Anyone ever use Escrow.com?

[chappy]

Hi all,
I have a lead on a boat I want to buy. The sellers emails are a little vague. He/she wants to use escrow.com. It seems that both the buyer and the seller are safe using this method. Does anyone have any experience with this site or purchasing option? It works like this, I put the money in escrow.com, they contact the seller, the boat is shipped, once I receive it, I have five days to look the boat over, test it, whatever. After five days, I call escrow.com to release the funds. If the boat is not as advertised, I can refuse release of the funds, and tell the seller to come get the boat. Sounds too good to be true:crossfing: , any advice?
Thanks in advance
Rich

[MOP]

Is the boat that far away that you can not go and see it? If so there may very well be a member that lives close by, many of us have checked out boats for others.

Phil

[Trueser]

I would stay away...

Sounds too good to be true , any advice?

usually is..................

[pmreed]

Chappy,
I've never used escrow.com, but I have bid on several ebay items that I would have insisted the seller accept escrow on. Escrow.com, by the way, is an ebay service. But, of course, you can use it to buy just about anything. I always considered it a great tool for the buyer, since you haven't sent a check or money order off into la-la land where you can never recover it if something goes wrong. It also protects the buyer since he knows he'll get his money if you accept the item. I've got no problem with the escrow process.
Just a side note, there are fraudulent escrow services out there that will take your money. I'd research any service that the seller wants to use. You can read up on escrow.com at the ebay website.

Good luck, Phil

Oh yeah, there are fees invloved, of course. Since the seller is asking for you to use the service, say," Sure...you pay the fees since you want to use the service." :)

[chappy]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to proceed very carefully. MOP, thank you for the tip, but the boat is only about 4 hours away, and I asked to come and inspect it. The seller offered to deliver it to me to inspect and test. He also said, "if the boat doesn't meet my description, by all means, let me know, and I'll come get it" TRUESER, I'm of the same opinion as you, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. PMREED, thank you, I have researched the site and it appears I would be protected and the funds would only be released if I was happy and authorize it. By nature I'm a very cautious person and would never consider something like this, however, the price of the boat is far too appealling. As long as I'm protected in writing with the money, I'm going to proceed carefully to get the boat delivered.

Thanks guys,

Rich

[BUIZILLA]

MOP, thank you for the tip, but the boat is only about 4 hours away, and I asked to come and inspect it. The seller offered to deliver it to me to inspect and test. He also said, "if the boat doesn't meet my description, by all means, let me know, and I'll come get it" my opinion is this, if this is the verbatim conversations you have had so far, the seller is about as straight up as you can get, I wouldn't be so worried....

:cool:

[motorcity]

You may want to Google Escrow.com for any horrer stories. If Ebay runs it like Paypal, people could be getting burned. If you google Paypal, their are getting to be alot of people getting burned by them including myself. Their is a whole website dedicated to peoples stories about Paypal.

[Wazzy]

Chappy I would be very careful of useing escrow. As already mentioned above escrow services are often fraudulent. Could this boat you have found be a 18' donzi at http://www.boatsdepot.org/boat.asp?id=158. I have been in contact with this guy buy e-mail and have decided their are way to many red flags for me too continue this sale. This boat is almost free if it is actually in the condition he reports it to be in. The seller is not direct and will not answer question directly and is always pushing for me to register with this escrow site so we can begin the transaction. Plus his grammer and spelling seem to raise more flags with me. Check out this site, it helps educate buyers about how fraudeleent sellers and how they operate, this seller fits the profile.
http://www.carbuyingtips.com/fraud.htm
I in no way wish to offend anyone. I would just hate to see someone get scamed period. If Im wrong I missed another one hell of a deal. My advice to you is, tell the seller you would like to see the boat in person at which time if it is what he says it is , tow it home. This would save him the transportation cost and put more money in his pocket. Please go see the boat in person first. If this is indeed the boat and you wish to talk more please e-mail me at wazzy@personainternet.com.
Good luck Wazzy

[chappy]

Upon further investigation, the payment method requested from the seller WAS NOT ACCEPTED by escrow.com. Also, the mailing address given WAS NOT RECOGNIZED by escrow.com. I'm going to post another thread with links to the boat in question.

Rich