Topic: How Escrows Work (Read 1045 times)

never ever heard about free escrow. where i can find it? please

Many of these services are FREE. Please look around before spreading FUD.

looks like this forum is driven on escrow providers, they make a living forcing us to use their service or rating us negative if we refuse doing that. unfair

THat can also be handled with proof, like pictures of the product when the buyer receives it. Seller providing proof of a working product before sending it.

Escrows basically hold the money (and/or goods depending on escrow arrangement - usually only the more liquid side is held although I've had dealings where electronic shares were escrowed and the bitcoin involved transferred to a predetermined address held by the seller beforehand) until both sides reach a conclusion of the deal. It allows the buyer to negate the seller's advantage of control over the trade after the money is transferred to him here. As trust is a fundamental premise of trade, escrow allows trade to be carried out when both parties do not have sufficient trust of each other.

As an escrower (although I'm not that active escrowing right now due to real life issues - used to do a ton of them over the years), I usually ask the buyer to retain video proof of the unboxing (especially for miners - heaven knows how regularly the postal service trashes up them), and have them agree beforehand for DOA/MIA situations. Usually, adequate insurance is bought by the seller, and if the mail service trashes the item, compensation is sought from the mail service while the money is held by me to ensure that the seller sees through his part.

It is made clear to the buyer and seller that I, as an escrow work entirely based on proof - on the situation of any misdealings I rely entirely on proof provided to make the final judgement, and they agree to me as an arbitrator when situations like this arise.

PS: Please move this to trading/service discussion.

That's why when selling items, I take high res. pics of the item and any serial numbers. I've had people in the past try to claim damage and send me their identical (sans serial numbers) but broken hardware for a refund.

There is always a risk with escrow as well, but that risk is minimized greatly.
If the item is defective, then the seller might request the buyer to ship it back for a refund.

Different escrow providers may have a different way to handle the problem, but DannyHamilton has outlined his way in details in
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.9579554 and several posts after that.

Could someone please explain to me how escrow services work on BTCTalk? I assume the following:

1. Buyer and seller agree on price and item
2. Both send me a PM on agreement/terms of the sale
3. Buyer sends me the BTC
4. Seller ships item to the Buyer and gives me the tracking info
5. Buyer likes items received and then tells me to release his funds to the seller
6. I send the seller the BTC


Now that sounds all fine and dandy for transactions that work without problems. It also works well if the buyer never sends me the bitcoin payment (as I can verify this).

BUT what happens if the seller sends the item to the buyer then the buyer states the item was received damaged or the item is not the item they purchased etc....how does the escrow obtain reasonable evidence that the seller did indeed ship the correct item in good working order?

If you're already performing escrow services on BTCTalk I would greatly appreciate your response as well.

Thanks guys.