There are some things I would like to say because this kind of behaviour from SEDO's part is not acceptable.
We understand that they may have good reasons not wanting to change their practices, but SEDO must understand one thing...
We are their customers, they exist because of us, they live from us and they depend upon us. Why is it hard to understand that making us happy is their top priority? Don't you want happy customers SEDO? Are you so arrogant that you take us for granted? Do you think that we have no other place to do our business?
Your competitors increase, and some have large capitals behind them. Afternic was purchased by NameMedia this week and will merge with BuyDomains. If they offer better services than you, I will the first to move all my assets away from you and straight to them. I am a small fish for you to bother, but I won't be the only one who'll do that. In the last 3 months, all I can hear about SEDO is complains. You stopped communicating with your own customers, you stopped appearing in forums and stopped accepting our feedback. How do you want to move on in this business? Invest in your customers SEDO, don't take them for granted cause they are not! Don't bite the hand that feeds you SEDO. You became $140M company in 5 years, due to our warm support, without it, you would be nothing. Appreciate the value of your customers, because they are the reason of your existance. Don't you ever forget that.
The idea of a comment without a price seems a very simple solution ?
Something on the lines of " I am very interested blah blah and would like to increase my offer - reduce my price blah blah if you could give me an answer to blah blah"
__________________ "Let China sleep for when she awakes, she will shake the world" NB - Too late!
It will be interesting to see what the new Afternic will look like in a year from now. Sedo might be relegated to being the "adult name site where people must be nice to each other through comment reviews." Impolite names but polite conversation guaranteed! LOL!
The problem is not the vetting of dialogue (sedo or anyone else would want to protect themselves from negotiators bypassing them).
The problem as has been pointed out is the speed of response from sedo which has been calibrated by np members as that of a snail.
Unfortunately sedo do not have a dynamic 'can do' culture which is not surprising when you consider that they are the same org as 1+1.
Now that afternic have new owners there is an opportunity to overhaul the sedo humpty-dumpty.
They are the same as 1&1? Crap! I;ve heard a lot of bad things about them.
Sedo should at least hold the comment and price until they review it. The other party could see something like "offer pending review" and NOT place the price on it.
I can also see their wanting to have some control of messages. However, they should guarantee that it will be either approved, disapproved, or posted if not reviewed within 24 hours. Even if someone had to spend a few minutes logged in from home on a weekend to review, how many could there be? I've wanted to put messages I thought could either support a higher price or set a package deal as well, but usually just avoid the message to keep from slowing the process.
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What if they simply posted a warning on the comments entry that those with disparaging remarks or those revealing their email addresses would be subject to banning.
In the last 18 months at Afternic I have yet to receive a nasty comment from anyone, and no one has ever tried to circumvent Adfternic through the comments.
Then, they could just spot check comments once in a while, and work from any complaints. It would sure save them a lot of time.
There are many ways that are better than what they are doing. The most iron-clad (100%) for them (still not great for us) would be what I sugested two posts ago.
I have read through this post and wanted to address some concerns. We definitely do listen and act on member’s concerns and constructive feedback. Our Buyer Certification Program was implemented as a result of member feedback. Since implementation we’ve seen a reduction in the number of unintentional bids, while it also expedited the transfer process.
At this point we feel it’s important to review personalized comments for insincere remarks and contact information, however quick comments are available immediately upon submission of the offer. Please let me know if there are particular quick comments you would like to see added.
Nice to see you reading here, Mara. I suggest this "quick comment":
* This is my final "buy now" counter-offer. Other offers may be considered under the auction format.
It would also be nice to be able to only sell a domain as a package with another domain such as a plural/singular or two TLD's. Currently, I don't know of a way to do this with sedo.
Sometimes more than one of the "quick comments" apply, and you can only pick one.
__________________ AdoptableDomains.com ~~~~~Finding Good Homes for Good Names~~~~~ FuelPrices.mobi - Fish.us - ManhattanNewYork.net - Salesmen.info - SoundSystems.org
Dickering.com - JobPlacement.biz - LotteryTickets.ws - Deleted.cc - Names.im - MP3.hn
Thanks for taking the time to come here and make a post.. I know you always address things in a professional and correct manner.
As for the reply i too understand this frustration and i see a good simple solution.
If you are worried that responses could be rude or asking for buyers contact info well the lata they can get from who-is info anyways so that should not concern you.
Why not have a drop down list of responses I believe this has been mentioned and i truely belive its a good way to do this. Also when more than one reason is needed allow a second and third drop down or the buyer/seller can leave it blank if only one is needed.
IE.
1. sorry the price is too high consider lowering.
2. does this price include other extension versions you own?
3. No thank you i am not interested.
4. 1 lump of sugar or 2 in your tea? ( silly ignore this one )
4. Is this your final price.
etc etc
These would make a good quick response which could be given to the seller so he/she then knows the potential buyers position instead of having to hang on and wait a whole weekend or until a representative from Sedo gets around to reviewing the normal type in response.
Mara, I have never had anyone try to give me their contact info on Afternic, where comments can freely be made. Ever. The number of times this would happen (especially if warnings of banning were on the page) has to be so small as to not be a concern. As for insincere comments, we are big boys and girls here. We can take it.
The quick comments will never be enough. If you feel you MUST retain total control over the comments--losing money for both you and I in the process--I suggest that you hold the bid amount as well as the comment, and release both upon your review process 1-4 days later. And notify the party upon the3 completed review, rather than how you do it now. I don't like this, but Sedo continued, unchanging stance on this is more than obvious.
This whole hand-holding, paranoid matter is really something. I just cannot understand it. And I ceratinly cannot understand a company that will not do something so logical, that it seems a majority of its customers would want.
Doesn't the 7-day auction begin after the date/time of the offer made, not of the acceptance date/time of the offer? If so, waiting for a weekend to pass to see the comment and then dedice to send to auction makes it a 4-5 day auction instead. If this is so (and I don't remember if it is), the auction time period start time should change to date/time when the offer is accepted since we cannot accept until we read the comment.
Oh the things we need to go through to protect our feelings from being hurt....
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Also, you could additionally decide to allow comments to go through when the parties are previous customers of Sedo. Sort of a "approved customer". Those of us who have completed transactions at Sedo would certainly not even consider breaking the rules in comments and I'd think you could trust us.
Thanks for the suggestions Tipsfromthetop. A quick comment to see if additional extensions or similar domains are available could be useful. I have seen the growing importance of portfolio and package sales and I think we have room for growth in this area, we’ve begun by creating a department specifically focused on portfolio sales. For small package sales (a small group of similar domains or same keyword, multiple extensions) or portfolio sales if there is something you’re unable to communicate through the comment system feel free to contact our Customer Relations department – info@sedo.com or info@sedo.co.uk.
Adding the ability to select more than one quick comment was also a very good suggestion.
Because a prospective buyer’s offer is binding only for seven days, the auctions run until the expiration date of the offer. If the auctions ran for seven days, starting the moment the domain is sent to auction, the offer which prompted the auction would have expired before the end of the auction.
But if a long weekend is too blame for us postponing the viewing an offer and it's comments, it is Sedo who is causing us to go to a perhaps 4 day auciton or less. It's not like we want to. Your comments policy forces this.
I was thinking about something. There are times when I want to tell the bidder that I will only sell the domain as part of a set. For example, a com with my net and info, or a singular with a plural, etc. There is no possible way for me to tell the bidder. If I set the price at the price for the set, along with the comment, my experience is that the bidder most often simply cancels the thread before he reads the comment--yes, this happens most of the time. Alternatively, if I set the price to a price which might reflect just the one name, he might buy it, but I did not want to sell just part of the set. There is no possible way for me explain this to the buyer and be certain it will work out.
And, I cannot put it in the description, because with over 4,000 names, I can't keep up with it all. And even if I did, there is no facility for someone to buy the multiple names.
Dear Sedo, I can't help but throw in the fact that I have recently moved my 8,000+ portfolio from Afternic to Sedo for a parking test with SedoPro, and the limitations you are putting on direct negotiations will certainly be an important consideration when I make my final decision whether or not to keep my domains at Sedo. I'm believe that you are seriously underestimating the negative effect of the momentum loss resulting from this message delay.
I'm glad I didn't put any comments on my last sedo sale. I was almost putting a comment saying "I will push the name in your account once the payment is received". The buyer was unexperienced with domain sales. His English wasn't very good either. If I had known his mother tounge and if I could speak his langauge I could have put a comment in his langauge as well. Then of course I would have to forget about the sale since sedo would take a week to review I guess.
I agree it is stupid that sedo wants to review the commenst and doesn't do this for days. Either they should cancel the comments option completely or they should ensure all reviews are done with less than an hour or they should leave the comments option open but cancel the reviewing.
I share the frustration of the people complaining here.
I hate to say this because SEDO is one of our partners and they are nice people, but as always I prefer to be honnest:
There is a REAL problem with the way comments are handled by SEDO.
Until recently I have been most a buyer than a seller, I have spent a true fortune in domain purchases this last year.
At the begining I used to contact domain owners through their system.
But after having often wait several days to simply have a single line comment reviewed I am honnest:
I stopped using SEDO marketplace for negotiate and buy names, except when it's a private buyer and I have no choice.
As I said several times to my contacts at SEDO:
REALLY, I don't mind paying SEDO a commission for the purchase of a domain.
But what I cannot do is waitting few days to have a comment reviewed.
As a buyer when I have decided I want a domain, I want things go fast.
So if I need to negotiate the price (like I do most of the time) then it must be done in real time.
SEDO, you really need to do something.
I am VERY concerned about this problem because when buyers use SEDO as a simple domain for sale WHOIS then SEDO do not earn anything, nor partners like me.
I do not know if the problem is due to a lack of people in the support department but solutions need to be found.
I found the idea of TipsFromTheTop an interesting idea to try to accelerate the negotiaition process while you do not have to recruit more support people.
By the way I ignored that as a certified buyer like I am now my comments will be sent in real time.
Can you confirm?
And about the seller comments? They will be also real time when sent to a certified buyer?
SEDO please act.
We all love your service, if it was not the case then we will not try to push you to improve it.
I too, have been contacting people directly when I can, or going to Afternic.
The crazy thing is that when I end up making a purchase outside of Sedo, I wish the transaction were being handled at Sedo because I like the transaction process. And yes, I'd rather pay the 10% and have them do it, than save 10% and do it privately. I don't care about 10%.
I too think the quick comments area could be improved to help communication between the buyers and sellers.
Sedo - Why not do a poll here ? - List a load of quick comments that could be useful to have (like those mentioned by Tipsfromthetop) I'm sure NP'ers would be more than welcome to suggest new and more usefull ones in addition to those you currently have on offer.
Then sellers can vote for the ones they would most like to see implemented.
Surely that kind of feedback is very important and would help sedo, buyers and sellers conduct more sales.
I personally would also like the option to be able to reply with - No thanks, I have previously received higher offers.
WITHOUT having to disclose my asking price to every low $60 bid !
When I have made offers on other peoples names which have probably been perceived by the seller as being far too low - basically, they usually just do not bother to reply at all.
Which is better, to be totally ignored by the seller or a simple polite - No thanks - I have previously received higher offers.
I also beleive it may encourage more buyers to be more serious about their initial offer.
After all, we all want sedo to be the best it can be
Assumming Sedo will not do a complete removal of the review process and increase their earnings (and our capital gains) in the process:
How about a canned comment that says "Very Important information in comment, do not cancel bidding until it becomes available for reading". This would be the only canned comment that would allow a custom comment to go with it.
