SEDO deadbeat buyer. Now what?

[thejosh]

A purchaser made an offer on a domain name I had at SEDO and then I sent it to auction. There were no other bidders so they won the name. The purchaser had 2 yellow bars in their activity column, indicating that they have followed through on at least a couple SEDO transactions in the past.

It has now been 2 weeks since the agreement and the purchaser has not made a payment to SEDO. I asked SEDO if the purchaser has made contact with them, and they said the person had not. The domain name sold for high $x,xxx and I consider it a fair price for both parties.

What do I do now? I understand that the contract with SEDO is legal binding?

I would love some feedback from others who have been in a similar situation.

Thank you!

 

[dvdrip]

I have had more than 50 failed sales at sedo in the past few years.
All sedo does is maybe suspend the account.

Yes the contract is binding but you have to think if it truly worth it to go after the deadbeat buyer.
Are you and the buyer in the same country? If not, it gets more difficult.

 

[Wot]

Name and shame.

If Sedo finally cancel the transaction you will get buyers name and address which will make it easy to get the email address.

Post on all the forums and it will soon be top of Google for the non buyers name and then send him/her the links.You won't get you money but probably a certain amount of satisfaction.

Sadly I have had to do it 3 times this year already.

 

[dvdrip]

It is not always easy to get the email address and sometimes you will not find it.

 

[Wot]

It is not always easy to get the email address and sometimes you will not find it.

You can still post the name and address and even send a snail mail if you felt so inclined.

Do something as the legal route is unlikely to get you anywhere!

 

[thejosh]

I am extremely frustrated with SEDO. Their communication is absolutely horrible and they don't do anything to enforce bidders to pay. They need to start vetting bidders before they are allowed to place a bid on a name or require a non refundable earnest payment for the case when they back out.

It is also crazy that on top of the poor service SEDO commands a 15% commission!!

 

[dvdrip]

They don't even email the buyer if they don't pay.
All they do is send the automated emails that everybody ignores.

After about a week I have to ask sedo to email the buyer and then I have to ask again so they can make a phone call.

An immediate refundable charge of 60 Euro(the minimum commission) on each offer would be enough to make offers more serious.
They can do that only for first time buyers.

 

[James]

my latest sedo deadbeat buyer

Buyer

Jocelyne Saidah
Rooststraat 25

1860 Meise
Belgium

1. Definitions.

In this agreement the following words and phrases shall have the following meaning:

“Sedo Marketplace” means any of the integrated domain name marketplaces offered at an international collection of URLs that are owned or operated by Sedo GmbH or Sedo LLC or one of its subsidiaries.

“Payment Request” means an accounting document created by Sedo GmbH or Sedo LLC containing payment instructions related to the Purchase Object transfer.

“Purchase Object” means an Internet domain name offered for sale by the Seller via the Sedo Marketplace under the conditions articulated by Seller in their Offer Description posted on the Make Offer page for their listing, including, when marked as a website/project, content comprising the Website associated with said Internet domain, or conditions otherwise agreed upon by the Parties in the course of negotiation.

“Website” means any and all multimedia content, images, databases, user lists (including credentials and contact information, when applicable), and related underlying source code required for the continual operation of the website found at the corresponding domain at the time of agreement, unless otherwise indicated by Seller in their Offer Description or otherwise altered in the course of negotiation.

2. Purchase Object and Purchase Price

The Purchase Object of this Purchase and Sale Agreement of 07/23/2012 is the Internet domain name weather.pro, and when included by the Seller as indicated on the Make Offer page, the related Website.

The Purchase Price shall amount to 10,000.00 GBP including any statutory tax that may be incurred (for instance VAT).
Transaction cancelled by Sedo

Sedo had to cancel the transaction because the buyer made an unintended or fake bid. The buyer has been warned and action against him has been taken. You might want to take a legal action against the buyer, therefore we have made his contact data available in your Sedo contract.

The suspension of the transfer in no way affects the Purchase & Sales Agreement between the seller and the buyer. Sedo will place the transfer on hold for as long as is necessary for you to complete this transaction.

 

[angel69]

theJosh : I know how frustrating it is and it's happened to me both as seller (the buyer doesn't pay) and buyer (seller doesn't push the domain) Just move on, forget about suing the other side w/the invoice info Sedo gives you. Waste of money, I'd never consider it. And I agree buyers should leave a hefty amount in escrow so if they back out they lose that and sellers could be forced to move the domain to a temporary Sedo holding account w/their registrar so when the name sells it's already out of their hands (Doesn't SnapNames put a lock on your Moniker domain when there's an offer pending or the domain goes to auction ?)

Ask yourself, is the amount you got good for this market ? if it is, then wait as long as Sedo lets you, don't pressure them or the buyer, the guy may pay on the 29th day following the sale (Sedo's rules are to cancel it well before 30 days but for some known customers they wait as long as 30 days unless buyer objects, same goes for seller, waiting for him to push the domain, I've seen this) If the amount you got isn't great then contact Sedo and force them to cancel right away but you don't lose anything by waiting really, except Sedo won't present to you other offers for that domain (if you park w/them or since it's still listed for sale w/them, technically) There are worse things like having a domain stolen or being served a groundless UDRP as an easy way to take a domain from you and then you're forced spend $ to defend it, so save those energies

Sedo bans deadbeat sellers/buyers. Permanently. And their account opening process is really intrusive so good luck to those jerks when they try to reopen, Sedo is truly paranoid when it comes to looking for hints of fraud, dubious pkg traffic, etc, they ban people in a second, and permanently, and sometimes even when they've done nothing wrong, at least not intentionally


wot : I agree 100%, name that asshole and shame him all over domaining sites, Sedo provides full name/mailing add, that's usually enough and those details are usually right (they verify many things at account opening)


dvdrip : 50 failed deals in a few years, man, so NOT completing the thing whether you're sellin or buyin is the norm to you by now (and not the exception) and this isn't even funny

 

[dvdrip]

Well I have a lot of sales too. But it's pretty common. I have 1 sale at sedo in limbo as we speak.
I have had sales in other venues go bad as well. I had a 150k sale at escrow but big company backed out.
Last month a 30k sale... dead.

I also won an auction at sedo but seller refused to sell.

Maybe 1 in 5 sales go bad.

 

[Dan Lakey]

I also won an auction at sedo but seller refused to sell.

Ditto, won a name last month, paid and they never pushed. And it was at the Sedo Great Domains auction for crying out loud

 

[dvdrip]

Dan mine was at Sedo Great Domains auction too, but 3-4 months ago.
I have a feeling that sedo pressures sellers for a lower reserve and when they don't get the price they wanted they back out.

 

[esa]

i wonder for how long does it take to get paid on sedo? the domain has been transferred to buyer account, but for some reason the buyer not updating their whois and sedo response,

"We have informed the buyer to update the whois contact details."

i replied and a few days later,

"Please note, as the domain is transferring into the buyer's possession, it would be impossible for us to update the contact details on their behalf. They have been instructed to update their information and post a message to us once it has been done."

4 days, everyday i asked for update and no reply? what if the buyer wont update their whois?

 

[Cartoonz]

i wonder for how long does it take to get paid on sedo? the domain has been transferred to buyer account, but for some reason the buyer not updating their whois and sedo response,

"We have informed the buyer to update the whois contact details."

i replied and a few days later,

"Please note, as the domain is transferring into the buyer's possession, it would be impossible for us to update the contact details on their behalf. They have been instructed to update their information and post a message to us once it has been done."

4 days, everyday i asked for update and no reply? what if the buyer wont update their whois?

In order for SEDO to have transferred the domain to the buyer, they would have to have received the FUNDS themselves... so I wouldn't be too worried about it, you'll get paid.

 

[dvdrip]

What is the TLD and the registrar?

 

[Nick]

During one of my not finished transactions at Sedo, when the buyer didn't pay for around 3 weeks, he (the buyer) contacted me via email saying that he need this domain, he would pay, bla bla bla and during our communication (if i remember well) he told me that if the transaction would be canceled, Sedo will charge him as a nonpayer about 25 or 50 EUR (don't remember well).
I guess this is all that Sedo do with nonpayers.

 

[WhoDatDog]

If they didn't specifically agree to the auction, then they shouldn't have to pay (not matter what it says at Sedo). More often than not, auctions are ignorant moves. Buyers drop out too. I have sent one name to auction in the 7 years I have been with Sedo, and it was a mid 5 figure name.

I would never ever ever ever ever bid on a name at Sedo, if the seller was going to send it to auction. You will either take the price or not. Let's negotiate right now or NO DEAL. There are way too many scammers on forums/Sedo who will get their friends to bid on the names. Very few people have not done something sinister in this industry.

And the bottom line is that those who complain about deals falling through are always distressed because the buyer would have been ripped a new one if they had gone through with the deal. If the price is an actual market price, then simply turn around and sell it to someone else.

When people are interested in names they want the names now. They don't want to be put through some shady show where phantom bidders can appear and the earliest they can possibly get the name is about 10 days from the time of their initial bid.

This message isn't about your name, it is just a reminder that the person on the other end gets victimized all the time and nobody does anything about that, either. If the bid is enough, sell the name, or risk losing the sale, just like the buyer risks getting scammed with the phantom bids.

 

[Shane]

@AI've yet to find a safe way to buy or sell websites/domains. I had one website up for 7 days on Flippa and it sold for 2605. The buyer backed out so I listed it for 30 days, assuming I'd command about the same or maybe even a higher amount... Needless to say I got 350 big ones for it. I paid like 150 to list it with them and now still owe them a whopping 16 dollars for success fee's. The whole game is shady and no one company holds people accountable. I wish you the best of luck though.

 

[thejosh]

Today Sedo finally cancelled my transaction. It appears that my deadbeat purchaser is:

Gurallar Yapi Malz.
Ahmet Guven
Ataturk Bul. 5.km
43001 Istanbul
Turkey

[email protected]

Please repost this information in other forums so that people are aware of this person and do not waste time on them.