As I noted last week, Dan.com appears to have changed when it pays out sellers for monthly payments on LTO deals. I did not understand what was changing when it was mentioned in bullet 9 of a July 13th product product update, but I did notice it when one of my monthly LTO payouts was pushed back a week. The timing was different than a same day payout on July 19th and a next day payout on July 26th for two other LTO deals I have.
Following a tweet about this change, someone shared a couple of screenshots that appeared to me to show that even if a buyer pays off a LTO purchase early, Dan.com would pay-out the seller on the original payment schedule as if the buyer hasn’t paid early. To me, this would be unfair since Dan would have the full payment and the buyer would have the domain name, but the seller would not be paid early.
After seeing this, I reached out to seek a better understanding of what happens if a buyer pays off a LTO early. Here’s the response I received from someone at Dan.com:
“I have checked with my colleagues and confirmed that if the buyer pays in full for the domain name before the due date, we will issue the full payout without additional delay.”
That, in my opinion, is how it should work and I am glad this has been clarified.
I still believe Dan.com needs to clarify the payout change that is impacting LTO deals. For instance, why was one of my LTO deals paid out the same day, a second one paid out the next day, and a third unpaid for a week? I still have several other LTO deals at Dan that haven’t been paid since the update, so I do not know what will happen to those. At the very least, I should know when I can expect the money to hit my account.
When it comes to payouts and income that domain investors rely on to run their business, consistency is important. At the very least, it should be clear when sellers can expect to be paid. This is why many of us used Dan.com in the first place.
My LTO payment is scheduled for 11 days later, previously paid in minutes. Perhaps Dan.com is in financial distress? It’s very arrogant to suddenly change payment terms nearly a year into a payment schedule. I feel abused, and am searching for an appropriate response. Dan / Afternic / GoDaddy can simply ignore our discomfort.