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Escrow.com - Lack of communication with Payments Team wreaks havoc on transaction

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EaaDay

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Hi all,

I wanted to share a recent horror story I'm currently living with escrow.com.

I closed a transaction on December 1st and I'm still waiting to receive my funds weeks later. When I set up the wire instructions, I included information in the "Wire Memo" field that my bank absolutely requires in order to be able to credit my account. It turns out that escrow.com forgot about this and sent the wire without any such instructions. Although this field appears on the end user UI when creating the wire and it is saved properly for later recall, the customer support team apparently can't see it (and neither did the payments team). The wire got returned to escrow by my bank, but escrow seems to be clueless about this.

The core problem here is that the customer service team is overseas and they claim to have *no way whatsoever* to get directly in touch with the Payments Team that is directly responsible for handling this. The lack of communication is astounding: all they can do is email the payments team and request a response, but the Payment Team apparently takes days to respond, and the information they get back seems to be limited at best.

For example, the mislabeled wire arrived at my bank on the 7th. I spoke with my bank on the 9th, who confirmed that they had received money in the amount expected but that the wire would need to be amended to include the correct information so it could be released to me. I called back Escrow later on the 9th and told them this, and they said that they'd work on it.

It apparently took escrow.com support people until the 12th to "email" the amendment request details to their bank. They also claimed to have sent another email on the 15th. On the 16th, they said that they finally submitted the amendment to Bank of America.

I called back on the 16th asking what was up. The rep said that the amendment was sent and that I could "call Bank of America" if I had further questions, but without giving any contact information for BofA...and later giving me a BofA phone number that was just their regular phone banking number. *I* need to navigate through a giant bank's phone tree to try to find out the status of something that was not my mistake? (I tried many ways to get in touch with Bank of America, but I was never successful in finding a department that could give me any information...not that I'd expect them to talk to me anyway, since I'm not even their direct customer.)

I finally checked in with my bank again on the 21st, and I found out that my bank had actually returned the wire (for lack of sufficient information) to escrow.com way back on the 12th! So it turns out that escrow was spending all of this time trying to amend a wire that had already been returned, that escrow.com didn't even start that amendment process until after it was returned, and that no one on the support team was ever aware of this returned wire until I told them.

Since the 21st, I've been trying to get the customer service team to talk to the payments team to simply confirm that the wire was returned, so that they could later, maybe, eventually possibly initiate the process to resend another one out. It seems like this would be simple, but no luck so far. All they can do is send emails and hope for a response from the other team, and who knows how long that will take.

Anyway, this is getting a little ridiculous. Does *anyone* know how to get in touch with the Payments Team directly? Shouldn't "paying out funds" be one of the core competencies of an escrow company, and shouldn't the support and payments teams be better connected? @Jackson Elsegood ?

Thanks!
-S
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I keep seeing more and more complaints about Escrow... sadly it seems they have lost the plot completely.

I'm very keen to give Payoneer's Escrow service a try. I think they might end up becoming the new norm for domainers soon.
 
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I dunno know what the norm is for others now
but I know my new norm

epik escrow


2 successful sales for me so far using them.
total fee paid so far for this escrow service: 0$.
money made sits as epik credit for use with renewals/transfers etc..
anytime cashout to paypal fee = 5%

no silly concierge fees. epik is also a registrar! so they are the concierge!

http://www.epik.com/services/escrow/

hope it helps gives people some options.

cheers
 
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Escrow has been working really good in the past few weeks for sure, they had some initial backlogs, and kinks when they were hiring new staff, and opening new offices.

Your case seems to be a special one, when it comes to wires, and that little piece of additional info that can be a tricky mistake human error can overlook.

I know how hard it is when you are expecting funds, and you check everyday without fail, and now with the holidays you will only be more delayed.

Maybe try working with the same bank as them if you can, making for faster deposits, otherwise with the closing statements send a reminder of your wire advice.

To be honest, Escrow has been processing faster than ever for me, but I mean I can only speak from my experience.
 
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@alcy - appreciate the good word there :)

Learn more about Epik's Escrow Service and to Initiate a New Escrow Transaction. Click to learn more about MasterBucks.

Epik Escrow services are completely free for domains already registered at Epik. Even for domains registered elsewhere, Epik Domain Escrow services are available at an industry-low 1.5%. With Epik, you no longer need to pay significant premiums to ensure a secure and reliable domain sale. That's the Epik advantage!

How Epik Domain Escrow Works:
  1. Both parties enter into a new escrow transaction.
  2. Buyer sends payment to Epik's Masterbucks Escrow account
  3. Seller provides authorization code to Epik.
  4. Seller approves Form of Authorization to confirm transfer.
  5. Epik verifies that all payments from buyer are received in escrow, and all domains from seller are received in escrow.
  6. Epik simultaneously transfers all assets to complete the transaction: domain ownership is transferred to buyer's Epik account while funds are simultaneously released to seller's Masterbucks account
 
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@alcy - appreciate the good word there :)

Learn more about Epik's Escrow Service and to Initiate a New Escrow Transaction. Click to learn more about MasterBucks.

Epik Escrow services are completely free for domains already registered at Epik. Even for domains registered elsewhere, Epik Domain Escrow services are available at an industry-low 1.5%. With Epik, you no longer need to pay significant premiums to ensure a secure and reliable domain sale. That's the Epik advantage!

How Epik Domain Escrow Works:
  1. Both parties enter into a new escrow transaction.
  2. Buyer sends payment to Epik's Masterbucks Escrow account
  3. Seller provides authorization code to Epik.
  4. Seller approves Form of Authorization to confirm transfer.
  5. Epik verifies that all payments from buyer are received in escrow, and all domains from seller are received in escrow.
  6. Epik simultaneously transfers all assets to complete the transaction: domain ownership is transferred to buyer's Epik account while funds are simultaneously released to seller's Masterbucks account

yep... np.
when someone deserves it, it's no longer a good word.. it's simply "the truth" ;)

cheers
keep up good work
 
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Maybe try working with the same bank as them if you can, making for faster deposits, otherwise with the closing statements send a reminder of your wire advice.

In my case, we're talking about a Euro-denominated wire which I didn't want to get currency-converted if I could help it. The place I'm receiving it at is generally fantastic with handling wires--they are deposited and I am typically notified in less than an hour of the wire's transmission--but this all fell apart when escrow.com forgot to put the relevant info into the wire.

This was for the sale of a domain I've been holding for 20 years, so it's not like it was just a $50 transaction either. :xf.cry:
 
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In my case, we're talking about a Euro-denominated wire which I didn't want to get currency-converted if I could help it. The place I'm receiving it at is generally fantastic with handling wires--they are deposited and I am typically notified in less than an hour of the wire's transmission--but this all fell apart when escrow.com forgot to put the relevant info into the wire.

This was for the sale of a domain I've been holding for 20 years, so it's not like it was just a $50 transaction either. :xf.cry:
Understandable, overseas, different currencies are always tricky when it comes to wires, and the different info needed by certain country banks.

Always good to send a friendly reminder, and ask it be forwarded to the payment dept. when seeking an extra ordinary type of transfer, for an amount which you did not mention, but I assume it would be large.

Never hurts to keep a communication channel open, to make sure the problem is squashed, before any can occur.
 
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Never hurts to keep a communication channel open, to make sure the problem is squashed, before any can occur.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'd have to say about what escrow.com's payments and customer support teams should be doing! :-/

In reality, I had already notified the receiving institution to expect the wire and they were more than happy to tell me that they had the money once I called to check...just that they couldn't legally release it until they got that extra info from the sender. Which is why the missing data from escrow.com, plus all of their internal communication issues and delays, is frustrating and something that should have been easily avoidable.
 
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Hi EaaDay.
Your case sounds exactly the same as a transaction that I'm struggling with at the moment.

If you manage to get in contact with the mysterious payments team can you drop me a PM so I know how?
Cheers
 
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...just that they couldn't legally release it until they got that extra info from the sender...
What's this transfer "extra info" that's at the heart of the problem here, if you don't mind saying?
 
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Forex transfer services ask the customer to place a comment in the wire transfer with a reference number. Escrow have this comments area at the bottom of their wire transfer fields. This is how the FX companies cross reference the wire transfer is yours, seeing the routing code and bank account number is shared across their customers.
 
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Hi EaaDay, Zeroun,
I've reached out to you both individually, come back to me over PM or email.

Jackson Elsegood
 
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I never had any issues with Escrow wires...
Even this month I quickly received EUR-wire from them to my Ukrainian bank.
 
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+ they have LiveChat (it is available in your Escrow-panel) and I used it as well to leave my suggestions...
 
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Escrow should be able to make IBAN payments straight out in euros. Receiving US wires to European accounts is not always straightforward. Use of correspondent banks/special requirements make things even more tricky.
 
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Forex transfer services ask the customer to place a comment in the wire transfer with a reference number. Escrow have this comments area at the bottom of their wire transfer fields.

This is hitting the nail on the head. Yes, this comments field exists on escrow.com and one would assume that it would be sent along with the wire. But at least in my case (and perhaps globally?) this did not happen.

I think it is somewhat telling that the escrow.com customer service reps could not see this information either.
 
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