I’d like to give a chronological breakdown of a current dispute that I am having with Sedo regarding the sale of one of my domains recently. I’ll publish the figures to emphasise that the amount in dispute is insignificant, it is more about the principle and a surprising lack of customer service. Following the sale of a name for £1000 and the subsequent transfer, I received the usual email informing me that the accounts department had processed payment and funds had left the escrow. (great, I can buy myself that new tv and treat myself to a slap up meal!) Taking into account Sedo’s commission I expected £900 to be hitting my account within a couple of days, so as you can imagine I was therefore a little surprised to receive £869 and a debit for an additional £7.50 flagged ‘SEDO’. No problem I thought, I’ll just let Sedo know and I’m sure that they will quickly resolve the issue (err, think again!). Obviously I will not name the account executive with whom I have been corresponding. Response: The payment was sent in Euros. (full stop, no further explanation) Me: No, I think that you are mistaken. I list my names in GBP with sedo.co.uk, the transaction statement sent is in GBP, the account that you send my funds to is a sterling account, all previous fund receipts from you have been in GBP and I am sure that the buyer sent payment in Sterling (not confirmed) as he is from the UK. The TAG will not be changed until this is resolved (didn’t realise that the tag change request had already been processed by the buyer). I did not list this domain for 1318 Euros I listed it for £1000. (surely this will do it!) Response: Please make sure that you have a Spanish address. Address is listed in Spain payment was sent in Euro. (never mind that they are sending funds to the Sterling account registered with my Sedo account) Me: (now I am starting to get a little ruffled) Please find attached two transaction statements from previous sales of similar amounts billed to our Spanish address and paid in Sterling. Note that we are not prepared to accept £861.50, will take further action if this is not resolved, will inform the domain community and will remove our remaining 200 domains from your service. (something’s got to give now!) Response: (get this!! exact quote)†Due to many questions from different users at sedo we changed this payment method at the end of april this year. Therefore your previous payments of ****.co.uk and ****.co.uk have been created in GBP and also have been send to you in GBP. Since the beginning of may or end of april we changed this method. Now all payments from UK accounts will be send in GBP and accounts from europe will be send in EURO. By accepting our sedo policies you have also accepted our payment methods†Me: (upset now) How convenient that this immediately followed my last sale and that I have never been informed of this change in policy. Please could you give the details of a senior level manager to whom I may make a formal complaint and also forward details of the regulatory authority for the escrow industry. This covers developments so far and I will update the thread with progress reports. I know that I am pushing a point here and that some may consider this petty considering the amount, however I think that this is a valid point and a warning to all sedo users of the kind of customer service that they may receive should an issue be encountered. Now to inform other domain forums of my plight and perhaps have a quick chat with a couple of blogger friends to get their opinions.
Not to take sedo in defence but, I am sure there are 2 sides of the story... Ps. Did you not also post this post at other forums??
Makes me wonder how trustworthy sedo is, but you're right there are always to sides to the story. Good luck getting it resolved.
There are some other threads about sedo in dnforum. Some sedo users complained their parking income decreased, you could find search the threads there.
You are absolutely right in saying that there are always two sides to the story. I myself have read certain complaint posts and have been very sceptical that I am being given the full facts. However, this story is relatively simple in that Sedo have made a mistake which at present they refuse to rectify. The main consideration here is the complete lack of customer support that I have received and the persistence in refusing to accept my argument. I made an identical transaction to this in all but the domain name itself, earlier this year through Sedo and I received £900. As stated previously I have a Sterling account with sedo.co.uk, listed my domains in Sterling, the buyer paid in Sterling and I have received all previous domain sale proceeds in Sterling. It is really as simple as that. I informed the account manager that I would be warning the domain community of the issue and that I have done by posting to four different domain forums. Sedo representatives have asked me for details of the deal in two of the forums in order that the can look into, and resolve the problem. As of yet I have received no further communication. It is unfortunate that matters such as this are required to be bought to public attention. Believe me when I say that I have much better things to be doing with my time. I appreciate the support that I have received within the community and will keep my threads updated.
Unfortunatly, 1and1 own around 40% of sedo. They are probably the people to blame for this. I use 1plus.net for my domains. They aint great for selling domains, but they give you 1 FREE featured listing. They also use your adsense ads for the site, and not a poxy parking page. I do use sedo, and i still plan to use sedo, but only for my $xxxx sales. Robert
Well, sedo has little competition right now in the domain reseller market. Most other main companies like greatdomains, afternic just withered away. So till there is some decent competition they will continue to do this unilateral decisions. Now, I have a sale going through sedo escrow. I will get a statement of expenses before I transfer my domain away. Thank you for the heads up
Sedo posted a response here which would prove very useful for concerns relating to multi currency deals. Unfortunately this response was completely irrelevant to my situation and since then I have not heard anything further (not even a response to my request for details on their complaints procedure!) Below is a screenshot of the transaction information. $1000 dollars to the person who can spot the words 'Euro' or 'Euros' in the image. (and no swapping letters around!)