I do not sell a ton of domain names directly on Sedo.com itself but I do use them as an option for my buyers when completing a domain name sale from time to time. The other day I did send a buyer to Sedo to complete a transaction so they could handle payment, help with the transfer of the domain etc.
Since I was already in contact with the buyer, when he had a problem, he not only contacted Sedo, but he also alerted me of the problem he was having. The biggest issue that I see, all he could do is explain the error as an error. Not that it was a payment problem.
Clearly this can scare off a buyer! What if I wasn’t in contact with him already? I would of likely never heard about the error and the domain transaction likely would of never taken place.
When I contacted Sedo, they stated the buyer had not made payment yet.
Well, in fact my buyer did make payment but this "error" that happened to take place on Sedo was my buyers credit card being denied. It wasn’t denied because of lack of funds, it was denied due to Fraud Prevention from the credit card / bank.
The bank is doing the right thing to protect the buyer but my question is, why is making a purchase at Sedo sending a red flag to the buyers bank and or credit card company? Secondly, why isn’t Sedo’s error message better explaining the potential problem?
This isn’t the first time I have had a buyer contact me with payment issues at Sedo and both times now, were from denied credit cards because of fraud prevention.
Sedo needs to look into this and perhaps if an error like this occurs, at least suggest to the buyer to let there financial institution know they are making a purchase on Sedo either Before making payment or if an "error" occurs that it may be due to the buyers financial institution fraud prevention.
This has alerted me to a couple things:
- Make a suggestion to your buyer BEFORE they make payment, to contact their financial institution to let them know they will be making a payment to X for X amount.
- Until Sedo addresses this "error" issue without explaining to the customer a reason behind the error, there is several potentials.
- The buyer may get frustrated and back out
- The transaction can end up taking a very long time
- You as the seller can be sitting in the dark and not getting correct answers
- You miss out on a sale
The payment and transfer process are vital aspects of any domain name sale. Mainly the payment part, as many deals fall through at that point.
If you are in contact with a buyer, I would suggest that you have them contact their financial provider to make them aware of a purchase they will be making so no hold ups take place when the payment is made.
Trust the 3rd party service you are using. They should be easy to contact and you should expect to get quick and accurate replies.
The two most trusted sources that I have used to date for domain name transactions are Moniker.com Escrow and Escrow.com . One reason I am not a huge fan of Escrow.com, is because they do not take control of the domain in anyway. This makes me not use them very often unless the buyer requests to do so. I like Moniker Escrow as they do take control of the domain. Moniker can be a little pricey and you have to fax in a form which can be a pain as both buyer and seller have to do the fax. If anything, the fax can just slow the process down but it’s a good security measure.
Be sure to let your buyer know to contact their financial provider before making the purchase and that should help with the purchase process. Never solely trust the 3rd party service that they are giving you an accurate answer, because they may simply be missing something like the buyer getting an error message that isn’t explained to them.
I will contact Sedo and make them aware of this posting (I already let my transfer agent know about it) to see if they have an answer or better solution to the problem.
