Hi, sorry to do it again, but it seems like it's the only way to get response : i'm opening a topic again concerning payment issues.
It's related to https://itch.io/t/4499234/is-there-a-problem-with-payouts-in-recent-weeks-paymen..., but this one has been archived.
It's about a payment under review since 148 days now.
The reason invoked (2025/01/25) is
Our risk team is currently reviewing your payout.
We noticed a transaction for Runrunrun from 71 days ago for $60.00 USD, for a project that otherwise does not regularly collect payments.
To help us process your payout, could you please provide some information about this transaction?
Specifically:
- Do you know the person who made this purchase?
- Did you instruct them to pay you?
- Could you explain why this transaction is for such a high amount, given that Runrunrun is a free game?
- Can you provide any context about this transaction that would help us understand your relationship with it?
Providing this information will help us to quickly clear the review and process your payout. If our team does not receive a sufficient answer, we may be forced to refund the transaction and cancel the payout.
I've responded (2025/01/25) :
Hello, thank you for your support.
Once again, sorry for having gone through a topic on the forum to deal with my request.
Having no response to my previous emails, I allowed myself this form of communication and I would not want you to think that I wanted to force your hand, I simply wanted to know if something in particular was blocking.
Please excuse me in advance for my English, it is not my mother tongue: I am French.
I do indeed know the person who made this purchase: it is myself. The reason is to be found on the side of the stifling administration that we suffer from in France.
Indeed, to offer a game on a platform and hope to make some money from it, you absolutely must have a siret number and therefore create a company.
Despite attempts to simplify these procedures, the legal framework remains quite complicated and restrictive. One of these constraints is the following: a micro-enterprise that has not made any turnover for 2 years will be automatically closed by the administration.
And this was my case: until October 2024, I had not made any turnover with my micro-enterprise opened in December 2022.
I had just finished a tutorial to learn how to create a mini-game with the Godot engine, I told myself that it was the opportunity to explore how it could be published and sold: this would avoid the closure of my micro-enterprise and would allow me to experiment a little.
So, it is this mini-game Runrunrun, which mainly served me to discover the Godot game engine, that I published and that I self-purchased.
By the way, if you look at the emails from the different buyers, you will see that it is myself all 3 times:
- the first to test
- the second to trigger the payment on payoneer
- the third to trigger the payment on my professional bank account.
Indeed, on the first purchase, once all taxes and fees were deducted, the amount I had paid myself did not allow me to make a payment on payoneer.
So I made a second one, which allowed me to pay money on payoneer, but bad surprise: payoneer does not allow you to pay money into your classic bank account if the balance is less than $50.
However, on the administrative side, I was able to declare my turnover on time and avoid the closure of my business. But this triggered the collection of taxes and social security contributions by the French administration that I could not pay with the money from the sales since the latter remains blocked on itch.io and payoneer.
I figured that with a $60 payment, once all taxes and fees have been taken, I could then unlock all these barriers to finally pay the money back into my professional bank account and thus avoid the closure of my business and pay my taxes and contributions to the French administration.
In theory, I wouldn't have to repeat the operation for two years now, or less if I finally manage to release a video game that would sell legitimately on its own.
I hope I haven't broken any rules of the platform in doing so. I read the rules and I haven't seen anything saying otherwise. If I missed something, please excuse me.
But I repeat, there was no attempt to hide any wrongdoing, as evidenced by the email addresses with which I made my purchases, which are addresses that I have been using for a long time, some even clearly bearing my first and last names .
I remain at your disposal for any request for additional information.
Kind regards,
I've made several relances since then, but i've never been answered.
Can anybody from the staff respond ? If you can't let the payment pass, please refund the card.
Best Regards