Has anyone used this escrow service before?

[S Isaac]

Following on from my other thread about buying a drop-shipping business, The seller has suggested https://greenlightforsite.com/ which looks a bit armature to be honest. On the plus side, they may allow me to pay by credit card , which would give me some peace of mind (even if I have to pay a fee).

Does anyone have any experience of using these or any other escrow service?

Or any advice in general about buying a site or drop-shipping business?

I'm thinking things like non-compete clauses (which will probably be near impossible to enforce).
Complete transfer of domain, customer database, all past transactions data etc (for notification of purchase and to ask them to opt in/out of future marketing).
Social media accounts/Google Business profile etc all to form part of the purchase.
Agreement on handling disputes/returns for transactions that were made prior to my buying the business.

 

[fisicx]

I’ve recently used escrow.com. Excellent service.

With regards the purchase, you can’t transfer SM and Google accounts. All you can do is take over the accounts. Which mean you need the email address associated with the accounts. This is often a personal email account which makes it a bit complicated.

 

[DontAsk]

With regards the purchase, you can’t transfer SM and Google accounts. All you can do is take over the accounts. Which mean you need the email address associated with the accounts. This is often a personal email account which makes it a bit complicated.

It's easy if the seller changes the e-mail addresses on the accounts before the sale completes. They can change from personal to some interim hosting and then hand over the passwords for access on sale completion. Whether you trust them to do that...

 

[S Isaac]

It's easy if the seller changes the e-mail addresses on the accounts before the sale completes. They can change from personal to some interim hosting and then hand over the passwords for access on sale completion. Whether you trust them to do that...

Thanks.

It's going to be done via Escrow, so I can add this as part of the criteria.

They won't receive money unless I'm happy with what I get. I just need to make sure I ask for everything I need (which may well be loads of stuff I don't know I need too).

 

[S Isaac]

I’ve recently used escrow.com. Excellent service.

With regards the purchase, you can’t transfer SM and Google accounts. All you can do is take over the accounts. Which mean you need the email address associated with the accounts. This is often a personal email account which makes it a bit complicated.

Thanks, do you know how much they charge?

I'm looking at buying for £9k if that helps.

 

[Shopclicks]

I'm looking at buying for £9k if that helps.

How big is the database and what is the returning customer rate?

Have you made enquiries with the drop-shipper to make sure you can get an account?

 

[S Isaac]

Around 10k orders, not sure on the returning customers. Only way to really tell for sure if ask for full access,

Not asked the drop-shipper as this is not being disclosed at this stage.

 

[Shopclicks]

Around 10k orders, not sure on the returning customers. Only way to really tell for sure if ask for full access,

A database is pretty much useless if there's no repeat business. Can't they at least show you the backend of the site? Are these the type of products people buy more than once? Have they shown you turnover, gross & net yet?

Not asked the drop-shipper as this is not being disclosed at this stage.

When do you find out?

 

[fisicx]

Around 10k orders, not sure on the returning customers. Only way to really tell for sure if ask for full access,

Over how many years? What’s the average order value? How many returns do they get?

What is the turnover and then the profit?

There are way too many unanswered question to be able to tell if £9k is a good price.

If you don’t get to see the books and the backend of the site you can’t do due diligence.

If the site is profitable and just dropshipping why are they selling? It seems odd for a hands off business.

 

[S Isaac]

Over how many years? What’s the average order value? How many returns do they get?

What is the turnover and then the profit?

There are way too many unanswered question to be able to tell if £9k is a good price.

If you don’t get to see the books and the backend of the site you can’t do due diligence.

If the site is profitable and just dropshipping why are they selling? It seems odd for a hands off business.

Over the last 6/7 years.
Not sure on average value and returns, but will be part of the 'disclosure' I'll go through with them before proceeding.
I have limited access to the backed, so I can some info, but really not enough.
It's not a fully automated. They place the orders separately with the drop shipper instead of a fully integrated end-to-end automated system. I'm fine with this on the basis that I will be able to automate it or outsource it fairly cheaply.
He's selling as he want the money for a property.

Edit: Have had a video call with him, where he shared his screen and quickly went through the site back-end and his paypal account showing the transactions. I'm guessing asking for a CSV extract from his paypal account (done live on another video call) is the safest way to verify the sales and returns/disputes etc. He uses PayPal exclusively so all trasactions should be there, including his payment to the supplier.

 

[ColinJones]

Following on from my other thread about buying a drop-shipping business, The seller has suggested greenlightforsite.com which looks a bit armature to be honest. On the plus side, they may allow me to pay by credit card , which would give me some peace of mind (even if I have to pay a fee).

Does anyone have any experience of using these or any other escrow service?

Or any advice in general about buying a site or drop-shipping business?

I'm thinking things like non-compete clauses (which will probably be near impossible to enforce).
Complete transfer of domain, customer database, all past transactions data etc (for notification of purchase and to ask them to opt in/out of future marketing).
Social media accounts/Google Business profile etc all to form part of the purchase.
Agreement on handling disputes/returns for transactions that were made prior to my buying the business.

Unless the escrow service is FCA authorised in the UK, then it is almost certainly fraudulent, and just waiting to steal your money or goods !!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are many fraudulent escrow services lurking around out there, and they are constantly regenerating and changing.
Nowadays, most look extremely professional and convincing, and employ skilled criminals to guide you through to your ultimate loss.

So be really, really careful.

The only escrow service that I am aware of that is suitable for what you are asking, which is FCA authorised as a Payment Service Provider, is Transpact.com.
[Disclosure - I work for Transpact].
But since Transpact.com offers a high quality service at very competitive prices, you can certainly use them for what you are asking.

If anyone else knows of possible other FCA authorised firms that offer escrow services, please add them to this thread.

 

[S Isaac]

Yes, the escrow service mentioned looks a bit amateur, but if I could pay using credit card, I was happy to use it.

Will look at your one now too.

 

[S Isaac]

Unless the escrow service is FCA authorised in the UK, then it is almost certainly fraudulent, and just waiting to steal your money or goods !!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are many fraudulent escrow services lurking around out there, and they are constantly regenerating and changing.
Nowadays, most look extremely professional and convincing, and employ skilled criminals to guide you through to your ultimate loss.

So be really, really careful.

The only escrow service that I am aware of that is suitable for what you are asking, which is FCA authorised as a Payment Service Provider, is Transpact.com.
[Disclosure - I work for Transpact].
But since Transpact.com offers a high quality service at very competitive prices, you can certainly use them for what you are asking.

If anyone else knows of possible other FCA authorised firms that offer escrow services, please add them to this thread.

Am I missing something?

Your fees are showing as £5.98 for a £9k purchase.

 

[Nathanto]

Am I missing something? Your fees are showing as £5.98 for a £9k purchase.

I've used Transpact before now and yes they're legit and the fees are as cheap as chips; I suppose if you think about it there's no reason why a £9,000 transaction should cost any more in escrow fees than a £190 transaction.

 

[S Isaac]

I've used Transpact before now and yes they're legit and the fees are as cheap as chips; I suppose if you think about it there's no reason why a £9,000 transaction should cost any more in escrow fees than a £190 transaction.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to pay less in fees, but I thought an Escrow service helped ensure there were no issues in a sale. There's no way they can do that for under a tenner.

Surely, that's just a money transfer fee. Anything requiring some human intervention is going to cost a lot more.

 

[S Isaac]

The more I look at https://greenlightforsite.com/, the more I think the whole thing is a scam. I think I'm being shown a viable business, but the scam is getting me to transfer my money via this 'escrow' service who will then just keep it.

Or am I being ultra paranoid?

 

[fisicx]

greenlightforsite has a mobile number in the UK and no contact address. I wouldn't trust them.

Use escrow.com.

 

[NickGrogan]

Both the escrow sites look a bit dodgy, I wouldn't use either of them.

Why would you not pay more and use a decent well-known site?

I don't know if the escrow service is a scam, but the "business" you're talking about buying for £9k sounds like one.

 

[ja12362]

The more I look at , the more I think the whole thing is a scam. I think I'm being shown a viable business, but the scam is getting me to transfer my money via this 'escrow' service who will then just keep it.

Or am I being ultra paranoid?

I'm dealing with a situation similar to yours. A seller from Canada wants to sell his drop-shipping website using a specific Escrow Service (greenlight). He says he's selling because he wants to focus on his more profitable real estate business.

However, there are several red flags:

• The business is listed with a UK agency that has a fake address.
• All businesses listed by this agency share a similar logo, which is odd since they sell different products.
• The Escrow service offers a "7-day inspection" period, but it's impossible to verify sales or traffic in that time because the marketing transfer takes longer.
• They use OScommerce, which I've never heard of, but the transaction records seem real.
• The seller refuses to use Escrow,com , which is more reliable and offers a longer inspection (30 days) period. He also won't allow the use of Google Analytics to check the website's traffic, which shows as zero on all public tracking sites.

After writing everything down, it seems like it might be a scam.

Could you give me more detail so I can see how similar the seller is between us.

 

[NickGrogan]

Why would the buyer let the seller choose the Escrow service? That seems like a bad idea

 

[ja12362]

Why would the buyer let the seller choose the Escrow service? That seems like a bad idea

I asked my seller to use a different service and he said no. I asked him to use something else for analytics, he said no.

 

[ja12362]

Does this sound like whack?

£3.5k for drop shipping site which generates average ~£1000 per month profit after all costs including advertising?

 

[S Isaac]

I'm dealing with a situation similar to yours. A seller from Canada wants to sell his drop-shipping website using a specific Escrow Service (greenlight). He says he's selling because he wants to focus on his more profitable real estate business.

However, there are several red flags:

• The business is listed with a UK agency that has a fake address.
• All businesses listed by this agency share a similar logo, which is odd since they sell different products.
• The Escrow service offers a "7-day inspection" period, but it's impossible to verify sales or traffic in that time because the marketing transfer takes longer.
• They use OScommerce, which I've never heard of, but the transaction records seem real.
• The seller refuses to use Escrow,com , which is more reliable and offers a longer inspection (30 days) period. He also won't allow the use of Google Analytics to check the website's traffic, which shows as zero on all public tracking sites.

After writing everything down, it seems like it might be a scam.

Could you give me more detail so I can see how similar the seller is between us.

It's probably the same person! Is he going by the name David Holtzman with you too?

The transactions are (kind of) real as I had a friend place an order and it showed both on oscommerce (a legitimate, albeit old system) as well as on PayPal transactions.

It's definitely a scam. Either all transactions are legit and then refunded or something, but the Escrow bit is definitely dodgy too.

 

[S Isaac]

I think the usadropshipsolutions is part of the scam too. I recorded the video call I had with him and picked up their email address under payment details. I asked him about it and he said it was the dropshipper. Also what little info on them there is don't look legit either.

The payment receipt on Paypal for my mate showed usadropshipsolutions.

Doesn't look like I can upload screenshots on here though or I'd post a few.

 

[S Isaac]

He claimed business had been going several years, but domain age is about 6 or 7 months old. When challenged, he said his credit card had declined and godaddy had suspended the account/expired the domain and when hen put new details it it 'reset the clock'. I don't believe this, and usadropshipsolutions also claims to be running for years and is only just over a year too.

 

[ja12362]

It's probably the same person! Is he going by the name David Holtzman with you too?

The transactions are (kind of) real as I had a friend place an order and it showed both on oscommerce (a legitimate, albeit old system) as well as on PayPal transactions.

It's definitely a scam. Either all transactions are legit and then refunded or something, but the Escrow bit is definitely dodgy too.

Same person!!! David Holtzman! How many people has a scammed???

This Escrow service company is also in on it. They have a UK address in London, but then when I called up, I found out they are based in US? Why does he not like other services.

Thank you!!! I LOVE YOU!

Just saved me money or lots of headache with bank as I was gonna use credit card too!

 

[S Isaac]

The listings have now been removed. I've emailed the company that listed them and warned them he's out to scam people. Hopefully he didn't manage to get any money out of anyone and just ended up having to pay the fee to list them,

 

[ja12362]

He claimed business had been going several years, but domain age is about 6 or 7 months old. When challenged, he said his credit card had declined and godaddy had suspended the account/expired the domain and when hen put new details it it 'reset the clock'. I don't believe this, and usadropshipsolutions also claims to be running for years and is only just over a year too.

Its an organized scam. He has a few people working with him on this. When I called up greenlight, the woman on the phone was pushing me to trust him. Why was a lady of a completely different organization pushing me so much to trust him? They also changed their phone numbers few times on greenlight.

 

[ja12362]

The listings have now been removed. I've emailed the company that listed them and warned them he's out to scam people. Hopefully he didn't manage to get any money out of anyone and just ended up having to pay the fee to list them,

Thank you for that. When I saw you post this, I realised the kind of fool I was for even having discussions with people on whether or not I should purchase it.

He should me his fake paypal all prepped when I had a video call.

 

[Alex samin]

Oof just found this thread. Literally happened to me exact same dropship model and this same damned "escrow". That "escrow" screwed me over they are just frauds and not legit so anyone seeing this there's no guessing now it's a scam confirmed the hard way. I guess expensive lesson learned, only use proper FCA firms not scammers.