advice Seller refuses to sell; what are my options?

[JanO]

Hi fellow nP-ers,

On April 29 I bought a LLLL .com on Sedo.

I received a message from Sedo's transfer agent stating that "the seller is running into an bit of an issue at the moment. We are working with them to try to resolve this."

After that I received a message every single day stating "We have asked the seller to send us the auth code, so you can start the transfer."

Then today I received a message that the Seller doesn't respond to Sedo anymore and that they will refund my money if he doesn't respond soon.

I'm not surprised he backs out since a similar domain sold for $3500 last week, whereas I paid $180 for the 4L in question.

I know who the owner is and have his emailadress (not via Sedo; I found out myself)

What would you do? Just accept it and hope they'll suspend his account or would you contact him personally?

Thanks upfront for your response.

Cheers from the Netherlands,
Jan

 

[mr-x]

SEDO sales agreement is a legal contract. If he accepted your offer, you can take legal action to enforce the contract.

AFAIK, that is your only option.

 

[vast]

I doubt someone is really taking legal action because of this sort of failed minor deals. Yet if you are seriously frustrated with this, it could be worth a try to contact the seller and inform him that you are going to expose his unethical business habits on major domain resources like this if he doesn't honor the deal - you should have his details in the agreement document at Sedo. If he refuses, then he probably values his reputation only at $3320. It's up to you however to decide whether to really proceed with exposing him or not.

 

[hawkeye]

Waking up to find the head of his favorite pet in his bed with him worked for one family patriarch before. Of course that was a movie, but life is known to imitate art!!

 

[JanO]

I doubt someone is really taking legal action because of this sort of failed minor deals. Yet if you are seriously frustrated with this, it could be worth a try to contact the seller and inform him that you are going to expose his unethical business habits on major domain resources like this if he doesn't honor the deal - you should have his details in the agreement document at Sedo. If he refuses, then he probably values his reputation only at $3320. It's up to you however to decide whether to really proceed with exposing him or not.

I'm not that frustrated since I had a gut feeling from the beginning he wouldn't transfer the domain due to the bargain price. According to my information he also has some xx,xxx - xxx,xxx domains listed at Sedo so I doubt he will be suspended. Pretty stupid he gotten himself in this situation because, like you said, I could expose him / damage his reputation.

Waking up to find the head of his favorite pet in his bed with him worked for one family patriarch before. Of course that was a movie, but life is known to imitate art!!

LOL!

 

[Andu]

I would try to contact him personally to make a deal first. Legal actions profitability depends on many factors but they are worth consider imo.

 

[Brands.International]

I doubt someone is really taking legal action because of this sort of failed minor deals. Yet if you are seriously frustrated with this, it could be worth a try to contact the seller and inform him that you are going to expose his unethical business habits on major domain resources like this if he doesn't honor the deal - you should have his details in the agreement document at Sedo. If he refuses, then he probably values his reputation only at $3320. It's up to you however to decide whether to really proceed with exposing him or not.

OP is from Netherland, which is part of EU and it is not wise to take personal details of someone and post it on major domain resources/forums, mainly if other person is also from EU or US. Just because seller broke agreement one can not start breaking seller's legal rights, or you can do it, but then be also prepared for consequences, which can be very serious (you never know who is the seller and what is their mental condition, how much money do they have and whether they like to initiate lawsuits). Also, in no way I would use thread of posting personal details at public to force someone to finalize any type of deal. At least here in EU such practice is simply not legal, as I understand it. So I would be strongly against that.

The only action one can do if one really care is to start lawsuit, but it does not make sense (it is inpractical) for XXX domain name, as lawyers will cost you starting high XXXX, maybe XX XXX, depending on personal jurisdiction of the seller. Not to mention, that if their lawyers are better, one might even loose the case and pay for that whole fun. So my advise is to forget this thing and move into something more positive, XXX domain is not worth that worry. This happend to me several times as well, and it will happen always and on all venues, because this is how many people simply behave - they just do not keep their words/contracts.

 

[JanO]

@lolwarrior I won't smear him because I'll get my money back. If I were scammed I would tho.
Seller is from Russia by the way, has more funds than me (if I look at his domain portfolio) and I wouldn't go to court over this amount of money anyway

 

[vast]

I'm not that frustrated since I had a gut feeling from the beginning he wouldn't transfer the domain due to the bargain price.

Coincidentally, I’ve also recently acquired a nice name at Sedo for low xxx that has been previously sold for x,xxx on the same marketplace, more than ten times higher. I was also expecting the owner to back off, yet the transaction went surprisingly smoothly, so you can’t guess sometimes.

OP is from Netherland, which is part of EU and it is not wise to take personal details of someone and post it on major domain resources/forums, mainly if other person is also from EU or US. Just because seller broke agreement one can not start breaking seller's legal rights, or you can do it, but then be also prepared for consequences, which can be very serious (you never know who is the seller and what is their mental condition, how much money do they have and whether they like to initiate lawsuits). Also, in no way I would use thread of posting personal details at public to force someone to finalize any type of deal. At least here in EU such practice is simply not legal, as I understand it. So I would be strongly against that.

The only action one can do if one really care is to start lawsuit, but it does not make sense (it is inpractical) for XXX domain name, as lawyers will cost you starting high XXXX, maybe XX XXX, depending on personal jurisdiction of the seller. Not to mention, that if their lawyers are better, one might even loose the case and pay for that whole fun. So my advise is to forget this thing and move into something more positive, XXX domain is not worth that worry. This happend to me several times as well, and it will happen always and on all venues, because this is how many people simply behave - they just do not keep their words/contracts.

Thanks for these insights, that helps to look at the situation from another angle. As to me, I personally don't report anyone publicly in such cases, although sometimes I can understand others doing this; as that's not just a lost opportunity - that's your time, often plenty of it spent on valuating the domain in question; that's your effort you could've put into something worthwhile. So that hurts sometimes. BTW, it might be possible to get in touch with the owner and give a try to just bluffing about the intention to report him, assuming he could change his mind then, and at least to communicate that such behavior is unacceptable. But indeed, that depends on whether you want to put even more time/effort into this and probably face negativity.

 

[JanO]

Coincidentally, I’ve also recently acquired a nice name at Sedo for low xxx that has been previously sold for x,xxx on the same marketplace, more than ten times higher. I was also expecting the owner to back off, yet the transaction went surprisingly smoothly, so you can’t guess sometimes.

Thanks for sharing this faith-boosting experience (:

BTW, it might be possible to get in touch with the owner and give a try to just bluffing about the intention to report him, assuming he could change his mind then, and at least to communicate that such behavior is unacceptable. But indeed, that depends on whether you want to put even more time/effort into this and probably face negativity.

Yeah I think I'll mail him and ask him why it took him so long to decide to back out and tell him I think it's pretty lame to have someone waiting for almost 2 months

 

[vast]

To put a point on this, I've checked Sedo's privacy policy. Here's what they say regarding the seller's (or buyer's) details:

In order to facilitate interaction among site users, our site may allow you limited access to other users' information. By entering into our User Agreement, you agree that, with respect to other users' personal information that you obtain through the site or through a communication or transaction facilitated by Sedo. Sedo hereby grants to you a limited, non-transferable, revocable license to use such information only for: (a) Sedo-related communications that are not unsolicited commercial messages, (b) using services offered through Sedo (e.g., escrow services and fraud complaints), and (c) any other purpose that a user expressly agrees to after you tell them the purpose you would like to use it for.

In all cases, you must give users an opportunity to remove themselves from your database and a chance to review what information you have collected about them. In addition, under no circumstances, except as defined herein, can you disclose personal information about another site user to any third party without the written consent of Sedo and the written consent of that user, including, but not limited to, email correspondence with Sedo staff regarding Sedo users, whether in the course of providing Sedo services or otherwise. You agree that other users may use your personal information to communicate with you in accordance with this paragraph.

So @lolwarrior is right, "name&shame" is not a legal option indeed.

Yeah I think I'll mail him and ask him why it took him so long to decide to back out and tell him I think it's pretty lame to have someone waiting for almost 2 months

Good luck, it won't hurt to get the seller's explanation first of all anyway.

 

[johnn]

Forget about it and move on to keep your blood pressure down.
It’s not worth the time and efforts.

 

[lock]

Letters of demand with glue and newspaper clippings. lol