I got a question for everyone here. I know the majority of people on here have purchased parts through vendors but for the occasional ebay part or second hand part that you purchased, have you ever used www.escrow.com or a website with similar offerings? I am doing research on that particular company and those that are similar to it. Any information or ideas you may have will be much appreciated. For those who dont know what it is, Escrow is a third party company that holds the money until the buyer has received the goods from the retailer and is satisfied with them. It is a way to prevent yourself from getting scammed out of a quite a bit of money if you are purchasing something that is hundreds of dollars. The service is being used more and more frequently on auction websites such as ebay, but I am doing research about its effectiveness for small businesses. If you have any ideas or suggestions about what you would change about it, please post them up as I know many people on here deal with online deals multiple times a day and are scared that there is always a chance you will be screwed over.
I would think that a service like this is more liky to add cost than increase satisfaction. I guess I would use this for really high dollar transactions over $1500. most of the time the best policy is to know who you are buying from.
I have used escrow.com once in the past when I bough wheels from someone on Nasioc. It cost me $25 to do it, but I felt the security was worth it. It is actually a pretty nice process. If you are making a fairly large purchase from an unknown, I think it's a good way to go. Especially if it is a private party purchase and you don't have someone like eBay to go to if you are defrauded.
I used it when purchasing my WRX from a private owner a year and a half ago... I financed the vehicle from a third party for my loan and the loaner used escrow.com for securing the transaction. A little more of a time consuming process, but all in all a secure way for a large puchase like that to transfer funds...
Half the scammers out there offer up an escrow service right off the bat to make you feel safer. Either they are "fake" escrow sites, or they have figured out a way to scam that part of the system as well. If it is a well-established site like escrow.com, that's cool, but you still have to be aware of what you are getting into.
Would any of you craig listers have input on this topic. The company I work for is researching this idea like I said. Would any of you be willing to try a new company?
