CCBill WMS … The Road Ahead: An Open Letter to our WMS Sponsors & Their Affiliates

[RonC]

For years you’ve known CCBill as an organization full of innovation and drive. Our history not only reflects the growth we have achieved, it also (and perhaps more importantly) is marked by the levels of trust you have placed in us. Many have grown right along with us, and we are extremely proud to continue to serve as a solid, steady online payment processor for our valued clients.

Over the past few months, CCBill has staged the launch of its new affiliate marketing product, Web Marketing Service (WMS). Our intent for this expanded system was, and remains, to further improve the functionality and performance of the affiliate marketing initiatives of our clients and their affiliates, without the added cost of a third party solution.

In recent weeks, much has been said about WMS. Due to a string of issues, some of the feedback we have received both publicly and directly has been negative and I would like to apologize to our WMS clients and their affiliates who took the time and resources to move over to this new system only to be disappointed in the results.

With this apology, I would also like to offer clarity into these issues, and share our findings. First and foremost, the core of the product works. While it has had some issues and still does (as with any new product launch), we are confident it functions as intended and will be the future of our affiliate software. The majority of issues seen to date that have been discussed in public forums and in private conversations originated from programs that were converted from our Original Affiliate System to WMS. While these conversion issues did not affect payouts to any new programs and/or affiliates that joined WMS directly, the conversion process was not handled in a manner that we and the market expect from CCBill, and mistakes were made.

In my mind, it is beyond unfortunate that with this conversion, we did not live up to our historically high Quality Assurance and implementation standards. The bugs and issues that stemmed from the conversion are unacceptable and inexcusable.

While we have corrected most of the mistakes/bugs and worked with affected clients to credit any funds as appropriate, we have lost the confidence of these users and have decided it is best to re-enable the Original Affiliate System for them, and give them the choice to convert to WMS in the future.

As of today, we have addressed and resolved a large amount of known WMS issues, and in the weeks and months to come, it will become our mission to work harder and smarter in an effort to regain the trust of our valued clients and their affiliates.

The first step in this process will be the re-enabling of the Original Affiliate System to each affiliate that previously converted to WMS. On Monday, March 8, 2010, at approximately 11:00 a.m. MST, anyone that had converted will have the Original Affiliate System re-enabled. It is important to note that with the re-enabling, all traffic going through WMS is still going to get counted, links will still function, and applicable sales will still be credited.

Simultaneously with this deployment, we will contact clients that migrated to WMS individually, and begin an extensive evaluation, redesign, and development of the “WMS Affiliate Conversion Process.” Only after a granular Quality Assurance and testing cycle, will we once again provide the option to convert affiliates from the Original CCBill Affiliate System, over to the feature-rich WMS System.

These initiatives are not a departure from WMS, or an abandoning of its toolset. The core of the product does function properly and we are committed to making it work for all of our valued clients and their affiliates. Rather, CCBill clients and their affiliates will now have access to both the new feature-rich WMS System and the simplified, tried and true Original CCBill Affiliate System.

We will allow clients to run both systems in parallel, enabling their affiliates to choose which solution they would like to utilize based on their needs. Correspondingly, in the future we will let affiliates choose if they would like to be converted to WMS, rather than require clients to select one system or the other on behalf of their affiliates.

It is our belief that WMS will become the system of choice for both clients and their affiliates, due to its enhanced functionalities and features. We believe in the product. However, it will remain up to clients and affiliates to make that choice. And up to us to regain their trust.

Additional details as to how the re-enabling will work, and what it means to both WMS clients and their affiliates for program settings, payouts, and reporting can now be found within the CCBill Web Admin News area, or by contacting your CCBill Sales or Client Support Representative. Our Client Support Director, Lloyd Briggs, is able to provide additional assistance at lloyd@ccbill.com, as is our Corporate Advocate, Paul Kluzak, at paulk@ccbill.com.

For 12 years, we at CCBill have taken pride in earning your business and trust with unparalleled dedication to our clients, exemplary service and innovative products. We will learn from these conversion mistakes so that today and into the future, we can restore and maintain that trust once again.

Thanks,

Ron C.

[Lee]

Shit happens guys, roll with the punches and improve, which it sounds like that is exactly what you are doing to improve your service for affiliates and program owners.

Cant wait until the bugs are worked out, im sure you'll have a great system in place which will be the envy of many other processing companies.

Its also nice to a see a company as large as CCBill being able to admit when things havent gone how they hoped they would, this to me is a lot more telling about a company than any new affiliate system ever could be :thumbsup:

Give my love to Stephanie next time you see her too!

Regards,

Lee