Sedo – the writing is on the wall.
This story reflects the experience of a DomainGang reader with Sedo’s domain listings, who emailed us a detailed report.
Titled, “My sad story with Sedo” it’s published unedited and with few formatting changes.
MY SAD STORY WITH SEDO
Yesterday I saw expired domain STOCKSBROKERAGE.COM and I immediately checked on SEDO, if already exists on their market place. Yes, it was there and it was listed with price of $11,950. I checked on AFTERNIC as well and also there IS (in time of writing this) with exactly the same price. So I registered it good faith I am registering a good one. And here my story with SEDO company begins:
– I contacted support to remove old owner, because I am a new one now
– I also wrote in this first message, that domain is listed with price of $11,950 and I want the same price!Answer came from SEDO employee I.A. – Customer Care Specialist. In short, we have a one hour email communication and he refused all the time to list my domain with prise I asked, because of:
a) As to the pricing, they have a restriction limiting asking prices to less than 10,000 EUR/GBP. This is necessary to maintain the credibility of their site.
b) I can have the domain appraised by SEDO
c) Because of their long history of reasonable and accurate domain appraisals and their position as a worldwide leader in the domain industry, an appraisal from SEDO is more credible than almost any otherI replied that I took a screen shot of already listed domain – this domain was already listed on SEDO – and already appraised by their team. I do not need another appraisal, because domain remains the very same and only owner is changed. Needles to say that every my effort was not successful.
I will now wrote here some excerpts from our email discussion by I.A – SEDO Customer Care Specialist – here are some of his answers:
“Where are you saying this valuation is coming from? I don’t see this domain in your history, nor do I see any appraisals for it in your account.”
“If you could please elaborate on where you got that screen shot, I’d be happy to discuss the matter further.”
“I’m not sure why you’d be listing this domain for sale if it was already for sale on our marketplace, with or without that pricing.”
“I have no idea where that valuation came from as, as I mentioned in my previous emails, that domain wasn’t listed by you in your account, you haven’t had it appraised that I can see, and I don’t see that you purchased it with us.”
“Where, specifically, did you get this screen shot of our site? Also, if it was listed for sale, how did you come to own this domain? If you were the previous owner, what account was this listed on, and when? And why did you remove it only to re-list it?”
Do you see this arrogance, un-politeness, rudeness from SEDO employee I.A. – Customer Care Specialist!?
He forced me into another appraisal – to earn some money, he declined that domain was listed for price of $11,950 on SEDO, he asked me where I got my picture?
So I want to now YOUR opinion on this matter:
a) am I right do demand domain price it was obviously and de-facto listed with SEDO
b) can change of domain ownership cause drop of domain value
c) as I am also very said and angry how I was treated and behaved – I am thinking also on taking legal actions against SEDO – they want to squeeze money for something, which they should not (at least in my eyes). They should be some standards and this is in my opinion against them. I am small domainer and I have not a lot of money, but if there is in the world a legal office, they think my rights are refused and it was not a correct behaviour (if not even more!), which could be penalised – I invite them to represent me “pro bono”, or better to say – if they think I am right – they will earn their money on the end of legal court decisionSo dear fellow domainers – I invite you to express your own opinion and experience – if a lot of positive feedback – well I will get even more courage to fight with giant, if not, well then I will self-criticaly shut up and I will take the world opinion 🙂
Maybe here is a communication problem.
Youa re talking in USD, and they are talking in Euro.
List it at 9.999 € and this will give you around 13.400 USD !
I think it might just be a communication problem, as Dietmar suggested.
I’m curious though as to the reason why you are so determined to list this domain at the exact same price as it was previously listed? Since the previous owner let it expire, it likely suggests that there was not great interest at that price. Certainly domain valuations are very subjective and can vary considerably, but I believe your target price may be a bit overly optimistic. Why not just list it at 10k or make offer?
In any event though, I wouldn’t spend money on a paid appraisal, particularly if you are on a tight budget. Paid valuations will not help you sell your domain. Even the most expert domain valuation is subject to rapid change with the world’s quickly evolving market trends and a very fluid domain market. I think your time and money will be better spent on market research, instead of sedo.
Most people who work in customer support or sales support for domain companies have no idea about domains. They are just one level up from service station attendants. The concept that you could have purchased the domain outside of Sedo is obviously completely baffling to this guy – the thought can’t even penetrate his skull.