Whither Escrow Payment Facility?

[sanjaysagrawal]

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Hi,

I would like to understand how payment reaches from the buyer to the writer. I would like to know if CC has an escrow facility for this purpose.

I come from sites such as RentACoder, Elance and the like, where the site owners have a facility to collect payment upfront from the buyer when the latter signs up a writer for an assignment through an open bid. This payment is released to the writer after the latter submits the work, and the buyer certifies that the work is indeed complete and up to desired expectation.

In case of dispute, the site owners act as arbitrators. For this entire process, the site deducts some percentage from the escrow amount (so the writer gets that much amount less).

Regards,
Sanjay.
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[Ed]

CC uses PayPal payments only.

Ed

[sanjaysagrawal]

Hello Ed,

Thanks for your response.

Is it that the customer will make payment to the writer through paypal, after they approve of the content submitted?

Regards,
Sanjay.

[constant-content]

The process is this:

The content is put on CC for sale but the writer.
CC handles the purchase from the customer via credit card or paypal.
CC pays the writer via PayPal the first of the month once they reach the $50 payment threshold.

[sanjaysagrawal]

Hello,

Thanks again.

In the section on "Public Requests", potential buyers request for content from writers. As a potential writer, I click on the "View Description" which takes me to the specs from the customer. The customer is not very sure of the exact amount they are budgeting for the article, so they specify, let's say USD 40+ for the work. Clicking further on the "See Q/A" takes me to the "Your Message" box. If I do not have the article with me in ready stock, I will have to compose it from scratch in order to fulfill the customer's requirement. So do I indicate the exact price (say USD 45) and the delivery time (say 5 days) in this box?

After the customer approves my price and delivery schedule in their response to the thread, then does CC take this money (USD 45) from the customer upfront? Or is it a matter of trust between the customer and the writer that the former _will_ pay to CC after the writer has composed the article and uploaded it to CC? And then money is paid by CC to the writer once the total collection from all such transactions exceeds the set threshold?

I eagerly await your direction and guidance on this one.

Thanks and regards,
Sanjay.

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi,
In most cases, you go ahead and write the article and price it in the range that the requester wants. Negotiations and bids don't really take place here that often. Occassionally but that's not what this site is about. The requesters here don't want to sort through bids and resumes, they want to see a written piece that meets their needs.

Several other writers may be writing similar articles which means there's a bit of competition. The requester will have several articles to choose from and can pick the one that best meets his needs for quality and budget. There's no guarantee your article will be the one picked. It's all written on speculation. If it's a common topic, the article may sell at a later time to someone else.

No money changes hands until the requester sees an article they want to buy. At that point, they purchase it. The money goes into your CC account but you don't get paid until you've earned $50 and the first of the month rolls along.

[sanjaysagrawal]

Hello,

Thank you for explaining the site's business model. It will take some time getting used to it.

Thank you again,

Regards,
Sanjay.