Sedo killing sales with delayed comments

[katherine]

The delayed comments are hurting our sales and they are frustrating for both buyer and seller.
From my experience the potential buyer does not wait for the comment to be approved, and will counter-offer so the benefit of my sales pitch is lost. Besides, it takes too much time for comments to clear.
When I write a comment on Friday why should I have to wait for the whole week-end to have it cleared.
Online business means 24/7 operation period.

Come on sedo, what are you afraid of ?
Afraid that people are going to exchange private information ?
If they go through the hassle of your (useless) buyer certification program it is for a reason. They want to negotiate anonymously (so they can lowball without losing face) or they would just contact domain owners through whois.

If sedo is understaffed then it's easy: cut your work load by lifting the approvals on comments, keep an eye on them if you want but stop interfering with our transactions.

[biggedon]

Hi

in contrast, I don't find it to be hindering any sales.

As most of the comments are received from the potential buyer in my experiences.

They usually want a justification for price or ask for stats.

Since I'm not in a rush to sell, how long it takes doesn't really matter.

Recently had a buyer who made a very competitive offer, and I took it to auction.

10/20/07 Your Desired Price: 2,500 USD

10/20/07 Buyer´s Offer: 1,750 USD

10/27/07 Auction Closed


He was kinda "pissed", as I could tell in his message that he was expecting me to accept the initial offer, though it wasn't the "listed price".
Also his message wasn't sent until after I chose to go to auction. Had he sent the message along with the offer, perhaps I may have accepted it as a BIN.

The auction has closed now, so he may delay in sending payment or try to back-out all together. We'll see.

Additionally, received offer:

10/16/07 Your Desired Price: Make Offer

10/16/07 Buyer´s Offer: 100 USD

10/16/07 Your Counter Offer: 600 USD

10/28/07 Buyer´s Offer: 200 USD "with comment"

10/28/07 Your Counter Offer: 600 USD "with comment"

10/29/07 Buyer´s Offer: 250 USD "with comment"

The other party has made the following comment with this offer:
Please justify your asking price.

From above the potential buyer and I both sent comments on Sunday and they responded Today with another comment along with higher offer. It's up to me now to respond.

Haven't bought any names recently on sedo, so from that position i couldn't respond to how swift the deal would go with comments.

[McDot]

At the time I needed to wait for my comments to be approved, I would normally give sedo a call and they would take care of it immediately.

[Acro]

I completely agree.

sedo's backward system cost me 2,000 euro when the buyer and I agreed to terminate an auction early and they'd pay my asking price - and there was no way to reach eachother other than via sedo's can-and-string method. The crucial weekend passed and eventually the buyer simply waited out the auction and got the domain 2,000 euro cheaper.

At the time I needed to wait for my comments to be approved, I would normally give Sedo a call and they would take care of it immediately.

Try doing that on a weekend. Or on German holidays. Or during French vacations. Or during British bank holidays. There is no support around the clock. For a company that professes that they are #1, this is unacceptable.

[Brujah]

If I get a delayed comment, and the offer isn't close to what I was asking anyway, I just cancel the negotiation.

[DomainingCom]

Sure that's frustrating and I am sure a lot of sales are lost due to this reason.

Now, this has already been discussed many times in the past.

and sedo position on this was:

"The comment check is necessary to ensure the anonymity of the marketplace, which is one of the underlying principles of our company. Contact information including email address, phone number, and/or one's full name is not permitted. Also, as you all know, the comment check is currently necessary to safeguard against rude or vulgar language interupting the natural flow of domain negotiations."

It was also discussed to improve the communication adding more canned responses, but nothing has been done. They are sleeping...

On my hand like Bruja I stopped to send any comment and simply cancel negotiations when offers are not closed demands.

sedo you are too long, too long to check comments, too long to respond to email support, too long to do domain transfers, ...

Except that we like your services!

[katherine]

Also, as you all know, the comment check is currently necessary to safeguard against rude or vulgar language interupting the natural flow of domain negotiations."

It's a BS excuse. We are grown-ups and don't need censors.
Besides I can handle foul language mind you nanny sedo.


Right now I am reviewing my names listed and sedo and removing the 'for sale' option on all the names I am not really looking to sell, but you just never know a good could offer come in handy. If somebody is interested they will contact me via whois. Hopefully I won't waste time on the usual lowball offers. Actually I am less and less inclined to sell.

[Synozeer]

I think the comment check is more to prevent the buyer/seller from circumventing sedo's system and thus sedo's commission. The buyer/seller could just give their email address/phone number and do the sale away from Sedo's platform.

[DomainMagnate]

I lost a sale due to it :(
While I waited for the comment to appear someone else made a higher offer and buyer accepted it

~MG

[mjnels]

I think the comment check is more to prevent the buyer/seller from circumventing sedo's system and thus sedo's commission. The buyer/seller could just give their email address/phone number and do the sale away from Sedo's platform.

it is.

but somehow, places like ebay still seem to turn a profit and their communication system is completely open unless you choose to remain somewhat anonymous using their little messaging system.

lots of deals take place off ebay because of this, but lots of deals do still go through ebay. win some lose some i guess.. all in the name of fast, efficient, open communication.

i think someone above had it right... still monitor the messages, but dont waste our time with this approval stuff..

[Gerry]

Delayed comments? When negotiating?

What about delayed comments after the sale.

I am still waiting on a "delayed" response to a direct email to a sedo transfer rep. It's only been 5 days now.

If you are in the US and in the Eastern Time Zone, don't do any business after 5pm EST on Thursday. Wait until about Monday to add new domain names. Otherwise, they will not be optimized until then, no matter how many times you click that SEND button.

[BELLC1]

The other party has made the following comment with this offer:
Please justify your asking price.

This clown has asked about my domains several times. I remind him each time that my selling price is my decision, not what he thinks it is, and I don't plan on justifying crap to him.

Not surprisingly, he takes a hike.

[Acro]

It's probably one of the most useless comments in the sedo drop-down menu.

[scrsteven]

I say they should open up the comment system to instant comments, and sedo can review them on their own time after the fact. Then if sedo has a problem with any of the comments, they should give the user a warning against doing it again. If the user repeatedly abuses the comment system, that user's comments will be moderated and not instant anymore.

[katherine]

It's probably one of the most useless comments in the sedo drop-down menu.

Yes. From my own experience, when the other party uses that option it's an excuse to back out and cancel the sales thread. I know that discussion is over then.

I say they should open up the comment system to instant comments, and sedo can review them on their own time after the fact. Then if Sedo has a problem with any of the comments, they should give the user a warning against doing it again. If the user repeatedly abuses the comment system, that user's comments will be moderated and not instant anymore.

I agree that preventing fraud is one valid concern, but perhaps Sedo could implement the comment system as you suggest. Sites like scriptlance will 'flag' messages that were found to contain personal information (not foolproof but you pay more attention once it happens to you).
At the very least Sedo must do something so that we don't have to stall our sales for a whole week-end. We shouldn't have to adapt to their work schedule.