Suggestion: Require hand money on some offers.

[ehdonhon]

I have a problem with a sale I've got going on at sedo right now. This is not a complaint about the people at sedo, they've done all that they can do, including sending me un-prompted e-mails to let me know the status of my sale. My problem is with the buyer.

After negotiating the sale for a domain, this buyer accepted my offer. Sedo invoiced the buyer like normal. But now, the buyer is doing nothing. He claims he waiting for a response from his "partner" (business partner, roommate, wife, mommy???). But from my point of view, the contract has been made and its time to pay regardless of whatever input this "partner" might have.

Time is just wasting away now and the domain will expire soon. So, I'm going to renew this domain, and then who knows if it will sell or not. But in the mean-time, I'm not going to be able to entertain any more offers for this domain because I've already got a contract with a buyer.

I would really like to see sedo require first-time buyers, or buyers with a bad history to put maybe $20 or 5% (whichever is greater) of their offer down on a domain when they make the initial offer. If they buy the domain, that money goes towards the sale. If they don't buy the domain, that money gets refunded. But, if they enter into an agreement with the seller, and then they break the terms of sale, or fail to pay, etc.. sedo and the seller split the money.

I think this would go a very long distance in preventing people from bidding that are not serious about buying the domain.

 

[Theo]

Knowledgeable buyers - those that really want to buy - bypass Sedo by looking up the WHOIS info. There are a lot of time-wasters. Give Sedo a final notice, say 5 business days, after which you will consider any contracts null and void.

 

[fatter]

I think thats a great idea

 

[Domagon]

You don't have any real agreement with the buyer yet until money changes hands ... many folks walk away from deals at Sedo - and Sedo won't do anything; not that they really could anyways ... and to be fair, this is a problem with most all the listing places.

And the other poster is right - most often it's best to deal direct ... I've personally done a few deals through listing places, but that's the exception; most listings on Sedo aren't priced at all, so what's the point of making offers through Sedo when there's no indication of what the seller seeks - that's where personal contact really makes the difference ... Sedo's total hiding of buyers/sellers IDs doesn't help matters.

And lastly, Sedo's negotiation system is convoluted and often leaves one or more of the parties totally uncommitted from performing any action.

Ron

 

[ukbackorder]

Sedo are quite accomodating on this. I bought a traffic domain and 2 months later, after having paid, the buyer was showing no signs of unlocking the domain. At my request sedo cancelled the transaction and agreed to refund the money paid (although I still haven't received it). Just send them an email and explain the situation if you feel the buyer is messing you about.

<edit>Just realised that the situation is the opposite to the one in the first post. However my point stands with regards to sedo contracts - if you email sedo and explain the situation and that you want to nullify the agreement they can be very helpful.</edit>

 

[hanogl]

I can confirm that Sedo is helpful in these cases. I have had several of these occasions, and after contacting Sedo (or even on their own initiative) they´d simply ask me how long I would like to keep the transaction open before relisting it.

As for professionals contacting you directly: I have seen this happening several times indeed, but it also happens the other way around. If a professional wants your name but they don´t know you they might to prefer to have the transacton handled by the professional Sedo instead of having to work with the ´domain hacker´directly.

 

[ehdonhon]

I agree that sedo has been helpful. There really is nothing else they could be doing in the present system. But, if they made a change to the system, then they could be doing more. That is why I made the suggestion.

Again, my gripe isn't with sedo. My gripe is with somebody pretending to be a buyer but really just wasting my time. In my opinion, if you are seriously interested in buying a name, then you should be willing to put money down when you make an offer.