alert The fund can't be withdrawal from Epik.com via Masterbucks wallet

[enamebroker]

It happened on 23rd Aug 2022 and this matter lasted almost one month without any process. Masterbucks.com declined my fund withdrawal and disabled the button of fund withdrawal. And I contacted Epik.com and got no further action even if Rob Monster got involved in it for two weeks. All the time I was told in email by management review.

What is wrong with Epik.com? Do you think it is normal to disable fund withdrawal? How can I get back my fund from Epik.com? Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[okaydomains]

@bmugford makes a solid point about how empty the site is - I agree its hard to see how an empty site could be profitable even if such sites are very easy to monetize directly (without ads).

I can however share that I own the most basic local business directory website you can imagine and it has made low $XXXX/month for 10+ years with 0 marketing effort. Mix of paid listings and data deals (that's all I can share though). So my experience jives with @bhartzer.

I think its because in the new search engine world its not about people actually visiting your website - that's pretty rare now with Google OneBox / snippeting everything to death, and made even more so now with ChatGPT. They just don't share traffic like they used to.

But you can still influence what they show in the SERPs on Google.com by repeating your information all over the internet, even on low quality sites (and I expect this to be exacerbated by ChatGPT and Bard). So a lot of marketers will buy paid listings on just about any site with traffic just to have a second order effect on Google/Bing results.

There's an awesome interview around this topic with Drew Wash, the CEO of Towing.com, on Keith DeBoer's Brandable Insider podcast (episode #61).

 

[bhartzer]

All I'm saying is that last year when I *was* an admin, TrustRatings was profitable at that time.

I'm surprised that it hasn't been taken down like Epik took down all the other sites. It's clear to me that it's been abandoned now, and not being maintained.

 

[JoJoLaruda]

Rob Monster and the epik register are of strong moral fiber. They are a register of good faith and their is a reason millions of domainers moved there and that they were nice enough to give the .com transfer-in domainer discount.

Are you talking about this same company that has stolen from its customers???? Are you on the same planet???? Do you know what means, strong moral fiber???? You are wrong!!!!

 

[bmugford]

The new Domain Sherpa podcast with John Berryhill touches on Epik.

https://www.domainsherpa.com/dtrh03232023/

Brad

 

[bmugford]

In the last (6) months Epik has -

134 total TrustPilot reviews.
110 are 1-star.

Of those (110) reviews Epik has only responded to (14) of them.

None of those responses are helpful.

They are are complete nonsense like this to @Kathleen Kalaf, who they screwed out of $91K in late September 2022.

Hello Kathleen - Masterbucks is who you are reviewing here, not Epik. Please remove and place your review on the appropriate TrustPilot account. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/masterbucks.com
You have been paid out to your Masterbucks by Epik which is where the transaction took place. Epik is not holding your funds, you were paid out. You are currently waiting on Masterbucks to process your cashout. Masterbucks is working on processing cashouts daily. Thank you.

Masterbucks has its own TrustPilot page now.
21 reviews. 21 1-star reviews.

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/masterbucks.com

 

[GNP]

All I can really speak about is the ones that I had my hands on (as an admin or what I was running). DNProtect was profitable,...

I would agree with you that it was profitable, but it also was co-owned by Bill Hartzer (until Epik took it from him). So they couldn't keep running that business without sharing the profit...

 

[bhartzer]

I would agree with you that it was profitable, but it also was co-owned by Bill Hartzer (until Epik took it from him). So they couldn't keep running that business without sharing the profit...

Just to clarify, DNProtect was co-owned (and co-founded) by me. It was profitable when it was up and running. Until it was shut down and until Epik, Inc. took all of DNProtect's revenue. I never saw even .01 cent of that revenue taken in. Epik, Inc. didn't "share" any revenue, they took 100% of it.

 

[bmugford]

The new Domain Sherpa podcast with John Berryhill touches on Epik.

https://www.domainsherpa.com/dtrh03232023/

Brad

The Epik part is mainly from -

54:35 - 1:09:20

Thanks for your comments @jberryhill.

Brad

 

[branding]

The Epik part is mainly from -

54:35 - 1:09:20

Thanks for your comments @jberryhill.

Brad

"Epik was a Pioneer, in embezzlement as a service".

Lol

 

[branding]

I usually don't follow these podcasts/ videos. Too American for me, no offense.

Good info there at the selected interval stated by Brad. It's a reminder on how small of a niche domaining is when you look at the bigger picture, to me at least.

Thanks @bmugford and @jberryhill.

 

[D Haynes]

The Epik part is mainly from -

54:35 - 1:09:20

Thanks for your comments @jberryhill.

Brad

I might have to give it a listen. I stopped listening to Domain Sherpa a while back when it went down hill. There would literally be 15 mins of blowing smoke up each others arses before they got into anything.

 

[GNP]

Just to clarify, DNProtect was co-owned (and co-founded) by me. It was profitable when it was up and running. Until it was shut down and until Epik, Inc. took all of DNProtect's revenue. I never saw even .01 cent of that revenue taken in. Epik, Inc. didn't "share" any revenue, they took 100% of it.

Thanks for the clarification. Yikes, that is even worse.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Just to clarify, DNProtect was co-owned (and co-founded) by me. It was profitable when it was up and running. Until it was shut down and until Epik, Inc. took all of DNProtect's revenue. I never saw even .01 cent of that revenue taken in. Epik, Inc. didn't "share" any revenue, they took 100% of it.

Do you know where your companion is hiding now?

 

[Samer]

The Epik part is mainly from -

54:35 - 1:09:20

Thanks for your comments @jberryhill.

Brad

That’s exactly right. It was brilliant.
They were fair to all sides.
@jberryhill was fair to point out what makes people loyal to epik they had the CEO’s personal touch; problem is; new CEO has no respect for domainers, nor confront these problems and Rob Monster is gone.

Thanks again for pointing out this time frame; i was one of epik’s most loyal; i’m down to 149 (dwindling) At this rate, should be zero soon, i really enjoyed that snippet, Brad, so much so, i’m watching the entire episode. First since the Cyger days! Really enjoyed this; thanks so cool; i‘m going to start listening to them more; even though they wont talk epik, always; still domains; great stuff!

 

[bmugford]

That’s exactly right. It was brilliant.
They were fair to all sides.
@jberryhill was fair to point out what makes people loyal to epik they had the CEO’s personal touch; problem is; new CEO has no respect for domainer nor confront these problems and Rob Monster is gone.

It was not like the second Brian Royce arrived the company could not pay their bills.
This was obviously a problem that goes back quite some time.

Corporate abuse such as commingling of escrow funds would have been under Rob. It seems like there wasn't proper accounting as well.

Yes, Brian has been a complete disaster as CEO, but @Rob Monster dug the hole. Brian Royce kept digging.

Also, even if he is not CEO, as of last update Rob is still the Chairman and majority shareholder.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

The most damning thing in my view is Rob's radio silence.

When the shit hit the fan, he disappeared not to be seen since.

There is not even a "Sorry, I fucked up." There is absolutely nothing.

The customers are left dealing with the financial loss and hardships that come with that.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

@Samer I know it sucks when someone you trust and look up to breaches that faith and trust.

At this point though, it is what it is.

My interest is to make sure every customer that got screwed over is made whole and the people behind this debacle face accountability for their actions that lead to this outcome.

Brad

 

[NicTraders]

The Epik part is mainly from -

54:35 - 1:09:20

Thanks for your comments @jberryhill.

Brad

Very interesting - around 1:32:00 Braden said there are lots of investors who have Epik shares. And Ammar admitted that his shares came in a deal years ago and he wasn't even aware he had them. So it seems there are probably a lot more investors than we had thought.

 

[bmugford]

Very interesting - around 1:32:00 Braden said there are lots of investors who have Epik shares. And Ammar admitted that his shares came in a deal years ago and he wasn't even aware he had them. So it seems there are probably a lot more investors than we had thought.

I like how they show the IOU scene from Dumb & Dumber after talking about Epik shares.

For reference -

 

[bhartzer]

Do you know where your companion is hiding now?

No, I do not.

 

[topdom]

Can someone make a physical visit to their location and discuss things? Must we worth it. Maybe it is a one-man company, or maybe there is not any real person either and an ai-scammer is running everything.

Can we see list of tickets we created by emailing them? They are closing tickets from time to time, but I suspect most of them are never even opened.

We should be able to force them to sell their car, house, body/soul whatever , to pay their debt.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

The Russians have a movie Brother 2 on this topic

 

[bhartzer]

Can someone make a physical visit to their location and discuss things? Must we worth it. Maybe it is a one-man company, or maybe there is not any real person either and an ai-scammer is running everything.

Can we see list of tickets we created by emailing them? They are closing tickets from time to time, but I suspect most of them are never even opened.

We should be able to force them to sell their car, house, body/soul whatever , to pay their debt.

There is no physical location. The "companies" (Epik Inc and Epik Holdings, Inc.) are registered to "agent" addresses, whose job it is to represent the locations of many companies all at the same time.

 

[Future Sensors]

There is no physical location. The "companies" (Epik Inc and Epik Holdings, Inc.) are registered to "agent" addresses, whose job it is to represent the locations of many companies all at the same time.

There's a "Registered Address" and an "Agent Address".

https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_wa/602976304

 

[topdom]

Is there a criminal investigation right now, or does everyone pretend everything is ok, at govt level.
It must be easy to find/catch these people, their servers, phones; seize their assets, etc.
Can we check whether there is an investigation involving/against Epik.
???
Authorities must understand that we didn't invest in Masterbucks or take a risk.
They just decided to kill their own business and steal our money, and must be preparing to do something worse.