Another iBill Thread

[CuriousToyBoy]

OK, this was posted by iBill on another board:

I am sure many of you have been waiting for a response to your posts about iBill. I have read hundreds of threads across most of the big webmaster boards. Let me try to clear a few things up. Sorry if I should unintentionally not address a specific concern.
First of all- iBill is not holding anyone's money. Clients' funds (almost $15 million) are being held by First Data. That being said, iBill is beginning to receive funds from other sources & pay their clients out. Yesterday, EU clients, who have been owed money since the 19th of last month, were paid. Also, RevSharers were paid. Going forward, as iBill continues to receive funding, their first priority is to pay clients.

Secondly, iBill is NOT going under. As a matter of fact, they plan on rolling out several new payment options over the next 1-2 weeks.

Thirdly, there is a solution where iBill will underwrite a merchant account for you. iBill Direct will give clients the benefit of daily settlements. In addition, clients will be funded directly by the US bank. It is true that there is a $1500 Visa hi-risk set-up fee associated with this particular solution, therefore it is not for everyone. For clients that have already paid their $375 renewal fee, I am sure we will be able to offer some sort of rebate.
There will be 2 or 3 other possibilities for our US clients. I should have more info on the other solutions toward the beginning of next week. From what I have heard, the new solutions will come with benefits that no other company has ever been able to offer before.

Forthly, all rebills will be processed once iBill has clients integrated with the new solution of their choice.
I would like to thank all of iBill's clients who have shown support during this difficult time. Believe me, this affects my ability to pay my bills too. I would like nothing more than to pay everyone and move forward. Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Because we today issued a Press Release pointing out that our program is NOT affected by iBill at all (and published that in announcements on this board) I figured I should post that above and my response below......

Well someone's got to say it.

It might as well be me.

We were left with NO choice but to issue a Press Release regarding iBill's situation not affecting our program.

Again, iBill's lack of timely information allowed a runaway train scenario to play itself out.

You said you READ hundreds of threads.. well WHERE WERE YOUR REPLIES as this was unfolding?

Bad PR.

TERRIBLE PR actually.

Seems the cash you threw at "We Want You Back" may have been better spent on some good PR advice.

It was not the first time iBill have created a debacle when it could so easily have been hosed down by a post like this on ALL the boards.

Good luck, I personally never believed the sky was falling (I did some research OUTSIDE of webmaster boards), but surely a company your size should have some contigency plans to deal with your "public" when and if shit happens.

We all know it does, but heads in the sand just pisses a lot of people off.

My 2c, and I hope you take it as constructive.

:biker:

[Xstr8guy]

Thanks for the update! I have quite a bit of money being held by Ibill/First Data and any news is better than silence.

[Dzinerbear]

Where was this initially published?

dzinerbear

[Dawgy]

most of the people stirring up shit & commenting on ibill dont even use ibill. i've gotten press releases from at least a dozen companies saying how ibill doesnt affect them and i should send more of my traffic to them. talk about rude spam.

anyway, i still have some confidence that ibill will get things worked out. i certainly dont agree with how things have happened the last two months, but im willing to let it go if things get made right.

[CuriousToyBoy]

Originally posted by Dzinerbear
Where was this initially published?

dzinerbear

AW Hangout Michael. Posted by Rudy.

It is a pinned thread.

:biker:

[CuriousToyBoy]

Originally posted by Dawgy
most of the people stirring up shit & commenting on ibill dont even use ibill. i've gotten press releases from at least a dozen companies saying how ibill doesnt affect them and i should send more of my traffic to them. talk about rude spam.

anyway, i still have some confidence that ibill will get things worked out. i certainly dont agree with how things have happened the last two months, but im willing to let it go if things get made right.

I disagree Dawgy.

We DO have significant funds of OUR OWN tied up with iBill.

Our press release was SIMPLY to allay the fears of the many webmaster who had contacted us ASKING how we were effected.

HARDLY rude SPAM I would think.

The point of my response to Rudy's post was that is was the TOTAL LACK of TIMELY information to their customers that put us in the situation to have to issue a release in the first place.

And it is a situation that has happened before.

Please re-read what was written and HOW I responded.

I am hardly sinking the boot in, just venting the frustration that I think MANY of us are feeling.

Unlike many who have a VESTED interest in painting a rosy picture (and that being their primary motivation), all I have done is pointed out an obvious shortcoming in customer relations.

How many webmasters do you think you would recruit at this minute by tagging your program "We Process Exclusively With iBill" ?

I am NOT anti-iBill at all.

I AM anti poor client relations.

:biker:

[Dawgy]

wooo down boy, i never mentioned your name. was merely stating facts.

that said, ibill is costing me a fortune & delaying many other projects. so i get annoyed when i get emails from sponsor programs and processors telling me the ship is sinking & i should bail.

[gaystoryman]

Customer Relations > such an innocuous word and yet it can raise the ire of so many. Mind you there are a few customers who I wouldn't mind having relations with if I weren't married but that's another story that certainly won't get me VISA compliant. <G>

I think for me, I would like to hear from my sponsors if this effects them (and me indirectly) or not. I know of one that hasn't commented yet and they owe me money too, so are they paying or not?

At the same time I do agree that there has been a lot of 'boo iBill' threads or panic comments or what was the phrase, 'the sky is falling' stuff which really shows a lack of taste in my views. Those emails and such annoy me as well so that when a responsible course of action is taken it gets lumped in with those.

While I'd agree iBill didn't quite act responsibly (least on the surface) I'd also say that part of the problem is all who are so quick to rush to judge them if they did say, hey we got troubles.

Seriously, how many of us would go to our members and say, gee sorry no update coming because I can't afford to buy new content this week as my cheques haven't cleared the bank?

Just a view from the other side I guess.

Ian

[desslock]

I'm not sure what is more annoying ---

the delay in getting the money, or
combing through my site pages and changing all the link codes to the specific pages in the NakedSword and FalconXXX programs.

:egg: :egg: :egg:

[CuriousToyBoy]

Originally posted by Dawgy
wooo down boy, i never mentioned your name. was merely stating facts.

that said, ibill is costing me a fortune & delaying many other projects. so i get annoyed when i get emails from sponsor programs and processors telling me the ship is sinking & i should bail.

ToyBoy sits purring at Dawgy's feet ........

Sorry mate, emotional issue for all of us I think .....

Our press release does NOT say anything of the sort.

And my "bite" was on that.

:biker:

[CuriousToyBoy]

Originally posted by gaystoryman
While I'd agree iBill didn't quite act responsibly (least on the surface) I'd also say that part of the problem is all who are so quick to rush to judge them if they did say, hey we got troubles.
Ian

Hey Ian,

That is my point EXACTLY.

All they had to do was release that information when the first rumours started circulating.

They, as usual, didn't.

The situation itself may have been unavoidable, but their response (or lack thereof more appropriately) was something within their control.

An example....

A few weeks back we had a server outage (it crapped itself) that meant our members areas were going to be down for a few hours (ended up being just under 2 hours.. another story...

I emailed members telling them not to worry, we were on to it, and gave them worst case of one day. I also mailed people joining during the time the members had the problem.

The result ??

1 refund requested and given. TOTAL.

I didn't feel the need to email all webmasters because we were on top of it and dealing with it. I was also on deck to answer any webmasters queries during that time if they needed to.

ANY CuriousCash webmaster knows how well we communicate with them and how open and honest we are with things that are going on. It's our established modus operandi.

They ALSO have more ways than God to contact me if they need to. Many have my 24/7 cell phone number (they asked, I gave, willingly).

In hindsight, maybe I should have let webmasters know? I will next time I think.

We were not quick to act in this instance, we gave them plenty of time to make appropriate staements. When these were not forthcoming was when we went ahead with the press release.

We sent and posted the press release an dless than 4 hours later the statement came.

Hence this thread.

:biker:

[cj.]

Before I add my 47 cents, I think its important to note that when people are dealing with money, emotions run high and tempers short. But before we attack ibill (or each other!) anymore, we need to appreciate that they are dealing with 1000000 times the problems each of us are ...

Yes, they should have communicated better with their clients
BUT they didn't have anything concrete to tell us

Yes, they should have posted responses on boards
BUT they would have needed 10 full time board whores to deal with the number of stupid moronic threads on this subject (eg: gfy)

Yes they've handled the whole thing poorly
BUT they got fucked over by a company who breached their contract & seem to be pulling themselves out of it. ($15 Million ... that's a big hole to recover from)

I've had my fair share of problems with ibill in the last year, where their procedures have just become so bad for international clients that they are impossible to deal with ... Despite processing with them for 5 years, I stopped processing with them in June of last year, and switched to Epoch because they were *supposed to be* so good. After dealing with Epoch, it reminded me why I loved ibill so much & that all 3rd party processors suck!!!!!!!

While we are jumping on ibill's ass about how poorly they are dealing with this situation, (with Epoch playing ambulance chaser), have we forgotten how Epoch dealt with their problems a few years ago & how they treated their clients when they couldn't pay them?

Ibill aren't the first and they won't be the last - but with all the crap they've been through, they keep coming out the other side ...

3rd party processors have a lot to deal with these days, and I wouldn't want to be in their position for ANYTHING. I wish them all the luck in the world and I hope they make it through this - i have a fondness for the company after years of friendships and business from their various staff.

I kissed my rebills goodbye when I first heard this news, but it looks like I may get them afterall! So basically, I'm happy about the news they are giving us ...

To everyone else who uses them as primary, I have my fingers crossed for you!

[Lee]

Awesome post CJ you addresses a lot of things in there that quite often get overlooked.

Its easy to caught up in the 'drama' aspect of all of this but as you said, keeping emotions out of it and thinking business like should give a lot of people another view of what is happening and, ultimatly, why it is happening at all

Regards,

Lee

[CuriousToyBoy]

Originally posted by Lee
Its easy to caught up in the 'drama' aspect of all of this but as you said, keeping emotions out of it and thinking business like should give a lot of people another view of what is happening and, ultimatly, why it is happening at all

Lee,

You nailed it mate.

:biker:

[Squirt]

"I do agree that there has been a lot of 'boo iBill' threads"

As do I. Perhaps it's because the last company that left people in the lurch still owes them money.. MONTHS later ( probilling ) I'm still owed over $4k.

I don't use Ibill and I'm prepaired if my current processor goes under. I can understand where the Ibill customers are coming from.

sigh... emails to ProBilling still go unanswered yet they process checks for unsuspecting new victims. So sad.