Sedo should freeze accounts

[Alex-Z]

I think Sedo should freeze the accounts of people who buy a domain and then don't pay, so the transaction never happens and it's a dissapointment for the seller, who also loses a lot of time in the process.

Sedo staff have been really nice and explained to me that they are unable to freeze these people's payments for other transactions, as each transaction is treated independently.

I think it'd be nice to see the T&C change so that dishonest people can't keep using their accounts and retrieving their money.

What do you guys think? Would that open the door for even worse problems? Would it be unethical?

 

[rob]

I totally agree

Even if there are ongoing transactions they could close the accounts after they complete. I know of one failed sale where Sedo kept the clients domains parked.

It would be an excellent step to cleaning up shysters

 

[cat6freak]

its always the same thing.

it doesn't matter what form of online payment you choose to use, unless you escrow the funds, you are caught between the TOS of the registry or host, and the payment processors TOS. They both say " It ain't us". Escrow all non physical asset merchandise (your websites and domains). I know it seems like overkill for a $50 website, but you ARE a big target for fraud without it.

 

[sedo]

Hi Guys,

Even if there are ongoing transactions they could close the accounts after they complete. I know of one failed sale where Sedo kept the clients domains parked.

If a someone pulls out of a deal, we lock them from making further bids, so that they can complete transfers that have already started but can't start any new ones. If they have other ongoing transfers where they have paid, for example, it would be unfair to the seller of THAT domain to cancel that transfer as well.

In terms of allowing them to carry on parking, although I perfectly understand your point of view, the decision was made that for a 'first offence', we would just take action on the buying and selling side rather than on the parking side. As I have mentioned, the overwhelming majority of the non-payers we have don't park anyway, they are nearly all people who have never used Sedo before.

We are making real progress in tackling this problem, the amount of suspended accounts has shot up in the last few months, and we are beginning to see the results.

As always, please contact me if you would like to talk more about this.

Regards,

Shaun

[email protected]

 

[Alex-Z]

Hi Shaun, first of all thanks for your help once again.

Now, about this:

In terms of allowing them to carry on parking, although I perfectly understand your point of view, the decision was made that for a 'first offence', we would just take action on the buying and selling side rather than on the parking side.

I personally feel that while the concept of "first offence" might be appropriate in criminal law, it isn't necessarily good in business because it can be exploited.

 

[sedo]

Hi Guys,

I was asked a while ago about what percentage of our transfers are cancelled. Sorry that it took me a little while to get around to this, but anyway I can tell you that for 2008 we currently have a cancellation rate of around 15%.

This of course includes all cancellations, for whatever reason - non-paying buyers, non-completion of the transfer process, seller not owner etc.

Regards,

Shaun

[email protected]