posted on January 31, 2001 11:22:42 AM new
How do escrow services work? The way I understand them, everything is in the buyer's power. The buyer chooses when and if the seller gets paid. What is to stop the buyer from receiving the merchandise and then stopping payment? Why would any seller want to use and escrow service?
The buyer pays the escrow service before the merchandise is shipped. The seller is then told to ship. The buyer has an agreed upon time (usually two days) to examine the merchandise. Unless it is returned within that period, the seller gets paid. If the buyer returns it, the seller has the same period to make sure the item came back in the same condition in which it was sent.
Escrow services are typically used when the seller is new and the buyer wants some extra protection. I'm not sure what happens if the seller sends an empty box or the buyer just claims he did or if the buyer returns and empty box or the seller just claims he did. I had one bad experience with iescrow and one good experience with Tradesafe.
