Pulling out of auction purchase

[nickhomeboy]

Hi all, I'm new here so please be gentle

I placed an offer on a domain name a few days ago which the buyer took to auction, it has a couple of days still to run.

Unfortunately I've just had some really bad news regarding my job and won't be able to go through with the purchase should I remain the top bidder (possible, I'm the only one!).

How heavily do Sedo enforce their "legally binding" conditions? Will they take legal action against me if I just don't complete?

I appreciate most will frown on this but I really have no choice, and on speaking to Sedo they have basically said tough, you are in contract, so not very helpful. I cannot cancel my bid either as mine is the reserve or something.

I have been polite enough to send a message to the seller that I won't complete, and explained the reason, but not sure if they have received/read it yet.

Really hope you can help, it was going to be my first purchase on sedo and am now worried about what will happen.

Help?

 

[aZooZa]

Welcome. No, I don't think anyone's going to criticise you. Shi* happens. At least you're being straight up and that matters most. Good luck to you. NOT the end of the world!

 

[drop]

sedo

drop [email protected] an email explain who and where you got his email from, then ask him to ensure that your email has been forwarded

 

[sedo]

Hi Nick,

Please PM me the name of the domain and I'll take a look at the transfer for you.

I appreciate most will frown on this but I really have no choice, and on speaking to Sedo they have basically said tough, you are in contract, so not very helpful. I cannot cancel my bid either as mine is the reserve or something.

We do try to be as flexible as we can, but obviously we have to be careful as the contract IS legally binding and we do get sent a lot of made-up excuses from people trying to get out of deals, and we have to try to sift those out from the people who are being genuine. Please understand this is not intended as a slight on you, it's just to make it clear that we try to do this on a case-by-case basis and we also have to consider the other party in a deal.

On a personal note, I have plenty of experience myself of clients (especially career domainers) railing publicly against people pulling out of deals and blasting us for allowing it, then further down the line sending me an e-mail about another deal saying "actually, I don't really want to sell this any more, would you mind awfully if we cancelled the transfer etc". What to do!!

Cheers,

Shaun

[email protected]

 

[drop]

sleepy

well done shaun ### poor guy can sleep now (kel at web.com)

 

[rob]

we have to be careful as the contract IS legally binding

Has that been tested? If so where?

Cheers,
rob.

 

[lebowski]

What domain name are you bidding on? If you post it, who knows, maybe someone here will be willing to outbid you. Long shot, but nothing ventured and all that, and I don't see any harm in revealing it under the circumstances.

 

[aZooZa]

What domain name are you bidding on? If you post it, who knows, maybe someone here will be willing to outbid you. Long shot, but nothing ventured and all that, and I don't see any harm in revealing it under the circumstances.

Makes sense to me...

 

[nickhomeboy]

Thank you for the replies. I feel a little easier now if no one is going to insist on me paying or take legal action. I hope that is the case.

I have since had a reply from sedo customer service after explaining the situation to say that they don't want to end the auction as it won't be fair on the seller as more bids may come in, but they will add a note to my account so the deal gets binned if i end up winning. Do you think they will honor this, maybe Shaun will know?

As for the domain name, i would rather not mention it as i hope that in the months or years to come i can buy again, when things get better. If you guys see it you might have it for ever

 

[rob]

I have since had a reply from sedo customer service after explaining the situation to say that they don't want to end the auction as it won't be fair on the seller as more bids may come in,

I would hate to be bidder two, outbidding a known 'fake' bid

I think lebowski has a good solution .

 

[Edwin]

Yeah, it's kind of weird that the auction is still running at a price which is clearly artificially high at this point...

 

[sedo]

Hi Nick,

I have since had a reply from sedo customer service after explaining the situation to say that they don't want to end the auction as it won't be fair on the seller as more bids may come in, but they will add a note to my account so the deal gets binned if i end up winning. Do you think they will honor this, maybe Shaun will know?

What I would say is I would definitely like to speak to the seller of the domain before doing anything, as he/she is an innocent party in all of this. If you could let me know the domain name, that would be really helpful so I can take a look at this now.

Regards,

Shaun

[email protected]