Escrow.com a good service with really BAD customer support ?

[dotnom]

I never used escrow.com before but i thought it will be a good deal to investigate this possibility
I contact them on March 2006 to ask them how i can use their service trying to sell a developed site with content plus the name
They replied that :
"Escrow.com is able to support this transaction, in fact we specialize in domain name transfers. We suggest that you create a separate 'general merchandise' transaction for the content alone. Thank you"

When i asked them again to give details about the domain name transfer, i didn't receive anything back so i skipped them
Fortunately the buyer was good and accepted to wire the payment

However i thought it will be good to clarify this and possibly use them from now on

I tried to contact them before some days with :

* Please let me ask you about the procedure
For Domain Name Escrow you say :
"Escrow.com does this by checking the WHOIS database of the appropriate Registrar* to make certain it properly reflects the new Buyer's name as the domain name Registrant. Once this has been verified, Escrow.com releases payment to the Seller"
- How you can do it just by looking in the whois info. The buyer can keep our whois information, he can say it's not transferred, get back his money and then modify the whois and the nameservers

They reply :
* Once our tracking department verifies the WHOIS information, we are then able to begin the inspection period. After the inspection period has
expired we proceed to send out a 48 hour courtesy notice. If he/she does not respond, then we are able to release funds. If you require
further assistance please feel free to contact me. Thank you

I reply :
* OK please bear me for some minutes so that i can clear out the procedure
So far we used Sedo and the procedure that sedo has for names is this :
- When both buyer and seller agree for the price, they wait for the buyer to deposit the funds
- Then ask from the seller to PUSH (not transfer it) the domain to Sedo's account at the same registrar the domain is hosted
- Then release it to the buyer
Please give me the details especially for the Domain Escrow so that i can understand the process and start using escrow.com
How the investigation of WHOIS information can be used to verify the transfer ?
Let's follow the same route :
- Both buyer and seller agree for a price
- Then ?

They reply (!!!) :
* Escrow.com works to protect both the buyer and the seller from potential fraud. Once both parties have agreed to the terms we proceed to
prompt the buyer to send payment directly to us. Once we receive and confirm payment we prompt the seller to ship merchandise. The buyer will have a
determined inspection period to inspect merchandise, and then log on and mark merchandise as accepted or rejected. I hope to have answered all
your questions. If you require further assistance please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

I reply :
* Dear Nancy
i'm sure your replies would have covered a relative question about physical merchandize but if you read my previous message i was asking about
domain names escrow. So there is nothing the buyer can inspect
I've gone over your FAQs (as much i found related with this) and i didn't find the details i needed
Can you please give me the full step by step procedure of "Domain Escrow" so that i can be informed and also inform the members of (i write some forum urls) when they ask about escrow.com domain escrow procedure ?
So far your replies were fast but not so informative. Can you forward this question to the appropriate person so that i can have a relative reply ASAP ?


They reply (the same person) :
* We have a minimum inspection period of one day, no matter what the merchandise is. The procedures are the same except that once our tracking department verifies the WHOIS information we are able to begin the inspection period. Thank you.


From their FAQ i tried to extract that the buyer needs to set the seller details and transfer a username - password to access the domain
However even there i still believe there are no clear guides
---------------------------------

Ending i want to say that when you must ask others, when their customer dept. can not give you straight replies, when they reply with canned responses this is not what i call a BAD service

………
and a funny note : Notice in her last reply she doesn’t say “If you require further assistance please feel free to contact me”

 

[dotnom]

Thanks BA and AH for your participation

Brandson i do understand the procedure but look at the required steps needed and the effort of your team to supervise every domain sale (especially the small ones)

Buyer and Seller need to synchronize their communication and your staff to watch over their shoulders.
Following up this thread you will see some holes in procedure of domain transfer as you describe it
At the end as we agreed with the fellow users here, the registrar can solve any kind of issue may arise

BUT i believe my suggestion (actually not a unique suggestion as sedo already follows this procedure) is to :
1. Escrow.com takes the money from the buyer
2. The buyer push the domain to escrow account in the same registrar with the domain
3. Escrow push or transfer the domain to buyer's account
4. Pays the buyer

Simple, Fast and Clean 4 steps without IF..THEN..ELSE

Advantages over your current system :
+ Buyer or Seller can't do anything to fool the transfer system
+ Less time for the transaction to complete
+ Less investigations, few people to verify the domain to escrow's account and push it to the seller's account
+ No communication between buyer and seller for the transfer issues
+ No username and password needed to travel from seller to buyer

I want to say again that my intention is not to mumble for the domain procedure of escrow.com
Some may say "if you don't like it go to sedo that you mention all the time"
The truth is that i do find escrow.com reputable and the purpose of this thread is to see/discuss/suggest issues so that future devil's lawyers (like i'm now) will not have anything to say for your service

 

[Brandon Abbey]

Escrow.com's service is to hold funds in escrow while the buyer receives merchandise or the domain control. Funds are held in a non-interest trust account until the buyer and seller mutually agree to release funds. I can't stress enough the importance of using a licensed and bonded company to do this. The system is not designed to receive control of merchandise or a domain. However, our service is very successful with domains due to this design. A buyer does not gain anything by receiving control of a domain and then attempting to hide that control since escrow.com will not refund the buyer if the seller states that they did not receive their domain back. Many of our transactions take less than 24 hours to complete. That being said, if the community would like to see us expand our services I will certainly consider doing so if the business case makes sense. I look forward to everyones input, thanks.

 

[dotnom]

Thanks Brandon

("since escrow.com will not refund the buyer if the seller states that they did not receive their domain back")

I see your point and the working path as you describe it
I'm ok with your last reply. The procedure is clear for me now.

If anyone has any other question he may proceed, i'm satisfied with the reply and the general support of Brandon and Andee

 

[totenmaske]

Arizona not a supported US State at Escrow.com?

Is there an Escrow.com alternative for Arizona (US)?

 

[Brandon Abbey]

Escrow and Arizona

I am not aware of any company that is "licensed" to provide online escrow services for residents of Arizona. We started the application process with the Arizona Banking Department about a year ago. I believe we are almost finished with the process and I will make an announcement once we have been approved.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Arizona not a supported US State at Escrow.com?

Is there an Escrow.com alternative for Arizona (US)?

You might try this list:
http://azdfi.gov/Lists/EA_List.HTML

Also, I would guess some off-shore domain escrow services like sedo may handle it for you (license or not).

I would guess anothe work around might be to let a friend or relative you trust handle the transaction from another state from an escrow.com account in their name. (transfer domain to friend, they then transfer to buyer and route money to you when they get paid).