Selling through escrow --- safe?

[heirJORDAN]

i.e.; Escrow.com

How safe is this website for sellers? I planned on drawing up a contract but the "inspection period" still leaves me a little weery. :?:

 

[junosama]

Escrow.com is very safe and it's a great service to use. Anything more than $200 I would go through escrow.com. I believe even Flippa.com uses Escrow.com.

 

[heirJORDAN]

Agreed, but simply inquiring on the "inspection" part. Do you receive funds before or after you transfer the name? Would hate to transfer a name and get a chargeback...

:uhoh:

Can you tell I have a history with Pay Pal? :sigh2:

 

[junosama]

Funds are not released until the entire transaction is done. So you have to transfer first, but the money is put in escrow. Check to see if Escrow.com covers chargebacks.

 

[Mazkel]

Multiple transactions without problems.

 

[DigiNames]

Escrow.com is safe, and I have never had a problem. They receive the money before transferring the name to the buyer, and once the inspection period is over or the buyer marks it as received they send the money to you. If the buyer claims they didn't receive the name, escrow still has the money and you can work it out between them and/or the registrar to get the name back or get paid. If they take payment by a credit card they do extra verifications to help ensure that it is legitimate, and I am sure they would fight any attempt to charge payment back.

It's tough to sell names for cash, so I think Escrow.com is much safer option than alternative payment methods.

 

[Theo]

I've used Escrow.com since 2002. They are #1.

 

[DC20]

I've sold several $XX,XXX domains through them and have zero complaints. You transfer the domain before inspection, but to escrow. The inspection period cuts both ways. Your domain is safe, their money is safe. If they want to back out of the deal, they still can.....but they only have a finite amount of time or the deal is done by default. They also don't delay on cutting you the check, which is always nice.

DC20

 

[Biggie]

escrow is safe as others have said and i've used it myself


but if you're still in doubt, use :sedo: to handle transfer

 

[Stian]

Escrow.com is as safe as it gets. Definitely the very best escrow service for domain transactions out there. Still, common sense is also required if you want to be 100% safe.

 

[mvl]

You transfer the domain before inspection, but to escrow.

That is crucial. I have used Escrow.com as both a seller and a buyer and I think they do a very good job, but they do have a weakness in the procedure. In case the seller transfers directly to the buyer, but the registrant data is never changed, Escrow.com will not be able to verify that the transfer was completed. Worst case this means no domain and no money for the seller. I got into this situation once, where the buyer refused to respond to requests to change the registrant. In the end it was solved thanks to Escrow.com diplomacy, but it is a risk and it made me very nervous. Whenever possible Escrow.com should act as a middleman for the transfer like they do for the money: Buyer pays Escrow.com, seller transfers to Escrow.com, Escrow.com pays seller and transfers to buyer (most likely internal push at the same registrar).

 

[jstewart]

Escrow.Com is great! I have used them as a seller and they are very attentive to the whole process. And once I ran into an issue with a wire that didn't make it, partly their oversight, and partly mine. They resent the wire without fees. Highly recommended.

Very professional.

 

[URLtrader]

I have used escrow.com, escrow services of sedo.com and ecop.com and would recommend all three of them. Never had any problem with any of them.

One advantage of ecop.com is that you can agree to sell domains for payments over time. This increases chances of a sale.

Sedo takes control of domain before giving it to buyer and pays the seller.

Ecop takes control of domain and transfers it to buyer and then pays the seller.

Escrow asks seller to transfer domain to buyer (does not take control of domain) and at the end of inspection period (unless waived earlier) pays the seller.

 

[Raider]

You'll find that using Escrow.com is far better than going through a 3rd party broker, far less headache.

I don't know about you but I'm very uneasy giving my domain away to a broker and not knowing how well that broker has secured funds... With Escrow, when they send you notice to transfer the domain to the buyer, you know it's secure, as well as insured.

I've been using them forever and I know someone personally who works there, not that it makes any difference, it's just nice to have somebody on the inside.

 

[ImageAuthors]

I've used Escrow.com repeatedly with no problems. In one case, a problem arose with a buyer; and I had to cancel a transaction after both sides had agreed to it and before payment. Escrow.com was very responsive there too when they could have dragged their feet. Two thumbs up!

 

[zmonster]

It's usually better to do a domain push when using Escrow; otherwise I'd make sure I knew both receiving and releasing registrars and the process they go through when transferring a domain. If one registrar is dodgy or confusing, don't transfer -- insist to the buyer you will do a domain push or nothing. Getting on the phone and talking to the registrars helps, too. They should be able to tell you how long it takes, like 5 business days or 7 calendar days, etc. And they can tell you if they've received the domain, if they are the receiving registrar -- which means it's actually in the buyer's account.

Once a buyer had NO information listed on his account (something which is not actually permitted), which I was transferring to, so even though he had the domain the Whois didn't change. I called Escrow and they checked into the situation, and I got paid without a big delay.

 

[angel69]

I use Escrow.com if it's cheaper than selling the same name on Go Daddy. You have to weigh the costs. Escrow.com has a minimum fee of $25 or 3.25%, whichever is greater, up to a certain price level. Go Daddy's commission is only 10% with a $5 minimum for domains up to $999. Go Daddy sends all sales of $1,000 and above to, who else, Escrow.com and the commission is then lowered to 7% for those expensive names, so you might get these folks whether you wanted them or not. So it depends on what I'm left with as the seller, or if I'm the buyer, what my actual cost is. If arrangements are made in advance you can decide who pays the Escrow.com fee. And with GD you as the seller will pay the whole commission, so I consider that before just telling someone to make me an offer thru GD and that I'll accept. Sometimes the domain is so cheap that it pays to take the risk and do a direct Paypal. Sedo is a deal killer with that stupid $50 minimum commission on anything sold, they priced themselves out of the market long ago. Less known services aren't that popular and unless the were much cheaper I wouldn't even try them

One thing to remember with Escrow.com is they just won't deal with some countries. This happened to me not with a private deal but with a GD name I sold there for $1,000 sent to Escrow.com, only to be told later by Escrow.com they did not do business with that country, one would expect GD to have known that before sending us both there since my buyer made his country known to GD when he opened the account there, and Paypal has the same situation, it doesn't include all countries. And Escrow.com sometimes demands wire transfers as the only payment option if they don't know you well, those typically cost $25-50, more in other countries no matter what type of bank account you have

One thing I'm curious about, Escrow.com does a lot of domain deals but they're not a "domain escrow service" like the services Sedo and Moniker offer, for example. So, if I buy a domain thru Escrow.com and after the deal is sealed I find out the domain was stolen, who's on the hook ? If a payment is later found to be fraudulent and Escrow.com has already released the transaction they (Escrow.com) eat the loss for sure and not the buyer, unless they can get to him legally. But I wonder if they research domain history like I know Sedo does about sellers having perhaps acquired the domain by theft. I've had auctions where I'm bidding on Sedo which have been stopped just before the end because Sedo found out the name might have been stolen. So, it's always good to research who'll be left holding the bag at the end is something goes wrong..... :uhoh: