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)

 

[Len]

Why would I need to do the research? I know I haven't done anything wrong. The least they could do is give me the domain names involved (I don't think it's more than 1).
If it was more than once with the same buyer then they should have suspended his account the first time it happened. I sold the domains with a timeframe of few weeks between each domain, they had plenty of time to suspend the buyer who placed a chargeback.

As I said, sedo are protecting themselves. Regardless of whether you are the innocent party in all this they are not obligated to continue to do business with you if they see you as a risk.

Believe me, I sympathise with you, it is wrong that you have been made the scapegoat in all this, it is unfair, but what is done is done. If you want to be reinstated as a member of sedo then you will have to do the leg work to clear yourself.

If you contact them and emphasize that you are willing to do whatever it takes to clear yourself they may look at your case in a different light.

Hope you get this sorted.

 

[Sedo]

Why would I need to do the research? I know I haven't done anything wrong. The least they could do is give me the domain names involved (I don't think it's more than 1).
If it was more than once with the same buyer then they should have suspended his account the first time it happened. I sold the domains with a timeframe of few weeks between each domain, they had plenty of time to suspend the buyer who placed a chargeback.

Hello,

The activity involved in several of your seller-side transactions was not only was suspicious, but ended in charge backs to Sedo. The buyers' accounts were similarly fraudulent and have also been closed. As a security measure, your account is also closed and will not be reopened.

Stephanie
Sedo.com

 

[shreder]

Hello,

The activity involved in several of your seller-side transactions was not only was suspicious, but ended in charge backs to Sedo. The buyers' accounts were similarly fraudulent and have also been closed. As a security measure, your account is also closed and will not be reopened.

Stephanie
Sedo.com

Then please tell me which domains you are talking about, I will personally check this as I know for a fact that few of my domains now belong to either domainers or people who are going to build sites on them.

What domains were involved and what exactly was the suspicious activity on my end?
Why didn't you close my account after 1,2,3 transactions and waited for me to make over 5 transactions?

I'm sorry but I don't believe you, I want some proves to support your statement that few of my transactions were suspicious.
That's NOT my fault that you allow fraudulent customers to purchase domains via your site, I shouldn't be punished for that.

 

[Sedo]

Then please tell me which domains you are talking about, I will personally check this as I know for a fact that few of my domains now belong to either domainers or people who are going to build sites on them.

What domains were involved and what exactly was the suspicious activity on my end?
Why didn't you close my account after 1,2,3 transactions and waited for me to make over 5 transactions?

I'm sorry but I don't believe you, I want some proves to support your statement that few of my transactions were suspicious.
That's NOT my fault that you allow fraudulent customers to purchase domains via your site, I shouldn't be punished for that.

Please contact [email protected] for detailed information, as information specific to your account can not be disclosed in this public forum. However, you should already know the domains involved. As this activity was repeated in your account (more than 1 sale ending in a charge back to Sedo), this is why your account was also closed on the seller-side.

Stephanie
Sedo.com

 

[RedwoodGeorge]

Sedo Termination Followup

Since the beginning of the year I'd been buying up expired domain names with healthy amounts of traffic and backlinks and then parking them at Sedo's PPC program. A few months ago I woke up one sunny morning to find this email in my inbox:

"We recently received a notification from our advertising provider that a significant portion of the traffic associated with your domain names has been deemed as “spam traffic” and is therefore ineligible for Sedo’s parking program."

Worse still, my account was frozen, my funds were withheld and I'm told that I'm banned from using Sedo's parking program in the future.

Trying to get clarification or information from Sedo was like pulling teeth - they'd keep repeating the original line about "spam traffic" without giving any examples or offering any opportunity to rectify my alleged transgressions. In a series of back-and-forth emails with Sedo, I was told:

• I had not violated their terms of service
  
• I was not being accused of any wrongdoing
  
• I was permanently banned from doing business with Sedo

Oddly, they never even bothered to define the term "spam traffic" - were there spam emails driving traffic to a domain or do they have some other definition of the word "spam"? I was never given any stats on the domains, never shown any referrer logs, never show click-through results, denied access to earlier data (since I was "locked out") no supporting information whatsoever. Even when asked for data or logs Sedo would just return to the refrain "our advertising partner doesn't provide us with any more information"

Finally I was told that -one- of my domains (out of nearly 50) was causing the problem. Not that I could fix it. Not that I could remove that one domain from Sedo. Not that they were going to pay me the income from the other 49 domains. Just that one apple spoils the whole barrel - permanently. Of course, by this point I'm thinking "if you're going to treat your customers this way, why would I want to continue to do business with Sedo?"

The last fact they revealed to me was even more intriguing: every month Google sends them a list of accounts to close and then Sedo dutifully shut them down, no questions asked. If there's any question where Sedo's loyalties lie, it's certainly not with the domainers. This leads me to question: does Google really know about every account on Sedo or do they just pass a list of problematic domains? If it's the latter then Sedo -is- getting paid for all the "non-violating" domain traffic and isn't passing that money along to the domain owner.

Of course, this has me wondering - with the wealth of PPC parking programs out there, why would any domainer want to be doing business with Sedo? Apparently all they're doing is acting as an intermediary with Google and taking a healthy cut in the process. Now that Google offers AdSense for Domains, you can cut out the middleman and keep a lot more of your money.

Sadly. searching this board indicates that sudden termination isn't unusual for Sedo customers - it's a shame I didn't know about that behavior before I signed onto the program or devoted a significant chunk of time to customizing the search terms for each and every one of those domains.... That's time I'll never get back - along with the money earned from the other 49 "innocent" domains I had parked with Sedo.

 

[exsedo]

Since the beginning of the year I'd been buying up expired domain names with healthy amounts of traffic and backlinks and then parking them at Sedo's PPC program. A few months ago I woke up one sunny morning to find this email in my inbox:

"We recently received a notification from our advertising provider that a significant portion of the traffic associated with your domain names has been deemed as “spam traffic” and is therefore ineligible for Sedo’s parking program."

Worse still, my account was frozen, my funds were withheld and I'm told that I'm banned from using Sedo's parking program in the future.

Trying to get clarification or information from Sedo was like pulling teeth - they'd keep repeating the original line about "spam traffic" without giving any examples or offering any opportunity to rectify my alleged transgressions. In a series of back-and-forth emails with Sedo, I was told:

• I had not violated their terms of service
  
• I was not being accused of any wrongdoing
  
• I was permanently banned from doing business with Sedo

Oddly, they never even bothered to define the term "spam traffic" - were there spam emails driving traffic to a domain or do they have some other definition of the word "spam"? I was never given any stats on the domains, never shown any referrer logs, never show click-through results, denied access to earlier data (since I was "locked out") no supporting information whatsoever. Even when asked for data or logs Sedo would just return to the refrain "our advertising partner doesn't provide us with any more information"

Finally I was told that -one- of my domains (out of nearly 50) was causing the problem. Not that I could fix it. Not that I could remove that one domain from Sedo. Not that they were going to pay me the income from the other 49 domains. Just that one apple spoils the whole barrel - permanently. Of course, by this point I'm thinking "if you're going to treat your customers this way, why would I want to continue to do business with Sedo?"

The last fact they revealed to me was even more intriguing: every month Google sends them a list of accounts to close and then Sedo dutifully shut them down, no questions asked. If there's any question where Sedo's loyalties lie, it's certainly not with the domainers. This leads me to question: does Google really know about every account on Sedo or do they just pass a list of problematic domains? If it's the latter then Sedo -is- getting paid for all the "non-violating" domain traffic and isn't passing that money along to the domain owner.

Of course, this has me wondering - with the wealth of PPC parking programs out there, why would any domainer want to be doing business with Sedo? Apparently all they're doing is acting as an intermediary with Google and taking a healthy cut in the process. Now that Google offers AdSense for Domains, you can cut out the middleman and keep a lot more of your money.

Sadly. searching this board indicates that sudden termination isn't unusual for Sedo customers - it's a shame I didn't know about that behavior before I signed onto the program or devoted a significant chunk of time to customizing the search terms for each and every one of those domains.... That's time I'll never get back - along with the money earned from the other 49 "innocent" domains I had parked with Sedo.

A couple of things are disturbing here. No.1 They admit that just 1 domain has offended. No.2 Google tells them to close accounts on a monthly basis.

Of the accounts closed, Lets suppose that the amounts in the closed accounts are $100, and the number of accounts closed per month is 100. All moneys from the account are confiscated because a tiny proportion is from spam traffic. On my supposition that means that between g00gle and Sedo they are taking nearly $10000 per month that does not belong to them.
This example could be either well below or well above the truth, but either way, if this money is not legally theirs, then something needs to be done about this situation.

 

[shreder]

Please contact [email protected] for detailed information, as information specific to your account can not be disclosed in this public forum. However, you should already know the domains involved. As this activity was repeated in your account (more than 1 sale ending in a charge back to Sedo), this is why your account was also closed on the seller-side.

Stephanie
Sedo.com

Well, then I really do NOT know which domains you are talking about.
Do you really think I would go through all this if I really did something wrong?
Check my forum feedback, ask anyone who's done business with me, I've NEVER done anything wrong.

Can you prove that I was involved in the chargeback in any case? was the buyer's credit card under MY name?

 

[Sedo]

Message from Nora Nanayakkara, Candidate for Nominet's .UK Registry Board

"My name is Nora Nanayakkara and I have been working for 6 years at Sedo GmbH, and 2 years ago, I began and lead our office in London as Director of Business Development UK and Ireland. I have an MBA in International Business Administration at the Rheinische Fachhochschule in Cologne, after completing my Bachelor's at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland.

I am standing for election on Nominet’s Board as a Non Executive Director. With your support, I’ll work
with the Board to ensure Nominet is equipped with a viable, realistic and competitive strategy that
ensures continued, self-regulating success in the .uk namespace.

As a Non Executive Director, I will fulfill the requirements to bring broad perspective, a range of
experience and personal qualities, specialist knowledge of the digital space, and a very large network of
contacts in the .uk stakeholder community.

My pledge to you as a Member is that I will focus on:

• Developing a Nominet strategy that reflects the realities of the .uk namespace.
• Providing the Board with rounded exposure to the wider stakeholder community and informed feedback for policy development.
• Working with the performance evaluation structure selected to support Nominet’s executive management in achieving the company’s vision and strategic objectives.
• Being a positive, constructive and balanced Member representative so Nominet can develop a corporate governance structure that is capable of handling change and is equipped with a competitive and viable strategy that reflects the realities of the .uk namespace.
• Professional, impartial and objective input with full disclosure of potential interests, as required by Nominet.
• Implementing the governance changes needed to ensure that our .uk namespace remains a selfregulated, thriving and dynamic hub for Digital Britain.

My time on Nominet’s PAB has demonstrated my ability to ensure impartiality and objectivity in strategic
discussions and in providing appropriate advice and feedback on key issues. I believe, especially in light
of recent issues that Board members must remain focused on high level and strategic objectives, with the
goal of implementing the changes suggested in the recent governance review, so that the .uk namespace
can continue to benefit from effective self-regulation and a strong and stable .uk infrastructure.

I bring a unique blend of experience in online business, digital media and international domain markets
along with in-depth knowledge and strong experience of working within both new media (Sedo/Adlink),
not-for-profit organizations (Pilotlight Member) and Nominet’s own policy advisory body so I am uniquely
positioned to help Nominet achieve long term sustainability and sound governance.

As a Nominet member, I would urge you to vote for me and would be very grateful for your support in
considering me for a Non Executive Director role. By voting for me, you can help Nominet prepare to
meet the challenges raised by the changing online landscape and governance structures and to leverage
the potential unlocked by digital business, both in the UK and internationally.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss my candidacy in more detail, please do drop me a line or call
me on 02074009093. You can read more about me, my views and my election campaign at
nanayakkara.co.uk.

I look forward to a good and successful campaign.

With best regards from London,

Nora Nanayakkara"​

 

[Sleepys]

Good luck with the election! :tu:

Who votes in this election? Only British citizens? Only people who own .co.uk names?

Thanks

 

[Sedo]

Good luck with the election! :tu:

Who votes in this election? Only British citizens? Only people who own .co.uk names?

Thanks

It is Nominet Tag Holders that can vote. You can find additional information on Nominet’s voting policy: Voting Rights Policy

Hope this clarifies!

Stephanie
Sedo.com

 

[MattheP]

I sold domain through sedo, and, according to sedo, domain transfer ended 1 month ago, and I was told sedo will release founds immediately. However, i still didnt receive that money. Is it usual to wait 1 month for sedo payment nowdays?

 

[lilipot]

i personally prefer escrowdns/4.cn/afternic they pay usually 24-48 hours after the transfer finished....

+i just checked them today its very fun (actually=+> shame) that they put domains that even doesnt worth the +reg fee into their index page and domains with +20 bids have to wait for the last bidding day for the first page chance.

 

[Sedo]

I sold domain through sedo, and, according to sedo, domain transfer ended 1 month ago, and I was told sedo will release founds immediately. However, i still didnt receive that money. Is it usual to wait 1 month for sedo payment nowdays?

Hi,

Please PM me with your Sedo username and the domain so I can look into it.

-Stephanie

 

[twomoon]

Hello Stephanie ,
Recently I've submitted some of my domains for a Great Domains Auction.
Today I've got an email from Sedo. Some of them were rejected, but as I understood, one was pre-approved.
What does it mean?

“Although the following domains do not fulfill all criteria to participate in the live auction
event, they have been pre-approved for Sedo's upcoming online Premium Auction starting 19.06.08 20:00 MESZ. Please click the link below in order to finalize the application for this online event

(There were no any link here) ​

List of domains pre-approved for upcoming online Premium Auction Event:
- xxxx.xxx
The auction will begin on Jul/16/09 06:00 PM CEST and will last for seven days. The Sedo brokerage team will gladly answer any further questions”

Thanks in advance, Nick

 

[twomoon]

I've got an answer via e-mail from Sedo. Thanks

 

[chandan]

A couple of things are disturbing here. No.1 They admit that just 1 domain has offended. No.2 Google tells them to close accounts on a monthly basis.

Of the accounts closed, Lets suppose that the amounts in the closed accounts are $100, and the number of accounts closed per month is 100. All moneys from the account are confiscated because a tiny proportion is from spam traffic. On my supposition that means that between g00gle and Sedo they are taking nearly $10000 per month that does not belong to them.
This example could be either well below or well above the truth, but either way, if this money is not legally theirs, then something needs to be done about this situation.

one of my domain was getting lot of traffic as it was used to give free subdomains from old owner and they closed my whole account telling CTR inaccurate

wtf

 

[MattheP]

Hi,

Please PM me with your Sedo username and the domain so I can look into it.

-Stephanie

PM sent, thank you.

 

[mibworld]

I won a sedo auction a few days ago, and had the intention to pay through paypal or credit card, as I've done many times before. However, I didn't see these payment options available, so I asked them and received this answer: "Due to security measures the payment has been restricted to wire transfer".

Unfortunately, the cost of wire transfers from my country is too high. I paid almost 30 dollars in fees for this last name (I won this name for less than $200). It's sad but I think I won't be buying names at Sedo unless they are really high value ones, so that the bank fees are not an issue.

I've bought and sold many names trhough sedo and never had a problem, so I know this is not because of my reputation. Is this a general policy of sedo? Or it is applied only to some users or countries?

 

[Sameh]

I won a sedo auction a few days ago, and had the intention to pay through paypal or credit card, as I've done many times before. However, I didn't see these payment options available, so I asked them and received this answer: "Due to security measures the payment has been restricted to wire transfer".

Unfortunately, the cost of wire transfers from my country is too high. I paid almost 30 dollars in fees for this last name (I won this name for less than $200). It's sad but I think I won't be buying names at Sedo unless they are really high value ones, so that the bank fees are not an issue.

I've bought and sold many names trhough sedo and never had a problem, so I know this is not because of my reputation. Is this a general policy of sedo? Or it is applied only to some users or countries?

Yes, it has nothing to do with your reputation. It's new policy applied to some countries to limit fraud. I have the same problem now, I used to pay using my credit card but I can't now.

 

[accent]

Saw this posted on Sedo's Domain-News:

With the introduction of SedoMLS (Multi-Listing Service) in April, many members may be wondering how they can take advantage of the newly expanded marketplace. ....

I looked back in this thread and saw no mention of it - can you explain SedoMLS?

 

[Sedo]

Saw this posted on Sedo's Domain-News:

I looked back in this thread and saw no mention of it - can you explain SedoMLS?

Further information regarding SedoMLS is forthcoming. More details will be posted once it is launched and available to our members.

For the time being we have the following information: In order to qualify for SedoMLS, a seller must have their domains set at fixed prices, they must agree to a 20% commission fee, and their domain's regitrar must be a participant in the SedoMLS.

Stephanie
Sedo.com

---------- Post added at 11:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 AM ----------

Please be aware of these recent high profile domain hijackings:

eNom Issues Statement on Domains Stolen from Warren Weitzman's Account and NameDrive Throws a Roadblock in the Thief's Path

- Stephanie

 

[Jawed]

Does Sedo keep any records of past sales (auctions) somewhere in their website? I am not talking about the small list of recent sales that they publish on their landing page.

Cheers!

 

[alien51]

This is the 2nd time my domains have been rejected for inclusion into SEDO's themed auction. The reason given was that my domains were of poor quality (Q).

I examined the names they approved to be listed in the themed auction, and some of them are 4-syllables long, others have very minimal traffic, and some even have domain dropped history on their records. And these are supposed to be "high quality" domains, right?

And sure enough, after the themed auction has finished, a lot of these names didn't even get any bids on them! Why put a super tight squeeze on the names that get listed on a themed auction, and thus prevent bidders from discovering what other possible brandable names are out there -- besides those that SEDO have pre-selected for them to bid on?

What I'm thinking is that SEDO just wants us to cough-up the moolah to pay for domain promotion in their regular frontpage, and not just get a free ride publicity from getting listed in a themed auction.

 

[exsedo]

There has always been something amiss with this part of Sedo. The ' Top Domains ' category was a laughing stock until they cleaned it out a few months ago. I think you need to be a priveliged member to get any good service, but they are like g00gle, expect transparancy from the members and live in murky waters themselves.

 

[kriss05]

resolved...