advice Wire Transfer Woes

[J Sokol]

On April 12 I made my first sale on Undeveloped ($400). They received payment from the buyer on April 13 and I pushed the domain the same day. The transfer was completed on April15, and they said they sent the payout to my bank the same day. Ten days later, not only do I not have the funds, but no one knows where they are. Undeveloped says my bank should be able to track the payment with the EM number, and my bank is saying Undeveloped didn't send the payment to the right place, even though they used the SWIFT code I provided them. I've spent several hours on the phone with TDAmeritrade (my bank) and Undeveloped's bank, no one seems to be able to resolve this.

Any suggestions?
Thanks -

 

[tonyk2000]

The copy of a SWIFT message, which Undeveloped should be able to obtain from their bank, is the only way...

 

[J Sokol]

Thanks @tonyk2000, I've requested this from Undeveloped.
Has anyone else experienced delays with wire transfers?

 

[phptechie]

Yes I too have experienced such issues with Wire transfers 6 - 7 years back , but not with domain related sale , it was for my service that I provided to US based client.

He had sent the wire transfer from his Wells Fargo a/c that is routed via Chase Manhattan to reach my India bank a/c.

Usually I receive the payments within 3 - 4 business days from the date of payment , but this time it took around 10 days but still was not materialised into my bank a/c.

So I had to collect the transaction details from my client & then took it to my bank to check the status , my bank people said , the wire is held with Chase Manhattan & asked my client to inquire with his originating bank .

Then my client had to contact Wells Fargo guys & they resolved the issue.

This is an exceptional case , where the wire transfers gets held up somewhere in the middle.

So don't worry , contact undeveloped guys & they should be able to resolve it

Hope it helps.

 

[J Sokol]

Thank you @phptechie - glad to know these cases are unusual. I got a message from Undeveloped yesterday that the payment is at my bank. They said they'll send a message on Monday to "clear things out". I'm not sure what that means - hopefully that they'll transfer the funds into my account.

 

[tonyk2000]

I'm not sure what that means

In some countries, banks would not accept wires with empty (or hard to understand such as numbers only) payment details. They would explicitly ask the sender (through a text-only swift message to the originating bank) for clarification. May be the case here. Or, there was something really missed (such as only first name arrived instead of First Last names), this also happens. In either case, the receiving bank normally also notifes the receiver "hello, we have the funds, but cannot credit your account due to...". Which is why the copy of original swift payment message is important, as it allows to find out where exactly the funds are

 

[karmaco]

Not really any help but for smallish transactions use PP as your payout. I will be following this thread for further experiences as I have only used PP on Undeveloped. I had a few problematic wires through Escrow and smooth ones with Transferwise. Hope it gets resolved soon. That is way too long IMO.

 

[tonyk2000]

That is way too long

Yes, too long. A good thing with the wires is that they cannot be lost and can always be tracked. If not credited to receipient due to whatever reason - then the sender will always receive funds back, earlier or later, may be in 3-4 weeks, but the sender will receive $$$ back (less various commissions in many cases).

 

[J Sokol]

Hope it gets resolved soon. That is way too long IMO.

Thank you @karmaco. I agree, this is way too long to wait. The time difference has caused delays, as has the fact that Undeveloped doesn't always answer their phone. You have to leave a voice mail, which delays the process another day. Frustrating ...

 

[J Sokol]

A good thing with the wires is that they cannot be lost and can always be tracked. If not credited to receipient due to whatever reason - then the sender will always receive funds back, earlier or later, may be in 3-4 weeks, but the sender will receive $$$ back (less various commissions in many cases).

Yes, they told me it might take several weeks. This is hard to believe -- if banks can transfer funds internationally in a day or two, how could it take weeks to get the funds to the correct account?

 

[J Sokol]

Hard to believe, but 18 days after the sale I finally received the funds for this domain. I appreciate everyone's comments, especially @karmaco's suggestion to use PayPal. That's what I ended up doing just to be sure I got the funds. I will follow up with Undeveloped to try to figure out what went wrong.

 

[phptechie]

@J Sokol , glad to hear atlast you got the funds.
Thats why I told you not to get nervous / panic , when you deal with a mediator
Yes Paypal seems to be better alternative, but bit risky if any dispute arises.
Anyway happy you got the issue resolved