Escrow.com

I've never bought or sold a domain before, so after making an informal deal with someone, I started to research escrow services. While many exist, Escrow.com, is one that kept coming up and always in a positive light. I decided to pay extra for their concierge service, since I was unfamiliar with how the whole process worked. I'm beyond happy that I did because the acquisition process required numerous steps (sending official letters, contacting registrars, etc) and Escrow.com handled all of it. The support staff, Jo especially, were extremely patient and helpful, guiding me through the entire process. If I ever need to use an escrow service again, I won't hesitate to use Escrow.com again!

I sold a vehicle on Ebay to be delivered to Florida. As a safety measure for myself and the buyer, I chose escrow.com to complete the transaction. The buyer set up the transaction on Escrow.com site. Strangely, escrow.com wanted tracking information from me, the seller, even though the transaction clearly stated that the buyer was responsible for shipping. No problem... vehicle is shipped. I entered dummy information for tracking as there is no tracking on a vehicle shipment. Buyer confirms receipt and acceptance of vehicle in accordance with escrow.com terms. Then I receive an email from escrow.com that Escrow.com are unable to confirm delivery of the vehicle... even though the buyer had done so already. I called escrow.com and asked what the problem was. I also stated that all terms had been met in accordance with their stated policy. I was told that internal policy mandates a 24 hour review because of the dummy tracking information. I asked for a copy of that document as it makes no sense for a 24 hour review when the buyer has already notified escrow.com that everything is good to go. I asked for a supervisor... apparently one does not exist. This is a rinky dink, one person show, that changes the rules to hold your money while citing unavailable policy as a reason to hold your funds longer. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! BUYER BE WARE! Any company that is unable to provide written policy to validate said policy should not be handling large sums of money!

Before deciding to sell an item, I wanted it checked out for any damage. I paid a company to do the inspection and it came back fine. The receipt for the inspection was part of my selling strategy since I figured a buyer would appreciate that the item had been inspected.

After selling, the buyer insisted on going through Escrow.com

After shipping, the buyer held on to the merchandise FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE within Escrow's time frame. Escrow.com filed for a refund like 14 days after receipt. Now, let me ask you a question, if the merchandise (which had just been inspected) had an issue, doesn't it make sense that the buyer would have returned it before the last possible day? Humm, there's a clue.

When I got the merchandise back, it had in-fact been damaged. I called Escrow the same day to let them know.

After about 14 days or so, Escrow notified me that they had sided with the buyer and had refunded their money. I called Escrow and was told there was nothing they could do.

I thought about filing with the shipper for possible reimbursement in case the item had been damaged during shipping- BUT by the time I got a response from Escrow on the matter, it was too late to file any claim!

I have to laugh at the "comments" made by Escrow on some of these complaints.
Please NOTE: There was never any mention of arbitration in this case. In fact, Neither Side even engaged in arbitration in my transaction - nor was it ever brought up by Escrow staff via phone. I was basically told by their representative that they were siding with the buyer because they were unable to determine fault! < That's a vote of confidence.

So it comes down to this, based on the comments left by Escrow below and what happened to me.

A. They are liars.

Or

B. Their staff is incompetent.

Pick one. Just don't do business with Escrow. I'll never do it again. It was a very expensive $2000 lesson. Learn from my mistake.

"If both sides reject, the transaction enters a 14 day negotiation period, in which both sides can try to negotiate a resolution. If waived or ended without a resolution either party may select an outside arbitrator to investigate the transaction and we will follow that arbitrators ruling to release the funds held in escrow. If one party starts arbitration and the other party refuses, we must release the funds to the party who has started arbitration."

- ARBITRATION NEVER HAPPENED - Gave buyer money back and told me so long. Even though I still had receipt from item inspection before it was sent to the buyer. Buyer had nothing.

Recently used escrow.com as a seller of a domain.

Domain selling is fairly automated unless using their concierge service. When making a transaction over an automated system, you sometimes wonder how much trouble you will encounter if something doesn't exactly stick to the script.

I ran into an issue with my payment after the transaction completed. I use one of those cheapo banks within a bank and didn't receive my payment when expected.

After calling customer service Marcedric went over the bank details with me and assured me that everything was ok; my payment would be forthcoming. He provided me with a direct # to him as well as his direct email. Marcedric told me that he would stick with the issue until it was resolved and to contact him whenever I wanted. He was true to his word.

After speaking with the support team, my payment was received in 2 days.

This is the 3rd time using escrow.com to sell a domain. Always received my payment, and will use them again in the future.

We wanted to offer our customers an efficient, safe and affordable way to escrow their funds during our milestone transactions. Our first impression was that the site was easy to use for both the buyer and the seller. Setting up the escrow accounts proved easy and repeatable for numerous clients. One of our customers was very difficult and refused to acknowledge their receipt of milestones, which held our funds in limbo for over eight months. Be very cautious if you have a milestone transaction with escrow.com. It seems like it would work better with a simple transfer transaction. I will say that the customer service we received from Kana was exceptional. Kana really went above and beyond to work with us to resolve the issues with our customer and her attention and perseverance definitely helped us out in a big way. Overall, it can be a good service, but definitely do your research beforehand and make sure that you are comfortable with how Escrow.com will resolve any issues that might arise.

It was very tight - in the sense that only the required words were used - it made it real - in a real way.

The audio - thank God - was super clear - that is confidence in a sound - instructions were crisp - to the point - he had everything he needed at his fingertips. The only reason I called at all - was that an email from NetworkSolutions appeared out of order (to me) - it appeared before I got instruction from You - thus my surprise. This apparently was due to dude initiating transfer just before things were settled between his end and yours - and so it was briefly odd.

When I logged in again - the process had advanced - Floyd confirmed all was good - and I went to get cake. Thank you for organizing this service - it has been years - but the experience is one in a million.

Escrow.com is the worst company I've ever to do business with. Stay away from this company. I've a lot of sales as a result of the incompetence of this useless company. The management does not care about their customers. Feedback means nothing to them. I don't see this company lasting another 10 years before it's disrupted by a company with better service. Some of the customer support reps do their best to help but the management is a mess.

Take for instance, escrow.com does not accept "ACH" transaction but Escrow.com never informed their customers about it. What normally happens is that they accept the payment and later refund money back to the buyer thereby wasting a lot of day in the process. I will not advise my enemy to do business with this company.

Stay away from this company.

My aunt sold my deceased uncles car. It was at the request of the buyer that we use escrow.com. Sadly, escrow.com does very little to listen to the seller or assist. The buyer of the car received the car on Monday 05/13/2019. At that point Escrow.com are supposed to go into the account and mark the bought item as received. They did not do this. I called escrow.com and reported this and they said they will send an email to the buyer. I said I sent you a video of the guy driving off in the car. I gave you the order number and transporters phone number to confirm delivery. I was told that they will give the buyer more time to respond, while my aunt sits with no funds for a car they received. The buyer is to go in and show received the day they receive it. Then a two day inspection process starts. But none of this starts until they show received. I said well he should confirm receipt as of Monday 05/13/2019. I was told no the two day inspection period does not start until they confirm. I said so they could technically drive around in the car for a month and then confirm receipt and we have no money for the sale. I was told that often sellers say that the buyer got something and they did not receive it at all. I said well I have given you everything you need to confirm receipt. This company helps no one.

I just completed the rare sale of a two character dot com domain through escrow.com. I have had people try to scam me on offers for this domain in the past, so I was very wary. An escrow.com executive wrote a special contract to handle the transaction in the way I felt most secure with. He personally handled taking possession of the domain, and the wire transfer of my funds was processed within ten minutes. By the time I could log onto my online banking account, the balance had the wire transfer already showing.

I had never done business with escrow.com before, this was a high dollar transaction, and there is no question that I was concerned about a process that would be absolutely safe for me. Escrow.com cooperated in every way to give me that confidence, and helped me complete a rare dream sale.

I give them my highest recommendation.

Can you say worst experience ever? After an account was set up and Funded the company let us know that Escrow.com are unable to do this type of transaction (property renovation). They should have let us know from day 1 versus sending multiple emails to fund the transaction. The situation only got worse. I was told my funds would be refunded multiple times, but it would take 2 weeks. A wire transfer within the US does not take 2 weeks, let alone 3 weeks plus. I asked for verification as to where the funds were sent and the response "we sent them back to where they came from ". After further discussions, I was told to check with my bank... how can my bank help me when they did not initiate the incoming wire transfer? I asked for verification as to where the funds were sent (routing number, account number, and date of transfer). Of course I DID NOT receive this information, but rather an email that the a wire transfer was sent out. Funny thing is, the date of sending the wire transfer out this time was a different date than they told me on the first call. Yes, I am still waiting on my funds. Are they sitting on my funds collecting interest?
This business is highly unethical. It cost me a substantial amount of time, money, and frustration.

Be very careful dealing with Escrow.com when selling an internet domain name. Here is my story:

I agreed to sell a few domains via Escrow.com, it was my first time, be very aware that as a seller you may think you can't get screwed but let me prove to you how Escrow.com allows a purchaser to screw you right over.

When you sell a domain both parties agree to terms, then the purchaser gives the funds to Escrow.com. Once the funds are received you then start transferring the domain(s) to the purchaser via authorization codes. Now once the purchaser has received the domains, Escrow.com are SUPPOSE to log into Escrow.com and say that they have received the domains so that the 7 day inspection period can begin. In my case the purchaser just began using the domains without saying they had received the domains.

REMEMBER THAT, maybe you want to use a high end domain name for say a year, as long as you have the funds to afford purchasing the domain in the first place, you could put the funds in Escrow.com, get the domain, use it at your free will and never say you received the domain. You would really think Escrow.com would put more protections in place for the seller.

So that is what happened to me, which it's then up to me (the seller) to provide proof to Escrow.com, just beware that the Customer Service will tell you one thing and do another thing or just never follow through. After proving that I had transferred the domains to the purchaser, at this time the purchaser had been using the domains for about a month. Escrow.com then emails me back saying

"I just want to inform you that the inspection period for your transaction has been started and ended.
Our Payments team is getting ready to release the payment for this transaction possibly later today or by the next business day."

I felt pretty good at this point, as I really thought Escrow.com had my back, but no this was their customer service just telling me what I wanted to hear! The next business day hit and I was still waiting for that email saying that the funds had been released, still nothing so I send them another email asking if any new issues had happened and why had the funds not been released. Two more business days go by and still no response from Escrow.com, so I send out another email asking again what is going on with the funds, then finally they respond stating

"It shows here that Escrow started the inspection period dated 12/4/2020 and the inspection period is set to 7 days, which means it will end by 12/11/2020.
This is just to correct the previous message that was given out to you regarding the release of funds."

Now I'm really starting to get worried, so I call the Escrow.com customer support team, they basically state the same thing as the above email and tell me, if the purchaser does not respond to the inspection period within 7 days then Escrow.com will automatically close the transaction and release the funds.

Remember this is already a good month now after transferring the domains, the purchaser is using them and reaping all the benefits while I'm stuck with absolutely nothing, but I continue on and think well it's pretty clear that I'm going to have to wait another 7 days but the customer service representative has made it VERY clear to me that if the purchaser does not do anything within 7 days then the funds will finally be released.

But again Escrow.com tells you what you want to hear but when that 7 days finally came and the purchaser did not respond, so the inspection period automatically ended and now it's in the final stage where IES reviews the terms, 5 more business days go by and I still see no emails from Escrow.com stating that the funds have been transferred, so it's back to emailing their good ol' customer service asking what is going on now and they state:

"We are waiting for the buyer confirmation before we proceed in releasing the funds. However, we still forwarded your transaction to our Tracking Team."

Really Escrow.com, you guys really like to tell me one thing and do something completely different, I really can't do anything else, I'm left without my domains, no money, and to add to my pain and suffering I get to watch the purchaser utilize my domains like it's their own. I have saved all my telephone conversations with Escrow.com, all my emails and everything else as proof and now plan on letting everyone know how Escrow.com does not care about the domain seller, this also shows anyone how to utilize a domain name for months without ever having to pay the seller.

I was not able to reset my password so I just created another account so the sale would proceed and the support I got was outrageous and the best, thanks

Horrible first experience, had a smooth transaction of product and purchase/sell between me and the buyer, the buyer accepted the product and escrow finished the inspection period within a day. After that I got a message and text that funds was disbursed and should be in my account within 48 hours.

I contacted them after 72 hours and Escrow.com said that international wires could take 3-5 business days, fair enough. I contact them once again after 6-7 business days and they say that the funds will be in my account that night.

Around 20 hours passes, I contact them a third time and they request bunch of information to re-process the release of the funds. So it seems like it was never released, their support kept delaying me with automated message and the information they are requesting is exactly the same that was provided when I signed up and verified my account, not sure what their goal or point is with delaying payments and giving a horrible user experience.

Horrible experience, not helpful support, closes ticket after every email and assigns low priority to the tickets..

For a company that deals with so much money and incredibly important transactions, Escrow are simply shocking. I work as a freelancer for a living and used Escrow when a client couldn't get access to the regular services. Escrow.com were okay at first (if incredibly expensive) but then they messed up.

I couldn't get access to the transaction to mark it as complete. This went on for several weeks with no effort to fix it, they even lied to me and said they had marked it for me! A comment which they later rescinded. When I got in touch with the customer "support" they said they would look into it. A week later and nothing happened, except that I was severely short on my rent because a job I had completed 6 weeks ago, was still sitting stagnant.

I used them as a last resort, but I wouldn't even recommend them for that. Working with Escrow is tantamount to robbery and a kick in the teeth.

I have been an escrow.com customer for many years. I am no longer a customer... all because of a $20 "dispute" or, more accurately, theft.

As a domain name seller, I've always chosen to have a check sent to me by escrow.com. This was always free.

In a transaction I started about two weeks ago, I again chose that a check be sent to me. There was no mention anywhere on the site that any fee would apply. (*just checked their site today and the $20 fee for check payment is indicated).

When I got my closing statement, I saw that I was being charged a $20 "disbursement" fee. I asked about this and Escrow.com sent me an email explaining this was for an international wire transfer fee.

Of course I did not ask for an international wire transfer! I told them I always requested a check be sent to me and this was always free.

To make a long sorry story short, I was told they no longer send out free checks... that there is now a $20 fee and the only way to get payment that's free is through ACH. Of course I told them if I had been informed of this, I would have chosen ACH.

I told them the $20 check fee (their new policy) was not indicated on there site when I set up my transaction. They basically told me "tough luck" that is how it is now and can't do anything about it. I answered how can you charge me the $20 without giving me notice? An after-the-fact fee? They gave me many excuses but would not correct the problem.

There are many good escrow services out there. I will not work with a company that in effect stole $20 from me. Penny wise and pound foolish.

I have been using Escrow.com for nearly 15 years and have been very pleased with their service. I also have to say that when Escrow.com was sold to the new owners about a year ago I would have given them a 1 Star rating. Their service during their transition period as the new owner was problematic to say the least. I have been self-employed almost all my life so I can also understand the problems in transition of a new business or service. Right now I give them 5 Stars as Escrow.com are hitting on all cylinders. I'm also starting a new website DomainNamesRus.com which will be up and running by mid July -2017. We will have about 2,000 premium domains for sale and Escrow.com will be handling the Escrow on all Sales. You better be glad that Escrow.com is out their as it would worry me greatly if they was not an Escrow.com to go too. Thanks for listening... David Webb

I sold my store on 14 august 2018. The client paid through PayPal to Shopify. Shopify forced me to go to Escrow to get my money from my own store sale, without any reason or explanation but of course for another commission fee to be paid. Escrow asked me to open an account like I will deal for ages with them and Escrow.com start aka called veryifing my documents. The same documents I get to Shopify and to 2Cheskout when they verified my company. Well... Escrow decided that my company's official paper is not good enough for them and declined my new account. Without any reason or logic nor respect for my precious lifetime, energy and money, Escrow employees decided that my business papers must have my name on it. Wrong! I explained to them, again losing resources, that in my country there is NO such a certificate with the owner name on it. They pretend to not understand and ask me stupidly to get another document with my name on it! Incredible. These documents are issued by the state and of course, can not be modified by anybody. I told Shopify that I have problems with Escrow and they did not want to hear. After many hours spent on writing emails to both of them, Shopify came to a solution for me: to give all the data to the client to get the store asap and to send them (to Shopify) all my credit card data after I remove it from the store! This version unbelievable also.

Nothing about my money. After 3 years of paying invoices to Shopify! Normal was Shopify to send the money immediately in my bank account, not to Escrow, for what? To check on their 3 years old client? To check for what? Me against me? Is incredible this. After a warning message from me, they come to the solution of paying using Pay Pal. NO. Pay Pal is charging back. I want my money in my bank account. How Shopify knew how to monthly extract my money from my bank account, the same way to pay me the bloody 350 $ for my store. Yes, for this small amount I waste my time, money and energy fighting with Shopify and Escrow! Is unbelievable. Nobody cares about anybody no more. Under the false pretext of procedures, in fact, Shopify and Escrow blocked my money and wasted my time and nerves, humiliated me and also their new client, my store's buyer who is waiting to get his store. I asked to speak to a Shopify Manager, no way. Only support like they can decide on these matters. I wonder why Shopify is working with Escrow? They did not know either about being in force a GDPR, they took my personal and company's data without any agreement of mine. Also, I sold a store and their website does not have such an icon. OMG. But they ask me to prove I am entitled to get my money! Only the fact that I am Shopify client should be enough checking for one simple transaction. Checking without sense as long as Shopify could easily transfer the money to me. BAD! Very bad.

escrow.com is really bad for domain sellers. Escrow.com can stop your payment, even after sending you the closing statement. You will be waiting for the payment in your bank account without knowing that they have hold your payment. They do not feel of updating the seller or contacting them. They also do not contact buyer to resolve the issue unless you contact escrow.com about the issue.

Lets say we are in escrow agreement and started the transaction.
1st step is that escrow.com will secure the funds.
2nd, they want us to transfer the domain name.
After that on third stage you are totally on the mercy of buyer and escrow.com to get the payment and this particular step can take literally unlimited time due to so many loopholes in escrow.com system. And this makes escrow.com very scary for the seller, especially who are depending on timely payment due to tight situation. I am with these guys from 5 years and every time as a seller, I have gone through almost same situation. You have to remind many times before they can normally disburse the funds. Customer services have given minimal information and they will keep on repeating the same set of response.
Your payment can be on hold only after single email from a buyer even after buyer have accepted the domain, completed the escrow.com approval and escrow.com have sent the disbursement closeout statement. This is really scary.

In my case actually buyer have already confirmed everything 4 days ago but due to poor coordination and customer service, escrow.com is still holding the money.

SO as a seller you have no guarantee of time with escrow.com
Buyer can take unlimited time to update the status and keep seller in limbo.
escrow.com can stop your payment even after sending you closing payout statement
escrow.com do not care to even inform you or buyer of the hold.

Now why this is really scary for seller: SELLER CAN EASILY BECOME VICTIM OF FRAUDULENT BUYER & ESCROW.COM WILL KEEP ON DELAYING THE WHOLE PROCESS.

Seller is out of its domain name the movement transfer have been initiated and there are impossible ways for seller to get that domain name back. But buyer can go on with many stories to delay the process like registry is giving issue or they do not have full control of the domain name or "whois" info is not updated or buyer is unavailable and many many other excuses. Come on, once the domain name have been transferred as per the request of the buyer, rest is between buyer and new registry. Why seller have to suffer for all the nonsense.
But when you are dealing with escrow.com, you have to go through all these nonsense because you are fully depending on buyer's and escrow.com's mercy as a seller.

My broader suggestion is that you should not go through escrow.com if you are a seller and dealing with shady buyer or when you need the funds in tight timeline. Escrow.com is absolutely not reliable and in fact they are very painful.

It is sad that escrow.com is not improving this, over several years and Seller's had to go through hard time most of the time for the payment

Jun 17 2019 10:58AM PDT
Funds disbursed. Final closing statements sent to both parties.

Jun 16 2019 8:03PM PDT
Inspection period ended, Buyer accepts merchandise.

Jun 16 2019 8:03PM PDT
Buyer received merchandise. Inspection period starts.

Jun 14 2019 7:35PM PDT
Seller selected transfer type - Authorization Code

Jun 14 2019 10:50AM PDT
Escrow.com approves payment

Jun 14 2019 1:03AM PDT
Buyer selected option to pay by wire transfer, Escrow.com waiting for payment to arrive.

Jun 14 2019 12:51AM PDT
Both parties have accepted the offer, awaiting buyer payment.

Jun 14 2019 12:51AM PDT
Seller has agreed to the terms of this transaction.

I used escrow.com to have peace of mind that I would get paid on time by a client. Instead if the client forgets to approve that work has been completed (and Escrow.com only send automated reminders for 1 week, then forget about it), Escrow.com keep the money indefinitely.
With one payment Escrow.com refused to accept it because it didn't come from the client. It did, Escrow.com just got confused because they mistook the address of the bank for the name of the company sending the funds.
My client got an error message when they tried to login to confirm receipt of a service we'd provided, so couldn't send the approval. Escrow still won't release the funds even though it's been nearly a month and we had arranged a 2 week inspection period.
Their site is cumbersome and not at all user-friendly and seems designed to hold onto your money for as long as they possibly can.

Escrow was a very difficult site to use. This site was used in collaboration with Shopify exchange.
Shopify Exchange touts around that everything has been "verified".

Shopify Exchange states that revenue is "verified", but after a deeper look into the sales and the customers, the sales were inflated by sales to the previous owner of the business who purchased multiple products from the company during their "height of sales"... In all honestly, yes, the sale to their products to the company owner was a "Sale" and therefore "Revenue", but was that truly verified? For all I know, the owner may have cancelled the order with the vendor outside of the shopify interface.

Shopify Exchange states that revenue has been verified. Which is true, it is "Total Revenue" and the listing only reflects "Total Revenue"- NOT - NET Sales = Gross Sales MINUS Returns. The website I purchased had multiple returns during their sales peek but the company failed to disclose that upon advertising the sale, hence making the company look like it was more profitable than it was.

Shopify Exchange states that the owner cannot edit information displayed - which is true. In the case of the "Mailing List" and "Subscribers" that I purchased, the mailing listing was incomplete and many of the email addresses were from spam bots, thus increasing the "mailing list" and "subscriber" numbers. Truly not "edited" or verified for that matter...

Don't expect a "dedicated migration team" or "secure migration" as per their advertisement. Escrow.com have someone telling you where you are in the process when the transaction is complete and the seller got their funds. I did, however, get an invite to "review" the process...

Not once did I get any help from anyone from Escrow regarding the keys to the components of the business. Website keys were not turned over properly and I've had to rebuild "attached business functions" because the prior owner didn't turn over the keys properly, and I couldn't get access to functions or edit the account information to make sure that business functions operated properly....

My advice to people expecting to purchase a business:
1. Double check everything: sales, subscribers, followers, returns, customer complaints, vendors, transaction statements.
2. Get keys to everything, the website, the vendors, the vendors vendor if need be. Get everything switched over to your name, contact info and bank account/payment info
3. Confirm the validity of the customer list prior to purchasing the business. They may be fake.
4. If the prior business owner says "I don't know" or "I'm not sure" - RUN

My advice to Escrow/Shopify Exchange:
1. Verify everything - REALLY - don't just do a row count and confirm it matches the advertised listing for subscribers, sales etc.
2. Change "Total Revenue" to NET SALES to reflect the true health of the business and it's strengths and weaknesses.
3. Secure the keys to the website, and ALL its components prior to the sale - via escrow - don't leave it to the seller to present that info to the seller.
4. Once you secure all the keys and components to the website THEN present that information to the buyer like a true mediator

Escrow.com still does the hard work of escrow for domain names very well and the domain name holding option works. What doesn't work are their outdated and expensive disbursement options. When considering whether to use the DN Holding service as a seller, make sure you factor in the additional cost of transfers and finding a banking provider that Escrow.com approves of. Whether it's their systems/choice or the systems/choice of their banking partner to not accept TransferWise, Revolut or other legitimate banking organisations that offer low cost FX isn't clear. What is clear is that with the overall costs of receiving international wire transfers (USD to GBP in this case) once Escrow.com and the bank charges have been applied it cost $51 to receive the funds every month. So make sure your sales price factors in these costs.

I did my research and Escrow has the track record to make sure buyers and sellers don't get screwed.
There are some buyers and sellers that are looking to mess you up and Escrow knows that. Escrow.com require 2-3 levels of verification which weeds out the scammers and thieves and yes it might seem like Escrow caused you to lose a sale and the reality is if a buyer or seller can't get past the verification process do you really want to deal with them?

I used the concierge service where Escrow holds the domain in their domain account and only releases it once the money from the buyer is in my bank account.
Their support team was responsive and helpful,.
They required me to upload ID and I imagine the same was true for the buyer.
My money arrived in my bank account via ACH exactly three days after the sale.

Just want to be clear I don't work for escrow nor am I invested in or have anything to do with them beyond being a satisfied user of their service. I just feel like something is way off with all the 1 star reviews.

I suspect they might be from brokers and agents that work for godaddy that don't want domain owners selling off domains without taking a fat cut or maybe other escrow service competitors, bottom line is that escrow has been around for a while and has a reputation to maintain.

My domain sale was seamless. I just don't see why they would be doing anything other than acting as an intermediary.

A couple of the 1 star reviews are more about how folks got forced into using escrow to get paid when they never signed up for that, and Is that escrow's fault?

Some of these negative review writers appear to be angry because escrow won't release money without confirming and verifying the party that is supposed to be paid Seems like what many are upset about is that escrow is actually doing their job as an intermediary and delays transactions until all the required criteria has been verified and isn't that why I'm paying them in the first place?

I have had a TERRIBLE experience with them. First of all, AFTER you have initiated a transaction and cannot back out, Escrow.com tell you that in order to pay by credit card you have to fax a "verification" sheet with an image of the front and back of your credit card. This was extremely annoying and inconvenient.

Second, they somehow managed to mess something up in checking my info with my credit card company. I was told that the card had been declined due to incorrect security code. I was asked to "re-submit" the transaction. I typed EXACTLY the same information in the form, as evidenced by the fact that once I typed in the first number, the other two were there in the history of that form field because it is what I typed in before!

Third, customer service STINKS. The email responses I have received back about the problems with my transaction have been snide and rude.

I would recommend you steer clear of Escrow.com. There are plenty of other web sites that offer similar services. And I would certainly hope they are more convenient and offer more competent technical service and more polite customer service.

I used escrow.com to purchase equipment and upon waiting three days for confirmation of receipt of funds I was informed that the money was no where to be found. Why? After talking to a few agents, one from Manila, one from Australia and another from online chat, I found out that Escrow.com updated their system last week and for some reason mixed up the escrow instructions using the bank name as Bank of America and the Swift code and routing number as Wells Fargo. The result is funds sitting in limbo because it can't be directed to any account. It happens to be a holiday and it will take yet another day to get someone on the phone to figure out the mix up thus holding up the purchase and sale. NEVER USE NOR TRUST!

My review is for the support I received in completing a transaction. My registrar showed my domain as having transferred, so I had no more control over the URL, but I didn't see any change in the Escrow.com listing. It made me nervous. I contacted Support and got exceptional guidance, INCLUDING a call by the Escrow.com person to the Buyer with a request to accept the transaction (which he did), and then a call TO ME to notify me that the Buyer had accepted the transaction and that the transfer of funds was underway. Those calls on my behalf were above and beyond what I expected. The peace of mind it gave me regarding the status of the transaction was a wonderful gift. I'd had a couple of problems with previous bids that were accepted by Escrow.com and then the Buyers flaked and didn't follow through, which meant that GoDaddy Auctions took the URL out of circulation for a month or longer each time. The help I got today from the person on Escrow.com's Support desk rehabilitated their brand for me. Escrow.com are fortunate to have that person on their team.

I agreed to purchase a domain name with a seller who lived in Pakistan. Seller wanted to go through Escrow and started a transaction through Escrow.com. He had a verified account with Escrow.com. I got an email from Escrow.com and I registered and verified my identity. I got an email asking me to submit the funds required for the purchase. I made the payment. This took about 2 to 3 days.

Later Escrow.com informed the seller that Escrow.com can not send payment to a bank in Pakistan. WTF! So you have to have an account in another country to receive payment. Seller requested to cancel the transaction.

Now I (buyer) am waiting to get the refund and it has been over 5 days and still waiting to get refund.

I would stay away from Escrow.com

Avoid this company if you can. Escrow.com are have an absolutely terrible, robot-like customer service team who just refuse to offer any help or flexibility. I had a problem with my transaction and asked for my funds to be returned (that's the point of escrow right?).

However, they made it really really difficult for me to get my funds due to an issue with the way my bank sent them the money. There was no way I could resolve the problem and they had no interest in showing any flexibility and offered no helpful advice.

Basically, they didn't care whether I got my money back or not. Thankfully the bank was very helpful and came up with a workaround and eventually I did get my funds returned. However, this was no thanks to escrow.com and it was a very stressful process that took over a month.

When I made a deal with a seller to purchase a domain name for a sum that was quite large. I was nervous about the process. I was also nervous of being defrauded. The seller suggested escrow.com, and after some brief research, I agreed. Now having completed the transaction, I'm so happy we elected to use escrow.com. Not only did Escrow.com protect me (and the seller too, making sure the payment was made and verifying my identity extensively), but they also made sure everything worked out after the sale was made. Their responses are quick and their team is very knowledgeable. For the work they do, I'm surprised their rates are so low. Thank you escrow.com. I will be sure to continue using and recommending you in the future.

While I have to admit there are some frustrations with escrow.com in there process, such as there is no tracking number for a vehicle shipment. Also both parties (seller and buyer) need to ensure that Escrow.com are following the process correctly and escrow.com could be better at prompting the seller or buyer when information is needed or to proceed with the next step.
I would like to focus on the customer service rep who helped me yesterday ensure that the process was moving along. After several frustrating email attempts, I spoke with a gentleman in customer service who had the seller and buyer on the line simultaneously and was able to push the process through.
The transaction has not been completed. But after this latest communication I have a little more faith that it will proceed accordingly.

The whole process is unclear, you never know what is the next step and sometimes receive conflicting information/requests. Everything is done by email with no global view of completed steps and steps to come. That was very stressful at times. Thankfully I knew escrow by hearsay and had a good image of the company, because the whole thing looked very unprofessional especially for a service handling sums of money. In France, to speak of what I know best, we are used to streamlined processes with professional looking interfaces when dealing with that kind of transactions. If needed I work in a UX company (PwC Experience Center) and this is our job. Would be happy to help on designing a better experience.