I had heard many people complain about Sedo's illegal practices but I did not believe them until it happened to me. They stole the miserable 20$ that SIX of my websites combined got in parking with them for 2 months. First they told me that all my traffic to my websites all from the Digital Point forums. I told them that at the time I had not created a single link to my websites from this forum simply because I was still a newbie here and I could not create any links at all to any website. They apologized and returned my money to my account. I kept asking them to make the payment to my account but they did not reply at all. Clearly they were waiting for some other excuse to steal my money. Now they found another lie to illegally take my money and steal it. They say that their advertising partner is complaining that traffic to their websites has not been converted per their agreement. It seems to me that those crooks are running some kind of scheme and scapegoating the costumers. The whole thing is extremely fishy and should me investigated by all the relevant authorities. They clearly were grossly mistaken once. And then they clearly waited for an excuse to steal my money. Very strange, but I hope to get them punished and made an example. So my question is: what kind of restitution can I look for if I take this to court ? Also clearly I am filing a complaint with BB.
Domain parking is just lame. It prevents people who have real website ideas to register nice domain names, and it does not do a lot of profit for the domain owner. Just stop doing that and spend your time creating something useful.
I say the following with respect and for your education. A complete waste of your time and money. The cost of litigating a claim for a few hundred dollars is often more work and expense than it is worth. To do so for less than $100 is absurd. Additionally I doubt very seriously you would ever find a legal way to serve notice for the court appearence. It is only in the movies that something like that ever gets done. BB complaints are only recorded if the company in question is a member. Most likely this also is a waste of your time. Your sole valid remedy is not to do business with a company whoose practices you don't like. Best wishes.
I also had lots of problems with Sedo, but also made a few $$$$ with them... Now I am not working with them any more because of their way to do business. I sold a website and after a month or so they e-mailed me telling that the buyer wants his money back because the traffic is not the same as it was before. Doh, where the hack in the contract is stated that the traffic will be the same after I sell?! So, they removed my account and sent me e-mails asking their money back. I mailed them and told them that I'll see them in court. They never replied. I took this as some joke, I really thought that they are professionals, but... So, they never gave me my parking earnings and they did not transfered the last site I brought by them. I wasted a lot of money then.... As mentioned before, just don`t work with them, they suck..
Doesn't sound fishy. Sounds like every PPC company. I wouldn't take them to court unless your willing to waste a lot more than that. Plus $20? come on. That's pocket change.
I agree with you, domain parking is a serious and annoying problem. It's really simple to create a webpage, slap some ads on it and there you go your own landing page but at least you actually made a site and have something of your own creation on it. Anyways I'm sure if you look at the SEDO TOS they have some shady way of saying that they can take any money owed to you for whatever reason they want. I wouldn't trust them, they're in the business of getting traffic that isn't legitimate to begin with (no one chooses to go to a parked site, so they can't really gripe about the quality of traffic). I doubt you have a lot of options, except for perhaps just complaining to them and telling others to stay away. They have huge market share with parked domains so I doubt they'll care.
Hire a tort lawyer?<--is that right? Thoese lawyers who gain a lot of little guys and combine into one case.
Annoying, maybe. Serious, nah, not as serious as global warming. To the OP: if you're looking for some kind of restitution, unfortunately you will need to demonstrate a monetary figure. Otherwise, it's a waste of time, just like Colby said. But if you still insist on making them pay for some perceived wrongdoing, then feel free to do whatever you wish. It might frustrate you even more than it's already done, though.
Good to know it's resolved. And rather good to see the otherwise misleading title is still there too. Then again, I doubt Sedo cares about that.
That's good to hear. I've got a few domains with them, but if they ever started making any money I think I'd move them, I don't need to deal with stuff like this.