Escrow services

[Brassneck]

Secured a sale with a large company for mid XXX. They are insisting on sending only half fee before I tranfer, with rest of fee on completion. I've never worked this way round before so I suggested using an escrow service (with assumption they would pay the fees).

They went ahead and sent money to escrow.com (in dollars). My understanding is that I would receive a US dollar cheque unless I pay a siginifcant fee for a wire transfer. Then I would lost out on exchange rate fees plus paying in a foreign check. I've emailed back to say I'm not doing this.

I have now suggested using sedo as an intermediary with them paying the commission, or paypal where buyers seem to be heavily protected. Any other ideas? Anybody ever used escrow.com?

Thanks
Stephen.

[tifosi]

I've used escrow.com. Worked seamlessly. They have a solution specifically for domain transfers. Think it cost ~£35 in total for the transfer.

Have used sedo.coms third party escrow as well. Was, not surprisingly, slightly slower than escrow.

Only problem with escroe is that it's all in $$ so you're at the mercy of exchange rate fluctuatons +/-

S

[foz]

I use Escrow.com. Usually 50/50 fee split. I incur US$40 for the wire payment.

If buyers are unhappy with dealing is US$ I refer to Sedo third party escrow.

[mojoco]

Personally if it is a large company for mid £xxx I would do it on trust. They are unlikely to knock you for 50% of £xxx. Make sure they agree to your terms, ie: balance due within 7 days of transfer or whatever. Using Escrow you will have to wait for the buyer to confirm that they have the name, before payment is released.

[TinkyWinky]

Escrow.com always been good to me... transferred 20 maybe 30 large domains that way.

Is probably cheaper than a cheque - seriously - especially if you split the cost of the whole transaction etc.

Otherwise trust / UK escrow like moneybrokers.com could be the answer.

Cheers
TW

[chatman2222]

Do you mean moneybookers.com?

[afx]

I would make them pay full amount my escrow.com. They are at no risk, you become at risk once they have only paid half and you lose control of the name.

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by mojoco

Personally if it is a large company for mid £xxx I would do it on trust. They are unlikely to knock you for 50% of £xxx. Make sure they agree to your terms, ie: balance due within 7 days of transfer or whatever. Using Escrow you will have to wait for the buyer to confirm that they have the name, before payment is released.

I'd do the same. So long as their email address matches their corporate site, you know you really are dealing with somebody at the company. So just give them the name then get paid. Quick, simple and fee-free!

[Brassneck]

Thanks for all the comments.

Interestingly nobody mentioned using Sedo which is what we used. The buyer paid the fees (3% i think) and I got paid in pounds so that worked out well. All completed within 48 hours.

Last time I dealt with a really big company payment took 6 weeks, so I was keen to avoid a repeat this time.

Stephen.

[afx]

The buyer is at zero risk using escrow.com. If a buyer could give one good reason not to use an escrow service I might go along with it, but there aren't any. Unless of course he'd like the option of shafting you. You agree a price of "x" and he pays you "y" and you've handed the name over. Not a good position to be in. When it drags on for weeks companies can go bust or staff who you're dealing with who agreed the sale can leave, it does happen.