Private Messages: Sedo vs. Afternic

When completing a transaction at Sedo and Afternic, all parties communicate via the private message systems found on each platform. The domain broker and/or escrow agent act as an intermediary between both parties, giving instructions and answering questions, while keeping the buyer and seller at arm’s length.

With Sedo’s private messages, the recipient is informed that there is a new message in the transfer center, and in order to see the message, the recipient must log in to his or her account at Sedo. This can be annoying, especially when the update is minor or when away from the computer. You don’t really know the content of a private message until you log in to read it, and you obviously can’t reply directly in the email.

When Afternic representatives send private messages, the full message appears in the email content the recipient receives. The recipient can see what’s happening with a transaction rather than having to log in to an account to read the message. In addition, recipient can reply to the sender directly from the email.

With most domain forums like DN Forum and Domain Boardroom, private message emails include the message in them. I don’t believe the recipient can reply directly via email, but it’s good to know whether the message is urgent or can wait until later.

It would be great if Sedo could include the private message in the email content.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

15 COMMENTS

  1. It would be nice if the message and the ability to reply was within the email. Sometimes I am not near a computer and not sure as to what importance such an email has so I have a moment of do I drop everything and go see or wait.

    Ultimately it has never been or lead to a negative outcome so…

  2. Even when an offer is made, to be able to see if it is a $60 offer, or a $6,000 offer, timing is everything in domain deals, when an idea is active in an end users mind, you have to close the sale, sometimes after a few days they lose interest, or their mind wanders elsewhere.

  3. I agree, the Afternic message system is better and it’s more user friendly when the private message is included in the email. And being user friendly is what it’s all about online.

    • I think they say they *may* hold comments because if a comment is made in off-hours, it may take that long to pass along to the recipient. The reason for this is because they wouldn’t want the seller to be able to directly email the buyer and say “Let’s do the deal using Escrow.com and I’ll take $5,000 off the price so I don’t have to pay Sedo’s commission.”

      Most of the time, I’ve found that the comments are sent right away.

    • Still makes no sense though.

      For what, maybe the 1% of the times that might happen, they punish 99% of others.

      They should allow all comments immediately then penalize people for misuse.

      Sometimes a buyer and seller like to have an active communication and it could literally take DAYS with Sedo when it could take SECONDS.

    • Verified accounts, or accounts with max activity should not have a hold on messages, We all know why sedo does it, but no need to babysit, why cannot they have one person who handles messages around the clock, as they are a world wide company, and working within different offices, and time zones, in a 24hr marketplace, there should be no downtime on message holds.

  4. Completely agreed, this is one thing that’s always bugged me about Sedo. Takes more than twice the time to do a transaction through Sedo because I keep logging in to their platform in order to know what the buyer is trying to tell me.

    Such a simple change, but Sedo really isn’t a front-runner when it comes to technology so I wouldn’t expect to see this change happen anytime soon.

  5. Surely they can introduce a filter of some sort …. if the word ‘escrow’ appears the message is not sent. Sedo seem to come across as quite arrogant quite often ….. bad business

  6. They are protecting themselves from losing the 20% commission if the buyer and seller are able to exchange contact info such as phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter or FB accounts and complete the deal outside the venue they (Sedo) gets nothing. What’s unfortunate is that they can’t justify hiring an intern (or several) at $8 an hour to monitor threads and approve comments with 1-2 hours instead of waiting 1-2 days. I’m sure they would make up the expense sooner rather than later.

    • Sedo was told to approve the messages be default and to screen afterwards years ago.

      Just use your own parking pages – don’t lose the traffic.

  7. Sedo could care less about how easy it is for you. Bought two domains in the last two months that didn’t go through with Sedo. They won’t even return your call asking why they have taken your money and not gotten you the domains. they respond with a message in your transfer account instead of returning a phone call!!!

    I have lost trust in sedo being able to transfer domains I buy. I have to wire money in, they won’t refund the money you wired plus your fees, and then months later they tell you the seller won’t transfer the domain. I think I am done with Sedo. They just don’t care.

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