Has anybody used Escrow?

[Trunks]

Not that I'm a suspicious sort of chap, but...

A "hypothetical" situation:

A new member puts an item up for sale on the forum, just joined, no other posts etc. Some people will always have that niggling doubt, is it a genuine deal or not.

I was just wondering if Escrow is a good way of safeguarding BOTH parties in these kind of trades?

From what i can see, Escrow looks like a middleman kind of service, where the money is sent to Escrow & the item is posted off by the seller, when the recipient receives the item, they contact Escrow, who then release the funds. Escrow track the parcel so they can see if it has been signed for etc.

But, does this system actually work and how much does it cost?

Cheers

 

[FreddyFish]

It's a sad reflection on the world today but I share your concerns. I think we could do with some rule to cover this situation.

I haven't used an escrow service myself but I belive this to be ok http://www.transpact.com/

 

[Dangerous Dan]

I have used escrow to cover a high-value domain transfer before, this was a good 8 or so years ago so cannot recall fees. I do know that I managed to get the purchasers to cover costs and it was not cheap.

An alternative may be payment through Paypal and ensure the parcel is tracked. Paypal's payment dispute process is reasonable and has covered me for a couple of failed transactions in the past

 

[CannyInvestor]

If you do use an escrow service, then make sure that they are registered with a Government body, as otherwise they are fraudulent (and there are many such out there).

In the UK, look on the FSA online register and/or the HMRC MLR online register.

I can concur that www.Transpact.com is a great service, costs only £2.99 per party, and protects both the buyer and the seller in the transaction. It is both FSA and HMRC registered. (I declare an interest in Transpact.com, as I work for them).