Sean,
For whatever reason, you've been continually bashing CCBill for months, talking about how they rip people off and have all these onerous rules and this and that.
Well guess what? They are one of only 2 processors that are serious players in the US market. The reason those two are still around is because they are both shrewd enough and cautious enough to navigate the complex and sometimes byzantine issues associated with card processing... and I don't just mean fraud and compliance, but the increasing security regulations/practicess that the card associations require you to maintain as far as server security, constantly changing policies by the merchant banks, all that sort of stuff. If you actually tried to get and maintain your own merchant account, you'd realize that it's not nearly as easy as you make it out to be. And that's why CCBill charges what it does. Not to mention... finding a merchant bank that will process for a twink site is nearly impossible in the first place; finding one that will approve a sithe where you insist on using iffy terms that could imply underage... you will find that to be impossible. In that way, Paycom and CCBill actually have *more* flexibility because they are assuming much of the risk that the banks would otherwise have to take. A bank won't give a rats ass about you because you don't have deep pockets to cover the enormous Visa fines if something goes wrong.
I don't hear anyone else -- including people that do more in a week than you'll ever do in a year -- complaining of being ripped off. CCBill is successful precisely *because* of their conservative philosophy. Are they profitable? Of course. But they also keep a large reserve and are very conservative fiscally, and can afford to absorb the shocks that have pushed most of the other players into oblivion. Same deal with Paycom. In short, you get what you pay for.
Now, as far as billing solutions... seems to me you've asked the same question about a dozen times in different ways in different threads, you just don't like the answers you're getting, so you somehow think that if you ask in a different way, you'll get a different answer. Ain't going to happen.
If you simply looked around instead of arguing with the people who are giving you the advice, you'd see that almost all of the major programs (gay and straight) have a couple things in common:
-- Nearly 100% have CCBill as one of their processors, or as their only processor.
-- A large percentage have cascading billing. Of those who do, pretty much all of them are running either NATS or MPA-3. If they are using cascading billing, an overwhelming majority are running CCBill, Paycom, a check processor or two, and *maybe* Verotel or one of the offbrand billers.
So... if all of the largest programs are doing that, and everyone is suggesting that, THERE IS A GOOD REASON FOR IT. One of the things I learned long ago is to listen to people who know more than I do. (This came after *not* listening and making a lot of expensive mistakes because I thought I knew better.) Perhaps you're simply too young or arrogant to be able to do that, but if you can bring yourself to simply make use of all the free advice you're getting, you will definitely save yourself a lot of time, hassle, and headache.
I'm thinking right now of all the people who were defending n-e-o-v-a a few months or a year ago. It was *always* shady. Granted, it got shut down related more to CP charges than to processor problems... but if you are serious about running a business as a business, you must be willing to think about and appropriately manage the risks associated with your business. Right now, I don't see you doing that... using risky terms in your tour, arguing about the value of using an offshore processor that may be having financial problems... and if you don't change that approach, you may find that your aggressive philosophy about risk management comes to bite you in the ass. I think the folks here are just trying to help you avoid those mistakes.
Not like you'll actually listen to or read any of the above, but maybe someone else who is lurking will get some value out of it.
