Silent changes in payment methods on big creator funding platforms raise some unpleasant questions.

UPD Aug 13, 2024: The kind-of-official reply from BuyMeACoffee, and my response to it.

UPD Aug 14, 2024: A support email to one of the users gives BuyMeACoffee’s reasons, and also they blocked me on X (Twitter).

What happened

Recently, many Ukrainian creators have reported problems with payouts from BuyMeACoffee, a creator funding/crowdfunding platform.

At first, the reported support answers were typical corporative “we are sorry that we don’t care,” citing “compliance” and “policy updates.”

Those reports were widely shared, and our predominantly feeling was “shocked but not surprised”: it is not the first time when a big platform has decided that they are too busy to try to distinguish non-occupied parts of a large country with a 30+m population from occupied parts, and decided they don’t care. Just recently, for example, the Mercury payment system just blacklisted the entirety of Ukraine alongside Iran and North Korea.

But in a few days, it turned out (again, from support messages shared on Twitter) that BuyMeACoffee just dropped support for Payoneer (which works in Ukraine), leaving Stripe (which doesn’t) as the only payout method.

Did they, though?

Currently BuyMeACoffee’s support page simply states:

Buy Me a Coffee supports payouts to creators in several countries, facilitated through our payment provider, Stripe.

According to the Internet Archive, in February, there was another link to a page that listed Stripe and Payoneer, while May’s snapshot already has only Stripe-related links.

So, the change in the documentation happened somewhere between February (that’s when I personally used it for the last time) and May: Internet Archive doesn’t provide other snapshots between those two dates.

So, at least the support’s private answers were aligned with the documentation.

At the same time, there are a couple of funny facts about this deprecation.

First, I know for a fact that some Ukrainian creators were receiving payouts via Payoneer somewhere around ~1 month ago; I even saw a credible claim about last week! (I just sent mine, which trickled from a moderately popular blog, will see whether it will come through; it is funny if it will. At least my configured Payoneer payout method is currently active in the BMaC dashboard.)

But more importantly, there was NO communication about the change. You wouldn’t find anything on their Twitter or in the public changelog (screenshotted at 2024-08-08 11:05:30 GMT+0300—just in case something will magically appear there retroactively):

As you can see, there is nothing about payout updates after the Nov’23 post, which mentioned Payoneer and Wise as available options alongside Stripe.

I assure you that there was no email communication to the creators either.

How bad is this?

The difference is public lists of supported countries between Payoneer and Stripe are 95 (ninety-five) countries and territories. I am not sure that all 95 of those don’t have working Stripe (say, maybe the Faroe Islands just listed on Payoneer separately while being actually served by Stripe via Danish banks?), but it seems to be a lot anyway.

I’d like to know what the experience of BMaC users from those countries is like. But what I know for sure is that in Ukraine, a lot of people use the platform as a source of income (sometimes even a primary one). My subscriptions, for example, include but are not limited to:

  • A singer-songwriter turned paramedic who uses BMaC donations to record her songs on short vacations between duties;
  • A writer and culturology scholar turned soldier who funds his studies about Ukrainian culture and history;
  • A girl whose two brothers have fallen on the frontlines, and she funds her absolutely unique book club to connect to people and share reading experience with them;
  • A small business owner from Kharkiv who uses a “build in public” approach for a small coffee shop (and recently got mobilized into Armed Forces);
  • …and so on.

None of them have BMaC as their primary income, and still, it is a sign of support from their peers and the possibility to continue doing what’s important to them.

There is no way for any of us to receive the money accumulated on BMaC anymore. What looks like “technical” change for some American is realistically prohibitive for those not privileged enough to live in Stripe-supported countries. The money is still “there”, so probably no lawyer can say BMaC has “stolen them”—you just can’t neither receive “your” money nor, at least, give them back to those who sent them.

Note that some BMaC accounts have a lot of supporters, and many of those use “yearly” payments as a sign of their support—and all of it is currently in some technological limbo.

Now, I am just a mere developer, and I don’t know much about payout regulations and legal facts. I might charitably assume there was a good reason for dropping Payoneer support (maybe a business one, or maybe it is actually related to some government regulations). The fact itself is extremely distressing for many, but hey, that’s their business, what do we know.

But the way this policy was implemented—no prior notice, no choice, no explicit communication of the reasons and possibilities—is absolutely fascinating, to say the least. And, honestly, support’s evasive behavior (and inconsistent reports about “some Payoneer payouts might still work”) just adds insult to injury.

I am not sure that any service that handles people’s money as their primary activity, and that does it this way, can be ever trusted. Just sayin’.

Have a good day, and have a screenshot of the latest message from BuyMeACoffee’s ever-positive Twitter!

Such a nice vibe! (Neither their primary account nor the founder’s personal one, which both have a history of replying to all relevant tweets, are currently giving any signs they are aware of the situation.)

PS: As a side note, here is a story about why Patreon is not an option for Ukrainians. And here is russian war correspondent’s Patreon account, mentioned in the story, still proudly present on the platform (though seemingly dormant).

UPD: Aug 13, 2024

So, folks! After a week of poking, we have a kind-of-official answer from @buymeacoffee!

Let’s unpack it!

0. For some reason, this answer is a reply to one of those repeatedly asked them. Not even a standalone X post, nor a blog/changelog entry, nor a newsletter to creators.

So, if you aren’t a creator who constantly buggers them on X-formerly-Twitter (or follows all the discussions), you might still be unaware of the policy change or the existence of some answers.

The official feeds are still clear of the topic.

  1. We never hold funds. If […] we cannot payout […] the amount is refunded.

I believe this intention (well, anything less would be a legal suicide), but I would still like to hear: a. How the “cannot payout” decided and whether “the creator doesn’t have payout method we like, they should try another one” qualifies b. A success story of real refunding (say, $5 to thousands of people) and whether it really works or just a claim.

  1. Not one Ukrainian creator’s payout is held. […] Please reply with the creator @ if you know of any.

I want to believe that. In my original thread, and many other threads and discussions, I saw a LOT of people with negative experience of interaction with support.

Hopefully, ALL of Ukrainian creators who reported payout problems and unhelpful support responses are paid now? (And hopefully, it is not by means of “just find an EU friend who will agree to receive a payment for you”?.. Because I saw stories like that).

Also, dear BuyMeACoffee, “please @-us if you know a creator who has problems” would be a lot more persuasive if it wasn’t in the effing replies under just one tweet.

Just sayin’

  1. Almost all of our creators use our standard payout method powered by Stripe.

Yeah, the so-called “First World”. But I get it. I do.

We’ve decided to focus on this for […] reasons which are important for the sustainability of the business.

That’s your business, and that’s your right to do so. As inconvenient as it might be for us, we have no say here. But the way it was communicated…

we’re planning to continue offering an alternative payout method […] for countries that are not supported. As we figure this out, we can confirm that it is business as usual for creators from Ukraine

It would be such a nice message if communicated clearly & timely 🙏

We’d appreciate it if you stop spamming our socials, spreading misinformation about us such as “we blocked withdrawals to Ukraine”. We’ll have no option but to block you and move on.

You know what?

We’d appreciate if you would be clear, honest, and public about the changes you make.

We’d appreciate your support not changing the story from the initial “it’s compliance standards”, to further “your payout method is not supported, it is your problem” to final (after the public outrage) “oh of course we would help everyone 🙏”.

We’d appreciate the public communication of the situation (and no, the reply in one thread in X that ends with passive aggression is not it, thank you very much!)

We’d appreciate having this convo, like, a couple of weeks ago.

In conclusion, I don’t believe BMaC being malicious or scammy in this situation (and I do want to believe they are looking for a solution that will work for us, too). But the amount of neglect and disregard that was displayed in the way the change was implemented and communicated, and in the interactions with support, makes it almost a textbook case of bad communication.

UPD: Aug 14, 2024

One of the Ukrainian creators received an unusually honest explanation of the reasons behind dropping support for Payoneer and Wise: “Incompatible with our upcoming features.” So, like, a bit more convenience for the First World users, at a price of excluding those not that privileged. (Note also that in this communication there is no sign of that promise of that “planning to continue offering an alternative payout method […] for countries that are not supported” which was sweetening their public communication.)

And another update: After several days of persistent, yet polite, poking their public X account, asking for public statement (more public than a reply in a thread), BuyMeACoffee just blocked me, reportedly “for spreading misinformation”:

Note there is new, previously never stated, pieces of information: about Payoneer working till Nov.1—not “do your last payout in August,” as it was previously; and about Wise which they will “continue to offer” (currently, to the best of my understanding, they aren’t).