Problem with Sedo auction

[evermore2000]

Hi,

I was participating in a sedo auction earlier this evening for the domain basketballs(dot)org.

The bid was up to $310 with roughly 2 minutes left and so I placed a bid for $369. The auction was extended by 9 minutes and as I refreshed the page it said the auction had ended and I was the highest bidder at $328. "Great!" I thought.

I was bidding on my iPhone away from home and so I closed the window and headed home to my PC. Nearly an hour and a half later I received an email saying that the auction had ended and the final price was $420 and that the winning bidder was not me.

I admit that this is my first Sedo auction but am I missing something here? How did the auction restart after it already said that it had finished and that I was the winning bidder.

I have attached a screenshot showing the time of my bid (circled) which was made 2 minute before the end of the auction.

Can anyone clarify this for me please as its confusing the hell out of me.

Thanks
Rob

 

[bmugford]

Looking at the screenshot, not really sure what is going on there.

The bid before your bid @ $328 says "This offer caused the auction to get extended."

Then there is your $328 bid, then a gap of 75 minutes to the next bid. I don't understand looking at the screenshot why the auction did not end then.

Brad

 

[evermore2000]

Yeah Brad thats what I don't understand. The screenshot shows that the auction was in the final minutes when I made my bid as it was extended by 9 or so minutes. Then it said I had won the domain. Then 75 or so minutes later the auction continues and I lose out. I'm confused :s

Are there any contacts for Sedo on Namepros that I could forward this thread to?

 

[Kate]

I watched the auctions and they had a technical problem. Because of that, the auctions were extended by 20 minutes increments several times.

 

[PMC11]

Hi,

As I saw, there was a system error at Sedo some minutes later than 6.00 CET, and some auctions had been extended till 7.15 CET

 

[mitok]

I dont understand either. But maybe the end of auction was predicted for something around 7:15 PM CET, so your bid was winning and last at the moment you placed it, but just few minutes before end someone else place a bid.
But i still dont enderstand how could you get the message that you won the auction if it was still open for other bids. Strange.

BTW, if you want baseball name badly, PM me for baseball .me.uk at lower price than your auction bid :D

Maybe you should contact Sedo and ask them what happened

 

[Keith]

I watched the auctions and they had a technical problem. Because of that, the auctions were extended by 20 minutes increments several times.

That's unfortunate and in this case they should re-open the auction to all bidders. If there is a tech problem all auctions should stop and proper email notifications should go out. Really not fair for buyers or sellers in this case.

 

[evermore2000]

Thanks for the replies. I think this is totally unacceptable with a company like Sedo to have an error like this with no notification to me or the other bidders at the time.

 

[Bannen]

Did the message you received for your final bid say 'you won' or did it say you are the 'high bidder'? If it was specific that you won, then whatever glitch that went on should allow you to contact them and ask for a re-auction of the name. Do it fast.
If it said you are the high bidder, then there's no real grounds for a new auction.

If the email said you won, did you keep that email so you can show it to Sedo? If I received a 'you won' email from Sedo and then the name glitched and the auction continued, I would definitely ask them for a new auction.

 

[m-i-k-e]

Here's an update posted on Sedo;

"For those bidding in today's GreatDomains auction:

Today we had a temporary error in the Buyer Control Panel which affected a minimal number of bids via this tool. This is the reason for extending all auctions which reserves had not been met by the original closing time of 6 PM, until 7:15 PM (CET).

*****All other bids via the links on our website were at no time affected*****

This means all domains that had exceeded their reserves by 6 PM CET are sold at their last bid. We apologize for any inconvenience caused."

 

[evermore2000]

Thanks Mike, but the domain had no reserve and so shouldn't have been affected, should it?

 

[m-i-k-e]

No, I agree with you. If it had no reserve then the way I translate their post is the name should be yours (Even without that post it seems that it should have been yours).

Earlier you asked about Sedo contacts on NamePros. There is somebody from sedo that posts occasionally in the 'Official Sedo Thread', but, I think it would be better to deal with an actual Sedo email address.

I hope it all works out for you.

 

[phantom4444]

I had a similar problem but it worked in my favor for a couple of names....

 

[NLP]

Their entire website had technical issues going on today. For a while in the mid-afternoon, all of the .CO auction listing pages were messed up, with names that hadn't even been auctioned yet reading "name did not sell," and a listing date of January 1, 1970. (!)

I called, and they said their technical support was working on fixing it. I'm not sure if the same issue could have affected the auctions that ended later in the day, but they did post the follow-up notice mentioned above. It stinks, nobody wants site failures during an auction. I love Sedo, but they seem to have more technical glitches than anyone with their site.

 

[evermore2000]

Just wanted to give people an update on this. Here is the reply I received from the Sedo team. I'm not happy but I'm not bothered enough about the domain to argue.

Dear Rob,

Thank you for your email.

There were some technical issues which affected some auctions yesterday for which we sincerely apologise. Buyers who were placing bids via their Buyer Control Panel were affected. However, all affected auctions were extended once the issue was resolved to give buyers the chance to bid again. In addition, the Auction Period will extend for ten minutes each time a valid offer is placed within the last five minutes of the Auction Period.

I am sorry that you were not successful in this auction, however, the auction has now ended and the domain is being transferred to the winning buyer. We cannot restart the auction or give the seller the chance to accept a higher offer as the auction has now ended and a buyer has won.

Please also refer to section 5.1.2.7. Liability of our Terms of Use:

"Sedo in no way guarantees or further warrants that the web page on which bids can be placed (“Bidding Page”) during the Auction Period is permanently accessible. If a Bidding Page is not accessible, the Seller may not, in the future, refer to a potentially higher bid during this time period as a mechanism for not following through with a sale. Furthermore, a potential bidder may not argue, for the same purposes, that he would have been the highest bidder for the Domain Auction if the webpage would have been available.

With regards to auctions other than Sedo’s standard marketplace triggered auctions, such as broker assisted auctions, promotional auctions, or auctions held at affiliate websites like GreatDomains.com, in the case of technical issues which may occur within Sedo’s servers, networks, or other mechanisms, Sedo may, to the extent they are within Sedo’s control, take actions reasonably necessary to remedy such issues as they occur. Such actions include, but are not limited to, extending the length of time the auction is active and/or canceling such auctions."

If you have any further queries, please go to the Customer Support Centre via http://www.support.sedo.co.uk.

Kind regards,

Becky Hazell
Senior Customer Care Specialist - International

 

[Bannen]

...as I refreshed the page it said the auction had ended and I was the highest bidder at $328.

I was bidding on my iPhone away from home and so I closed the window

How did the auction restart after it already said that it had finished and that I was the winning bidder.

Ah, I just reread your original post, things were unclear to me until now: you confused your terminology and that is what led to the entire misunderstanding.
- first you said that you refreshed the page and it said you had the 'highest bid'. So you assumed that term meant that you had won the name, and you left the auction. The 'highest bid' does not mean you won the auction, just means you are currently the highest bidder, it does not mean that you can't be outbid even 2 seconds later.

Which clears up the third statement in quotes above: the auction didn't 'restart' it was still going when you left the website thinking you'd won the name. And you changed terms from 'highest bidder' to 'winning bidder'; these are two very different meanings. Highest bidder means at that moment... winning bidder means you've won the name and it's yours.

So, it was all a mix up in your understanding of their terminology, and in all fairness and clarity Sedo worked just as they should have in your auction, despite the glitches they were having.

They did nothing wrong by you. You did nothing wrong either, but you mistook their terminology and that's what led you to think your 'highest bid' was instead the 'winning bid', when they in fact sent you no email saying you had won the name.

Sorry you lost the name, that would have been a good one to win

 

[evermore2000]

No, it said that the auction had ended with me as the highest/winning bidder.

 

[Bannen]

No, it said that the auction had ended with me as the highest/winning bidder.

If you kept that email, then you have grounds to take action; if it said you were the winner then any further bidding after that should be negated by Sedo. Send them the email they sent you. Once an auction has been won, there's no way it should be restarted. Even if the restart was due to a mistake/glitch, it should be rectified.
Let us know how it progresses

 

[evermore2000]

I didn't receive an email. I refreshed the bidding screen and it said that the auction had ended and that I was the winner. I assumed that was it and that I'd receive a confirmation email soon enough but the next email I received was a hour or so later when the restarted auction had ended saying that I hadn't won and been outbid.