Escrow.com has a bright future ahead of it, as long as new ownership makes the right moves.
Dear Freelancer.com,
Congratulations on your acquisition of Escrow.com. It is a great company that just about everyone in the domain name industry uses, and uses often.
When you bought Escrow.com for $7.5 million, I knew you didn’t have a goal of merely milking the cash cow. As your CEO Matt Barrie told me on the Domain Name Wire Podcast, you want more. You want to grow the company. That makes sense.
But I implore you, please…don’t mess up Escrow.com.
I was surprised to learn yesterday that Brandon Abbey left Escrow.com. I don’t know any more about the circumstances than what you told DomainInvesting.com. I’m sure you have your reasons, and it’s up to you what you do with your business.
Keep in mind that Escrow services are kind of like a bank. Trust is critical. Escrow services need to “know their customer”, and domain name investors were comfortable having Brandon at the helm. They knew that, push come to shove, they could count on Brandon to get a transaction done. They also knew Brandon would run a safe, licensed service.
Also, remember that Escrow.com was built on the backs of domain name investors. Escrow.com supports the community and domainers support Escrow.com. There is a mutual trust.
There are certainly some features and improvements to be made, such as a better user interface (especially for end user domain buyers and sellers).
Before completing your product roadmap, however, I highly recommend getting feedback from domain name investors. Hold some focus groups or one-on-one conversations. Don’t dismiss the feedback of your long-time employees, either.
I’ve watched this industry for a long time, and there are examples of new ownership teams shooting themselves in the foot by not understanding their customers. Let’s make sure Escrow.com isn’t another example of this.
I feel a Moniker coming!
Andrew has some good points. I don’t think a Moniker is coming though.
IMO, they will fix a broken product on the inside. Andrew mentioned himself, UI needs an update. And there’s a reason – most of the dev team was outsourced from eastern Europe. I am sure that is going to change. To me it is ironic that an Escrow company had contractors working on sensitive data in the first place.
Yes Brandon was a great guy, but there’s more to it.
For what it’s worth, and before everyone panics, I had a recent and very positive idea-sharing and feedback phone meeting with ‘the new guy’ Jackson Elsegood. I was impressed by what I heard, and I am excited to see how the platform will evolve under this new ownership. I’m sure I’m not the only longtime client they’ve been speaking with over the last few months. Of course I will sorely miss working with Brandon. He was (and still is) a total professional and I hope to work with him again.
Agreed. Had a similar convo.
Well said Andrew.
Some more digging into Freelancer.com practices and my gut feeling tell me that there is something wrong with that company and I’m kinda worried about the future of Escrow.com …
I’ve read a lot of stories about low quality clients support (mainly outsourced in low-cost countries, poorly trained …), favoring quantity over quality approach, ripoff fees, hidden and/or unjustified charges, withholding clients funds, wrongly executed poor verification process, and other traps and “scams” …
It looks that under a “glossy” tech surface we have a can of worms …
Just a couple of random examples of their practices and “reputation”: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.freelancer.com
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Freelancercom/internet/Freelancercom-Freelancerfreelancer-dot-com-Freelancercom-is-a-SCAM-FRAUD-Stay-Away-941824
We know what KYC and anti-money laundering laws are, and also that commercial, financial malpractices and frauds are not acceptable and should be heavily sanctioned by local authorities.
And I’ve my own idea of why they decided to purchase Escrow.com … it’s up to you to guess …
I’d suggest local financial authorities, also in California, to monitor and accurately control how they manage all the business, including “monetary services”, which in many countries are a regulated, licensed activity.
You can find negative information about almost any company if you try hard enough. Looking at only your first link TrustPilot.com, freelancer has a higher score than PayPal or Microsoft.
Just give them a chance.
First, why are you hiding under an anonymous “net” name? scared of putting your face on what you are saying?
“You can find negative information about almost any company if you try hard enough. ”
That’s a silly, nonsense way of approaching a problem.
We are talking about Freelance.com, not about some other company, so we specifically focus on that.
The couple of links I’ve provided are just quick, not exhaustive, random, examples regarding only their online “reputation”.
I’ve reviewed many other facts which support my view, it’s not just some online opinions …
Brandon ousting (I’m sure he didn’t leave spontaneously …) is just one more confirmation of what I think …
We use Escrow, and we are one of its partners as well. Just to be clear in advance with the new owners: if something goes wrong and we found out any sort of mismanagement, scam or business malpractice at Escrow we are not going to hesitate one sec in asking local financial authorities and police intervention (cyber-crimes dept), coupled with our usual strong legal representation.
And yes, it’s a warning 🙂
If the new owners truly keep a clear focus on what an escrow transaction really requires, then maybe it’ll be a positive.
Too often, the rhetoric sounds fine, but, new management go beyond fixing what needs to be fixed, and begin re-inventing the business – the old ‘new has to be better, because its new…’ group-think, which often it isn’t better.
Freelancer….resist the urge to re-invent a winning culture – and, losing the guy who understands people, and understands what an Escrow culture requires – and who built the winning culture – is NOT a good start…
…What ain’t broke don’t need fixing…
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Glad to hear people have already been contacted by new ownership…that’s a great sign.
To be clear, I’m not saying Freelancer.com will screw it up. I’m asking them to make sure not too.
I guess I wasn’t the only one who has been anxious about Freelancer acquiring escrow. I cosign this article whole-heartedly. PLEASE do not re-invent the wheel, Escrow.com is perfect exactly the way it is today, do not mess this one up.
Andrew…
Why is my previous comment invisible?….not part of this conversation?…I posted it some hours ago
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It’s showing now, right?
Yes, thanks…See it now.
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If they screw up, maybe someone else will get the domainers happy by buying my name DomainEscrowAttorney.com
Hopefully Escrow.com might bring in th £ sterling as a currency in place of that euro thing !
We’ve used Escrow.com from their inception, zero client complaints. Any added fuss and interjecting and we’d have to look for a Paypal or Chase Bank clone. That domain name is the mollifier we need for first-timers, but an extant monster brand could serve.
One kvetch, DNHolding uses GoDaddy during the payment plan, so we rarely promote it. GD is tailored for rubes–strategically callow and disingenuously inefficient. The transfer lag, hosting nightmare, upsells and mousetrapping…no. Plus, half of our buyers are female or are not leering Nascar yokels. And GD’s ‘don’t git it and not our problem’ attitude towards the thefts off of their platform is a complete dealbreaker. (GD couldn’t ring up a forensic tech law firm, at a cost of .000001 percent of their embarrassing T&A ad placements for the day? Hacks.)