online saddle buying- Escrow.com?

[scruffy_the_cat]

Hi,
I’m considering doing a trial of a saddle from a FB seller.
It seems fairest and safest if during the trial, instead of me paying her directly and hoping she’ll give me my money back if the saddle doesn’t work, to put it in an Escrow.com account. This way she gets paid if I turn out to be a bad guy and if she turns out to be a bad guy I don’t lose my money.

Has anyone used Escrow.com? Is there any other way of doing this that you can think of?

[Halt_Near_X]

I’ve always used PayPal (invoiced, not friends & family) for saddle trials, no matter what side I was on.

Trial terms are on the invoice.

Both sides have recourse through PayPal if something goes wrong (assuming saddle is shipped out according to seller protection requirements). I am not 100% convinced PayPal would handle a situation where the saddle was damaged during trial well (e.g. by letting seller hold back a portion of the refund for damages), but I never ran into that problem and was willing to risk it. I don’t know Escrow.com or whether they would handle that issue, either.

[JacksonElsegood]

[QUOTE=scruffy the cat;9015891]
Hi,
I’m considering doing a trial of a saddle from a FB seller.
It seems fairest and safest if during the trial, instead of me paying her directly and hoping she’ll give me my money back if the saddle doesn’t work, to put it in an Escrow.com account. This way she gets paid if I turn out to be a bad guy and if she turns out to be a bad guy I don’t lose my money.

Has anyone used Escrow.com? Is there any other way of doing this that you can think of?[/QUOTE]

Hey Scruff,
I work at Escrow.com so I thought I’d jump in and give you some info on how we work for saddles, tack, and most other equipment, and why this process is far safer than PayPal.

Let’s start with how an Escrow.com contract works:

1. You log onto Escrow.com and start a transaction. Transaction creation takes you through exactly what will happen in the transaction, including the length of the inspection period of the saddle, and the conditions you expect to be met.
2. Your seller agrees to your terms on Escrow.com
3. You pay into an Escrow.com account using a check, wire transfer, PayPal or credit card
4. You receive the saddle from the seller and have however many days to check it over. If you don’t accept it you return it at your own cost.
5. If you are happy with the saddle, you accept it and we’ll release the money to the seller.

Under our standard agreements, equipment must be returned to the seller in the same condition it was sent to you. The seller is protected too and they have the same number of days you did to inspect the returned saddle before your funds are refunded to you.

Now let’s compare that to PayPal: under PayPal’s return policies, you can return an item if it’s damaged, or not as described when it was sold to you. Assuming this saddle is exactly as described, but simply doesn’t fit your horse well your seller can refuse the return by supplying the tracking number showing that the item was delivered and matched the description, forcing you into a dispute which doesn’t always go your way.

PayPal is also not a great option if you are the seller. That dispute/return process stays open for 6 months after the sale happens. That means that cash that you got for your old saddles 6 months ago might suddenly be taken back out of your account if a dishonest buyer claims the saddle you sold them was faulty.

I hope this helps, and good luck with the purchase!

Jackson Elsegood
General Manager, Escrow.com

[scruffy_the_cat]

This seems great but how weird/kinda sketchy that you found my post and joined COTH just to answer it. You must have a really good Internet search running to pick up your business name.

Anyway, thanks for the info. It does seem good to have the funds kept in a neutral place for the duration of the trial.

[scruffy_the_cat]

Followup- while it does seem very good to keep the funds in a neutral place- the Escrow.com reviews are too overwhelmingly negative for me to trust the process. Paypal it is.