Sedo transfers

[atypical]

Sedo's sales contract says this:

a) The contractual parties are in agreement that the technical transaction of the domain name and the transaction of the purchase price shall be processed via Sedo GmbH, Im Mediapark 6, 50670 Cologne, and/or Sedo LLC, One Broadway, 14th floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.

However, the technical transaction of the domain is actually left up to the buyer. I'm waiting for completion of a sale for which the buyer has paid, but for some reason has neglected to initiate a transfer. I wonder if the buyer's waiting too, thinking there's something I'm supposed to be doing. The status says he has initiated transfer. Because I have no idea who the buyer is, there is no way I can offer assistance, and Sedo says there is nothing they can do to expedite the transfer.

Seems like there's not much Sedo can do to support the seller. The sales and transfer process either tends to drag on for weeks, or the buyers have initiated transfers before Sedo has even acknowledged receipt of the money. I've had to email Sedo and wait days for verification that yes, that's the transfer request I'm looking for, and yes, go ahead and approve it, because again, I know nothing of the buyer, including to which registrar they will be moving the domain.

On the positive side, I have sold quite a few names there, and intend to keep my listings, but with the long transfers and false bidders (currently around 60% lately), it does get frustrating.

 

[atypical]

Still waiting on the buyer to initiate the transfer, even though the status of sale states he did so a week ago.
It's ridiculous that there is no channel of communication between buyer and seller.

 

[domainah]

maybe ask Sedo to take over your domain over temp.... they can figure it out from there..I had some transfers where I pushed my domains into their godaddy account..

 

[joehark]

As a first time buyer of a transfer I am beyond unhappy with Sedo's "service." I am now coming up on the start of the 6th day since my offer for a domain name was accepted and paid for. Since that time I have gotten nothing but a series of totally mistaken or irrelevant or incomplete instructional emails.

The registrar to whom I want the domain transferred has sent two Domain Registrar Transfer Requests to the Sedo Admin Contact and I have written twice to that address. Not one of those emails has even gotten the courtesy of a bounceback acknowledgement, never mind anything substantive.

The Sedo phone number in Cambridge MA is only an answering machine.

I just sent a final demand, addressed to the US office and the German home office, (no more polite requests that are never acted upon) that if the transaction does not go forward within the next 24 hours, I will start with a formal complaint to the Consumer Fraud div of The Attorney General of MA.

Sedo may call itself a major operator but they are no bigger than their most recent transaction.

 

[SedoCoUk]

Hi Joe,

I am familiar with the domain you are speaking about. The transfer process actually started July 16th, which is a Friday. Sedo's offices are closed Saturday and Sunday (for both the Boston and Cologne offices).

An average domain transfer takes around 2 weeks from start to finish. However, there are many factors which can either speed the transfer or slow it down. Having correct information about the domain is paramount for our transfer team for a speedy transfer.

I have spoken with one of the transfer agents working on your domain, and it appears that everything is a "go" and the domain will be transferred to you shortly.

Kind regards,

Brad
[email protected]

 

[simon]

I received an offer for one of my domain on 05/23/06 and instantly the sale agreement was reached. Its almost one month now and still the domain is under pending sale. I dont know when will this sale willl be completed. by that time i wont be surprise if i forget the transaction price.
I wish sedo does things little bit faster than this.

 

[joehark]

A gentle answer is supposed to turn away wrath but there's no guarantee of that, especially when there are lies and other b.s. involved and ongoing. You personally may well believe what you are saying, but it is not consistent with my experience, even as this event unfolds and remains unresolved.

First of all, you say the transfer process started Friday, July 16th. Yet I have right on my screen, the emailed acknowledgement from Sedo of my offer and their acceptance dated a whole day previous, specifically (copy paste from the header) "Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:29:03 +0200."

I paid for the transaction within the hour. More than 7 days have passed since then.

The excuse of offices being closed for the weekend is ridiculous. You not only had a day and a half before the start of the weekend, but what Interent business of the alleged size and scope of yours suspends business for 48 hours every week?

Even if you do, transferring a domain name is not the same as making truck wheels or bicycle frames, where you need a hammer forge, a hot furnace, some welding equipment, a bunch of cranes and transfer stations, all supported by skilled craftsmen working in a co-ordinated flow. You know and I know that the entire process of domain transfers is a virtual process that is computer driven.

As long as basic conditions are met, a transfer is virtually hands free. There are no sweatshop rooms in some third-world country staffed with hundreds of underpaid women at long tables, cutting and stapeling coupons and rubber-stamping approvals.

If any human involvement is called for, it might take all of 5 seconds of a glance at a computer display to confirm that all the parameters are satisfied before another click sends the transaction through.

But to go further into my reasons for being appalled at the actions of your company, let's look at a few more facts.

Never once has the Sedo Admin Contact of record ever even acknowldeged two emails from me and two conforming transfer request emails from my TLD Regsitrar.

Yesterday morning (June 20) in response to my outraged postings here and a series of emails written to every contact name I could find in your company, starting with your founder/presdient, I got two emails asking me to be available for a personal phone call from a certain key executive.

I provided my home phone number and cut short some activities to be at that phone by 4pm. I got a confirming email back assuring me the call would come at 4pm.

It's been about 30 hours since that promise was made and about 22 hours since the call was supposed to come. Of course it has not.

But what I did get was an email this morning from the same person in Germany who started this mess by sending me a serious of erroneous and misdirected emails containing opaque instructions to do things that I've never heard of in 12 years of handling domains - and who never responded to a single request for clarification.

Then, in todays email she tells me:

QUOTE

But to the directives of the
registrars it can take 7-10 days until the domain has completely been
transferred. It is not possible to speed this up, as 7-10 days is the normal
space of time for the procedure of transfers

END QUOTE

That's 7 to 10 days on top of the past 7 days. Pathetic nonsense.

What am I to make of the fact that my domain name registration tracking software has been reporting, until today, that the transfer was not started. Only today does it report that there is now a Transfer Pending.

In conclusion, I have one question for anyone considering doing business with Sedo. If they will b.s. someone and dither for a 3% commission on a $60 sale (which this is) what do you think they will do to you for *real* money?

Caveat emptor.

Hi Joe,

I am familiar with the domain you are speaking about. The transfer process actually started July 16th, which is a Friday. Sedo's offices are closed Saturday and Sunday (for both the Boston and Cologne offices).

An average domain transfer takes around 2 weeks from start to finish. However, there are many factors which can either speed the transfer or slow it down. Having correct information about the domain is paramount for our transfer team for a speedy transfer.

I have spoken with one of the transfer agents working on your domain, and it appears that everything is a "go" and the domain will be transferred to you shortly.

Kind regards,

Brad
[email protected]

 

[VioxxLawyers]

Conclusion:

- SEDO needs more staff during business days.

- SEDO needs to open an office in India to do business during week-ends.

Must be a company with 5 people, they think they are like Google/eBay and can afford NOT to have customer service ppl. Thats not right, maybe one day SEDO 'll be able to do like Google/eBay, but SEDO is still a very small company and must take care of its customers, because reputation can be lost fairly easily in the domain industry and everybody knows each other.

Good luck SEDO

 

[SharonTucci]

I have to agree on the customer service part.....although unrelated, I had an error paying for a premium listing when it came to charging my credit card. I contacted Sedo, was told my card was not charged (says the bill is unpaid in the account even now) so I put it through again. I ended up getting charged twice. Have contacted support 3x now since January when this happened and no response after the first email saying that I was not double charged. It's not the amount of the money involved, but the principle here.

 

[joehark]

Brad from Sedo says, "An average domain transfer takes around 2 weeks from start to finish."

That may be true for Sedo. This particular transfer is now well into the second week and the control panel at the registrar I use (itsyourdomain.com) has been reporting for most of that time that they are waiting for a reply from Sedo. My experience with IYD is that if the other registrar replies the same day, the transfer is usually completed within another day at most and then propagation becomes the only cause for delay.

As for the nonsense about the weekend, in the 8 years or more since I've been using IYD, I've had issues pop up on weekends. Those are invariably responded to and resolved by the VP of Tech Support who monitors things over the weekend from wherever he happens to be. I have never once had a 3am Sunday ticket open more than a few hours.

So the issue of a registrar being small cuts both ways. Some use the issue of limited staff as an excuse for delay and lack of responsiveness; other's turn it into a personal service virtue.

GoDaddy, while famous for low prices and often disrespected for problems arising from their size and high level of activity says on ther web site that transfers can take up to 5 days.

 

[H2FC]

Thanks for the info on Sedo Joehark. I had planned on using them to sell some domains but now I won't. We have enough problems already without creating more. Companies like this should be boycotted by us all imho

 

[joehark]

Well, the transfer of the purchased domain name finally went through. Aside from the outrageous delays and the stupid lies that tried to excuse it, the most annoying problem was that of persistently foolish and mistaken communications from Sedo that wasted my time.

The problems started right after my bid was accepted - and AFTER I sent the payment. I got an email telling me how to pay for it and warning that if I failed to do so with a cretain period, the transaction would be cancelled. My email pointing out that I had already paid was never acknowledged.

The Sedo representative sending me the next message was in Germany, while I'm in New York. So right there we have both the time zone tag game - and in this case, not so perfect English. At no time was it explained why, if the company claims a USA office in my time zone, I am dealing with someone with a .de extension.

In a subsequent email, I was given instructions on what I should do next. But they were not instructions for me, the buyer; they were for the seller.

The only way I discovered that was when I asked this Sedo rep to explain what is "push" - something her email said I had to do. Since then, I've learned elsewhere it is what a seller has to do - but I never did get an answer to the question from Sedo..

During the course of this steadily deteriorating situation, I never got a straight answer to any of the questions I raised asking for clarificatioon of the obscurities that each email from Sedo presented. The only time I got a direct and relevant comment from this person in Germany is when I said that one of the emails I got included a "pathetic lie."

She denied that it was a pathetic lie. OK, pathetic is subjective.

Sedo, I know you have people here in this forum. Some of you contacted me either in this thread or privately - but the damage is done - I will never try do business again with you. Life's too short - weekends in included.

 

[Theo]

Imagine sitting for 75 days on a $10k sale that Sedo insists it's to a serious buyer - who can't get his act together when it comes down to payment.

Escrow.com rules - private negotiations get you more money and you control the cards.

 

[joehark]

My sincere sympathies are with you. As I said earlier in this thread, if they will screw someone like me over for a $60 transaction, imagine what they will do for one involving real bucks.

Sedo, in some language, probably means *both* "caveat emptor" and "vendor emptor."

 

[namestrands]

Just completed an Escrow sale and transfer on a $13,000 domain sale.
Sale Completed in 48 hours and Funds have been released.

Had a $6,000 last week that took 4 days from first email of negotiations.

Companies like Parked and NameDrive allow you to use your own sales page. This has got to be the way to go. No more waiting for SEDO to approve comments.







Beat That

 

[VioxxLawyers]

Imagine sitting for 75 days on a $10k sale that Sedo insists it's to a serious buyer - who can't get his act together when it comes down to payment.

Escrow.com rules - private negotiations get you more money and you control the cards.

Agreed. :cheer2:

 

[Yoshiki]

Hello Brad,

What would you say if one of the major factors that slows it down is an assigned transfer agent himself?

However, there are many factors which can either speed the transfer or slow it down. Having correct information about the domain is paramount for our transfer team for a speedy transfer.

 

[dvdrip]

I agree with that.
Most transfer agents are terrible. They are slow, send irrelevant and needless emails etc...

Hello Brad,

What would you say if one of the major factors that slows it down is an assigned transfer agent himself?

 

[Theo]

Οπως τα λες.

 

[domainah]

I think what is missing is that before a transfer I want to coordinate where to transfer the domani to. I obviously prefer a quick push at godaddy to some no-name .uk provider for some .info domain for which I have to get an auth. code etc. I think many buyers are one time buyers and it would help a lot if the transfer would take place at the current registrar instead of making a 2week+ thing out of it, mainly because the buyer doesnt know that keeping the domain at godaddy (or whatever the provider might be) is faster. I think more work has to be done with buyers to educate them about a good registrar, there is no need for them to pay $29 in reg fee a year if they can have it for $8 and at the same time make the transfer faster.