Hello everyone,
Some might think I always show the positive sides of Afternic which is not the case because I try to share whatever I experience, no matter good or bad.
And today is something I wanted to share. I experienced this month which wasn’t good until I was clarified by my Afternic manager.
So what happened was that I sold a domain for which the transfer was completed to Afternic from my end. The release of the payment took 16 days. During this period, I sent a couple of reminders to the transfer agent as well.
Another sale this month for which I’m still waiting for the funds to be received and it’s already been 13 days since the domain transfer is completed from my end.
I wanted to share what my manager informed me in detail and I believe this will clear the doubts of everyone who thinks why there has been delays and inconsistencies in the disbursement of funds from Afternic. Below is the response:
With non Fast Transfer sales, it is our policy to not release payments to sellers until the domain has been delivered to the buyer. This is why some payments are released the same day as the transaction and others are delayed.
In both referenced cases, the payouts were delayed because the buyer was unresponsive after purchasing the domain. After a domain is purchased directly through Afternic, the buyer is prompted to provide us with their registrar account information so that we can provide them with instructions on how to take ownership of the domain. In both these cases, the buyers did not provide us with their registrar account information and were unresponsive to our broker and Transaction Assurance agent reach out attempts. Without know what registrar/account to move the domain to, we were unable to deliver the domain. As a worst case scenario, if the buyer does not take ownership of the domain within 10 business days (two weeks), the transaction will get escalated and we will create an account at the registrar to move the domain to. We then release the funds to the seller. This scenario is rare, as most buyers do not hesitate in gaining access to the asset they just purchased, but it does happen. Our brokers educate the buyer on the post purchase process when selling the name, so I am always surprised when buyers drag their feet/go unresponsive after purchasing a name. It is unfortunate that this happened with two of your buyers in such a short period of time, but this is not a new trend that is happening uniformly on our platform.
I checked on xxxxxxxx.com and we will begin the process of creating an account for the buyer if they do not respond today, so we can release your funds.
And for Fast Transfers:
“Fast Transfer payout timeline, a Fast Transfer payout is paid out between the 7th and 10th day from the sale. A manual transfer sale can be paid out as soon as the owner takes possession of the name.“
Although I pointed out that I’m not impressed with such a long time for disbursing the funds both for manual as well as fast transfers. Especially when the sale has happened via Fast Transfer, it doesn’t make much sense to hold funds for a week or more. The reason is the domain gets transferred out of the seller’s account in minutes the sold email is received and the buyer gets the domain in their account pretty quickly unlike with the manual transfers.
One thing which can be improved is to reduce the number of days from 10 business days (2 weeks) to some 3 business days if the buyer goes unresponsive and Afternic creates an account and transfers to their own account.
I hope this clarifies for many Afternic users and I would love to hear your feedback and let your voice be heard.
100% agree. Fast-Transfer should apply to the domain transfer part AND the funds part, not just the domain… and these delays are not reasonable for the most part (2 weeks). Like you said 3 business days is fine, then Godaddy should take ownership if buyers is mia and release the funds. Not to mention as you said sometimes you need to run after your funds.
Totally agree with you. There is no sense of holding money especially when it’s a Fast Transfer. Afternic should verify the funds of the buyer in advance and not hold our funds.
Just terrible. Once the domain is transfered to afternic,they should release funds to seller immediately and continue the transfer process with buyer.
Why wait more days ?Explanation makes no sense when they already have name in their account.
They have no reason to hold on to your funds when name is no longer in your account. I always complain to TA about this the moment name leaves my account.
I too have to contact them occasionally but there is just no improvement at all. It’s frustrating and they should improve on this issue.
Aslam allekum abdul bhai
Well…First congratulations for the sales… And thank you for the sharing… It really clarifies… Please keep sharing… Yours blogs are coming late… I think you are too busy in yours sales…you are great abdul bhai
WaAlaikum Salam Wajid bhai,
Thank you!
I’m actually not well and trying to cope up with a few very difficult things in my life.
Sales are coming up as usual and I’ll share them when I’m in the right mindset.
100% agree with Fast Transfer should result in Fast Payout too. 7-10 days are not fast at all by any means.
Thanks for your feedback Aamir bhai.
That’s right. No reason to hold our funds. If they’ve any doubt on the fraud/stolen card used, they should verify the funds BEFORE taking the domain from the seller and not after the domain is transferred and holding our funds. This is not at all fair.
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I just had a 14 day payment. The buyer took over possession immediately and started using immediately, 1-2 days later. They had .net and purchased.com. The buyer was from USA, and I am from USA.
I also can give props to Escrow.com. I had a 5 hour payment! Buyer sent money via wire, was proactive and professional. 5 hours I received funds.
There are many problems with Afternic payments..
Thanks for sharing your experience Paul!
I agree with you.
Dan pays very quickly as well, usually next business day. And the Lease option they have is working great for me. Right now I’m between Dan landing pages and the setup that’s been working for you, the n5/n6 I believe. I think GD/Afternic landing page is Buy Now. Split testing right now but the Lease option is closing some sales.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
It would be nice to know how your testing goes with ns3/ns4 and ns5/ns6.
GD wants to use your money to collect the big fat free interest!!
The longer they hold your money, the more free $$$$ interest they get.
That’s the main reason I think of too.
Hello Abdul, how are you doing?
Great post which outlines an area which Afternic needs to look into changing.
If many of us domainers suggest and submit this suggestion then it might prompt them to look at changing this feature.
If anyone can lead the way to this change it is YOU Abdul.
I hope you and your family are doing well.
Matt Morgan
Hi Matt!
I’m doing okay.
It would be great to see everyone give suggestion to Afternic regarding payout timings. I’m sure some have done that including myself but I think it’s the time many more should do it to get it done. This requires collective effort.
Afternic must improve its payment Process.
Also, many atimes names will be submitted for fast transfer, but to get an email to activate your fast transfer will be war from afternic. Many of them never came.
For me this only happens when the domain I submitted goes into Pending Review or is ineligible for Fast Transfer at the time of submission.
Buyer took possession of the name 6 days ago, and, still, no tengo dinero. Payout Date: Not Scheduled. If they want to drive my business away, fine, I’m moving my entire portfolio back to SEDO – at least they pay promptly. The only reason why goDaddy holds onto funds is to get free interest (they got 20% already), it has nothing to do with pay systems. I should know, I’ve worked for those companies before. Think about it. If they hold millions every month, just for a week, they make more interest on their cash flow, get better credit scores,… Read more »
I totally agree with you! Almost every time there is a delay in releasing the funds even the domain is transferred to the buyer.
That’s the only reason I can think off what you’ve mentioned because verifying funds (the reason they say) doesn’t make sense because that’s done before they mark the domain is sold and not after the domain is transferred and holding our funds for around 2 weeks as well after the sold email is received. That’s just not fair.
Just to show a positive example. I got notice of a domain sold Sunday morning via fasttrack. Monday the transfer was marked as completed. Tuesday afternoon the money was in my paypal account. I had gotten the same 7-10 days spiel initially. But in reality it took less than 72 hours from first message to payment received.
Thanks Lars for sharing your experience 🙂 That’s right and it happens only when the buyer takes the possession of the domain quickly. But this shouldn’t be the issue of the seller about when the buyer is taking the possession of the domain. Once the domain is transferred to Afternic, it’s their concern when the buyer will take the domain ownership and they should release the funds within the next 24 hours of domain is transferred to them. The only reason I can think off is they hold is to generate some extra income which cumulatively be making a huge… Read more »