Getting money out of Alawar

[coffee]

Hi,

I had a game up on Alawar a few years back but it did awful made about $50 so I more or less forgot it, 2 months ago I decided to check on my account balance and found It had made around $600 mostly form CDROM deals done and the odd sale. So after I stopped jumping for joy I emailed Alawar who asked me to send them my bank details so they can tranfer my $ (even though they already had them).

I hear nothing for 4 weeks, so email again and they say they have problems transfering the money to my UK account and they are still trying, I emailed again about 2 weeks ago to see whats going on but that email was ignored.

Seems to me its not easy to transfer from Russia to the UK and so they are just hoping I'll go away, I have a friend who lives in France who gets paid by cheque with no problems.

Any body from the UK have problems with Alawar?

[JoKa]

Sorry, can't help, just wanted to remind that portal contracts usually don't allow to post sales stats. Since it's not relevant how much they owe you, you may want to edit the numbers.

[cliffski]

it seems to be impossible now to get money from russia, i have a similar problem with a publisher that had paid me fine in the past. It's the last russian deal I'll do. What's the point if you can't get paid?

[TeeGee]

It plainly sucks.

Anybody could explain to me what's so hard about Russia->UK transfers? It's kinda silly that in the era of globalisation, it's impossible to transfer money from one country to another. Especially that both countries in question are not some tiny neverlands at the end of the world.

[Spaiz]

Hi,

I had a game up on Alawar a few years back but it did awful made about $50 so I more or less forgot it, 2 months ago I decided to check on my account balance and found It had made around $600 mostly form CDROM deals done and the odd sale. So after I stopped jumping for joy I emailed Alawar who asked me to send them my bank details so they can tranfer my $ (even though they already had them).

I hear nothing for 4 weeks, so email again and they say they have problems transfering the money to my UK account and they are still trying, I emailed again about 2 weeks ago to see whats going on but that email was ignored.

Seems to me its not easy to transfer from Russia to the UK and so they are just hoping I'll go away, I have a friend who lives in France who gets paid by cheque with no problems.

Any body from the UK have problems with Alawar?

Coffee, suggest them to transfer money to you via Western Union, there will be no problem to do this from Russia.

[Roman Budzowski]

Coffee, suggest them to transfer money to you via Western Union, there will be no problem to do this from Russia.

Or paypal, this can be good solution if you can setup an account.

Roman

[MerscomMan]

Getting money from Russia is not the problem, getting money from certain publishers is (from Russia or elsewhere). We have co-published or licensed over 60 games in Russia with probably 8 different companies, and have only had problems getting paid by one. With the other six, they are among the best partners we have had anywhere in the world, east, west, north or south. In terms of the actual mechanics of the payment, there are no issues between transfer from Russia to the UK (where we have an account) or US, if they wanted to transfer the money they could; we have received 6 transfer just in the past 9 days.

We have no experience selling to Alawar, so can't help you there. Just don't let a couple of bad apples tarnish a whole country. We have more bad experiences with British, Italian and Spanish co-publishing partners in general (bad debt, delayed payments, etc) then we ever have with Russians or other east Europeans.

[val]

I know that only author from UK that has problems receiving their money from Alawar is David C. I have seen that payment sent via US bank has returned.

Our accountant will check your data again, and will try to send you wire later today. If it will not work out again, she will contact you to discuss alternative payment method like PayPal.

And by the way, since Alawar Entertainment, Inc, is US corporation the last three years it experience no problems with wire transfers or similar.

Thank you for patience,

--
On behalf of AE,
Valentin Merzlikin

[Nexic]

Alawar do pay eventually, it just takes patience and a bit of nagging.

[Spaiz]

Or paypal, this can be good solution if you can setup an account.

Roman

No, PayPal can't be used by russians. They have access only to a limited account without money send feature.

[val]

No, PayPal can't be used by russians. They have access only to a limited account without money send feature.

If I am half Latvian, may I still use PayPal?

[Game Producer]

It plainly sucks.

Anybody could explain to me what's so hard about Russia->UK transfers? It's kinda silly that in the era of globalisation, it's impossible to transfer money from one country to another. Especially that both countries in question are not some tiny neverlands at the end of the world.

It seems to work well just the opposite. I've seen money going easily from Finland->Russia, never had problems. Maybe it's like those fishing traps, where the fish can swim in, but never get out

Perhaps phone calling or skype messaging could help? Ask specifically what's the problem, or ask them to use different payment solutions (like checks, paypal, or other)?

[val]

it seems to be impossible now to get money from russia, i have a similar problem with a publisher that had paid me fine in the past. It's the last russian deal I'll do. What's the point if you can't get paid?

You should sign an agreement with American company that will publish you in Russia, like Alawar Entertainment, Inc.

[cliffski]

I have people who negotiate and collect money for me now .

[Birukoff]

I have people who negotiate and collect money for me now .

Hope, nothing criminal?
No enforcers, mafia or very bad teenagers?
lol

[Artinum]

I bought some stuff from Russia a while back. I had a lot of trouble as well. A Western Union transfer was the only way in the end.

Seems to me its not easy to transfer from Russia to the UK and so they are just hoping I'll go away, I have a friend who lives in France who gets paid by cheque with no problems.

Perhaps they could pay your friend and you could ask them to forward the money?

[dozer]

Hi,

Any body from the UK have problems with Alawar?

Look here
"BREAKING: Big Fish sues iWin!"
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=10724

PlayFirst sued Alawar. It settled in favor of PlayFirst, I guess, but I don't think details were ever revealed. Juicy tidbit at: http://www.julieturnerlaw.com/representativecases.html

[coffee]

Hi all, Alawar contacted me shortly after this post and we sorted it all... I hope

But I should also say.. and not becuase they told me too.. Alawar as a portal/publisher were great, they localised the game for me and gave me some hints on how to improve it, just they were a little slack with payments.

[lingo1357]

can you introduce me some publisher in russia?

Getting money from Russia is not the problem, getting money from certain publishers is (from Russia or elsewhere). We have co-published or licensed over 60 games in Russia with probably 8 different companies, and have only had problems getting paid by one. With the other six, they are among the best partners we have had anywhere in the world, east, west, north or south. In terms of the actual mechanics of the payment, there are no issues between transfer from Russia to the UK (where we have an account) or US, if they wanted to transfer the money they could; we have received 6 transfer just in the past 9 days.

We have no experience selling to Alawar, so can't help you there. Just don't let a couple of bad apples tarnish a whole country. We have more bad experiences with British, Italian and Spanish co-publishing partners in general (bad debt, delayed payments, etc) then we ever have with Russians or other east Europeans.