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.

 

[Amansaifi812]

Since the amount is not that high I don’t care about it.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

My last withdrawal was August 27-29, 5.000 euros, then there was no commission. Now there is a commission, but they do not work with the euro. It’s good that at least I took the euro.

 

[Digital Nomad]

I just contacted customer support and they said the fee existed in September.

The problem is it may have existed during the maintenance, but we couldn't see it. As @Igor Gabrielan stated there was no commission in August, but I can't verify this personally.

 

[AEProgram]

Epik has had PayPal restored for months. One has nothing to do with the other.

lol you are not going to reason with this guy. He really thinks there is a chance that epik copied and pasted paypals agreement because of a paypal requirement

It made sense to me that this was Paypal-driven so I said that theory.

I didn’t even want to look it up but because I’m curious now—if you simply google the addendum title, many other payment companies and wallets have added the same TOS addendum with the exact same wording.

Braintree Payments -
https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-con...t-Services-Agreement-_-Braintree-Payments.pdf

Hyperwallet -
https://www.hyperwallet.com/data-protection-addendum/

Or-Bey (not a payment company, it’s a woven fabric distributor—odd) -
https://or-bey.com/en/paypal-user-agreement-restricted-activities-and-8/

A Ukranian 911 (?) website -
https://911.lviv.ua/2021/04/07/the-...ajor-review-words-running-british-flashcards/

Zanzani (selling aluminum rotors) -
https://www.motobi.com/consumer-agreement-link-or-unlink-a-payment-method-6/

Payersite (okay back to payments company) -
https://payersite.com/payeer/online-wallet-for-money-transfers-online-payments-5/

There’s many more. A lot of them are addendums, like in Epik’s case, but some even have it on the main TOS or TOC. It’s clearly a Paypal thing. Most likely something to do with using their APIs, mixed with country regulations.

Additionally, legal template websites like Law Insider have this same clause for everyone to use.
https://www.lawinsider.com/clause/account-limitations


PS Apart from religiously commenting here, I work in FinTech Compliance and I cover LegalTech corporate products

1. You are in fintech compliance and you didn't know that for almost 10 years Braintree is owned by PayPal? Just like with Venmo (owned by paypal) you will see PayPal in their agreement https://venmo.com/legal/us-user-agreement/

2. The lawinsider link is a sample only, to see how it is really used, google the words "Limitations are implemented to help protect" and you will see that normal companies will put their own name in place on paypal.

3. If PayPal's legal department comes across the Masterbucks page, they will probably shut down their account. If they think the bad rep Masterbucks now has is causing damage to PayPal, they might sue. They might claim that people could be misled to think Masterbucks and Paypal are related because on the page it says " we may take action to protect PayPal, our users, a third party" https://masterbucks.com/restricted This looks like MB is paypal and there are third parties.

4. People risk losing their paypal account and destroying their business if they follow your advice. Please edit your post or ask for deletion because NP is high on search engines and someone might blindly think you know what you are talking about. You might even get sued given you claimed you have credentials in the world of compliance.

5. I am asking the users on here to use a little more common sense. A few hundred thousand sites including Dan, GoDaddy etc use paypal to make payouts. None of them have anything like this in their agreement. What happened here is Epic probably told developers they are the next paypal, and the guys went and copied and pasted from paypal. In their privacy police they are linking to the latimes, is that also something in compliance they need to do because on an api?

6. Just like companies get in trouble for using stolen images and they blame it on a designer, stealing text, agreements etc get companies in trouble too.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Although I'm definitely not sure that there was no commission in August. I withdrew the euro through the crypto, and there are great deviations, it is difficult to understand something. In this case, no one told me about the commission, and I never knew about such commissions.
There are no references to the website in the euro's wallet about the commission.

 

[DomainNature]

You people miss the point, you were eating from Epik hand, low fees meant MB was basically in end users favor, you attacked those who feed you, they went more regulated now, thus higher fees as a result.
It is very possible that this whole issue with MB was because authorities found out that MB was operating under other type of biz, as some people mentioned earlier, they did not operated as payment processor but some kind of gift points shop, not remember proper wording.

 

[Future Sensors]

“Some of the places that we sent money to, some of the people that we sent money too are involved in money laundering, or maybe involved in money laundering” - Rob Monster


I was told this by Rob himself.

Which people would this be, and could they now also withdraw their balance? In any case, sending KYC information makes it easier for the authorities to go after these people.

Hopefully not folks from our respected domain forum.

 

[bmugford]

You people miss the point, you were eating from Epik hand, low fees meant MB was basically in end users favor, you attacked those who feed you, they went more regulated now, thus higher fees as a result.
It is very possible that this whole issue with MB was because authorities found out that MB was operating under other type of biz, as some people mentioned earlier, they did not operated as payment processor but some kind of gift points shop, not remember proper wording.

I think you have the timeline backwards.

First, Epik froze Masterbucks funds from withdrawal with no advance notice for almost a month, then went largely radio silent about what was going on.

People did not start going after Epik about this until the funds were frozen.

Any issue with regulations, licensing, etc. is the responsibility of Epik. It is obviously not the customers fault.

Brad

 

[Digital Nomad]

This still appears in the Google search results, but the page seems to be removed recently with a 404: https://www.epik.com/support/how-to-use-masterbucks-com/

Found a snapshot for January 27th 2022:
https://web.archive.org/web/2022012...masterbucks-com/#What_are_the_withdrawal_fees

I cannot find any cached info for masterbucks.com directly nor in Google nor in Archive.org

 

[bmugford]

Found this in Google, but the page seems to be removed: https://www.epik.com/support/how-to-use-masterbucks-com/

I cannot find any cached info for masterbucks.com nor in Google nor in Archive.org

Show attachment 224995

I have never paid a percentage based fee for an ACH transfer.
If it was a flat fee of like $1 or less, that is one thing. The % fee is not reasonable.

According to the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), the median ACH transfer cost is $0.26 and $0.50. This means that ACH payments are one of the more affordable options for businesses, although prices may vary depending on the provider you choose to process your payments. That provider is usually known as a third-party payment processor (TPPP).

A wire transfer is normally a set fee, like $25. It is not a set fee PLUS 2.5%.

These new fees are excessive.

Brad

 

[carob]

These are some extremely high transfer fees.

Who pays a fee for ACH?

2.5% for wire + a set fee. That is ridiculous.

Are there withdrawal fees?

Yes. Please see the following fee schedule listed below. You can also find this information located in our Terms of Service.

• ACH – 0.75%
• Wire Transfer - $45usd + 2.5%
• Cryptocurrency - 2.5%
• Wise - 2.5%
• PayPal - 3.9%

If these fees did not exist before, I would demand my money is transferred without them now.

Unless Epik can produce a previous TOS that you expressly agreed to, they arbitrarily changed the terms.

Brad

Looks like at least some of those fees are a deliberate money grab.

Afternic started charging something like 15 cents for ACH payment it makes to you - probably as more and more use that as you can create a US bank account in USD via Wise.com to receive USD, not give Afternic a 2% transaction fee for foreign exchange, as I recall.

Guess what, look closely at the new Monsterbucks fees ToS and they base them on the recipient's place of residence, not bank account location - so to receive USD into a USD bank account as ACH (which should be free) they can charge you 2.5%.

As someone said, the cost to them of sending a wire via Wise.com is far cheaper than a bank wire and you can check that online.

It's understandable people want to get their funds out of Epik as fast as possible, even if that means losing a bit to new, unjustified fees - but the fees certainly are questionable.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

If they want to earn more, then they needed to raise the escrow fees, and not set fees for the withdrawal of money.
Now it is essentially an escape from Epik tax.

 

[carob]

Who knew you could be a bible salesman for Epik?

https://registrar.bible/affiliates/

Pays in Masterbucks and "Masterbucks can be cashed out at 5%..." does that mean you get 5% or 95%? Pray for a good payout i guess.

This Affiliate Program pays out $10 per .BIBLE domain name registered and pay out is made via Epik’s In-Store Credit or Masterbucks. Both methods can be used for Epik purchases, without fees. Or Masterbucks can be cashed out at 5% to your bank account, Paypal and Bitcoin.

 

[Kt88]

I loved using Epik Escrow, because it was fast, cheap, and I could speak to Tony about all the deals I created. Plus, I could store credit in my account to buy new domains and sites without having to withdraw and resend like with Escrow.com.

Now, why would anyone even consider using Epik Escrow, when they charge for Escrow, and claim 2.5%? What sets them apart from Escrow.com? Where is their competitive advantage? This new CEO is obviously way out of his depth. I am their target audience, doing daily deals, for often high amounts. They are totally unusable as an Escrow service now, without even considering the hassle they've caused with the whole frozen funds saga.

 

[Digital Nomad]

This still appears in the Google search results, but the page seems to be removed recently with a 404: https://www.epik.com/support/how-to-use-masterbucks-com/

Show attachment 224995

Show attachment 225001

Found a snapshot for January 27th 2022:
https://web.archive.org/web/2022012...masterbucks-com/#What_are_the_withdrawal_fees

Show attachment 224997

I cannot find any cached info for masterbucks.com directly nor in Google nor in Archive.org

This is how it used to be on January 27th 2022, if anyone missed it with the screenshot in my previous comment above which I added/edited later, I found this via archive.org

PS they deleted this page recently.



#########################################################

What are the withdrawal fees?​

We do not charge any withdrawal fee unless we are charged one. Depending on the payout method that you choose, Epik might be charged a fee to send your money, so you might end up receiving less than what you requested to be paid out.

• ACH – For domestic payouts (within the USA) there is usually no fee applied. For overseas, there’s a fee which typically does not exceed $35.
• Wire Transfer/SEPA – We process Wire Transfers via Transferwise, and they charge a fee that typically does not exceed $50.
• Cryptocurrency – No major fee other than blockchain fees itself, which typically does not exceed $10. Do note that Epik does not control blockchain fees, and they may be higher or lower.
• SEPA – We process SEPA transfers via Transferwise, and they charge a fee that typically does not exceed $50.
• XOOM – More information can be read on Xoom’s website about the transaction fees.

How long does it take to receive my money?​

Withdrawals are processed from Monday to Friday on a first come, first served model. They typically take no longer than 48 hours.

We actively conduct solid fraud checks in order to mitigate possible fraud attempts – which is what usually takes more time to process the withdrawals. Verifying your account does help us a lot in doing those fraud checks and thus expediting your payout.

How do I know the status of my withdrawal request?​

Simply log into Masterbucks and there should be a filter option which allows you to filter by Withdrawal operations.

 

[Digital Nomad]

Moral of the story, did you guys agree to these new fees while your money was frozen? NO! So they can't demand these fees now. It seems the real reason they froze your money is to ask for higher fees and to force you to pay to withdraw. And the people who cannot verify their accounts because they won't accept some ID's have their money stuck in MasterBucks which Epik can now use, and later pay you out with other people's money when you are able to get an ID which they will accept. Borderline Ponzi-ish.

 

[Digital Nomad]

PS I can't find any info about the fees for August 2022 or just before they froze your funds.

If they changed these fees, shouldn't the right/moral/ethical thing for Epik/MasterBucks be to notify all customers officially via email about these changes!

 

[bmugford]

Moral of the story, did you guys agree to these new fees while your money was frozen? NO! So they can't demand these fees now. It seems the real reason they froze your money is to ask for higher fees and to force you to pay to withdraw. And the people who cannot verify their accounts because they won't accept some ID's have their money stuck in MasterBucks which Epik can now use, and later pay you out with other people's money when you are able to get an ID which they will accept. Borderline Ponzi-ish.

So the new and improved Masterbucks is basically just the same, but with higher fees and new KYC requirements that might be a major burden to many?

Brad

 

[Digital Nomad]

So the new and improved Masterbucks is basically just the same, but with higher fees and new KYC requirements that might be a major burden to many?

Brad

And the copy pasted policy from PayPal, where they can fine you $2500 for defamation etc. if I remember correctly.

 

[bmugford]

And the copy pasted policy from PayPal, where they can fine you $2500 for defamation etc. if I remember correctly.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Brad

 

[Future Sensors]

Did they skip the legendary support just recently?

 

[Kt88]

I've reached out to Rob about the fees. We've had a video call, and been chatting regularly during the last few weeks. I'm sure he will address it head on.

 

[Digital Nomad]

I've reached out to Rob about the fees. We've had a video call, and been chatting regularly during the last few weeks. I'm sure he will address it head on.

If he has the time to video call with different people about these issues, why doesn't he find the time to come tell everybody publicly, seems like Rob is using NP members as messengers now.

 

[eternaldomains]

I'm curious, those who successfully verified, were the verified documents watermarked in any way or does the new KYC agent not allow that?

 

[enamebroker]

The fee is very very expensive. And it is better than nothing.