Recently, with enviable regularity, I see posts and comments on freelancers and customers on Habré that colorfully describe how they were thrown. Let's not talk about the fact that the client and the employee must be chosen wisely, the best of the existing couple of hundred offers; that it is necessary to obtain a doctorate in psychology in order to reveal the “scammer” at the negotiation stage; that it is necessary to send a trimmed idle demo version with built-in backdoors; that one should strictly stand on the principle of “morning chairs, evening money” - this has often been sucked in posts and comments. Let's talk better about what will make your life boring, bland and tasteless, solving this problem in the bud - about escrow services.

What is Escrow ?

For us (customers and developers) it is important that escrow is such a thing that will allow:

• in the case of the disappearance of the customer (auntie’s disease; acute absence of the Internet, time and willingness to pay; alien invasion of the native city), still get money;
  in the event of a worker’s disappearance (uncle's untimely death; acute lack of Internet, time and desire to work; alien abduction), after all, don’t lose money.
  ')
  
  The system works in "normal mode" is very simple:
  
  1. The customer (B) and the developer (R) agree on the conditions (TK) and the amount ($$$);
     (TK) and ($$$) are transferred to the intermediary (E);
     (P) performs work and transfers it to (E) and (3);
     (3) happy and unlocking ($$$);
     (P) receives ($$$) and is also satisfied.
     
     
     In the case of untimely loss of (Z) or (P), the process becomes somewhat more complicated and looks like this:
     
     1. The customer (B) and the developer (R) agree on the conditions (TK) and the amount ($$$);
        (TK) and ($$$) are transferred to the intermediary (E);
        (3) disappears;
        (P) performs work and transfers it (E);
        (E) checks the compliance of work (TK) and unlocks ($$$);
        (P) satisfied, because it receives ($$$).
        
        ... or so:
        
        1. The customer (B) and the developer (R) agree on the conditions (TK) and the amount ($$$);
           (TK) and ($$$) are transferred to the intermediary (E);
           (P) disappears;
           (3) refers to (E);
           (E) unlocks ($$$);
           (3) is experiencing ambivalent feelings, since, on the one hand, the work is not done, but the money is not lost.
           
           
           Attention: even if escrow is used, you can make your life turbulent and interesting without reading the terms of reference, using the service rules or setting the wrong dates!
           
           

           Where to get it?

           
           Almost all self-respecting freelance exchanges provide escrow-services. Yes, Russian too - only to find this service is a bit more difficult, due to the lack of an established term (for example, on free-lance.ru this is called “Deal without risk”). Usually it is not free; decide for yourself what is more important for you: pay a small amount (sometimes a fixed amount, sometimes a percentage of the transaction) to an intermediary or have the opportunity to join the brethren of the cast and talk about it for many years with anguish.
           
           If everything is completely bad, and the exchange for which you have found a client does not provide this service - all is not lost, you can find an independent ecrow-service on the network. ... however, this is a topic for another conversation ...
           
           

           Personal impressions

           
           ... positive. During the four years of working with rentacoder.com as a developer, I had to use their arbitration 4 times (three times - to withdraw money, one - alas, to give) - there were no complaints about the quality and speed of the service.