EPOCH/Paycom - Responds to inquiries regarding iBill

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Originally posted by BDBionic
Epoch and CCBill and whoever else, I think, are providing a service in making themselves available to people who wish to switch over to them at this point in time

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Yet Epoch are the ONLY processor to make an issue out of this on the forums within hours of the 'anticipated' shut down of iBill which, incidently, hasnt and isnt going to happen according to them.

Thats what my post was about not who was and wasnt to blame for what had happened at iBill.

Regards,

Lee

BD Bionic....

You are a voice of reason. You always have been and that's the reason I've respected your opinions since even before I met you. I don't say that because you happen to agree with my opinion. I say it because I've found you to be un-failingly honest, fair, and forward thinking.

Lee....

Epoch has always responded to industry changes/developments before anyone else. Today is no different. Search. You'll see that for the past 4-5 years, every time there has been a new development in the adult industry, Epoch has been there to offer webmasters an informed opinion either exclusively or before anyone else.


iBill has been a standard for several years. And, iBill has gone through many changes in the last several months. Change *can* be beneficial so maybe there are plans in place that can save the future of iBill.

As I said before... time will tell. We are all waiting in anxious anticipation to see what happnes next.

Good luck iBill.

rand - does epoch have a secondary bank in case something goes wrong with their current bank? it could be something temporary for a day or two, or something longer. but are you guys at epoch ready for this contingency?

what happened to ibill sucks, and it will have a trickle-down effect to people who don't use them. if your sponsor's sponsor uses them, it will still affect you. if your sponsor's sponsor's SPONSOR uses them, it will still affect you.

on the other hand, if i were ibill, i would have hired more people to make that move happen when i saw i wasn't getting the help i was expecting with the move. by not doing that, they've left a lot of people without a net - it's really too bad of them :-(

There are many people in the GWW community I respect and that respect
remains unwavering even though some of the opinions expressed in this
thread are those I have a dissenting view from.

With processors going down faster then a $2 Whore on the last Big Dick
Tuesday before the end of month Crack sale...like everyone, I thought
"Oh no, Not again!" quickly followed by "but this one is no surprise
given ---insert your reason(s) here---." {a little levity to lighten the
mood?)

BDBionic said it quite well in his post and one refrain I heard
yesterday was not so much surprise about the iBill news, just that it
took so long.

With fewer and fewer fish in the tank now, when yet another is found
floating at the top, the impact is all the greater and the loud thud of
the what has happened precedes the dawning of the dark reality and
ramifications to our industry.

Many of the "original webmasters" were still reeling from losing their
rebills after the restructuring of Adult Check and are dealt another
huge blow now. In fact, this blow will likely affect a much larger
segment of our community and ripple up and down the entire ladder as
rebills and current billing become uncertain for the iBill clients. This
will have a direct impact on who can stay in the industry and with it
the need for things like hosting, new content, graphics, paid banner
advertising just for starters. Given this massive impact, the need for
news and not arm-chair interpretations is immediate.

The rumor mill started churning out the doomsday predications even
before the verdict was in and for reason plus those mentioned in the
paragraph above, I would like to thank and acknowledge Rand for so
quickly making an informative post. We all know it's Hurricane
Season and to many, Rand's post will come as as welcome news that while
storm season is far from over, at least this one isn't headed their way.


For those directly effected by the iBill crisis, the debate on timing
has nothing to do with what's appropriate for a another company to chime
in, but the reality of
with few options, what do we do now?. After what had to be a
couple of sleepless nights and long dark days, I am sure they were glad
to have some real information immediately and of epoch's current clients
are likely to be very reassured the Rand spoke so quickly and
completely.

Thanks Harlan.

I appreciate your comments.

Yeah Lee, I don't mean to point you out but you did do it to Rand First - Lee I do think you are out of line here.

People are of course thinking -- where am I to go now and all Rand simply said was heh - be responsible. Don't fall into the promise trap that these offshore processors dangle like a carrot.

This is the time that webmasters need honesty and truth. They do not need threads that end up being false rumors!

Thanks for posting Rand!

Quote:

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Originally posted by rand
Epoch has been there to offer webmasters an informed opinion either exclusively or before anyone else.

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Which was exactly my point to begin with.

If you gave it a little more time before posting your information it might not have looked like you were making a shrude marketing ploy at the expense of iBill before anyone else beat you to it :)

As you have attested to above, you told us this wasnt your intent despite that being how it was taken by myself and several other community members here.

No harm, no foul :)

Regards,

Lee

there seems to be a ton of misinformation floating around on the boards about the ibill issue. i have seen so many posts that directly contridict each other, it's hard to understand the real issue, the real threat, and what the future looks like for ibill.
I have heard that ibill will continue processing by some other means, but if the crisis was averted, why did they say a denial of the injunction would result in the collapse of their business...

"iBill brings this action to save its business from immediate collapse," -avn quoting court docs.

Though I do not do business directly with ibill, their demise would surely effect everyone in the industry in one way or another.

Rand, I appreciate your post and explanation of some of the issues, including stand-in processing, a term that has been thrown around a lot but until now, i haven't seend defined.

It would be nice to see some kind of official response from iBill, even via a lawyer.

It makes me wonder, even if they are able to replace first data, who in their right mind would switch back to them as a primary processor?

Quote:

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Originally posted by Lee

If you gave it a little more time before posting your information it might not have looked like you were making a shrude marketing ploy at the expense of iBill before anyone else beat you to it :)

No harm, no foul :)

Regards,

Lee

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I'm not going to go on about this, but in response to the question of timing, let me just say this. As Rainey pointed out, there was a lot of mis-information on the boards. In the lightning fast world of Internet business, mis-information can do a world of harm. If no one else steps forward with factual information that webmasters can use, things can get out of control very quickly.

Does Epoch stand to gain business if iBIll fails? Probably.

Does Epoch want iBill to fail? No! There are better ways for a struggling company to exit. This is definitly not the way anyone would want it.

I make no apologies for the timing of our message and if anyone thinks it was inappropriate, well, I guess you are entitled to your opinon.

I don't understand what all the drama is about really.

"iBill brings this action to save its business from immediate collapse," -avn quoting court docs.

Seems pretty cut and dry. Also seems Epoch was promoting their business while showing support for Ibill at a time that they should have let Ibill speak for themselves. Epoch has a responsibility to it's customers to let them know what their plans are in relation to the Ibill situation so for them it's a no lose situation.

I hope some day we have stability on this side of the market. It's obviously unfair that our industry is subjected to these unfair trade practices with credit card companies. The good thing is that, due to their actions the last few years, the credit card companies have laid a fairly solid track record of unfair trade practices that will help in their future deregulation.

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Originally posted by Squirt
Also seems Epoch was promoting their business while showing support for Ibill at a time that they should have let Ibill speak for themselves.

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Epoch wasn't speaking for IBill and IBill has yet to make an official statement more then 24 hours later.

Epoch made a press release about the status of Ibills legal affairs right after the courts decision, instead of letting Ibill speak for themselves regarding their legal affairs.

No they did not! They made a press release in order to answer / relieve the amount of phone calls they are receiving about the situation. This is an industry issue - they have every right to address it and the concerns which they've been Inundated.

I cant say much about the situation that has not already been posted on here. We are all awebmasters and we choose our processors for whatever reasons.

Rand and the people at Eppoch have always been a great resource to lern about the industry and have been very supportive of my business. And I cannot blame anyone for offering advice or suggestions at a time when some people need it!

I have had some generous offers from Ibill and other processors thru the last couple of years.....but I have never once considered them...even when other webmasters said I was foolish not too. Why? becasue epoch has been a great company to work with and one that I trust.

Quote:

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Originally posted by djdez
No they did not! They made a press release in order to answer / relieve the amount of phone calls they are receiving about the situation. This is an industry issue - they have every right to address it and the concerns which they've been Inundated.

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From Rands original post:

"iBill's lawyers have confirmed that iBill's emergency motion was denied."

"According to First Data , iBill's account at First Data is closed, and the papers iBill filed with the court state that 'iBill is now left without any credit card processor, and it is unable to continue servicing its customers.'"

Seems pretty cut and dry djdez.

I didn't say that Rand didn't have a "right" to address their concerns or make a statement of their own.

I could care less what epoch, Rand, or Ibill does. I think Rands post was completely reasonable, a bit tacky, but nothing wrong with it.

But you djdez are arguing semantics about Rands post which are unfounded. Again I must say, I don't understand what all the drama is about really.

Now go find someone else to get into a shouting match with djdez because that's not my style. :-D