Almost a month, still no payments. May, payments received with a day or two. What's going on with June? Afternic support not helpful.
DM sent
Similar here. Sold a domain on June 18th "Fast Transfer". My first FT ever. The buyer got the "fast transfer" for sure. They put up an e-commerce site on it and are fully in operation.
I have still YET to receive payment.
Afternic support not very helpful.
"check your payout profile" even though in my email I stated that I verified it was working and the sale prior to that (non-fast transfer) was paid to me without issue AND FAST, days.
So, my first ever fast transfer experience stinks and I am seriously considering removing all of my 350+ domains from the FT program if its going to take this long to get paid when they clearly had the funds in their hands in order to transfer the domain to the buyer instantly. Not liking it so far.......
UPDATE: 09-JULY-2024
I replied to customer service and they replied back that there is an error on the W-9 that needs to be corrected. Apparently the business name and EIN that I added to the W-9 for this payment didnt pass validation on the form. However, I was permitted to save the form as if nothing was wrong!
(This is the first time I am using an EIN with a business entity on that profile. Those who know me know that I am colorblind. Red lettering looks black to me. I dont see messages with a pale green background easily. I rely on forms stopping me when I make an error so that I can look around for the problem.)
∙ I never received an email stating that I had a W-9 error on it or I'd have gone back and fixed it way back on 18-JUNE.
∙ On 25-JUNE I received an email saying "Congrats your funds are on the way. We have just sent you $X for the sale of <domain>." EVEN THOUGH the payout profile W-9 had a validation error on it.
∙ Not knowing there is a validation error on their W-9 I began to check my bank for payment.
∙ A few business days later and still no payment to my bank but my family and I went away for a week and I was mostly away from all of this. My bank will notify me of incoming funds anyway. I received no notice that entire time.
∙ So finally, 05-JULY, I email transaction assurance and wait.
∙ I got the first reply (above) and then the second reply (this update) and could not believe that this entire time there was a simple error on the W-9 form.
The error was my fault, yes, but:
Why allow me to to save the form with errors and continue as if the payout profile was OK?
Why not send me an email stating there is an error and I wont get paid until that error is corrected?
Why send me a congrats you've been paid email when clearly I am not paid due to pending error on W-9?
I've been selling domains at Afternic, in its various forms, for 20 years now. My first sale was June 2004. I realize that Afternic has been sold several times and code has changed but I cant be the first person this has happened to. I am a software developer since 1981 - this should never have happened.
If I would have known there was an error by not being able to leave the W-9 edit screen I would not be here writing this and would have been paid already. Now I wait and another 2-3 business days. Meanwhile the buyer received the domain
instantly and was able to put an e-commerce site on it within days. Thats the only "fast" of the fast transfer. Fast Transfer - Slow Payment.
The payment is is buggy and SLOW. If the buyer can get the domain within minutes of payment then the funds had to have been secured, no? Am I wrong? If I am someone please correct me. Otherwise why transfer the domain so fast that my registrar's email that the domain left my account happened BEFORE the Congrats you sold the domain X "fast transfer" email from Afternic?
I am sure that if I sell a domain from this point forward the payout profile is set and payment will occur "in 7-10 business days" but to me, thats too slow.
A lot needs to be improved, IMO.
