Over the last few years we have published a series The good, the bad and the ugly. Readers have been able to leave their feedback and some companies have reached out over the years and let me know they took the posts to heart.
This year I want to try to change it up a bit and, What they do right and what they do wrong. Focusing in a little deeper to give better feedback to industry participants.
When posting what they do wrong, please give your suggestions on how they could improve upon what they are doing wrong.
Do not take ad hominem or personal cheap shots. Speak about the company and give some background on how long you have been a customer.
Do not use the post as an opportunity to promote your company or a competitor.
Today we focus on escrow.com, What do they do right and what do they do wrong?
Other Right/Wrong posts.
What they do right;
Nice domain; Escrow.com!
What they do wrong;
Everything from verification, ease-of-use, high fees…
Try to avoid
Samer
Agree with Samer.
Also I would like to add that I’m their customer for a decade or so and before they were acquired by Freelancer, the guys at Escrow.com were overall great. Since the company got acquired, it’s really poor. No good support, verification process is difficult, they don’t care if you’re new customer or someone who has used their site in dealing around 1M worth of transactions. They just don’t care.
I always avoid them for quite some time unless the buyer/seller wants to deal using Escrow.com only.
What escrow service you use instead?
It seems many don’t like the verification program. I wish management would weigh in here and let us know if they will improve it.
What they do right is the value of their brand.
What they do right – name recognition, trusted in the biz.
What they do wrong – kyc too high of regulation
I am in Europe and think we have better choices. I do like Dan’s payment provider. I don’t want to send people my id, what if they have a data breach?
What I like…name recognition which equals trust; support can be helpful; professional
Dislike: They need a mechanism for when a domain buyer receives their domain and never signs into their account and acknowledge domain transfer. Sometimes buyers don’t update contact/who is info. Harder to receive payment when buyer goes MIA
Right:
– Brand recognition with best domain: Escrow.com
– Slick-looking Website
– Customer service in multiple languages
– “Concierge” service is great for fast-tracking some transactions where buyer and/or seller are not tech-savvy
– Disbursements usually paid very quickly
– Fair and transparent fee structure
– KYC account verification is quickly completed in most cases
– Excellent support by Account Managers … if you’re lucky enough to have one
Wrong:
– Don’t easily support co-brokered deals (two or more brokers on a transaction)
– Transactional emails can be vague
– Only support three currencies (USD, EUR, GBP)
– Don’t support automatic credit card payments for payment plan deals
– KYC account verification is still a nuisance for some customers
I’ve been a customer of Escrow.com for over 10 years and still do the majority of my transactions through the platform. Payoneer and Agreed.com were strong competitors but they are no longer around, sadly.
Right: nothing I’m aware of anymore, except having nothing to do with me for a very long time now since soon after the ownership change and Brandon Abbey left.
Wrong: remain under current ownership with current policies instead selling off to a more agreeable entity with more agreeable policies.
We use Escrow.com exclusively and have only had a problem with them once. It was during the sale of Driven.com in 2011. The buyer had changed it from a one day to a 30 day inspection period (I was on vacation and didn’t notice) and it was holding up the release of funds. In a domain-only sale, there should be no inspection period. Inspect what? They need to take that option off. The name transferred and the buyer was using it, but making us wait 30 days to pay us. At the time, Andee Hill was still there. I called her and she released the funds.
yes, i had a similar problem…the buyer was on vacay on a sailing yacht, and the buyer neglected toconfirm the transfer…but andee hill released the funds after reviewing documentation
There are many Pros, but the most annoying “con”: having transferred domain(s) to the buyers’ registry accounts, even verifying this with screenshots, but holding up wiring funds due to sellers’ not acknowledging/confirming transfers…due to this, i opted to use the broker company’s internal escrow on 2 recent large sales