Dynadot

If you are not using Epik.com for escrow, you are wasting time and money!

NameSilo
Watch

Rob Monster

Founder of EpikTop Member
Epik Founder
Impact
18,389
Special Program for NamePros members only: Process your escrow transaction via Epik.com using bank transfer or major crypto, with a domain name registered at Epik.com and we'll waive the escrow fee completely! No escrow fee. No cashout fee. No kidding.

NamePros members are switching to Epik.com for Domain Name Escrow. Here's why:

- Lowest Fees: NamePros members pay no minimum fees. For domains registered at Epik.com, escrow is FREE when your buyer pays via bank transfer or major crypto. Otherwise, escrow is as low as 1.5%!

- Fast closing: Escrow transactions with domains registered at Epik, paid with major crypto or bank deposit can typically be closed within hours. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

- Secure Transactions: Epik.com is the only full-service escrow agent that is also a full-service accredited registrar. Transfer in and out within minutes. If a transaction is cancelled, your domain is not in limbo-land!

- Flexible payment solutions: Pay or get paid via wire transfer, ACH, major crypto, credit card, PayPal, Transferwise or Western Union. We support all major currencies, domain swaps and scheduled payments.

There has never been a better time to move your domains to Epik.com and to choose our integrated solutions for domain marketplace and escrow services.

To get started on your escrow transaction, simply go here:

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

To discuss your portfolio or escrow transaction, contact us at [email protected], visit us Epik.com or phone us at +1.425-366-8810 or US toll-free at +1.888-894-9026.

upload_2019-1-18_8-38-1.png


This is a sponsored post.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
60
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
After writing my post that @equity78 quoted, I realized...

1. that Epik's banner ad here on NP claims they offer "escrow".

2. that the title of this thread also claims Epik offers "escrow" services.

Not good, IMHO. But I am not a lawyer.

I guess what it really comes down to is if it is illegal in the USA to call a service "escrow" even if you are not registered and regulated as an escrow service. If there is no federal law concerning this, then it would have to be taken from a state level (which is the angle Escrow.com seems to be taking).

I can definitely see why an escrow company would not be happy if other businesses can claim to offer escrow services without licensing/regulation, yet they have to spend money on said licensing and regulation simply because they exclusively operate as an escrow service. It makes no sense. If all you need is trust from the public to profitably offer escrow services, then why is Escrow.com different than anyone else? Why should they have to be subject to regulation and whatnot?

My guess is, if in fact it is not legal to claim to be an escrow service without actually be licensed and regulated as such, then someday there's gonna be a big govt smack-down (federal or state) on those that use "escrow" to describe their "safe buying process".

Again, I'm not a lawyer and I don't claim to be.
 
4
•••
Well I see this as an excellent representation, @Rob Monster will this be the way to promote the service going forward and avoid the word "escrow"? That way no one can detract from the service offering.

I also want to ask Rob do you think eventually registrars will have to have the same ID info retention needed like Escrow.com? I am wondering if eventually lawmakers just see all the money flowing back and forth and decide to impose the same regulations?

Thank you

We are considering that option, though the legal definition of escrow is very generic:

Ballentine's Law Dictionary
A deed; the delivery of an instrument to a third party who is to deliver it to the grantee or promisee upon the fulfillment of some condition, such as the payment of money. See 130 Am. St. Rep. 911, note.


Black's Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition
A scroll; a writing; a deed. Particularly a deed delivered by the grantor into the hands of a third person, to be held by the latter until the happening of a contingency or performance of a condition, and then by him delivered to the grantee. Thomas v. So wards, 25 Wis. 631; Patrick v. McCormick, 10 Neb. 1, 4 N. W. 312; Cagger v. Lansing, 57 Barb. (N. Y.) 427; Davis v. Clark, 58 Kan. 100, 48 Pac. 563; Easton v. Driscoll, 18 R. I. 313, 27 Atl. 445. A grant may be deposited by the grantor with a third person, to be delivered on the performance ofi a condition, and on delivery by the depositary it will take effect. While in the possession of the third person, and subject to condition, it is called an "escrow." Civil Code Cal. § 1057; Civll Code Dak. § 609. The state or condition of a deed which ls conditionally held by a third person, or the possession and retention of a deed by a third person pending a condition; as when an instrument is said to be delivered "in escrow." This use of the term, however, is a perversion of its meaning.

We use the term in the generic sense -- trusted 3rd party. In our case, we buy domains and we sell domains, and sometimes we do so with no profit. We are regulated by ICANN as an accredited registrar and govern ourselves accordingly.

I have said it before, if Escrow.com plans to continue to have the moral high ground as "Domain Escrow", they should become a registrar. Right now, they are a bank without a vault, introducing counter-party risk, procedural delay and expense where none is needed.
 
8
•••
Last edited:
1
•••
So the deal was done and you walked away from the $25,000 over @Escrow.com ? No other way to get the deal done, lawyer and a bank?

The buyer bought another cheaper name elsewhere I guess, was in a rush and didn’t give a chance. Which is fine ... .com values will still be going up in 2020
 
1
•••
@Rob Monster any chance you'll implement auctions feature in the future?
 
0
•••
Last edited:
1
•••
What a joke that is, "ESCROW", but you have to trasfer it to our registrar to do it
Use Sedos escrow or Undeveloped.com
 
1
•••
How do I withdraw my MasterBucks credit to my bank account?!

And how do I make sure that I won't be charged 5% for it?

@Rob Monster
 
Last edited:
0
•••
Important post for those who will use FREE Epik Escrow, I was charged 10% commission!

Sold a domain for $750 2 weeks ago. I was excited for the free escrow and thought that I would face no problems at all because of Epik's great customer support.

Unfortunately at this moment it's a mess. Firstly, it's extremely hard to make the buyer create an account at an unknown registrar, but if I want free escrow I am willing to do my best to make the buyer create an epik.com account and if they don't want to then we can use another service. Epik is not at fault here but after I made the buyer create an account at Epik I still had to pay 10% escrow fees. $75 out of the $750 sale price.

The second condition for free escrow is:
Have the buyer pay via bank deposit.

Now most escrow/aftermarket companies give a nice discount on commission when the buyer pays via bank deposit but Epik is giving an exceptional 100% discount. But even if we tell the buyer that they must pay via bank deposit a hundred times we can't make sure and in my case buyer said that they found no option to pay via bank deposit and they paid via credit card!

I told Rob via email that this thread on NamePros is false advertising. If you are advertising free escrow then you should clearly explain to sellers that it's free only if all this is followed. Or else you will pay much more than any other escrow company.

Escrow.com now charges only $10 minimum and even if the buyer pays via credit card, it would've costed me about $24. I have transferred more than a 100 domains at Epik and I was excited about this escrow service and even claimed that this service is better than any other escrow company before even initiating a transaction and now this is such a let down.

The actual fee for Epik escrow is $75 minimum!! So if you sell something for less than $750 you will pay even more than 10% commission.

This is what Rob proposed as a solution:

So, the solution is to sell domains with Make-offer but not add buy-now pricing since that is how the user can buy it with a credit card resulting in a higher commission rate.

Since the domain is already on Epik, and the price is under $1000, the seller can use our Marketplace feature:
https://www.epik.com/support/knowledgebase/selling-and-leasing-domains-on-epik/

Shouldn't this be shared with the sellers on this thread or on the website? How are we supposed to know this if no one at Epik would tell us? I even asked the support team and Rob via customer support, and NP conversation but this was only shared after I told them I have been charged 10%. Scams aren't much different than that.

Lastly, I haven't been able to withdraw the amount yet because I couldn't find a page where I can enter my bank details. Hopefully I won't get charged 5% for withdrawal.

Rob has said they are doing a overhaul which will streamline the process. Until then, I am willing to pay 2-3% commission to avoid this headache.
 
5
•••
...The actual fee for Epik escrow is $75 minimum!! So if you sell something for less than $750 you will pay even more than 10% commission...
ALL minimum fees are waived for NP members. I have this in writing, so to speak, from Rob himself. You said that you had transferred 100+ domains to Epik, I'm assuming paying their wholesale prices and not retail? This means you had your Epik account earmarked as an NP member's account first. Accordingly, said $75 minimum fee should have been waived automatically. I'd ask Epik to refund this fee, charged an NP member by mistake.
...Lastly, I haven't been able to withdraw the amount yet because I couldn't find a page where I can enter my bank details. Hopefully I won't get charged 5% for withdrawal...
Withdrawals to Paypal are free for NP members. Although it has been mentioned somewhere that you can request a withdrawal to a bank account, I believe this needs to be "negotiated" with support and will probably cost you (depending what bank account you wish to withdraw to).
...Rob has said they are doing a overhaul which will streamline the process...
Okay, this is bad news. I'm a little wary of Epik's overhauls, streamlining. This is mostly to spring new fees. That's okay, they are a business and need to turn a profit. Can't have everything for free. Problem is such changes are rarely communicated in a timely fashion (n)
 
Last edited:
3
•••
This minimum fee is waived for NP members. I have this in writing, so to speak, from Rob himself. You said that you had transferred 100+ domains to Epik, I'm assuming paying their wholesale prices and not retail? This means you had your Epik account earmarked as an NP member's account. The $75 fee should have been waived automatically. I'd ask Epik to refund this fee, charged an NP member by mistake.

Withdrawals to Paypal are free for NP members. Although it has been mentioned somewhere that you can request a withdrawal to a bank account, I believe this needs to be "negotiated" with support and will probably cost you (depending what bank account you wish to withdraw to).

Okay, this is bad news. I'm a little wary of Epik's overhauls, streamlining. This always seems to result in new fees, which are rarely communicated in a timely fashion (n)

See, you also misunderstand Epik escrow, that $75 fee is waived for NP members but only if the buyer pays via bank transfer, the fee is still there if the buyer pays via credit card or probably other methods. Am I wrong @Rob Monster , if I am then I guess I will have to be refunded. There should be a Escrow fee calculator on the website explaining how we will be charged.

@Domains - Wanted The buyer told me there was no option to pay via bank transfer.

Withdrawals are free only to PayPal???! One more thing never mentioned on this thread. I don't have PayPal and I can only withdraw to my bank account. Damn so many complications.

I was literally so excited and told many domainers from my country about Epik's free escrow and they couldn't believe it, they felt something is fishy but I convinced them that there are only 2 conditions, making the buyer create an account at Epik.com and making them pay via bank transfer. This is awful.
 
1
•••
See, you also misunderstand Epik escrow, that $75 fee is waived for NP members but only if the buyer pays via bank transfer, the fee is still there if the buyer pays via credit card or probably other methods...
You are mistaken. All minimum fees are waived for NP members. Escrow is free if buyer pays by bank wire or 5% if by credit card. Read: you should have been charged 5% of $750.
@Domains - Wanted The buyer told me there was no option to pay via bank transfer.
Yes, it's a bit of a mess. Communicating with buyers, or sellers, is not Epik's strong suit. Not surprising, really, seeing how Rob's busy with other things and Joseph busy with... Rob's antics (n)
Withdrawals are free only to PayPal???! One more thing never mentioned on this thread.
Actually, last I checked, Paypal was the only withdrawal option available. Any other options need to be negotiated with support on a case by case basis, it seems.
I don't have PayPal and I can only withdraw to my bank account. Damn so many complications.
I feel for you, but in all fairness, this is your fault, so to speak, not Epik's. If you want to play this domaining game like a pro, you need to equip yourself with some tools of the trade. Paypal and a bank account or card linked to it, somewhere in the world, is one such basic tool. Useful for many other things, too.

This said, it wouldn't hurt Epik, with their escrow aspirations, to offer other withdrawal methods as standard... Payoneer, Revolut, Skrill come to mind :xf.smile:
 
Last edited:
3
•••
It's the only domain escrow service where seller can take payment in CryptoCurrency I reckon.

Used their service once and loved it. 👍
 
3
•••
I feel for you, but in all fairness, this is your fault, so to speak, not Epik's. If you want to play this domaining game like a pro, you need to equip yourself with some tools of the trade. Paypal and a bank account or card linked to it, somewhere in the world, is one such basic tool. Useful for many other things, too.

This said, it wouldn't hurt Epik, with their escrow aspirations, to offer other withdrawal methods as standard... Payoneer, Revolut, Skrill come to mind :xf.smile:

PayPal doesn't have services in my country so it ain't my fault. Checked one of my conversations with Rob from few weeks ago and he said that I will have to provide bank details but I am not sure how, via email? At least it's clear that we can withdraw to a bank account.
 
0
•••
It's the only domain escrow service where seller can take payment in CryptoCurrency I reckon.

Used their service once and loved it. 👍

Not sure but I think NameSilo has that option too.
 
0
•••
1
•••
As far as the
<< For domains registered at Epik.com, escrow is FREE when your buyer pays via bank transfer or major crypto.>>
I think it’s a good deal. Just want to point out though that in order to take advantage of this zero transaction cost escrow for NP members:

1. Domain must be registered at or transferred in to Epik (not such a problem really but if the domain is not already there, that’s an extra potentially time consuming step before you may start the escrow process with the buyer).

2. Besides that incoming payment from buyer must be via bank transfer (I assume this includes ACH) or crypto, outgoing transfer of domain must be to Epik (so, if he doesn’t already have one, you must convince buyer to open an Epik account, which is another step in the process before you may open a fee free escrow).

3. I understand that outgoing payment to seller must be via ACH and will be fee free / conversion fee free too for NP members (I see no problem with this step in process).

Now, according to what I understand Epik will facilitate the above process to remove any 60 day registrar locks to allow in/out transfer of the domain. But still, at the end of the day to take advantage of that fee free escrow you must explain all of the above and get buyer on board with the process.

Will buyer go along with all this to save himself the escrow fees that he would have to pay (in all my escrow.com transactions I have buyer pay all fees)?
YES, if:
-He’s not planning to pay with for example, credit card and
-it’s worth it to him dollar wise to go along with this Epik account creation / transfer process (or he is already with Epik).

In my estimation, given my Epik fees calculations
https://www.namepros.com/threads/i-...-com-help-please.1059035/page-14#post-7071820
I think all this would be best for higher dollar ($2000+) escrow transactions. On higher dollar transactions buyers are less likely to pay with credit card, and more likely to be willing to jump through some hoops to save escrow fees. If the amount to be saved is enough, really might be worth it to the buyer.

On a very low dollar transaction doing it this way might be worth it too.

But in all cases it is going to take some buyer education and cooperation to make the fee free transaction happen. If you explain that this is all for the buyer’s benefit to save him fees, he might go for it. But - it could also backfire and make him more aware that he is in fact paying all fees, or even ruin the deal if it gives buyer too much time to think about everything and back out.

This risk, however slight, of losing the buyer due to prolonging the process is why I think this fee free escrow is best suited to higher dollar deals, which tend to take a bit of time to negotiate and set up anyway, and where the buyer may be less likely to pay with credit card and more likely to see the cost benefit to him. On a high escrow cost transaction - reducing fees to zero might even be a positive negotiation chip to use during pricing discussions.

If you followed everything - both you and your buyer jumped through all hurdles - and you were still charged commission - you have a legitimate beef!

If not, all you’re saying is that the hurdles are too onerous - that the deal is basically, specious - which is also a valid criticism, but not really a contradiction of what Epik has said here.

So, Haris, which was it?
 
0
•••
If you followed everything - both you and your buyer jumped through all hurdles - and you were still charged commission - you have a legitimate beef!

If not, all you’re saying is that the hurdles are too onerous - that the deal is basically, specious - which is also a valid criticism, but not really a contradiction of what Epik has said here.

So, Haris, which was it?

I followed everything but the buyer couldn't find the option to pay via bank transfer. I was not told that there is a specific way of listing the domain if we want to avoid fees. After the transaction was complete only then Rob told me that I had to list the domain without a BIN price, the buyer should make the offer on the marketplace. Otherwise buyer will get the option of paying via credit card only that will result in higher commission!

I still am not sure what the buyer sees on their end, I will have to create another epik account and make an offer on my own domain to understand the process.

What I am saying is that the hurdles are too onerous - that the deal is specious, and as I said above, If Epik is advertising free escrow then they should clearly explain to sellers that it's free only if all this is followed. Or else we will pay much more than any other escrow company. The whole process should be clearly explained.
 
2
•••
There is also a $35 international wire fee when you withdraw. Escrow.com is charging $25, Rob said, "We just pass along what the bank charges us for an international wire fee." Okay. $10 are no big deal. I thought it's worth mentioning. For this one time though, Rob has waived the $35 fee for me, for which I thanked him.
 
1
•••
Regarding withdrawal, we need to go to masterbucks.com and initiate withdrawal, and then email the bank details to Rob.
 
0
•••
1
•••
how can you describe Epik as an escrow service

Jackson: I don't think it matters for anyone here is Epik a 100% Escrow service by canonical definition or not(for me personally I don't give a damn).

What matters most(among other things) is how fast, responsible, flexible and affordable their service is compared to others.

Epik is a registrar meaning they can more eagerly accept Credit Cards/Paypal for small to medium domain transactions from all over the world without much fear, since they can just lock the domain for like a months(the max amount of time the credit card transaction could still be reversed if it is found to be a fraud one) in their registry and secure both themselves and the seller. From a buyer/seller perspective this is already a huge thing. I, personally, do not mind for how many months the domain will be locked at Epik.

And your service in it's current state simply can not. Yours "100% canonical Escrow service" have to drift to a very slow(up to 2 weeks) and very time consuming(driving to the bank, opening a special type of bank account just to make an international payment, filling required papers, etc - think half day is lost on basically nothing) wire transfer, as a preferred way of payment for international orders.

I'am personally hit by the above matter 2 times already with your company. First time the problem was resolved fairly quickly and professionally(thanks) just how it have to be for the type/kind of business you are in, this time it is a different story: guys I don't know what happened during the last 3 months with your company but the fact is I'am still waiting for a promised(by your online support chat team) Paypal Invoice - at first I was told I'll get it by the end of the Friday, now it becomes the next business day, that is Monday. And all this for my verified escrow.com account, already with a payment history and no payment limit overflow. Like what the heck...

P.S.

I'am not talking about the large txs that certainly require a wire transfer in most cases, I'am pointing out that asking for a wire transfer by default for a small tx is, IMO, not a good business tactic - no other company is doing this, for example I bought several domains on Sedo using CC, without any problem - and I did not have to ask them to unlock the payment method - it was available by default. How it comes that escrow.com lost flexibility to Sedo?
 
Last edited:
7
•••
1
•••
Jackson,

Interesting article. I am not sure what it has to do with this thread, but good to hear from you.

So, yes, you are fully right there: domain owners should be mindful of the fiscal status and ethics of their critical vendors where they entrust their assets whether that be funds, or domains, or both.

As Escrow.com is not a registrar, there is an automatic leap of faith that escrow.com will be able to verify that the domain is owned by the registrant. As you are not an actual registrar, or even a reseller, you depend on others to hold the domain and verify chain of title. That is classic counter-party risk.

As was covered recently in the context of the Alex69 thread here on NamePros, it is precisely because Epik.com is a registrar (IANA # is 617) that we were able to quickly catch a fraud in the act.

At Epik, we only do domains - not collectibles, not cars, or other non-technical items. When it comes to clearing transactions, we deal only in domains. That's it. We are specialists. We wrote our own software from end to end. We don't lose domains. Ever.

As for fiscal strength, since the parent company of Escrow.com, Freelancer is a public company, anyone and everyone can review your public filings like this one from 2018 which is also attached to this post.

From an investment perspective, I think it is worth noting that the pattern of Freelancer has more current liabilities than current assets. This does not inspire a ton of confidence. Your auditors did not cite any going concern issue. I think a larger auditor might have concluded differently.

upload_2019-7-26_15-51-58.png


This in particular looks like a company operating paycheck to paycheck:

upload_2019-7-26_17-1-40.png


Did I get that wrong? Please enlighten the good people of NamePros with your on the record response about the fiscal state of Freelancer and practices for management of customer escrow deposits.

At the end of the day, escrow.com is a subsidiary of a public company. There is significant overhead associated with being public. There is also overhead of maintaining a vast number of local licenses.

As for liquidity, I noted that daily trading volume of less than $100,000 based on ASD to USD exchange of $0.69:

upload_2019-7-26_16-10-3.png



Well, having run a public company myself, I realy don't envy your situation -- being a publicly traded company with a lightly traded stock trading on a regulated exchange a price per share of less than $1. Although the market cap looks theoretically impressive, let's face it, there is not much float when 2 guys own almost the entire company, right?

upload_2019-7-26_16-40-36.png


Personally, I am too busy being productive running Epik to spend time figuring out how to short the FLN stock. I imagine others might explore that scenario as this business does not look recession-proof at all.

Anecdotally, I understand that the industry is already reporting that escrow.com is paying out more slowly, and applying more friction to the payout process. Gee, I wonder why.

When it comes to paying out customers, let's talk facts about Epik. We do our best to pay out promptly.
Earlier today there was 3L.com transaction where we wired out a$ $70K wire, without any fee, for a domain that arrived about an hour earlier. There was no verification needed because the seller had funds at Epik and the buyer and broker are both known to Epik. Can Escrow.com do that?

Yesterday, a seller had a marketplace domain sale which closed late the night before. The seller was unbanked and urgently needed funds. Western Union was going to charge them a 10% money processing fee. We arranged for the seller to get physical cash that day and with no additional fee. Can escrow do that?

As for management ethics, people should absolutely make a careful review of the values of management. Most people who know me will tell you that I am an open book and a pretty nice guy too. I try to help people where I can, and I believe the domain industry offers fantastic opportunities for hard-working people to make a living.

As for licensing, as you know, domain marketplaces are not regulated. With Epik, registrants get a marketplace that is fully and tightly integrated with an accredited registrar. It happens to be led by a buck-stops-here CEO who is highly accessible and who does not suffer fools.

As for cryptocurrencies, they are a perfectly viable medium of exchange. The domain market is rapidly adopting cryptos for clearing domain transactions. I see that as a positive development. If buyer or seller wants to transact in crypto, we accommodate that, including the option of converting seller proceeds which we do through established cryptocurrency brokers who we know well and have low fees.

So what was your point Jackson?
 

Attachments

  • upload_2019-7-26_15-51-14.png
    upload_2019-7-26_15-51-14.png
    203 KB · Views: 120
  • FLN.pdf
    3.7 MB · Views: 127
15
•••
Hello Rob

Great financial analysis.

While we are talking about financials, why don't you post a copy of Epik's so your customers know what they are getting into?

You sent me a copy a few months ago when you approached me to sell Epik, remember? I'm not sure what account you hold your escrows in given in December 2018 you had less than $50,000 cash between your bank and Paypal accounts. That's not enough to even pay out all those people that you got to buy Masterbucks.

Regards
Matt
 
5
•••
Back