EPOCH/Paycom - Responds to inquiries regarding iBill

[rand]

We are being inundated with phone calls, ICQs and emails asking for our comments on today's events in the New York Courts concerning iBill. 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."

Clay Andrews, Joel Hall and I do not take any joy in today's developments. When the news became official, we stopped being a competitor and started thinking about what advice we should give our clients and the Webmaster
community.

First, we want to reaffirm our position that every program should have a back-up processing agreement. We have advocated this for years, and we have recommended Jettis or CCBill as a backup to EPOCH/Paycom. Look around at the largest, most successful and historically serious players in our industry. You won't find any of them without an account at EPOCH/Paycom and CCBill. Today's events are proof that being prepared is appropriate in all things - especially this business. When we were informed of First Data's plans to exit this space nine or ten months ago, EPOCH/Paycom moved to another bank and processor months before our First Data agreement ended.

Next, there are rumors about offshore solutions being made available to adult webmasters. It is our strong opinion that Visa will terminate any Sponsored Merchant that has a URL registered with an Internet Payment Service Provider ("IPSP") in the U.S. and also processes offshore. If that happens, those URLs may not be able to process anywhere in the Visa network. Therefore, if any Sponsored Merchant that does business with Paycom (or any of their URLs) is found to be processing through a merchant account or IPSP that authorizes and/or settles transactions outside of a Visa U.S.A. registered high risk merchant bank, we will terminate processing and suspend payments. This must be done to protect our merchant account and our clients. This has been our policy all along.

We have also seen posts about so-called "stand-in processing." Please be careful. "Stand-in" is fine for collecting card data if you are warehousing information, but unless you have a Merchant Account you cannot get a valid authorization, you cannot settle a transaction and you cannot get paid. We urge you to be extremely careful where you send your traffic. It is not smart to send your traffic to a join form that cannot complete your sales in real-time, and possibly not at all.

Everyone here at EPOCH/Paycom is available to answer questions or to help in any way we can. Our switchboard is open 24 hours a day as is our Tech Support group. Please feel free to call on us at any time. We remain dedicated, 100%, to the Adult Webmaster community.

[Lee]

You know Rand, i respect you guys at Epoch however, i cant help feeling this thread is somewhat tasteless given the timing.

I would have expected the vultures to wait at least 24 hours before telling everyone how much better off they would be at an alternate processor

Sorry if that isnt how your post was meant but that show it seemed to me whn i read it.

Regards,

Lee

[dirtygeek]

Ya know, I agree with you on that one lee. The dust hasn't even settled yet and people are already moving in.

Originally posted by Lee
You know Rand, i respect you guys at Epoch however, i cant help feeling this thread is somewhat tasteless given the timing.

I would have expected the vultures to wait at least 24 hours before telling everyone how much better off they would be at an alternate processor

Sorry if that isnt how your post was meant but that show it seemed to me whn i read it.

Regards,

Lee

[Xstr8guy]

Agreed.

Rand's post would actually be fine if Epoch could set up a webmaster with a new billing solution in minutes. That would certainly help the stranded Ibill customers. But as it stands, it's pretty spammy.

[Matt 26z]

Originally posted by rand
Therefore, if any Sponsored Merchant that does business with Paycom (or any of their URLs) is found to be processing through a merchant account or IPSP that authorizes and/or settles transactions outside of a Visa U.S.A. registered high risk merchant bank, we will terminate processing and suspend payments.

Wow, strongarming webmasters who use Epoch/Paycom and IBill (doesn't even have to be on the same site) to drop IBill immediately if they do go offshore.

[Dawgy]

Originally posted by Matt 26z
Wow, strongarming webmasters who use Epoch/Paycom and IBill (doesn't even have to be on the same site) to drop IBill immediately if they do go offshore.

no, i think he's saying u cannot use paycom AND use some offshore processing... youre either in the VISA US region or youre not.

[rand]

I am *very* disappointed in your post on this thread Lee.

First, let me say that if iBill is not able to find a solution to thier current problems it is extremely bad for the industry as a whole. Of course we are competitors but this in no way is something we would wish for iBill or their clients. There are much better ways to acquire business than at someone else's misfortune.

I posted Epoch's official response to today's events as a means of answering questions on a large scale and hoping to help webmasters understand the consequences if indeed iBill cannot find a long term solution to their dilema. There is a LOT at risk. There is MUCH to consider.

This is one of about a dozen boards I posted our response to and the ONLY one where we expereienced the kind of negative reaction we've experienced here.

[Matt 26z]

Originally posted by Dawgy
no, i think he's saying u cannot use paycom AND use some offshore processing... youre either in the VISA US region or youre not.

"...is found to be processing through a merchant account or IPSP that authorizes and/or settles transactions outside of a Visa U.S.A. registered high risk merchant bank..."

Does this not apply to IBill if they go offshore temporarily since it wouldn't be through a Visa USA bank?

[Lee]

Originally posted by rand
This is one of about a dozen boards I posted our response to and the ONLY one where we expereienced the kind of negative reaction we've experienced here. Vultures? -- You don't know us at all Lee.

Rand,

As i prefaced my initial post with, i do respect you guys which i why i found the post somewhat out of sync with how you guys normally do business.

Again, in the concluding part of my post i also apologized for taking it out of context were that not what you were doing. Now that you have explained it wasnt your intent you again have my apologies.

I do however stand by my comment about the timing of your post, perhaps 2 hours was a little, how shall we say, soon to write iBill off? Especially as they have already made public information about how there are no further issues past tomorrow afternoon so far as processing goes.

Either way, you have my apologies for taking your post out of the context it was made in

Regards,

Lee

[rand]

Originally posted by Matt 26z
"...is found to be processing through a merchant account or IPSP that authorizes and/or settles transactions outside of a Visa U.S.A. registered high risk merchant bank..."

Does this not apply to IBill if they go offshore temporarily since it wouldn't be through a Visa USA bank?

Matt,

You and Dawgy are both correct.

[Lee]

Originally posted by Matt 26z
Does this not apply to IBill if they go offshore temporarily since it wouldn't be through a Visa USA bank?

Matt yes it would however, if you currently process with Epoch you (i beleive, and im sure Rand will be able to correct me if am wrong) are not able / allowed to process with iBill.

I think this is more a 'safety' gauge implemented by Epoch in respect of 'cascading billing' as oppose to regular payments though.

Regards,

Lee

[rand]

Originally posted by Lee
Rand,

As i prefaced my initial post with, i do respect you guys which i why i found the post somewhat out of sync with how you guys normally do business.

Again, in the concluding part of my post i also apologized for taking it out of context were that not what you were doing. Now that you have explained it wasnt your intent you again have my apologies.

I do however stand by my comment about the timing of your post, perhaps 2 hours was a little, how shall we say, soon to write iBill off? Especially as they have already made public information about how there are no further issues past tomorrow afternoon so far as processing goes.

Either way, you have my apologies for taking your post out of the context it was made in

Regards,

Lee

I appreciate what you're saying. Calling us vultures is what really surprised me though especially coming from an administrator.

We've known about this longer than 2 hours and if this doesn't go well there is a lot more at stake than anyones reputation.

I saw your comments on another board today so I can only assume that you have your biz with them. If so I can understand your hopes for iBill's recovery. I'm sure most people are hoping for a positive resolve there whether they process with iBill or not.

If iBill can find a solution it would be the best thing for the industry and I wish them all the luck in doing so. I know a little something about what they are going through and the difficulties that they face.

Time will tell.

[Lee]

I appreciate what you're saying. Calling us vultures is what really surprised me though especially coming from an administrator.

Yeah that perhaps wasnt the best word i could have chosen

I saw your comments on another board today so I can only assume that you have your biz with them.

Actually, iBill is probably the only processor we dont have any current activity going through so one way or another as a company we are not going to be affected by whatever happens presently Im sure there are a lot of other individuals / companies that are though.

Time will tell.

Indeed :thumbsup:

Regards,

Lee

[BDBionic]

How is it at all possible for anyone to accuse Epoch of being the bad guys here?!

IBill fucked their clients, plain and simple.

This is their fault for slacking off and planning poorly and allowing things to reach this point. I find it hard to believe that they allowed things to get to the point where this has become an issue at all.

IBill doesn't deserve sympathy here. The thousands of people that process with them and are now scrambling and unsure of what to do and out on a limb here wondering what's up with their ability to make money are the ones that deserve sympathy.

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 because, frankly, doing so will help enable a lot of people to stay in business and save a lot of people put in to a very precarious and unfortunate position by IBill's negligence.

[BDBionic]

I most definitely hope things sort themselves out when it comes to IBill. But, to be honest, I hope things get sorted out with them for sake of the people that process with them, not IBill themselves.

I wrote an article for Cybersocket earlier this month (that'll be published in the Oct issue) on the value of having backup processors and redundant processing options in place exactly for circumstances like this. That's what I'd simply advise everyone to do. And funny enough had no idea any of this was going on when I wrote the article. This is as good a time as any to consider it. Never wise to have all your eggs in one basket.

But if IBill's worst case scenarios as presented in their legal arguments materialize, that's their fault. And any webmaster should be eager and pleased to know that their are other processors out there who are watching what's taking place and ready for their business because 1) backup processors is just a plain and simple good idea 2) if IBill goes down as a result of their own negligence, people shouldn't be stuck to suffer at their mercy.