Sedo.com - Official Thread

[Sedo]

Hi All! :hi:

By request, we've decided to start a thread dedicated to Sedo. We're looking for invaluable insight into what domainers want and need out of our parking program (and marketplace, of course).

Questions, comments, suggestions, tips are welcome! We're hoping this will be a great discussion about what works at Sedo and what might not (please be constructive and respectful to others in your feedback) so that everyone involved can benefit and learn from it.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas! Happy Holidays!

Always,
Keith
(on behalf of Sedo)

 

[Sull]

This is very shady.
Besides, lets assume for one second this guy really found someone who would pay 100K for such a name with 2 hyphens. You would assume he wouldn't start an auction, but rather sell the name instantly to the buyer, take the money and run.

Exactly!

 

[JB Lions]

Needed something real quick from Live Chat but:

Monday - Wednesday: 09.00 AM - 11.00 AM CET
Thursday - Sunday: Closed

What is that? Closed 4 days and the 3 days you have it, just 2 hours per day, 6 hours a week? I'm not even up yet those hours Why even have it.

 

[opalxx]

Am i seeing things or is it just me? The number of my listed domains with uniques seem to have increased greatly. Unfortunately the earnings on these domains are mostly non-existent. Interesting that the greatest earner is an mx domain.

 

[DorianGray]

"Seller's country" : This is discrimination IMO. What does it matter if I'm from Cuba, but selling German names? Who cares? Not the buyers for sure.

"Great" domains : I don't think so. Take a look at the current list. But if you would submit your old, one-word, precious, premium .COM domain you bought at some other high competition auction for $x,xxx it will likely get refused with a mysterious Q (Quality) reason. Give it a try, and see.

 

[wot]

Something isn't right about this one. 1 bid for 100,000 EUR for a double hypenated name on SEDO. The .com of this name is parked.

payday-loans-uk.co.uk/



Quite the jump in price. Is it me or does it seem a bit unfathomable?

Stuck out like a sore thumb did it not!

No longer on auction and listed at 200 euro or best offer.

But they are still allowing the IDN ASCII look alike names, the sellers are now a bit more savvy and shill with a lower opening bid.

 

[sedo_ripped_me_off]

I bid for SMS.com, at the time all screen shots listed stated sms.com (Have a copy) now it turns out that it was an IDN name (missed the very very tinny logo as I'm new to buying websites), turns out that SMS.com, Why does SEDO hide what the URL is? surely another column on the auction overview screen? Once I saw this i only placed bids through their aution page, upon which there is not mention of the true website address only SMS.com

After winning the bid for which i paid 800 euros I commisioned a web designer to create a website for SMS text messages, this cost me £2900 plus VAT (I know its a lot but he has done a bloody good job on my previsou pages and it would be unique and copyrighted material only)... Turns out i have nowhere to put it.

I believe that Sedo may not go out of their way to hide it, but, dont help the bidder to know what they are bidding for. In all fairness who here actually bids for a domain name, its the address (URL) most people want and think they are buying.

I was meant to get help from Lozan Yohannes on +49-221-34030-181, but this morning she farmed me off stating it was now a case for her director and the legal team. I'm down nearly £3500 and all becuase they continue to hide (I'm not saying its not there just very well hidden) the URL address.

If they are the biggest they need to make the website more friendly for novice users, if i went onto eBay and bought a "Sony Playstation" only to find that it was a replica i could get the money back... Why are these scammers any different??

ETC ETC

 

[wot]

I bid for SMS.com, at the time all screen shots listed stated sms.com (Have a copy) now it turns out that it was an IDN name (missed the very very tinny logo as I'm new to buying websites), turns out that SMS.com, Why does SEDO hide what the URL is? surely another column on the auction overview screen? Once I saw this i only placed bids through their aution page, upon which there is not mention of the true website address only SMS.com

After winning the bid for which i paid 800 euros I commisioned a web designer to create a website for SMS text messages, this cost me £2900 plus VAT (I know its a lot but he has done a bloody good job on my previsou pages and it would be unique and copyrighted material only)... Turns out i have nowhere to put it.

I believe that Sedo may not go out of their way to hide it, but, dont help the bidder to know what they are bidding for. In all fairness who here actually bids for a domain name, its the address (URL) most people want and think they are buying.

I was meant to get help from Lozan Yohannes on +49-221-34030-181, but this morning she farmed me off stating it was now a case for her director and the legal team. I'm down nearly £3500 and all becuase they continue to hide (I'm not saying its not there just very well hidden) the URL address.

If they are the biggest they need to make the website more friendly for novice users, if i went onto eBay and bought a "Sony Playstation" only to find that it was a replica i could get the money back... Why are these scammers any different??

ETC ETC

I have already posted this on my blog in my signature where you will see that this has been going on at Sedo for some months with them doing nothing about it.

If it's any consolation you are not alone and will no doubt be joined by others ensnared by names that look like ASCII and are in fact IDN and usually set off and running with shill bids to draw in the unwary.

Also see here:

http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/748032-com-i-was-a-victim.html

---------- Post added at 05:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:56 PM ----------

This was on my blog:

http:// monikerblog.com/?p=468

I am guessing we are not too far away from a full blown court case with Sedo having to defend their actions as I am sure that at least one of those getting caught out will take it the extra mile and with so much information around maybe a good lawyer could make it really uncomfortable for Sedo?

 

[Adrian98]

There are many mixed reviews about Sedo, some folks say that its good company and some say that its not!! In my point of view every company has both type of reviews and as far as I know the majority of the reviews for Sedo is Good!!

 

[wot]

There are many mixed reviews about Sedo, some folks say that its good company and some say that its not!! In my point of view every company has both type of reviews and as far as I know the majority of the reviews for Sedo is Good!!

Are you the new Sedo rep incognito? :p

 

[GiftedDomains]

This is not about a "Sedo review".
They should just stop this IDN Bullshit, or change their website in a way that buyer 100% notices that he is bidding on a crappy ASCII IDN Domain and everything is fine again with SEDO.

 

[DorianGray]

"everything is fine again with SEDO." ?
Well, this is your idea, and I respect it. But I said bye-bye to them. Explained why above. Finding buyers by myself, and I don't want to pay high commission rates for non-service. If trust is the issue, your old refecences, plus escrow services are out there. I'm not selling 5-6 figures domains, so most of the time I can establish a trust relationship with the customer, perfectly working with PayPal and wire transfers.

This is not about a "Sedo review".
They should just stop this IDN Bullshit, or change their website in a way that buyer 100% notices that he is bidding on a crappy ASCII IDN Domain and everything is fine again with SEDO.

 

[Kate]

I bid for SMS.com, at the time all screen shots listed stated sms.com (Have a copy) now it turns out that it was an IDN name

While I am sorry for your loss, did you really believe you were going to get your hands on a name of that caliber for 800 euros ?
Okay you are not a domainer, presumably you know nothing about the value of LLL.com domains.
But if you actually bothered to check and research the domain things should have been obvious. When you buy a domain you might want to check how it's been used, if it has a clean history etc.
If you type sms.com in your browser, it takes you to a developed corporate website. Strange that the real sms.com would be on sale while it seems to be a live site.

Example auction:
https://www.sedo.co.uk/auction/auction_detail.php?language=e&auction_id=126091&tracked=&partnerid=&language=e" -Auction: SʍS.COM[/URL]
Important Notice: This is a Multi-Lingual (IDN) Domain.
Technically you are acquiring the domain xn--ss-bkb.com

Did you actually read the description ? If there is anything you don't understand the right thing would be to seek advice.

There is no doubt these sales are misleading but Sedo is not your nanny. It's a free country, everybody is free to buy bad domains.

By the way Sedo didn't rip you off. Sedo doesn't sell domains. The contract is between you and the seller.

I don't see how you are going to recoup your losses, perhaps the best you can do is write it off as education for tax purposes :tri:

 

[Embrand]

While I am sorry for your loss, did you really believe you were going to get your hands on a name of that caliber for 800 euros ?
Okay you are not a domainer, presumably you know nothing about the value of LLL.com domains.
But if you actually bothered to check and research the domain things should have been obvious. When you buy a domain you might want to check how it's been used, if it has a clean history etc.
If you type sms.com in your browser, it takes you to a developed corporate website. Strange that the real sms.com would be on sale while it seems to be a live site.

Example auction:
https://www.sedo.co.uk/auction/auction_detail.php?language=e&auction_id=126091&tracked=&partnerid=&language=e" -Auction: SʍS.COM
Important Notice: This is a Multi-Lingual (IDN) Domain.
Technically you are acquiring the domain xn--ss-bkb.com

Did you actually read the description ? If there is anything you don't understand the right thing would be to seek advice.

There is no doubt these sales are misleading but Sedo is not your nanny. It's a free country, everybody is free to buy bad domains.

By the way Sedo didn't rip you off. Sedo doesn't sell domains. The contract is between you and the seller.

I don't see how you are going to recoup your losses, perhaps the best you can do is write it off as education for tax purposes :tri:

While I agree that Sedo is not a nanny, I think they could enhance their system.

Before anyone bids on an IDN, maybe there should be a short "terms" page that explains precisely what an IDN is, and more importantly what is IS NOT. And you would have to agree to having understood this before making the bid.

I do feel bad for people losing money on these names, though. Even with normal domains you have to be careful, such as lnvestor.com now at NameJet auction with a high bid of $3,600...

 

[Kate]

Before anyone bids on an IDN, maybe there should be a short "terms" page that explains precisely what an IDN is

Answer: xn--ss-bkb.com


The problem is that some IDNs are legitimate, for example genuine keywords in Chinese or other non-Latin scripts.
Those like SʍS.COM are utter rubbish.

Sedo could tighten the screws but on the other hand some IDN sellers have complained that the disclaimers are killing sales and casting doubt over the viability of IDNs.

Another example: you can even buy Centralnic domains on Sedo like .uk.com etc. These are not even real extensions. Technically these are private subdomains. And there is not even a disclaimer...
In fact, you can buy anything on Sedo, including domain names that have restrictions, and that you are not eligible to own... obviously Sedo cannot make up for lack of research and due diligence.

There are legal remedies in place when sales are deceptive or misrepresented but the problem here is that the buyer has paid for 'sms.com' and it's way too late to get the sale nullified.
My advice is to keep the custom layout, just get another domain and change the logo.

 

[wot]

I'll say it again.

I agree nobody should expect to buy a premium .com for $xxx whatever,and due diligence should be done by potential buyers.
And Sedo are not your nanny and they do point out,however vague that these names are IDN!

BUT- All these crap names are,without any doubt in my mind, are initiated at auction with shill bids as bait for newbies and Sedo are doing nothing to address this issue and this is where I see them laying themselves wide open for legal proceedings.Currently they will not respond when asked to investigate the legitimacy of bidder number 1 offering $500 - $5000 as an opening bid on a name registered 4 weeks ago and then disappearing off the scene.

Legal action would force them to come clean on where these first bids are coming from and is anyone here going to bet against me that there will be a pattern?After all the names in question are from the same few sellers who are very familiar with which Cyrillic letters look sufficiently like ASCII to cause confusion.

A number of these auctions that have finished at Sedo and are still with the same few perps (No change in whois) so I am guessing the majority of "buyers" smelt a rat and a refused to pay.I am currently delving a little deeper in to this while Sedo in their wisdom will ban the buyers and lose a few more customers.

Sedo is it really worth getting this type of adverse publicity for a few dollars commission?I believe you have a compliance/fraud team surely they could do something here?

---------- Post added at 08:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:21 AM ----------

Oh,I forgot to post these 2 links!

http://www.namepros.com/idn-domains-for-sale/747333-com-com-com.html

http://www.namepros.com/idn-domains-for-sale/749442-subjot.html

I believe the mods closed this sales thread but Sedo stepped in to assist!

 

[freedom30]

...Sedo is it really worth getting this type of adverse publicity for a few dollars commission?...

...you actually have to ask that question?...

 

[wot]

...you actually have to ask that question?...

Sad is it not!

And I guess the majority see it in the same way you do,cynical,very understandable.

 

[freedom30]

Sad is it not!...

...ah, blissful naïveté. How I do miss those wonder years...

 

[wot]

...ah, blissful naïveté. How I do miss those wonder years...

Miss them? I can't remember them being 2 years in to my old age pension and suffering from severe dementia,at least I think I am, can't remember. Did I say that already? :tri:

 

[GiftedDomains]

The only usage of these "IDN" domains which comes to my mind, is if you buy the domain and pay google Adwords. Then your add appears on google and the average google users would think that this is "sms.com". It looks "nicer" and looks more "trustable" than other adds. They don't know about IDNs for sure.

 

[wot]

I bid for SMS.com, at the time all screen shots listed stated sms.com (Have a copy) now it turns out that it was an IDN name (missed the very very tinny logo as I'm new to buying websites), turns out that SMS.com, Why does SEDO hide what the URL is? surely another column on the auction overview screen? Once I saw this i only placed bids through their aution page, upon which there is not mention of the true website address only SMS.com

After winning the bid for which i paid 800 euros I commisioned a web designer to create a website for SMS text messages, this cost me £2900 plus VAT (I know its a lot but he has done a bloody good job on my previsou pages and it would be unique and copyrighted material only)... Turns out i have nowhere to put it.

I believe that Sedo may not go out of their way to hide it, but, dont help the bidder to know what they are bidding for. In all fairness who here actually bids for a domain name, its the address (URL) most people want and think they are buying.

I was meant to get help from Lozan Yohannes on +49-221-34030-181, but this morning she farmed me off stating it was now a case for her director and the legal team. I'm down nearly £3500 and all becuase they continue to hide (I'm not saying its not there just very well hidden) the URL address.

If they are the biggest they need to make the website more friendly for novice users, if i went onto eBay and bought a "Sony Playstation" only to find that it was a replica i could get the money back... Why are these scammers any different??

ETC ETC

Here is the honest man!

http://www.namepros.com/idn-domains-for-sale/749442-subjot.html#post4291341

Did you get any joy from Sedo.com?

 

[twomoon]

Guys, if the buyer didn't contact Sedo and didn't pay for the domain during 5 days, could I cancel the deal according to Sedo rules?
I have read it somewhere I guess.

If yes, I don't understand Sedo totally. I asked them 2 times to cancel the transaction, but their final reply was "Please note that we have forwarded your message to the buyer. As soon as we receive any feedback we will come back to you. Thank you for your patience."

I was not asking to forward the message to the buyer, I was asking to cancel the deal.

Should I message Sedo again that I'm canceling the transaction? What do you think?

 

[DNBro]

Guys, if the buyer didn't contact Sedo and didn't pay for the domain during 5 days, could I cancel the deal according to Sedo rules?
I have read it somewhere I guess.

If yes, I don't understand Sedo totally. I asked them 2 times to cancel the transaction, but their final reply was "Please note that we have forwarded your message to the buyer. As soon as we receive any feedback we will come back to you. Thank you for your patience."

I was not asking to forward the message to the buyer, I was asking to cancel the deal.

Should I message Sedo again that I'm canceling the transaction? What do you think?

i remember it is 15 days not 5 days to put request to cancel the deal.

 

[twomoon]

i remember it is 15 days not 5 days to put request to cancel the deal.

OOps thanks
Probably my mistake!

 

[wot]

I bid for SMS.com, at the time all screen shots listed stated sms.com (Have a copy) now it turns out that it was an IDN name (missed the very very tinny logo as I'm new to buying websites), turns out that SMS.com, Why does SEDO hide what the URL is? surely another column on the auction overview screen? Once I saw this i only placed bids through their aution page, upon which there is not mention of the true website address only SMS.com

After winning the bid for which i paid 800 euros I commisioned a web designer to create a website for SMS text messages, this cost me £2900 plus VAT (I know its a lot but he has done a bloody good job on my previsou pages and it would be unique and copyrighted material only)... Turns out i have nowhere to put it.

I believe that Sedo may not go out of their way to hide it, but, dont help the bidder to know what they are bidding for. In all fairness who here actually bids for a domain name, its the address (URL) most people want and think they are buying.

I was meant to get help from Lozan Yohannes on +49-221-34030-181, but this morning she farmed me off stating it was now a case for her director and the legal team. I'm down nearly £3500 and all becuase they continue to hide (I'm not saying its not there just very well hidden) the URL address.

If they are the biggest they need to make the website more friendly for novice users, if i went onto eBay and bought a "Sony Playstation" only to find that it was a replica i could get the money back... Why are these scammers any different??

ETC ETC

Still in Sedo's escrow account,It's not possible they are actually investigating this is it?

The last guy caught like this by the Russian woman (Now it's арр.com)and having already paid simply had the name http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/748032-com-i-was-a-victim.html put in to an account in his name at Mad Dog domains and it was a fait accompli.