Bitcoin Forum

I plan to use LocalBitcoins for the very first time.  The trade will be for a physical item that will be shipped to me. I would like to have the BTC held in ESCROW until the item arrives.

I would just like to know what precautions I have to take and how safe LocalBitcoin's ESCROW system is?  Do I have to watch out for anything?


Thanks!

LocalBitcoins is pretty legit and straight forward. Shouldn't be any surprises unless you release the funds prior to getting the item you bought for some reason.

The only risk is that if you wire money to seller's account, but he did not release the bitcoin on localbitcoins, when you are the buyer. you can only appeal to localbitcoins, and this process is not easy

There shouldn't be any issues as long you retain all proof/records and under no circumstances release the Bitcoins until the item is received by you.

The escrow there is pretty safe, the funds in it won't be released until you say that you have received the item and you can't have it back either until the trade is complete but if there is a dispute and the sender claims that the product was delivered to you and you say you haven't then both the parties will be asked to provide proofs for their claims and Localbitcoins will then decide which side proofs are heavier, they will also consider reputation of both the parties based on how many previous trades they have done successfully.

But if there is no dispute then you and sender both don't have to worry about anything and you should release the escrow as soon as you receive the items. The things you should watch out for is, make sure the sender provides the courier tracking ID and other details (weight, size, etc) right after he confirms that the items were shipped and contact the courier service to make sure that the all the details he provided were correct.

since I have no feedback on localbitcoins that could effect the outcome of a dispute? ..if it were to turn into the worst case scenario..

It could.. LBC will slightly favor the one whose reputation is higher than you but he would still need to provide the proofs and if they see the proofs are reliable then they would rule in favor of him. Not saying this would happen or that the sender will do this but just saying that it could happen.

Dealing with physical goods is tricky. LBC can't check the item(s) the sender sent, were the same ones he said he did, he can very well send the wrong or damaged goods and if it comes to the dispute, the sender will provide the courier receipt that he sent the items and based on his previous trades and feedbacks LBC might end up taking his side.

there should not be any problem when dealing with localbitcoin, aside from some account that can be bought for scamming purpose, especially those with high trust , but i don't know if they are still selling their account there

What? What does that have to do with what OP is asking for? If he uses escrow it wont matter if the seller or buyer has high trust or not as long as he provides enough proof in case something happens and someone wants to scam him.

this is the point, the scammer can scam you even with escrow, via charge back with paypal/skrill(not in this case) or with faulty item

what if the item work only for the first few days and then start not working anymore(and obvious the seller know this)? there were some case related to this, escrow can do nothing in this scenario...

so it is better to avoid dealing with scammer, the trust is always important

otherwise there will be no point in the trust system, because there is escrow...you know

I still dont see how trust would affect that, if the seller knows the item wont work in the future, what does it matter if he is trusted or not? He can do it anyways, of course its good to avoid dealing with scammers (lol?) but the trust system wont guarantee that nor that the item will be functional for more than 2 days.

you should always pick a trusted member as midleman
like tomatocage

Yup tomatocage is a trusted user, but be sure that you not fall for a fake i.e tomat0cage or something like this !!

Its very important just reach out for real person not fake because many members using these usernames with change of few words and cheating just careful about your money

how can't you see it? it is obvious that trust does matter, with not trusted member they can send you garbage item, or like i said item that cannot function properly or for more than 1 week

escrow isn't everything and it does not cover you 100%, like many think

Telling you that local bitcoin is full of rippers or vice versa will not be appropriate, but do your due diligence before trading with anybody escrow or no escrow.
Ask for contacts of his past customers or clients as the case may be, get his phone number, anything that can safe guard you.

thanks for all the input guys..

does anyone else think their buy/sell prices and system is pretty confusing?  ..the BTC prices are in some cases outrageous..

The BTC prices aren't set by localbitcoins, but is set by the traders who sell or buy on there . I find the platform for trading pretty straight forward otherwise.

well i use localbitcoins sometimes it as a escrow and its 85% secure to navigate and negociate there

Many members using localbitcoins without any problem just use your mind and use escrow before any deal is best way

Local bit coins has two way authentications methods, try to apply these methods in every transactions, they even detect the platforms of the web browsers during sign in, still I have no clue on the part of real verification details of the personal information whether to be trusted or not.

You can compare if their price is outrageous or not by checking bitcoinwisdom.com

The exchange link they given their is not working and still it is searching it's DNS, why they left out some other fastest exchanges ? My signature trading is pretty fast than those.

Localbitcoins has a very safe escrow service.

Just to co-sign again, you will be fine with LBC.