WebSitebilling bites the dust...

[XXXPhoto]

FROM http://www.websitebilling.co.uk

Dear Valued Clients:

We regret to inform you that WebsiteBilling.com Ltd (WebsiteBilling.co.uk), despite our very best efforts, will have no choice but to cease operations on Friday, May 23, 2003. We were recently informed by our European Acquiring Bank (one of the largest banks in Europe and one of the last that was willing to work with Aggregators and "IPSP's") that the Aggregators and IPSP's they work with are being closed due to the pressure and administrative requirements passed down by Visa/MC. By losing this merchant relationship, we have no practical way to maintain our current client database.

In the past few months, we have unfortunately dealt with arbitrary fines imposed by card associations, foreign banks and agents taking weeks worth of deposits, and general harassment as the associations have taken very clear aim at the IPSP business model. (see Paycom's current lawsuit as well as WebsiteBilling.com, Inc's. lawsuit from 2001). We have operated with the best of intentions in trying to fighting through these issues and regaining strength, but there is unfortunately nowhere else to turn when our current and primary bank chose to exit the business.

We are very proud of the service that we have offered and are grateful to have had the opportunity to work with many terrific individuals. We are very hopeful that the lawsuit mentioned above will bring meaningful change in the way that card associations deal with merchants in our space, but it appears that in the meantime, they have claimed another casualty.

We wish you the very best of luck and may be in touch if further information becomes available.

Sincerely,

Evin Daly
Managing Director
WebsiteBilling.com Ltd.
London

[Mike AI]

WOW!

All the people who rushed over there to save themselves the $750 now are regrestting it....

[Forest]

ouch

guess i should drive up to their offices and pick up some cheap equipment

[Mike AI]

A post on GFY from Euro Lee

In light of recent event with one of the billing processors i thought i would bring the launch date of this article forward a few days.

Hopefully it will assist anyone that has be affected by the closure of WSB.

Whilst this is perhaps one of the hardest challenges that a webmaster of a paysite can face in the industry it isnt as bad as they may seem at first afterall, there are literally hundreds of processors to choose from ranging from credit card processors, dialer option, micro-sms billing and a wide range of other systems.

The first and foremost thing you should do however when confronted with this challenge is to try and contact your existing procesor and find out what will happen to funds that you are owed, will you be paid (in most cases you will).

The next thing you should do is to evaluate your business billing methods are you offering multipl processors already? If so, simply switch to your backup processor and find a new processor to use as a backup.

However, what happens if you only have a single processor on your site what can you do then?

First things first, you need to make sure you choose a reliable payment processor to start off with companies such as iBill, CCBill, CCBill EU, Netbilling and Jettis are all good processors used by a multitude of sponsors and content providers amongst the other companies.

You will most likely find that these companies are more than happy to work with you in the integration of their system onto your site.

Whilst you are awaiting your setup of your new processor to ensure you do not lose any sales it may be an idea to divert your join page off to a dialer or, perhaps have some form of 'internal' billing mechanism set up so that, when you do change over processors you can seemlessly transition your member base across.

Now, presuming that you already have an existing member base what do you do then? How easy or hard is it going to be to transfer them across to your new processor? Well based on the situation some were confronted with when Visa introduced the new fees to process adult payments this can vary from webmaster to webmaster again, as before, the easiest solution for you would be to contact the company you will be using as your primary processor and see what they can suggest.

Hopefully, you will have access to a database of your existing members email addresses this will also come in handy to ensure you can keep recurring those members. Send out an email stating that you will be changing your processor and, ask that, if they would like to remain a member of your site that they update their billing information, it might also be prudent to offer them some sort of recompense for having them change processors perhaps something along the lines of 2 weeks low cost or even free access tot he site, this is sure to mean that most of, if not all of your existing members will input their billing information again enabling you to rebill them until they cancel their membership at our new processor.

Of course nothing is infalible so,t he best advice i can offer you is to work closely with your new found processor and make sure that the transition period happens as quickly and, as smoothly as possible.

Hopefully this article will be of some use to those who do get affected by their processors going out of business and, will also serve as a warning to have multiple processors in place fr those who have not or will not have the need to change your billing company.

Regards,

Lee

http://www.arsresources.com

[Rolo]

This makes it clear why Epoch should get all the support we as an industry can give them. All processors should start talking with Epoch (if they are not already).

Think I will dust off our old processing plan, and see if there is something in there that could benefit the industry.

[Mike AI]

Rolo, I think you are correct.

I would extend the support to all processors - we need them all..... the more processors the healthier the industry!

[Hooper]

wsb was a shitty company from day one. only thing they did right was 900 billing and now they're stiffing us on that.. but really it's just change.

i said it on gfy.. this is just survival of the fittest. they were a weak company.

[Winetalk.com]

and whernj I was telling GFYers to go EPOCH they laughed at me..
who is laughing now, yopu fuckin' morons???

I do!

hahahahhaahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahahahahha
;_)))
LOL!!!!

[KC]

Originally posted by Hooper@May 22 2003, 07:58 PM
i said it on gfy.. this is just survival of the fittest. they were a weak company.

They were a weak company, but a lot of people got screwed by backing "the wrong horse"... It's unfortunate that people's hard work and millions of dollars of rebills will be flushed down the toilet.

DMR put several comanies/people out of business and forced most of their other customers to tighten their belts and eat some Top Ramen for a while.

[Hooper]

Yep. I definitely am not happy to see anybody lose. I think i'm more fired up about people reacting as though this means the end of all processors, thus my finger pointing about them being a bad company.

Somebody with half a brain should snap up their 900 billing system and 900 billing customers as quickly as possible as it is very good.

I have been trying to buy it from them for almost a month but they seem to avoid my calls cause they owe us money.

[gonzo]

Hmmm....Epoch lawsuit....wsb goes out of biz and everyone starts thinking about alternative billing methodology again.

What do you want to bet that they wont be the last?

My money is on Globill to glow down next.

[Hooper]

my money is on every processor who tried to dodge the ipsp regulations going down.

[Hooper]

and i'm not gonna sit here and point fingers. but we all know who killed dmr.

same thing, different company killed wsb.

wsb was dead over a year ago imho.

[*KK*]

Originally posted by Mike AI@May 22 2003, 03:30 PM
WOW!

All the people who rushed over there to save themselves the $750 now are regrestting it....

Ah yes, Michael, you hit the nail on the head.

Now the US companies that are processing with out of compliant processors in non US regions are potentially about to truly screw themselves over and be terminated.

How, you may ask? Simple. You cannot acquire for the same site across multiple regions, that is against the rules entirely as it was explained to me by more than one person that should know. So if your primary is out of compliance, you can't just go and stick a compliant processor on and keep the rebills from the old one and process new sales on the new one.

Visa US is now handling compliance for Visa Intl I have heard as well, and you KNOW he's got a list of the fuckwits that thought they were so smart and could get around the rules, and he'll be coming after them all shortly I would guess.

It's just typical of this business, but at the end of the day perhaps it will weed out alot of unnecessary bullshit and we can all go back to more profitability. This nonsense about Visa having it in for all third parties is bullshit too I think, they simply want to see compliant processing done so that they can think to themselves they have done what they need to in order to maintain their brand image.

[Dianna Vesta]

Originally posted by Hooper@May 22 2003, 07:58 PM
wsb was a shitty company from day one. only thing they did right was 900 billing and now they're stiffing us on that.. but really it's just change.

i said it on gfy.. this is just survival of the fittest. they were a weak company.

I agree with you on this one. I went to their offices one to just check it out. I wasn't impressed, funny feeling & I knew a few people that worked there.

I never thought I'd leave Ibill but when Cave Creek, my hosting company back then, asked if I'd beta test a new billing system I said OK. Ibill, back then were showing signs of wear and tear, mistakes in reporting and letting staff go for strange reasons.

I have security issues with CCBill- but all in all other then that, I haven't had a problem with them.

I also have Jettis- which is ok. The only beef I have with them is that it takes too long for support to get back to customers.

Anyone check out CCBill's new System5? If you haven't you should.

[gonzo]

Originally posted by Hooper@May 22 2003, 08:10 PM
my money is on every processor who tried to dodge the ipsp regulations going down.

Thats a given...odds are more exciting on picking the first one out of the bunch to go. Newbies gotta have fun too now ya know.

[Evil Chris]

Originally posted by *KK*@May 23 2003, 03:37 AM
It's just typical of this business, but at the end of the day perhaps it will weed out alot of unnecessary bullshit and we can all go back to more profitability. This nonsense about Visa having it in for all third parties is bullshit too I think, they simply want to see compliant processing done so that they can think to themselves they have done what they need to in order to maintain their brand image.

What's typical about it?
And can you define "unnecessary bullshit".

[Mike AI]

and i'm not gonna sit here and point fingers. but we all know who killed dmr.

same thing, different company killed wsb.

This is a very important point, and what I think is the largest threat to all processors.... boils down to greed.


Serge, you are right about Epoch... they have made one of the best recoveries any business has done in 50 years... its even better then Chrystler - they did not need go'vt loans....

[*KK*]

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