Sedo auctions suck!

[Rockefeller]

You and I are in negotiations for a domain name on sedo. We finally come to somewhat of an agreement when I offer you around your asking price. Then I wait a week to hear from you. Then you send the domain name into auction..so now I have to wait 7 days for the auction to end when you and I both know that no one is going to bid on it. .coms are one of the only extensions that get promoted when in auction... Then I wait another 3 weeks for sedo to transfer it to me. My solution..I wait at least 7 days to pay for it to get back at you.

[GAMEFINEST]

sounds like a plan to me

[Gerry]

Might as well. Not going to speed anything up, doubtful you will slow anything down.

Here are my past three transactions.

PYH.INFO purchase:
02/05/07 Agreement reached
03/06/07 The seller of the domain has pushed the domain into our account. We shall now prepare the domain for transfer, and inform you when you can put in your transfer request. Do not start the transfer until you receive our email.
MORE THAN 30 DAYS, STILL WAITING

UPZ.NET purchase
01/18/07 Agreement reached
02/22/07 This transfer has been successfully completed!
35 DAYS TO GET THE DOMAIN NAME INTO MY ACCOUNT

PALS.INFO sale
11/22/06 Agreement reached
12/29/06 This transfer has been successfully completed!
38 DAYS TO GET PAID FOR A SALE

Sorry this is happening to you, Justin. But this seems to be the norm rather than the exception now.

[afloat.com]

I don't bother to bid on names at sedo anymore, too many names I have bid on just get pushed to auction.
I do however bid on names in sedo auction

I'm finding afternic quite good though, nice fast escrow, Ive had an escrow transaction complete within 24hrs believe it or not!
ymmv though.

[DomainingCom]

It happen to me recently for 3 domains I wanted to buy.
Buyers think they can get best offers playing the auction game.
And they forget to be stupid, first they let you negotiate to get sure of a minimum pricing, in the case as you comment you are the only one interested.
But what can you do except try to negotiate directly?
A lot of domains are only listed at sedo.

...

P.S:
I am afraid this behaviour should be soon the norm because it's natural buyers want to get the most of their domain for sale.

[Raider]

Justin, I dont understand why you would buy it through sedo in the first place, if you come across a domain you want thats parked at sedo, you should do what I do, contact the owner using whois and inquire about the domain directly, bypassing Sedo altogether, why go through all that headache? I've gotten some pretty good domains this way and at reasonable prices.

Now I'm going to get all the hate mail from you guys saying how unfair this is to Sedo!

[Rockefeller]

Screw sedo..i do contact the owners..though usually the email bounces or I get no reply.

[Brujah]

I do this with my own sales too. A sedo auction isn't any worse than offering your names here in a forum and waiting for buyers to finish bidding against each other.

[seeker]

You and I are in negotiations for a domain name on sedo. We finally come to somewhat of an agreement when I offer you around your asking price. Then I wait a week to hear from you. Then you send the domain name into auction..so now I have to wait 7 days for the auction to end when you and I both know that no one is going to bid on it

That isnt possible.
The auction HAS to end by the expiration of the 7 day period from the last offer made by the buyer.
so If I make my last offer on day 1, and on day 6 the seller takes it to aution, he/she will get a 1 day auction.
The auction does NOT extend it for 7 days, To get 7 days, the seller has to take the domain to auction on the same day when the last offer by the buyer was made, which is no different than accepting the offer by the 7th day as the offer is binding for 7 days.

Overall though, the auctions are not a good idea unless the domain is a superb one that will catch the attention of others.


P.S. the above scenario assumes no one else makes a bid. If a new party makes a bid then the auction is indeed extended for 7 days, its just like getting a new offer which is binding for 7 days.

[Acro]

Seeker I didn't know that. But I know that 11 days after agreement was reached with the buyer, sedo has not confirmed payment was made. What is the purpose of verifying bidders with a CC if they don't enforce their timeframes?

No response from Ara either.

[afloat.com]

I do this with my own sales too. A sedo auction isn't any worse than offering your names here in a forum and waiting for buyers to finish bidding against each other.

Suppose that depends if it is a bargain or not, chances are by the time its been through a sedo auction it wont be

[seeker]

I have 1 that is 16 days. Still no payment from the buyer.
the other ones this month went smoothely.

[Gerry]

It appears to me that we are in agreement that this whole sedo auction business is not that great of a business model.

And, it is apparent that the systems in place regarding verification of buyer is simply to provide the seller a feel good warm fuzzy feeling all over.

Something seriously wrong with the way sedo is conducting business. Unfortunately for me, I seem to be distancing myself away from the folks at Sedo, even the ones that I have supported for quite sometime.

Now, I could care less. No transaction since fall has gone smoothly, revenue for March down nearly 70%, CTR at an all time low hovering around 6.5-7%...and with nearly 3000 names and the same traffic parked, how is this possible?

When I asked these questions, the response I got from TWO higher up in Sedo is "some things are out of our control".

I believe it was acroplex who put it best by saying Sedo has lost control.

[James]

I can see a problem here.. phy.info is mine safe and sound at moniker.com and I haven't been negotiating with anyone on this...and yes it in my sedo account


jim

Might as well. Not going to speed anything up, doubtful you will slow anything down.

Here are my past three transactions.

PHY.INFO purchase:
02/05/07 Agreement reached
03/06/07 The seller of the domain has pushed the domain into our account. We shall now prepare the domain for transfer, and inform you when you can put in your transfer request. Do not start the transfer until you receive our email.
MORE THAN 30 DAYS, STILL WAITING

[Acro]

Scandalous. BTW the server clock is off by one hour. I had to set "DST corrections always ON" in my profile options to fix that.

[SedoCoUk]

I can see a problem here.. phy.info is mine safe and sound at moniker.com and I haven't been negotiating with anyone on this...and yes it in my sedo account


jim

Hi James,

We checked, and it looks as though Doc Com mis-typed the domain. Worry not, your domain is not the one being referred to in this thread!

--Keith

[James]

Hi keith..I wasn't worried...its at moniker

jim

[Johnn]

Keith,

You need to revise your auction process to make it better or at least similar/user-frendly.

I can't see a single reason why someone would want to bid or place the name for auction at sedo with the way the process goes now.

Good luck!
John

[Acro]

Keith, when will sedo respond consistently to our issues? What is your customer service mailbox? Why do I have to rely on the whim or time schedule of a particular representantive in order to get things done in a reasonable timely fashion? Why there is no support on the weekends to answer emails? Why isn't sedo enforcing the agreement terms and conditions when the buyer does not pay nor cares to take Sedo seriously? Why has my attempt to contact your legal department over the issue been met by silence? Is that what Sedo considers to be the chief method of doing busines? When will you guys end the PR fluff and focus on support issues and client requests?

Keith, it's Monday morning and I have a case of the Mondays. I need a response or else I am known to go postal; I'd appreciate a response to my questions. Thanks.

[Onward]

I use sedo for 3 reason:
1. when I cannot reach the owner.
2. When the seller insists on it
3. When the seller is Buydomains (If anyone is interested to know why, pm me)

On sedo, I hate the auction possibility when I am the buyer...I usually do not nickel & dime the buyer when they send a fair offer....I just accept instead of sending an offer back (close to their offer) that they in turn can send to auction.

When I am the seller, I do not mind the auction possibility, but 7 days is way too long, you should have a 1-3 day option on the auction. Usually, I do not use the auction possibility as the seller, unless I get lowballed and I reasonably believe others will recognize this and try to bid as well.

If I want the name, I'm not going to punish the seller by putting in my payment late...just not the way I do business. Time is money and the longer I have to wait...it does not help me.

It does really piss me off though when the seller waits 7 days to get back to me...and if I waited 7 days and then they sent it to auction...well I can see your point Rockefeller.