Disputing Sedo auction on their performance failure - a cautionary tale ...

[JMOT]

Thats shocking. Did you get copies of the emails you sent to their support. Can you get screengrabs etc?

IMHO you should stand your corner on this.

 

[scooter]

Terrible customer service. Problem is they can afford to be terrible, as there really is no competition.

Bit of a no brainer, you would think there would be a reading priority.
Live auction messages to the top of the queue. Obviously this cannot be happening.

Good luck with the comp. This should be offered automatically, instead of you having to fight your corner.

 

[scooter]

Why don't you invite the SEO over so he take a look at his customer service.

[email protected]


.

 

[Mark One]

Here's your customer service:

Sedo 08/03 - "If you wanted more control over negotiations in order to secure a higher sales price, you should have continued negotiating with the individual who submitted the bid of 5600 GBP. There was no "negligence" on our part at any time and your assumptions regarding our level of service and performance are off base.

Please move forward with the transfer of this domain immediately. If progression is not seen by end of day Friday, 12/03/10, we will cancel the transaction, refund the escrow payment, and review your account. Discussion regarding compensation outside of the issuance of a free showcase is closed and no further dialogue will occur. At this point, the transfer will either move forward according to the original terms or will be cancelled. Please advise."

 

[retired_member12]

Here's your customer service:

"If you wanted more control over negotiations in order to secure a higher sales price, you should have continued negotiating with the individual who submitted the bid of 5600 GBP. There was no "negligence" on our part at any time and your assumptions regarding our level of service and performance are off base.

Please move forward with the transfer of this domain immediately. If progression is not seen by end of day Friday, 12/03/10, we will cancel the transaction, refund the escrow payment, and review your account. Discussion regarding compensation outside of the issuance of a free showcase is closed and no further dialogue will occur. At this point, the transfer will either move forward according to the original terms or will be cancelled. Please advise."

As I said, no duty of care, either way. The best they can do is close your account.

 

[Mark One]

Agreed - so the question is - in that they are threatening to close my account unless I put up and shut up - "do I need a Sedo account to trade domains in 2010"?

 

[diablo]

Here's your customer service:

Sedo 08/03 - "If you wanted more control over negotiations in order to secure a higher sales price, you should have continued negotiating with the individual who submitted the bid of 5600 GBP. There was no "negligence" on our part at any time and your assumptions regarding our level of service and performance are off base.

Please move forward with the transfer of this domain immediately. If progression is not seen by end of day Friday, 12/03/10, we will cancel the transaction, refund the escrow payment, and review your account. Discussion regarding compensation outside of the issuance of a free showcase is closed and no further dialogue will occur. At this point, the transfer will either move forward according to the original terms or will be cancelled. Please advise."

This response takes the biscuit - they have already admitting negligence in a previous email as posted previously:

"since all that happened was no fault of yours, but due to negligence on our side. "

If the transfer does not take place, Sedo get no commission - and lose your future sales. If the transfer takes place and they waive their commission, they are no worse off financially, but might keep you (and others reading this thread) as a customer. It should be a no brainer.

It really is time for domainers to create an alternative to Sedo.

 

[newguy]

Wow, their response to you is outrageous

 

[Mark One]

The fact is that we are not customers as far as sedo is concerned. We are simply a disorganized bunch of individual suppliers and as such, when it comes to the crunch,we qualify for exploitation rather than anything more than a token service. We are the small dairy farmer to their supermarket chain.

The customer in their eyes is the end user looking to buy and they make it as easy as possible for them - at our expense. They have no real buyer authentication in place (as my first experience in auction with this domain showed) and communication from buyer to seller does not appear to be moderated.

As far as we, the sellers, are concerned everything we do or say has to be moderated and the systems and operational resources they have in place are simply inadequate to enable this to perform a we have a right to expect.

They must be perfectly aware of this from the number of unhappy domainers commenting on forums but when an incident such as the one I have described here occurs their policy seems to be to stick their head in the sand rather than to retain the supplier or to address their own failings. Maybe doing so would open the floodgates.

They are quite happy to cancel this auction and close my account with 40-50 domains for the sake of a £560 commission because they know they have a monopoly in the marketplace and that there are plenty more eager sellers where I came from.

 

[Mark One]

It really is time for domainers to create an alternative to Sedo.

As a developer and company director with all the necessary resources at my disposal I am already giving this some serious thought.

 

[foz]

As a developer and company director with all the necessary resources at my disposal I am already giving this some serious thought.

Any well developed market place site that was UK based and only accepted .uk listings would get my ~2,000 inventory.

 

[davedevelopment]

Any well developed market place site that was UK based and only accepted .uk listings would get my ~2,000 inventory.

I'm down with that. My biggest problems with Sedo are:

* Minimum Fee (I'm currently small fry, selling domains for £100 and losing £35 is no good to me)
* Lack of UK support/focus
* Speed. Takes forever to do anything. The last two sales I've made, I've actually had to ask them, to ask the buyer for the payment.

 

[Mark One]

Anyhow ... back on topic, I have a couple of days to roll over and take it or to stand my ground and have my account canceled. Heads they win, tails I loose ...

 

[suzi]

Outrageous. For what it's worth, I think their attitude and response stink. I no longer have many domains with them, but think I will remove those that are. Funnily, I was thinking of actually moving most of mine to them to try and achieve a few more sales... but I've just changed my mind!

 

[Mark One]

Why don't you invite the SEO over so he take a look at his customer service.

[email protected]


.

Have emailed [email protected] with a summary and link back here. You never know ...

 

[scooter]

It really is quite shocking.

Domains are their bread and butter. UK domains are their 3rd largest market. They admit the fault and now pile on the bully boy tactics. "Take the £5K with zero recompense or walk away with nothing."

I too would move my names in a flash if there was a good UK alternative. I don't have many (400+) but they would all be moved.

Let's face it. Parking is dead. OK, lets rephrase that. Parking is dead for domainers, not for the parking companies. I have mentioned this before. A couple of phrases I have been keeping a very close eye on for the last 18 months is still costing the advertiser the same price per click, but my sedo price per click has gone down from 0.30 to 0.07 ???

I know times are hard, but it seems to me they are now skimming an extra 0.23 per click on top of what they were skimming already. That's dick turpin material. (maybe google are skimming more before they pass it on to Sedo. I don't know, all I know is it is a joke and I am beeing fleeced.)

I think there is a huge opening for someone to take less and offer a decent service.


.

 

[Skinner]

Wouldn't it be easier to put a sign on the site with a link here and offer to deal with the user directly ?

 

[Bailey]

Shame to read about your experience of Sedo service. But my own experiences tell me this is nothing unique. I think your 'probably' on the right approach with taking the hit and putting the 'potential' additional loss as the price of a first-hand learning exercise of Sedos service levels. Thats certainly the approach I've taken.

It's like deja vu reading your account of communication with Sedo. "sweet pacifying words on the phone - absolutely nothing on the action front".

It's almost like a "Good Cop - Bad Cop" routine.

I look on Sedo Like a disloyal "Past Friend" - Not to be totally ignored but, treated with a very good measure of caution, even disdain - I refuse to use Sedo escrow services if requested by a domain buyer. But, at the same time I'm not about to cut-off an avenue to market.

I won't go into my experiences - It will take a whole day

 

[Mark One]

A quick update - had a call from the UK office today in response to my letter to tim@sedo so it seems we may have some movement. Certainly a very constructive conversation and reassuring that there is someone taking an active interest and a reasonable approach.

Will advise on outcome tomorrow ...

 

[Mark One]

Well I'm pleased to say that the intervention of the UK office has led to a resolution.

I didn't get the waiving of commission I was pressing for but they have conceded a bit more in the way of listings etc and have addressed my complaint professionally so I have met them halfway.

Although this has been described as an isolated incident I'm going to be very careful about the timing of any Sedo auction I enter - best to avoid weekends for the time being I suspect.

Thanks to all for your feedback on this thread!