“The good, the bad and the ugly” An opportunity for readers to discuss what they like and don’t like about a particular company in the domain space.
Each post will deal with just one company, readers are encouraged to share their positive and negative experiences. Suggestions for improvement are also encouraged.
One of the goals of the column is that company representatives will see how their customers think of them. This can lead to a conversation on fixing problems.
What is not allowed:
- Personal attacks on individuals at the chosen company
- Promoting a competitor
- Posting domains for sale
The company in the spotlight today is Escrow.com
Founded: 1999
– Good: Cheap, accept paypal, exact match domain (looks serious)
– Bad: Can take months to get your money, if there is a problem with a transaction, they will not contact you if you are the seller…. Exemple: problem with buyers payment.. (I had to cancel and complete the deal elsewhere once.. wow..)
– Ugly: I had to post a bad review on namepros to finally have someone care about my transactions.. That person took well care of me. However, I am still afraid of using their service again.
Will I recommend Escrow.com? Yes, if it is your only option.
As I wrote on namepros just a couple days ago….
“A little update…originally was dreading this but.
Last week I used escrow.com for the first time since the ID requirement came into play.
I had to have both my personal and business verified, I sent though what they requested (it was the evening time) and within 1 hour I received an email stating I was verified.
I was pleasantly surprised at how quick it was.
I then was impressed that within a day or so from the buyer verifying ownership of the name I was paid out.
I too have used them for over a decade and was unimpressed the last year+ with the new service but this has restored my faith. “
Hi Josh, thanks for the feedback – I’ll pass this on to the Verifications team who work through lunch breaks and into the night to make sure everyone gets verified as soon as possible. If you run into anything you think could be done better on future transactions please don’t hesitate to send over an email.
Best regards,
Jackson
Good: Used to be the only game in town back in the days. Good reputation and almost never any issues.
Bad: New owner, new management, (some) new staff. Service is going downhill, the whole handling of issues has become very bery bad. Staff seems not very competent sometimes. Not the “old@ escrow anymore.
Ugly: Emails from support are often plain text modules that are no help at all.
I guess down the road the problems will add up, and people will look for alternatives.
Good: Agree with Richard above
Bad: New laws requiring buyers to send in paperwork proving their identity. While I understand this was in compliance with new laws, I never got any notification from Escrow and it cost me a sale. Major problem is getting through on telephone. What once took seconds now is a 10-minute wait.
Ugly: The people answering the phone are totally disinterested in helping you; one even hung up on me! A phone attendant mentioned they were in a foreign country. Farming calls out just seals the deal for me.
Sorry, but I am steering all my business elsewhere now. I’m using Uniregistry’s service and it works just fine.
Uniregistry website says they use escrow.com
I’ve had all good experiences with Escrow.com even under the new owners / management / staff.
I was apprehensive if the new strict policy to veryify your identity with so much documention would be time consuming and potentially kill a deal for buyer or seller. So far all good. My verification was approved in only 12 minutes after document upload. So that is a fast response in my opinion.
So I give Escrow.com a solid thumbs up!
Cheers, Kevin. I’m glad we could get your transaction through faster than expected. The team and I watch the deal completion rates closely every day to make sure nothing gets in the way of closing a deal. That being said if you see anything that you think could be done better, please send me over an email and we can make sure it gets looked at.
Cheers,
Jackson
Cons: No Ticket tracking, they answer emails as they feel, mostly answered at night, takes 3 days to get a full turn around on a email reply, and answer, and reply pretty much, 1 correspondence per day, business does not get done like that.
They messed up their banking arrangement with BOA, upon informing buyers they will need to send legal documents to verify using that service we have had to switch to paypal, epik, payoneer, and sedo now. Escrow is only getting business from Mark Monitor type sales now.
I see this company actually growing in a negative manner into 2017
Sorry Jackson, you dropped the ball
Mike Berkens has the company even shown any interest in people’s opinions here I wonder or was this posting just an idea to grab their attention?
Hey John,
Before Mike jumps in, I can tell you yes, extremely interested. Escrow.com is completely driven by the needs of the community of buyers and sellers that use the site. I put my direct email on most of my posts so I’m always in contact with the people using the site who can tell me how something can work better.
With that in mind, my email is jackson@escrow.com if you have any suggestions.
Good: I use escrow to lease out my high value names and have the team write the contracts for me, the buyer pays by paypal and transfers are done into my account directly.
Bad/ugly: Agree with richard the payment reminder emails are butt ugly
as others have said, the ticket system or lack of is a problem. things being slower with new ownership (though i have noticed an improvement in the past month or so).
i’ve never really had a big problem with escrow.com. once they entered the wrong wire info and i had to spend days calling them trying to convince them of this until someone finally clued in.
otherwise, im happy with the service but do have worries about buyers backing out when they realize all the info they have to send in to use it.
We had operated for years with an email based system that wasn’t keeping up with the volume of transactions we were doing anymore. Fortunately we were able to hire a couple of additional engineers and get ticket management implemented earlier this year. Next time you send a message to Escrow.com Support look out for a ticket number on the subject line of the email.
Cheers,
Jackson
sounds good on the ticket system. though i have ran into a problem today with escrow.com, i got an email saying a transaction is being cancelled because a buyer changed their mind after sending and escrow.com verifying payment. i did not think this was possible and makes entering into an agreement basically pointless.
I agree
I have experienced unexpected problems since the switch over and am waiting on escrow’s tech support to sort out an issue with many missing ‘Buy Buttons’ that disappeared from my account.
I had been using Escrow.com since 2002 and never had a single complaint before the change. I’m hopeful that the new owners will maintain the customer service and good reputation the company had earned over many years. Patiently waiting for now.
Hi Max, I wasn’t aware of an issue with your Buy It Now buttons. Just sent you an email to get them sorted out!
Jackson
i have done alot of transactions (both buy and sell), the last transaction as a buyer was really horrible, after 10 days my bankwire still was not verified, had to contact everyday with their support to get things rolling but it took another 3 days, really strange, a wire transfer is 2/3 days worldwide.
They were good some years ago. Just tried using them. You can never speak with any decision makers or get straight answers. Was left speaking time after time with their call center agents who can only relay messages via chat to anybody who can help.
NOT RECOMMENDED!
Instead i have found that when I need to sell a domain, i simply write in the Paypal send request that within one day of receipt the domain will be transferred. If its not for some reason the customer has recourse with Paypal. I dont Escrow.com anymore!
Hi Jay,
Careful of the PayPal Seller Protection Agreement, digital goods (including domains) are specifically not protected, which means that a chargeback can be filed against the seller for up to 6 months after the transaction closes.
Jackson
I have to agree. Their support is almost complete useless. No one can actually decide anything and you need to call at least 5 times (plus multiple email reminders) before something gets done.
The escrow.com “Description” is useless as a record. When we purchase a domain name, we expect the escrow agent to record the domain name at issue on the receipt.
Hi Jonathan,
We do issue invoices with the domain name included for specific purposes. What were you looking to use it for?
Jackson
Something you also have to have a heads up scammers are contacting seller with a potential buyer willing to pay over the asking price but they need you to set an escrow at escrow.com and pay a evaluation from an especific company that ranges between $300-$500. Once you do they lost contact. Guess what? You lost the valuation money and escrow. Just a heads up seller. Nobody can force you for a evaluation, either they take it or leave it or come to an agreement. I do also recommend they pay for the escrow even if you have to deduct it out of the asking price.
Something you also have to have a heads up scammers are contacting seller with a potential buyer willing to pay over the asking price but they need you to set an escrow at escrow.com and pay a evaluation from an especific company that ranges between $300-$500. Once you do they lost contact. Guess what? You lost the valuation money and escrow. Just a heads up seller. Nobody can force you for a evaluation, either they take it or leave it or come to an agreement. I do also recommend they pay for the escrow even if you have to deduct it out of the asking price. Goodluck
Hi Jose,
I haven’t seen this happen on Escrow.com before – can you send me some more details about the buyer so I can investigate?
Jackson
Add Bitcoin as a payment method.
Good: None that I can think of anymore. They used to be like a gold standard one could always feel good about in an industry where there can sometimes be enough problems to deal with elsewhere. Now I seek to avoid them like the plague. I want Escrow.com to be sold off to new ownership and new management who will restore it to the way it was.
Bad: See 96 comments, a lot of the “bad” already mentioned recently here too: domainnamewire . com/2017/01/12/want-use-escrow-com-prepare-verified/#comments
• I do not trust Escrow.com anymore, and for good reason. As far as I’m concerned, it’s like the ruining of a great domain name.
• This business of “being verified” and all the documents involved: WHO CARES how fast it is? Big whoop. I couldn’t care less about how it takes minutes to complete. The bigger issue is the privacy involved, and the likelihood it could kill a deal with buyers who don’t like it. I don’t want to be providing Escrow.com with that level of private information documents and don’t intend to. All indications I have seen are that it is NOT a legal requirement either, unless it is merely a legal requirement in their home country or that of their parent company perhaps, but as far as I can tell it is MERELY THEIR OWN INTERNAL REQUIREMENT. Is this not so? Does Payoneer always require those kinds of documents? Does Epik.com? Does Sedo? Does Uniregistry? Sedo has never required any such thing in my experience, so try again claiming it is some kind of legal requirement. Payoneer merely states that they may require some documentation. Are all these other escrow company options simply breaking the law? I seriously doubt it…
• No amount of someone associated with Escrow.com coming into a thread like this to play nice is going to do it for this. It doesn’t wash at all and I’m certainly not buying.
A client asked me if they buy a domain thru google, they add it to there basket, and checkout with their credit card, they do not upload any id.
If you are selling me a domain thru escrow.com, why do I need to add ID, if I pay via credit card?
Escrow.com is basically on life support, because sub $5K deals are not going to be hitting, no 1 off buyer in their right mind, would provide all that data to an AU based company.
Good: i have used Escrow.com in the past and i think the support system is nice. Escrow.com should be a global company for all. the idea of restricting some nations is not good at all. buyers and sellers comes from different regions. if any individual can be verified, they should be allow to use the system regardless of what nation they are coming from, i missed out on a deal when i try to sell to an Iranian. Deal could not take off due to the country he is located. My advice to Escrow.com is verified everyone and let all use the platform ( no online segregation)
I haven’t used Escrow. From what I read THE BAD REVIEWS from now, I better not use Escrow…SCARY !
Escrow is crap. I am pretty sure it cost me a recent sale. Mandatory ID is like middle finger to all buyers. Most people dont want to show their info for few k of buying. Moving to pyoneer escrow. Escrow.com is only good for one thing, failing. Escrow.com is such a fake news !!!
But in all seriousness, escrow.com sucks so much , it could rent out a room for sucking. Biggest issue is ID, before id it was ok but just annoying. Now it is unusable for smaller sales.
Please consider this a personal observation from a former employee (escrow 11+ years, freelancer maybe a week) and not that of a competitor.
The Good – Mauli Fry and that escrow.com has “encouraged” other companies to enter and successfully compete in this niche market.
The Bad – Senior management. In the past year the company stock price has gone from $1.80/share to $0.81/share. S & P ASX 200 (Australian market) is up 17.2%. Know Your Customer roll out, lack of transparency and general practices. You can’t take a customer focused company and run it using analytics. Customers are people, not numbers.
The Ugly – Managing to take an A+ rating at the Better Business Bureau to an F in 15 months.
This will be my last post regarding escrow.com. On to bigger and better things.
Those are some powerful words from a credible source, I think that is enough to sway us away from Escrow based on the performance of the parent company.
Also a past employee of Escrow.com and having the absolute pleasure of working alongside Brandon Abbey I can second what he has stated above. Escrow.com went from a small family like feel company where customers were treated like people to a massive money hunger corporation where customers became only numbers to management. The new “management” complete lacks the knowledge of escrow- as least while I was still working there. They did not listen to any of the original employees about insight in making the company better and grow effectively. Instead they would make a decision based on numbers, speed or increasing their own wallets which has gotten the company to here it is now- an F rating on Better Business Bureau.
You all epitomized a gold standard during a golden age when customers were treated like gold and even just thinking about “Escrow.com” was like seeing 24 karat gold. Thanks for the memories all of you. 🙂
Good: Well known company
Bad: Changed ownership
Ugly:Customer support
Between the above comments (especially those of the two past Escrow.com employees) and those at DNW.com, I’ve heard enough. No more Escrow.com for me. Next stop: Payoneer and Sedo.
You blew it, Jackson, et al.
I’ll say this as someone who has worked side-by-side with Brandon Abbey for several years – trust him. If he’s at Payoneer, than I suggest you use Payoneer. Why bother with anyone or anything else?
This post could’ve been more timely. My brother and I have used Escrow.com for years for some major sales (Whisky.com, Rate.com, etc) and they were the best when Andee Hill was there. Tonight I was doing a small sale ($1,000) and they asked for the Buyer’s phone number. It was a pain in the ass to obtain and I wasn’t happy about it. Then I got hit with all of this verification nonsense. I agree with the comment above. Who cares how quick it is? We have a ten year relationship with a company and suddenly they don’t know who we are? I’ll speak to them tomorrow and if they hit me with the corporate, “Well, this is how we do it now” malarkey, we’ll just take our business elsewhere. This is classic textbook about how to ruin a good thing.
UPDATE: Jackson Elsegood called me from Sydney and resolved the situation.
I have already suggested escrow.com to someone who wants to buy my domain…now am scared after going through all these comments…very discouraging.
I personal have nothing against Escrow. It’s a kind of service we need. It’s just the bank fees and exchange rates that are killing me. I just recently learned that I can use global money transfer agencies to fund my Escrow account and that was a huge step forward for me and my business.
Integrate Bitcoin as a payment method.
Good: Nothing anymore. I’ve moved on.
Bad: Acquired by a company that destroyed them.
Ugly: Incompetent staff and processes.
No, thanks.
Don’t use Escrow.com, plain and simple.
I sold my domain 3 weeks ago and the buyer confirmed with a receipt that the wire was sent to escrow.com.
After the 2 weeks of waiting, escrow.com sent me an automated email saying they have cancelled the transaction as the buyer has failed to remit the funds in the required 15 day period.
Why would they send out automated emails like that if they are going to be so slow to process payments?
I have no idea what is going on.
Hi JM,
We match wires as and when they are received. A wire transfer receipt provided by a Buyer is not always reliable, which is why all of our transaction emails ask Sellers not to transfer any domains until funds have been received by Escrow.com and deposited into that escrow account.
If you would like to email me your transaction IDs I’d be more than happy to take a look for you.
Jackson Elsegood
After 15 years as a customer, I can assure you “Customer Service” has become Terrible (probably outsourced)
and their Verification system is a huge nuisance not sure if the intent is just the “kite” sales proceeds…
New owners New Culture…
The other thing we did was set up a time when we’d both be available to get the transaction started in case there were any issues, with godaddy in that case & exactly as Mike mentioned I pushed it to the buyer’s account.
Horrible. Do not send them money before all paperwork is approved! They will change the process and requirements on the go, and ask for another paper, another signature, and nothing of this is in their terms & conditions… and your money is just sitting there…
To all sellers: do not let your customers go through this experience. It will reflect on YOU.
6/7/18
Don’t expect honesty, reliability or good service. You need to sue them to get your money. They will continuously give you false information and delay the refund or transfer of your money. They should be removed from the California approved escrow company list.