IT.COM

.mobi I bid $611,000 for music.mobi - Lawsuit Pending

Spaceship Spaceship
Watch
Impact
5
Hello everyone,

I have been a part of this SEDO .mobi auction auction and I am the one responsible for the bid $611,000 for music.mobi.

However I stopped bidding at the point where I realised that the NEW auction was a scam because the two bidders that were bidding me up were NEW bidders who were not even involved in the initial auction.

The initial auction closed with me winning the last bid at $66,000.

I received an invoice and 2 emails regarding the winning bid.

Let me ask everything this key question? If you are bidding on eBay and you have a 7 day auction and you take a chance and wait til the last second to bid what if your DSL line or connection or even your computer crashes? I think many of us had this experience in the past. I know I had this happen last week on eBay when my computer froze and in essence lost the bid. Did eBay care? NO! Does SEDO care if you WERE going to bid and failed to do so if your computer crashed or had a slow connection? NO! Well, wait a second in this case they do.

They proclaimed me winner send me 2 emails, sent me an invoice. I considered the bid finished and was ready to go and play guitar and record this new song I was working on in the studio. By chance, I get an email by whom? BOTH the .mobi MTLD who started INVITING people via a bulk message hyping them up that the servers have crashed and that there is huge demand for the .mobi auction. Then Sedo followed. So 2 bulk messages sent to the world inviting them to attend a NEW auction. Not only that, they extended the auction to 2.5 hrs NOT 5 minutes.

Anyhow, I seriously have been negotiating with .mobi since 2006 about music.mobi but they seem to want money and to rob everyone of money than have someone develop a super site like I am. So the whole RFP was bogus. I tried fir over a year and they just said "you will have to bid for it".

So, I am really upset, they caused me to miss my jam session and on top of that they allowed NEW bidders to the new auction. I say I have NO PROBLEM with old bidders that were active in the original auction bidding their maximum. Even though I was invoiced $66,000 I emailed SEDO and MTLD letting them know that I would pay them $81,000 because bidder 9 (I was the last bidder 12 to bid for the name in the original auction) rebid his maximum at $80k.

So there comes along NEW bidders 13 and 14 who did not even attend the initial, legal auction. They probably got the bulk email fro both SEDO and MTLD and invited themselves to the dance. HOW can an auction that has ended have NEW bidders? I have no problems bidding with the 12 bidders that have bid against me in the initial auction but NEW bidders who were enticed by HYPE emails? Have you ever heard of a closed auction then an hour later having a new bidder say I will outbid the winner even though i was not even in the auction? NO!

Anyhow, the bid to $616,000 is illegal. I sent the MTLD and SEDO an email and let them know that they should retract all my bids ($611,000) that were automatically placed by SEDO as a result of NEW bidders who were not even active in the original auction. In the new auction, the only legal bidder was bidder 9 who was also in the original auction. The bidder bid for $80k and i outbid him.

How can I be declared a winner then told that I am not the winner then they invite new bidders? Also how can they say that their terms of services states that they can redo the auction and there is no legal agreement? REALLY? I checked it and i saw no section that related to servers crashing and technology interruptions.Tough luck, you had 7 days to bid and you didnt. You cant be bidding after. You take a chance, then be brave enough to live by it and acknowledge that you had considerable time to bid. And the new bidders 13 and 14 and dont care who you are but you had no place bidding in an auction with the old active bidders.

Sedo I have bought numerous domains for tens of thousands of dollars and I refuse to park them and make money off parking (Domain King you can do that and **** the internet up for all of us). I will NEVER do business again with thieves especially the MTLD. They are making bank and playing everyone.

OK my story is not done yet. I stop bidding at $611k because in my mind I should not be bidding against NEW bidders (yes I did realise it at the end) who had no place in the auction since they did not attend the original one. So i stop and half an hour later I get a message from SEDO asking me if I was interested to buy mp3s.mobi for $500,000? So let me get this straight. because I bid up to $611,000 (yes I am retracting this bid and every other bid made against NEW, illegal bidders), does that mean you think I should buy another music domain? I told them I would not buy mp3s.mobi for $300 and basically told them that they will hear from my lawyers if this mess is not solved.

I suggest a class lawsuit and I seriously will BOYCOTT both SEDO and MTLD. I loved SEDO and have been a client for years but this money hungry, sleazy, unethical tactics are unacceptable. For all of you complaining that you did not get a bid in the last 5 minutes tough luck, you had 7 days (considerable time that is). I took a chance and won. I would have bid higher but I am not going to fill SEDO and MTLD's pockets with my hard earned money because they screwed up royally.

What can I say? I am ready to kick some serious butt here. And sue these guys for emotional distress. SEDO seriously, you lost one of your top clients and super domainers. Lost my respect and you have robbed me and others in all fairness. I seriously will NOT let this go. If justice is not served, I will sue, I will go to the press, I will tell my story, I will post all the emails I got, invoices and screenshots of my winning bid and I am sure it will reflect future SEDO=MOBI auctions. Did anyone say sex.mobi? Yes, the MTLD is greedy and so is SEDO. This is bad business. REALLY bad. Not sure I can trust them. i will not be surprised if Bidder 13 and 14 were internal just to bid up my proxy of $611,000.

The world record is not real people. It would have been if other original bidders bid me up to $615k. The new bidders in my mind either are internal fake bidders or new, illegal bidders who came in after being sent bulk emails by both SEDO/MTLD full of hype.

If they do not accept my winning auction and fair win versus the original bidders even in the new auction, then I WILL pursue this since I do have some spare change here now.

Costa

MusicMusic.com
Music.us
Music.pro
Music.im
Music.fm
MP3.fm

Blog: Entrepreneur.pro


PS After 3 years of development, I will be launching the biggest music site in the beginning of 2008, so if anyone knows any bands who would be interested, let them know to sign up their email at music.us. So much for the .mobi implementation on my site.
 
2
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Good luck in getting this matter resolved - sounds like a real injustice.

(Nice choice of a domain name for your blog BTW! ;) )
 
0
•••
0
•••
Mobi Cheap said:
Sorry I forget, what was it again you recommended the OP spends those $600k of branding dollars on?
Promotion other than just that name. nobody knows what mobi is and it's gonna take another big chunk of cash to brand it. save the cash, do the same exact page in the mobi format for free, as a sub. the mobile market isn't dependent in any way on the mobi extension and it'd be just as tough to brand .mobi on the end of a keyword as it would be to brand a sub imo.

connections said:
would have been better of domainnamewire to have included the .com and the link to namepros.
 
0
•••
Costa

nice logo http://mobi.music.us

looks like some binding emails from sedo.



goodluck with it
 
0
•••
its sad because Costa seems to have some genuinely good plans for the name.
 
0
•••
I think he actually has a good chance to win.

If ebay did something like this, they would get crushed.I think if he goes to court, he has a good chance to win.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
He will and everyone else that was ripped off will too!
 
0
•••
tdm300 said:
I think he actually has a good chance to win.

If ebay did something like this, they would get crushed.I think if he goes to court, he has a god chance to win.

actually i totally disagree, if something like this happened on ebay, there is no way they would loose a case in court ... they would definetly have their bases covered by their legal team and extensive terms of service... now sedo on the other hand, i'm not so sure of.
 
0
•••
namewaiter said:
actually i totally disagree, if something like this happened on ebay, there is no way they would loose a case in court ... they would definetly have their bases covered by their legal team and extensive terms of service... now sedo on the other hand, i'm not so sure of.

Thats the whole thing. eBay's got billions of dollars and the top legal teams backing it. Sedo on the other hand, is the cheap, unethical, lazy, unprofessional kid that seriously needs its ass kicked for a wake up call. Imagine the repercussions of this! Faster, more transparent auctions, Buyers will actually pay and sellers will actually sell...
 
0
•••
1) Did you actually pay for the name?

2) Was any kind of consideration given to bind the contract and make it valid?

-I think you are in for a tough road.

I feel bad you did not win the name but in the end you got outbid and if the eventual winner has transferred funds and executed his contract I can't see how you will ever win the name back?

You can sue but in the end how will you get the name back?

As far as "emotional distress", no one is going to take that serious. At least not the legal system.
 
0
•••
sld7 said:
As far as "emotional distress", no one is going to take that serious. At least not the legal system.


Don't count on that. I don't know which country you're from, but in the States, they take it very seriously. I know, its kinda stupid...*emotional distress* :hehe: but the law upholds it nonetheless and thats what matters. Several multi million lawsuits have been settled because of the emotional distress caused by eating fatty foods (and becoming obese hence), getting lung cancer (after chain smoking for 50 years) etc.
 
0
•••
I'm not a legal expert. But I have only 1 comment.
TOS or not, Sedo is clearly in the wrong by letting in NEW bidders into the 2nd round of bidding.
 
0
•••
namewaiter said:
actually i totally disagree, if something like this happened on ebay, there is no way they would loose a case in court ... they would definetly have their bases covered by their legal team and extensive terms of service... now sedo on the other hand, i'm not so sure of.


Heres the thing, have you ever heard something like this happening on ebay. This is not the first time something like this has happened at sedo.
 
0
•••
so, an auction ended, the winner got the winning emails and the invoice-
the system then goes down-
sedo revokes the win after they declared it to the winner- and then extends the auction-


right?
 
0
•••
smashfactory said:
so, an auction ended, the winner got the winning emails and the invoice-
the system then goes down-
sedo revokes the win after they declared it to the winner- and then extends the auction-


right?

actually .. no. we all know that most wait until the last minute to place bids on online auctions. well with about 5-8 minutes left - no one could place a bid meaning the auction didn't conclude 'correctly' - hence the price for about 85 of the 100 domains in auction climbed dramatically after the auctions were restarted and ran their new due course, mainly because all those that waited to place their last minutes bids finally could.
 
0
•••
Agree with smashfactory thats exactly what happened.
 
0
•••
I'd love to see you take this to court. I wouldnt recommend a class-action suit, because no one wins except the lawyers :) Usually the lawyers get millions and each person affected gets a check in the mail for $1.19 or a free movie rental at Blockbuster (excluding New Releases)...

I agree with OutlawBiker here, I think the discovery process in this case (meaning emails between Sedo and MTLD, and internal emails at Sedo) would be extremely interesting... I'm not going to make accusations, but I will say that nothing would surprise me. If you do file a lawsuit and they have something to hide, you can be damn sure they'll be coming at you with an immediate offer for a deal... Otherwise, they're dirty secrets will be the end of them.
 
0
•••
alexsimon said:

And now on Jay's blog too:

http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/12/sedo-and-musicmobi/#comments

Only 5 comments so far, including some very thoughtful, objective and well-informed ones:

"Dot Mobi is a total joke. Why would anyone type in a Dot Mobi when you can browse the internet normally on an iphone?
..."

Where do you begin? How do you explain a compelling but complex case in sound bites that such people would understand? I don't think I'll even bother. I just hope they would actually buy an iPhone to "browse the internet normally".

You don't know what you're missing guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYiHBwQ3V2g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjgXnMVMimg&feature=related

They proceed to give Costa some totally unbiased TLD advice as well (in the top link to Jay's blog above, comment No 4). It would have been quite funny if it wasn't so sad.
:imho:
 
Last edited:
0
•••
One thing that'll surprise me is if Sedo doesn't sue the OP for breach of contract
if they win this dispute. (hint: #6)
 
0
•••
Please read here on Costa's blog Sedo's answer to the situation. Absolutely disgusting:
http://entrepreneur.pro/blogs/3/The-Sedo---mobi-MTLD-auction---Musicmobi-conspiracy.html

I will paste it here for those who are lazy to click:

----- Original Message -----
From: Jay Finnan <[email protected]>
To: Costa
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 1:37 PM
Subject: mp3s.mobi

Hello,

I was speaking to the owner of mp3s.mobi. The auction that closed today has them interested in selling their domain now. If you are interested in acquiring the name the owners would sell it today for $500,000 USD.

If you’re interested please let me know.

Best regards,

Jay Finnan

Brokerage Team Leader
Portfolio Sales Manager
--
Sedo.com, LLC
tel +1 (617) 499-7237 • fax +1 (617) 499-7203
http://www.sedo.com • mailto:[email protected]

:)
 
0
•••
0
•••
Good luck Costa, I wish you all the best if you decide to pursue this matter legally. Sedo behaved disgracefully. A winning confirm email should form a legally binding contract.

My view is that you should win Music.mobi for the amount confirmed at the end of the auction and Sedo should compensate the seller for the difference between the final bid at the end of the second auction and your initialy winning bid. Domain companies are a law unto themselves, take far too big a turn from domainers for doing very little, and the only way to make them play fair is to take them to Court.
 
0
•••
There may be Bad Faith issues here as well. The buyers is suppose to have bought with the intention to develop a compliant website. The fact that he has stated that his intention is only to resale may actually mean that he could be subject to WIPO, no?
 
0
•••
Rubber Duck said:
There may be Bad Faith issues here as well. The buyers is suppose to have bought with the intention to develop a compliant website. The fact that he has stated that his intention is only to resale may actually mean that he could be subject to WIPO, no?

Who is going to take him to WIPO:?
 
0
•••
namewaiter said:
actually .. no. we all know that most wait until the last minute to place bids on online auctions. well with about 5-8 minutes left - no one could place a bid meaning the auction didn't conclude 'correctly' - hence the price for about 85 of the 100 domains in auction climbed dramatically after the auctions were restarted and ran their new due course, mainly because all those that waited to place their last minutes bids finally could.
Spot on! It certainly was'nt fair for the people that could not place a bid. At least those that lost in the first round got to bid.

Sedo did the right thing by re-starting the auction they just should have set up another day and time to resume. Thus everyone would have a fair chance to bid as much as they chose.

It's simply not right for first round bidders to think they won. Obviously there were many people that could'nt bid and that's why the auction prices soared the second time around.

Rubber Duck said:
There may be Bad Faith issues here as well. The buyers is suppose to have bought with the intention to develop a compliant website. The fact that he has stated that his intention is only to resale may actually mean that he could be subject to WIPO, no?
I believe the buyers have 6 months to do whatever they choose. But, if they don't have the name sold or developed in that time frame it's goodbye to their premiums!
 
0
•••
  • The sidebar remains visible by scrolling at a speed relative to the page’s height.
Back