseph P is spot on with his post – this is not how companies should behave this this age of accountability.
The genie is out of the bottle now and I’m not sure how Mark/Netfleet/Melbourne IT can fix the damage that has been done to the Netfleet brand…
David Lye rang a client of mine a few months ago trying to sell a dropping domain. Said he was from Netfleet, and told him what he had to bid to get the domain. I got domain for him on Domain Shield. Why is David representing himself as Netfleet? Did he have access to legacy system like the other telemarketer? TOTAL BS.
New article just posted.
“Questions For Netfleet”. http://www.domainer.com.au/questions-for-netfleet/
Thanks.
Mark Lye’s conduct is hardly that of a company director. Schoolyard bully perhaps?
These issues, including the abusive texts, have now been covered on DNW in an excellent article by Joseph Peterson:
http://domainnamewire.com/2015/10/19/australian-domain-market-up-in-arms-over-netfleet-bidding-scandal/
I consider Ned to be a friend. As Ned’s friend I was shocked and angered when he told me of the abusive text message he had received from Mark Lye. I wish I was only writing as a friend, but I am not.
Late last year, I decided that I would migrate a significant part of my portfolio over to NetRegistry. Consequently, I now have over 300 domains registered with NetRegistry.
Like many here, I have also entered bids and secured domains using Netfleet.
Until recently, Netregistry was to continue get more of my business. I have now put that on hold.
The culture of any organisation is set by its leaders. A large company’s morals are reflected by its board. I agree with many of the observations made above. Bottom line, as a customer of both NetRegistry and Netfleet, I am very concerned about the issues leading up to Mark Lye’s text messages.
I find the abuse levelled at Ned disgusting. While I only do business with those I respect and trust, being Ned’s friend is reason enough for me to take my business elsewhere.