Beware of Sedo - unprofessional

[jimba]

Careful with this company - if you win an auction, don't celebrate - they sometimes take it off you a day or so later!

I won an LLL.com auction on Sedo last week for mid $000 sum. Plenty of action in the last hour of the auction with me and one other party bidding up at the last minute, extending the auction several times.

Paid the invoice via bank transfer.

I get an email 27 hours after the auction win time from Great Domains (their other division) in the US telling me that apparently some of their auctions experienced technical errors that day and that my winning domain was one of them.

Sedo are to 're-run all auctions that were affected by this error'.

WHAT???

It was obvious the bidding for this auction was going quite smoothly, by the way the bids moved. I find it incredibly hard to believe this auction 'stuck' going into its 4th extended period. I could feel the other party were going to hold off as the auction moved into its final stage, everything moved very naturally.

In any case, Sedo have provided no evidence of this last second 'break-down' nor acknowledged my inconvenience. Not to mention my lost bank transfer charges from UK to Germany.

There is nothing in their Terms and Conditions or Conditions of Sale about re-running auctions.

I am sure GreatDomains were simply annoyed the auction didn't achieve a high enough sale price and an 'incident' facilitating a re-run (next month after the UK holiday period!) is quite handy from their P&L perspective.

What a sloppy situation and bad customer service.

Think twice about using these people to buy or sell domains.

 

[Mark]

I won an LLL.com auction on Sedo last week for mid $000 sum.

????? Huh ?

Mid XXX$ Range ?

 

[-MGS-]

Careful with this company - if you win an auction, don't celebrate - they sometimes take it off you a day or so later!

I won an LLL.com auction on Sedo last week for mid $000 sum. Plenty of action in the last hour of the auction with me and one other party bidding up at the last minute, extending the auction several times.

Paid the invoice via bank transfer.

I get an email 27 hours after the auction win time from Great Domains (their other division) in the US telling me that apparently some of their auctions experienced technical errors that day and that my winning domain was one of them.

Sedo are to 're-run all auctions that were affected by this error'.

WHAT???

It was obvious the bidding for this auction was going quite smoothly, by the way the bids moved. I find it incredibly hard to believe this auction 'stuck' going into its 4th extended period. I could feel the other party were going to hold off as the auction moved into its final stage, everything moved very naturally.

In any case, Sedo have provided no evidence of this last second 'break-down' nor acknowledged my inconvenience. Not to mention my lost bank transfer charges from UK to Germany.

There is nothing in their Terms and Conditions or Conditions of Sale about re-running auctions.

I am sure GreatDomains were simply annoyed the auction didn't achieve a high enough sale price and an 'incident' facilitating a re-run (next month after the UK holiday period!) is quite handy from their P&L perspective.

What a sloppy situation and bad customer service.

Think twice about using these people to buy or sell domains.

Thats bad, I feel for you, Its the same for me, Sedo like to mess you about

 

[StoneRoses]

Do you mean it was a LLLL.com?, there is no way on this earth that you would get a LLL.com for mid $xxx.

 

[SJM211]

Think he means a 4 figure sum ($x000). This seems to have affected several of the greatdomains auctions - I agree, it's pretty unfair to the original winners to have to go through the whole process again.

 

[NeeJam]

????? Huh ?

Mid XXX$ Range ?

I think he means mid $xxxx with the 000 representing thousands. :hehe:

 

[Devil_Dog]

Looks like Sedo didn't like the price it ended at...






If you ask me.

 

[Mark07]

Actually Sedo has got a good online reputation with its users all over but if this is the case then may be they should think again before doing things which could harm their reputation.

 

[harkster]

Pure greed and total lack of ethics but then what role does ethics play in todays world.

I know it won't happen but no one should bid in these rerun auctions.

 

[jimba]

I think he means mid $xxxx with the 000 representing thousands. :hehe:

Yes, you are right. Sorry for the ambiguity. I 'won' the domain for $5500.

There is a very interesting principle at stake here.

If Sedo are able to retrospectively cancel completed transactions (as opposed to running auctions) because of an undisclosed 'internal technical problem', then they are undermining the credibility of their entire auction business, and will lose the trust of a significant proportion of their professional customer base.

 

[Domagon]

Spread your story far and wide...

Sedo and others play fast and loose with basically no government regulation...

To the best of my knowledge, Sedo is NOT an auction house, NOT a licensed auctioneer, NOT a licensed escrow broker, etc.

Again, spread your experience far and wide ... Sedo may come to its senses because if they don't they will lose even more in business - their reputation is already lousy as it is with broken deals, slow escrows, poor service, etc.

Rambling on, but your experience could be the tipping point for Sedo, if what you say is accurate and you choose to publicize it far and wide.

Good luck - and keep us updated.

Ron

p.s. fortunately I saved this to my clipboard before posting, since NP blank screened again; seems to happen occasionally - anyone else experiencing that too?

 

[jimba]

Spread your story far and wide

Yes, they deserve a dose of negative PR for this.

They are determined to go ahead with a re-run on 30 August

Guess I'll now have to try the legal route, there's a principle at stake...

 

[Domagon]

That's tomorrow! ... the legal route may take awhile unless you can get an injunction to stop the re-auction of the domain; freeze the domain at the registrar to prevent any changes during litigation ... you'll need to work fast as in contacting an attorney right now that specializes in domains; see legal section for some names.

In the meantime, have you posted about this on DNF? ...

Also, contact Ron Jackson who runs DNJournal asap and explain your story.

Ron

 

[jimba]

Too late to file an injunction, although I have a good law firm in Germany where the Sedo HQ is based, however they cannot do anything this short notice.

May well bid for the domain again, though Sedo will be liable for any excess over the previous auction amount, no matter who wins it.

Amazing thing is the auction went smoothly all the way into 3 or 4 extended periods with no problems with my bids or from the other main bidder. No wonder they refuse to provide proof of their internal technical problem - there never was one!!!

Yes I am a member of DNF and did mention there as well.

Sedo should be roasted over this.

 

[dherwan]

Careful with this company - if you win an auction, don't celebrate - they sometimes take it off you a day or so later!

hmmm, i just know sedo did it.

It's hard to believe, but it's true isn't it ?

 

[jimba]

Yes it's true.
I see Sedo are re-running the auction. Let's hope they inform the winner of this auction that the domain is under dispute.

 

[Domagon]

I'll wager that Sedo will do no such thing - the new auction winner, assuming Sedo doesn't re-auction it again, will own it. End of story...

Unless you hire an attorney immediately and take legal action, it's likely you will lose any chance of ever owning the domain unless you too chose to bid again ... but if you do bid again, then you are in effect agreeing with Sedo's action of re-auctioning the domain ... what a dilemma.

Ron

 

[Varon]

Its disheartening how Sedo takes people for a ride. I suggest the route mentioned by Ron. Don't let them fool you.

 

[Brujah]

You might also be able to go after the Seller. You had a contract with the seller.

 

[Kenny]

I'm moving this to Legal...
I think some qualified advice is in order here.

Good Luck,
Cy