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This would only work in major cities, but I always thought there was a business in having a physical escrow service aimed specifically at selling small, high-va
by Osmium 14y ago
This would only work in major cities, but I always thought there was a business in having a physical escrow service aimed specifically at selling small, high-value items. You sell an item online, deposit it with the company (who takes a small cut; you could even mail it to them), who then pass it on to the buyer when payment is confirmed. The company can confirm it's in working order, and take some photographs for proof.
Much more pleasant for both buyer and seller. No more news stories of people getting mugged after an online ad, no more scammy eBay purchasers, the lot.
- Anechoic 14y agoThis would be a great value-added service option for the Post Office. Deposit money in an account, have it shipped to a local post office, postal worker witnesses the acceptance and opening of the package, if everything is kosher, the buyer signs a release and the money is leased to the seller. USPS already provide "witness" services for packages that are picked (for free!), just add an escrow account for 1 to 5%.
- amalag 14y agoStill doesn't help you, which postal employee is going to sit for 1/2 hour while you test your iphone and make sure it connects to your computer etc? They can only say, "yup it looks like an iphone", not whether or not it works.
- ianferrel 14y agoMost things can be tested pretty easily and quickly. This would reduce fraud considerably, since you'd have to come up with an item that would pass a cursory inspection, but still fail later. Not at all easy to do.
- otterley 14y agoescrow.com does exactly that.
- ehuna 14y agoI used escrow.com for a big purchase on eBay (over $5,000) and it worked perfectly.