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Escrow.com Horror Story
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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, they 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.
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