Hi everyone,

I hesitate to post this, but since these boards are supposed to be about us in the business looking out for each other and offering advice I thought I would post this and see what kind of comments I would get. I won’t go into too much detail, the email below that I sent to iBill pretty much explains it all. Basically, they owe us money, refuse to pay, and won’t answer their emails. When I call them I'm told I need to email their accounting department because there is no one I can speak to on the phone about this. So, on April 21st I sent the following email to the following addresses at iBill… ready@ibill.com, compliance@ibill.com, legal@ibill.com, payables@ibill.com, webmaster@ibill.com, support@ibill.com, & mlevin@ibill.com. That's seven email addresses and here it is 2 weeks later and not a single response, not ONE. Here's the email…
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To whom it may concern:

I am writing you for the (hopefully) last time in regards to our closed accounts with you. We opened two accounts with iBill in March of last year to do 1-900 telephone billing for our membership websites. Thirteen months and $1080.05 in sales later we have not received one penny in payment from iBill…not one red cent.

Before I go any further here are our account numbers… xxxxxx & xxxxxx.

When we initially signed up last year I thought I had emailed ready@ibill.com so they could review the sites, etc. so we could be paid promptly. Apparantly, I never did or if I did you never received the email. You also never sent me any sort of email letting me know that you were charging my customers and holding the money and that I was in a status to not be paid until I finally called one day asking why (how convenient for you). I find it interesting that you say the reason to email ready@ibill.com is so that you can review the site and make sure it is set up correctly, is legal, etc. However…you start billing customers and holding money without knowing this information (again, very convenient for you).

I finally called Michelle Levin sometime last summer to see what was going on and was informed that “ready” was never emailed and that was why we haven’t been paid. She told me to email them again and copy her in on it and she would see to it that it was taken care of. It never was. I called back again sometime around September I suppose and was then told that I wouldn’t be paid for sometime because Worldcom was filing for Bankruptcy protection and apparently iBill doesn’t pay their customers until they get paid. In addition to the delay it seems that I won’t be getting the full amount that is owed, but only a smaller amount…the amount that Worldcom eventually paid you. Well, excuse me for saying so…but it was Worldcom that was filing for Bankruptcy protection….not iBill. If I have a creditor that owes me money and they file for Bankruptcy that doesn’t mean I don’t have to pay my bills. That’s MY problem…not whoever else I might owe money to. My agreement was with iBill…NOT Worldcom. If you don’t get paid I don’t see how that is anyone else’s problem besides your own.

According to my records and the CMI interface on your website we had a total of $851.80 in telephone charges last year on account xxxxxx. On account xxxxxx we had $228.25. That’s a total of $1080.05. I believe your service fee is around 20% ($216.01). That leaves a balance of approximately $864.04. I realize that some calls are more than 20% and some might be less, but I think this total should be fairly close. I don’t accept the excuse that Worldcom went Bankrupt and you won’t pay us for those charges. As I said earlier…my agreement was with YOU, not Worldcom.

Also, according to the CMI it says that I have a reserve right now of $53.14 on account xxxxxx and a reserve of $6.97 on account xxxxxx. It says that these were placed on my account in Dec. and that they will be released in July. I wasn’t billing with you in December…I haven’t billed anything with you since September of last year. Every sale that you have processed for us should now be freed up and ready to be paid to us. I’d appreciate an explanation on this as well.

I hope that you can appreciate the frustration that this has caused us over the past several months. What should have been a beneficial relationship for both of us has turned in a complete mess. I have emailed your company COUNTLESS times over the past six months and I never get a response. I called your sales department and all they can do it refer me to sending an email. After months of sending emails with no response I hope that this time things will be different.

I expect a response within 48 hrs. I want to know WHEN we will be paid (& it better be soon). I want to know the EXACT amount. I believe you have our banking information to do ACH. If not, please send us a check instead.

If I don’t get a satisfactory response within 48 hours I will be forwarding a letter of complaint to the Better Business Bureau and the Florida State Attorney General.

In addition, I will post to message boards on Netpond, Ynot, Alt Masters, The Adult Webmaster, the Adult Buzz, Porn Resource, & Adult Net Surprise just to name a few. I will tell everyone how you owe us money, refuse to pay, and completely ignore ALL attempts to get in contact with you. Thousands of webmasters read these boards everyday and I’m sure I could get a few tongues wagging about your business practices. I’ve already read of several instances similar to ours.

Since we dropped iBill back in September we’ve been using Verotel to process our 1-900 transactions. They’ve never missed a payment and anytime we have a question we get an answer within 24 hours. You could certainly take a few lessons.

I’ll be waiting for your prompt reply.
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If anyone has ANY advice or knows anyone at this company that gives a damn, please let me know.

Thanks!

Joey