As I posted about earlier, I recently purchased a premium domain through the Sedo marketplace and had quite a difficult time knowing what to do along the way. Here’s my attempt at explaining the post purchase transfer process. If it sounds confusing and parts of it don’t make much sense, you’ll understand why I felt so overwhelmed.
This document will pick up after the agreement to purchase has already been made since signing up for an account and buying a domain was very straight forward.
After logging into the Sedo site, from My Sedo, click on Transfer Center. This is where all your updates are regarding the transfer status of your new domain will be.
Here you will see transfer updates on the left hand side and communication between you and a Sedo agent on the right hand side. The first few steps (left side) went smooth and they all happened on the same day. I was instructed to pay, I paid. The seller was instructed to push the domain to Sedo which was also completed quickly.
The next part is where it got confusing. I figured since the domain was at Sedo, I needed to let someone know my registrar was GoDaddy, so I posted a comment.
I logged into GoDaddy and saw nothing about any transfers pending, so I waited until the next day. I still saw nothing from the Sedo side, and there were no updates on the next step, so I posted another comment asking how I initiate the transfer.
When I went back to GoDaddy, I saw a notice that they had emailed Sedo for approval of the domain transfer, so I posted this fact. I also noticed that the next step at GoDaddy was to input a Transaction ID and a Security Code.
I have no idea how this all worked up to this point because I did not inform Sedo of my GoDaddy account number and my technical contact info had not been filled out. Perhaps it was by name, or billing address? I don’t know. I also did not inform GoDaddy that I was expecting a transfer. I think it may have been magic.
The Sedo transfer agent responded saying I would need this transaction ID and Security Code to authorize the transfer.
Over the next three days I waited, checking both GoDaddy and Sedo for updates, not knowing if someone was waiting for me to do something. Not knowing what happens next was the most frustrating part. Who was I waiting for? Sedo or GoDaddy? Or were they both waiting for me? For the next three days I checked both of my accounts in hopes that someone would send me an update.
Three days later I received a message in my GoDaddy account that they were now waiting for Sedo. I posted this information at Sedo.
I never received another message about the actual transfer from Sedo, but four or five days later the domain name was finally in my GoDaddy account.
The transfer process certainly worked, but I felt like I was in the dark the entire time. I never knew what was expected of me along the way. Perhaps there was stuff I was supposed to be reading, but if that’s the case I most certainly missed it. I really feel that despite it working, this process is a little bit broken. Customers should not feel so confused about what is expected of them or what they should expect of the process.
Not much of a help guide, huh? Unfortunately the only advice I can give anyone new to the whole Sedo domain transfer process is to be patient and ask questions along the way. Even though I didn’t have a clue, I still eventually got my new domain name.
I felt the same way, as it is quite difficult to hear from someone whether you call or submit a comment to the transfer agent. Sedo is legit though, just takes time.