Escrow.com just closed my account for public complaint on them

[DmitrySV]

I was recently hit by Escrow.com unprofessionalism and what I would personally call childish behavior.

They feed me with apologies(through their web chat) for a few days due to the delayed transaction(I asked them to send Paypal Invoice ASAP, as I had to close the TX by the end of the month) and when I complained over here:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/if...ng-time-and-money.1119508/page-6#post-7294770

.. they simply closed my escrow.com account.

Hi User, Escrow.com is live and in operation in most countries. However, our service is not supported in your country. We hope that you will understand that we are not able to provide any further information about our commercial imperatives. Your account will be closed. Thanks. Escrow.com Customer Support 180 Montgomery St, Suite 650 San Francisco, CA 94104

^ Obviously, not true - they keep accepting transactions from my country just fine. Not that its a big deal to me, and I was lucky to arrange the transaction with a seller directly(using our PayPal accounts), but the whole situation is just hilarious.

 

[UmerK]

They updated the list recently I guess, this for me and many others means Escrow is no more an option.

Here I come DAN and other Escrow companies.

 

[Arthur IM]

Maybe this help you .

What countries are not supported by Escrow.com?
Escrow.com currently supports transactions from all over the world. However, there is a list of countries that we do not support. These include:

• Afghanistan
• Algeria
• Angola
• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Burundi
• Cambodia
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Congo
• Congo, The Democratic Republic of the
• Cuba
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Egypt
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Iran, Islamic Republic of
• Iraq
• Kazakhstan
• Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
• Kyrgyzstan
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Lebanon
• Liberia
• Libya
• Moldova
• Myanmar
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Panama
• Russian Federation
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Suriname
• Syrian Arab Republic
• Tajikistan
• Uganda
• Ukraine
• Uzbekistan
• Venezuela
• Yemen
• Zimbabwe

Source: https://www.escrow.com/support/faqs/what-countries-are-not-supported-by-escrowcom

 

[indiegrind]

The software can be white-labeled for the marketplace and the marketplace can control the disbursements. You need to establish a relationship with a payments company to perform the AML/KYC requirements.

Would love to see efty integrate this. Brandon, we miss you in the domain escrow game.

 

[DmitrySV]

Here I come DAN and other Escrow companies.

I'am giving Epik.com a first try - so far so good - we sent a wire transfer today(the seller transferred domains to Epik in advance for our deal to happen). We are slowly buying good names mainly for web development, not to resell, so closed escrow.com account is of no big deal, just minor future inconvenience. I'am not even mad. :D

 

[mAd MaX]

I'am giving Epik.com a first try - so far so good - we sent a wire transfer today(the seller transferred domains to Epik in advance for our deal to happen). We are slowly buying good names mainly for web development, not to resell, so closed escrow.com account is of no big deal, just minor future inconvenience. I'am not even mad. :D

@Epik.com is good and fast

If you are using wire to transfer funds... you get NP discount on epik

 

[Brandon Abbey]

The software can be white-labeled for the marketplace and the marketplace can control the disbursements. You need to establish a relationship with a payments company to perform the AML/KYC requirements.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

In the past I used escrow.com without any problems from Ukraine.

So this is their NEW policy.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Forget...

Use Sedo escrow: https://sedo.com/us/services/domain-transfer-service/external-transfer-order-page/

 

[tonyk2000]

More sellers will voluntary stop using escrow.com as the result. Even if they reside in "supported" country. Why bother if a large number of potential buyers cannot pay? The issue is not only that legitimate sellers from "fresh" banned countries (most notably ex-USSR, Panama, Pakistan) are no more able to sell through them. Another part of the story is that genuine buyers from banned countries are also excluded.

 

[capybara]

Here I come DAN and other Escrow companies.

I just wish Epik or Undeveloped, or better both, offered an escrow API like the one Escrow.com has.

Undeveloped has promised longer installment terms to come, but they don't have the proper price adjustment. For example, if I sell an expensive domain, say 100K, it would be the BIN price. For 24 months, I'd like to take about 110 total probably. 60 months? More like 130 or even 150... Epik seems to have some kind of support for this (although I haven't tried it yet), but I would very much prefer an ability to define such stuff on my own landing pages – offering the visitor a set of pre-configured transaction choices, which would initiate the transaction should (s)he proceed.

 

[Brandon Abbey]

There is escrow software available and if any of the marketplaces are interested please let me know.

 

[Argentum]

Stay away from Escrow.com, worst escrow provider nowadays, must admit they are cheapest but worst.

 

[keepsmile]

I noticed Ukraine was added to the unsupported list.

Any ideas ?
Maybe the Escrow.com team can clarify the situation ?

And what about the Godaddy transactions for over $5k ?
https://godaddy.com/help/understanding-godaddy-auctions-payment-transactions-909

Thanks.


PS.

I remember there was a problem with OFAC.
When someone decided to add Ukraine to "their own" sanctions list because of Crimea region . Their own - means that official OFAC website returned sanctions for Crimea only but not for the whole country. Low-level education and fear makes people not to see details and the worst part is they don't want to see or understand. They just do their low-level job and that's it...
Another forum link /threads/escrow-com.545409/


So I'm pretty sure that a new list of unsupported countries which includes Ukraine was made by low-level educated people/person. Governments of US and Europe say - we support Ukraine but the Escrow.com includes Ukraine to the unsupported list. WTF ?

To solve the OFAC issue @Brandon Abbey helped a lot.

Who can help with the list of unsupported countries ? Why the Escrow decided to include Ukraine into this list and who can help us to overcome this mistake or misunderstanding ?

 

[Brandon Abbey]

You have to ask them. I haven’t been involved with the company since the Australians started running it.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

It never was my primary escrow in terms of enduser sales, mostly used it for some bulk sales to another domainers...
But Sedo escrow was always primary + Payoneer escrow in 3F range (when it was alive).

So my country is banned or not - doesn't matter for me.
I even closed my account there when they launched their mandatory ID uploads for all accounts.

 

[tonyk2000]

I even closed my account there when they launched their mandatory ID uploads for all accounts.

Yeah, this makes sense. Even if the seller trusts this particular service provider enough to upload the docs, it is far from obvious that all buyers will be happy to upload their ID just to purchase something online... saying nothing about extra docs (company registration certificate or whatever) if the buyer is a legal entity.

 

[eurorealtor]

Are you sure, they did not discontinue their services in your country? I don't think they would close your account just because of your NP post.

 

[xynames]

Yet another thread title jumping the gun giving bad press before doing due diligence.

 

[DmitrySV]

another thread title jumping the gun giving bad press before doing due diligence.

yeah, sure, just watch out the countries you make business with through escrow.com "hi user" assholes to not be in the updated list now and in the future, so that their accounts will not be closed in the middle of the transaction like mine was and you'll be fine .. until the next possible update, that is..

 

[Brandon Abbey]

I remember there were always sanctions against Moldova. Payoneer handles many of the countries on the escrow list, but when Payoneer started doing escrow they stopped using them. Maybe escrow should rekindle that relationship.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

3% or 60 USD/EUR/GBP minimum (200 for some exotic TLDs).

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

3% or 60 USD/EUR/GBP minimum (200 for some exotic TLDs).

Thanks,

 

[Bob Hawkes]

3% or 60 USD/EUR/GBP minimum (200 for some exotic TLDs).

Although note that for now Sedo have eliminated the 60$ minimum.
@Abdullah Abdullah if you scroll down at this link it shows long list of TLDs in that category. Any not listed are in the $200 minimum category.
https://sedo.com/us/what-we-offer/price-list/

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

They eliminated it only for their regular marketplace sales.