Bye Bye iBill

[Ramster]

What I don't get is WHERE does ALL the money they charge and rebill every month go? Seriously? WTF does it go??????? Old money I understand. But new customers billed this month and last are charged. Where is it????

[cd34]

I have two theories:

1) they set up a new merchant account with the same acquiring bank that CCBill uses. In addition to the 10% rolling reserve and the fact it was public in the processing community that their account was terminated with FirstData, there may have been a hold placed on the initial money. I've heard, but not been able to confirm that two board members were silently replaced about the time they were applying for the new merchant account.

b) there are a number of newer 7 series Bimmers and Merc SLs in the parking lot.

[Jim]

Lots of questions Sparky. It makes people afraid to trust any processor. Wouldn't it be nice to get a co-op type thing going with a shared merchant account used by trusted programs?
hmmmmmm...

[meloncash]

It's been almost a month since the last one. Currently the CMI says 'we are not in a position to ... blah, blah, blah.

I would like to see some of what they owe me before they file for bankruptcy. Has anyone tried using a collection agency?

[Jan Barnes]

"The 01/01/05 US payout, 01/05/05 EU payout and past due EU reserves will be funded in January. An update on payout dates will be provided on January 11, 2005".

January 11? Unless iBill is located in a very distant time zone, January 11 is way gone. What a great scam. They can continue rebilling for ages, and apparently they have no intention of paying anyone. |shocking|

[meloncash]

Originally Posted by Jan Barnes

"The 01/01/05 US payout, 01/05/05 EU payout and past due EU reserves will be funded in January. An update on payout dates will be provided on January 11, 2005".

January 11? Unless iBill is located in a very distant time zone, January 11 is way gone. What a great scam. They can continue rebilling for ages, and apparently they have no intention of paying anyone. |shocking|

They can ONLY rebill accounts that have not been canceled. I calceled ALL my rebills with them and have started over with CCBill. If I had the $$, I'd hire a lawyer and sue the pricks.

What about hiring a collection agency? Any thoughts on that?

[DMc]

Originally Posted by meloncash

What about hiring a collection agency? Any thoughts on that?

According to a survey by the Commercial Collection Agency Section of the Commercial Law League of America, the probability of collecting an overdue account drops to 73 percent after just three months, to 57 percent after six months and to only 29 percent after one year.

Although collection agencies charge between 15 to 50 percent of what they recover, you still end up with more than you probably could have collected on your own.

[wesley]

this is in the new york times, not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, sounds more like the writer is personally involved rather then just reporting though.
http://www.newyorkdailytimes.com/home.htm?m=ibill

[DMc]

Originally Posted by wesley

this is in the new york times, not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, sounds more like the writer is personally involved rather then just reporting though.
http://www.newyorkdailytimes.com/home.htm?m=ibill

So much for subjective reporting. He really took the piss on that article.

[meloncash]

Originally Posted by DMc

So much for subjective reporting. He really took the piss on that article.

... and they really deserved to get pissed on. They are fucking criminals.

I can't believe they are still pushing their gkard SHIT.

They still owe me 30k, which is probably not worth a lawyer's time, or mine, since the lawyer would probably pocket 90% of it, assuming he/she is successful.

I am going to try using a collection agency. I probably won't get any money, but at least I will know that someone is hounding them every day.

Assuming I DO get my money, I then plan to sue them in small claims court for the collection agency fees.

[Jan Barnes]

This article is really interesting. It is a bit of a read, but it is worth it:

Business Wire

There is some positive news, though not much:

"Further, and as represented to IBD by Penthouse International, Inc. ("PHSL") (the parent corporation of iBill) in January 2005, iBill and First Data reached preliminary agreement, subject to definitive documentation and general releases, to settle disputes related to deposits held by First Data. The parties have exchanged drafts of a settlement agreement and are negotiating the amount of compensation that iBill will receive"

[Jan Barnes]

Sorry to be kicking a dead horse, but has anyone heard anything about this?:

iBill Announces $41.6 Million in Client Payments in Cash and Term Notes; iBill Settles With First Data Merchant Services

[Toby]

Some webmasters are beginning to receive payments, according to an article in today's issue of AVN Online

[Greenguy]

I got an email 2 or 3 weeks ago because I have a processing account with them (even though I don't use it) that said we (meaning those that have processing account thru iBill) would be getting payments shortly.

As far as when they'll actually pay webmasters is unknown to me.

[Ramster]

I'd love to get the money I'm owed. I'm only a lowly affiliate but if an ibill check arrives for what I'm owed there'll be a new bigscreen tv I have my eye on in my basement the next day.

[juggernaut]

When I first started I went with IBill. Mainly they offered to wave the visa sign up fee at the time. It was a total nightmare. Configuring the billing pages was not a smooth as i had hoped. Not to bad mouth them, this whole thing was out of there control. I explained to my rep that I had to leave them and could not be sitting around waiting an hopping the court cases pan out. I felt so bad for the guy, you could tell he was fanning back the flames all day. I did not have much in the line of money that they owed me. Only like 1k. Of which I have to say was a major major pain in the ass to get from them. It trickled into my bank account on a monthly basis @ something like $5.00 a month and all it did was screw up my balence as after 3 months and going with ccbill I totally forgot about them, so i was always asking my self where this $5 bucks came from in the account. But according to the rep he was hurting most of his clients left and he was also looking for a new job. When I went over to ccbill they streamlined my sign up because I was with IBill. They wanted all IBill customers and were doing everything they could to make the transition smooth and fast. If you could show them past billing history with very little charge backs they could have you running in about 2 days. Anyway it would be nice to see that company stay around but from all the paperwork I read. I think the bank they are going up against just has the means of pushing this case back and back to the point where Ibill will either shut down, or just reopen as someone else.

[LindaMight]

Used to use iBill but bailed out with them a year go when I ran into major problems. I use CCBill and they have been wonderful. I hope they never have problems.

[WildChyld]

notice that that article doesnt mention that the bulk isnt going to be paid until two yearly installments starting in May 06

[Jan Barnes]

According to this, affiliates will not be paid directly. It seems like the programs that utilized iBill will get a fun job in making payments to webmasters all over the place.

http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=8528

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Jan Barnes

According to this, affiliates will not be paid directly. It seems like the programs that utilized iBill will get a fun job in making payments to webmasters all over the place.

Do sponsor webmasters even have the necessary information they need to do that? My guess would be no.

[Greenguy]

Hopefully iBill will send them our info & hopefully those programs are still around, since most people pulled all their links months ago.

[Ramster]

Originally Posted by Greenguy

Hopefully iBill will send them our info & hopefully those programs are still around, since most people pulled all their links months ago.

Agreed.

[spookyx]

Originally Posted by JenC

I use CCBill with Epoch as a secondary. No problems here.

Thats what we do too, we did not have any major problems setting up epoch

[Kinky]

so programs that used Ibill supposedly got sent money and now they are supposed to make the payouts to their webmasters? or am I just drunk and not reading things the right way?

[Greenguy]

You're drunk & that is correct