No doubt. Of course they are Marc's primary and Paycom is my primary right now.

KK - I fully agree Garrett did an excellent job with regards to selling or going public. He did what he was brought in to do and did it well

Not really nailing the coffin shut - just expressing concerns and admittedly am still a little miffed and more than a little concerned regarding Ibill. Would be great if they could right the ship like Epoch did (although the circumstances were different)

If you notice I stated they were one of the best 3RD party processing solutions from 1997-1999

Still don't think ICPT really understood what they were getting into with buying Ibill at the time of the purchase/take over.....

I realize ICPT poor financials for the past year were for many reason including some um .... interesting acquisitions and trying for quick growth

Now maybe they are trying to do as much as possible in a positive fashion with Ibill .... but still the previous Ibill history is there - and it will take a while and serious effort to regain or rebuild a positive image as a viable 3RD party processor for the Adult Internet Entertainment industry

Notice their stock is up 5.5% today because of my comments.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ICPT&d=...d&l=on&z=m&q=l

Also, there is zero chance they are dumping adult. From
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/l/i/icpt.html

? Approximately 83-85% of the transactions in the former iBill
operations are for adult entertainment customers. That percentage
is unlikely to change significantly until the company increases
its new business through active marketing.

? Anticipated free cash flow of $30?$32 million for 2003.

That's profitable gentlemen.

http://biz.yahoo.com/e/l/i/icpt.html

"Since January 2003, the business at the former iBill is down approximately 11% on an average daily volume basis due to several factors, including customer attrition. That business is down approximately 15-20% from its high point in 2002"


There is a lot of info in that report that can be seen both positively and negatively

I hope they can make a comeback, it's benefits everyone in the industry to have more solid billing options

But Lens, seriously you are a sizable customer for Ibill so you're going to get the story in the best possible light

We'll see what happens

hey lensman you might want to check the sig rules, i dont think you are in compliance. :1orglaugh

Why Lensman, you should have called Brad & I, we would have taken you to lunch ;)

Vick,
I've listened to the Intercept web cast from last week in large part, and the decrease in business is by no means totally related to adult.

For those who are unaware, Intercept has several divisions that do financial services between banks and between banks and consumers.

From some of the things that I know I would guess that their adult business probably stayed the same or improved on a gross intake level. Of course the fines they've declared publicly take a huge bite of out earnings since that is directly related to the bottom line.

I've had some contact with upper mgmt there recently about a few things I am working on, and frankly I do believe they are working hard to get things back on the right track.

From what I heard about yesterdays discussion they were quite frank with the accounts who were in town for the discussion and stressed the positive and the new ideas they are working on as well.

The stock also is getting mileage over upgrades by analysts (the non GFY ones :winkwink: ). Also $7.00 is a key price point. If you look at the moving avg of the stock since jan you can see that it generally had a ceiling of about $7 since their big drop. Moving over that average and sustaining the price will bring more action into the stock. Look at the way volume shot up today once the stock moved over $7.00. There will likely be profit taking in the coming days but if the stock does not face negative news it will likely establish a new ceiling and move higher in the coming weeks.

[Dave now takes off the stock speculator hat and puts back on the big tits-rus hat]

Lens,

Do you own shares in ICPT?

I am always leery of anything anticipated. After anticipating lucrative stock options from my past three Bay Area dotcoms, until I see the cash in the bank account it doesn't count. :(

I hope ICPT does well with iBill. It is important for our industry to have successful public companies that are directly related.

I think a lot depends on what % of iBill's business is from the few big programs and what % is from small independent sites.

It's relatively easy to keep the big programs happy and I suspect iBill are good at that part of their business. Lens's post backs that up. But it's very obvious from the other messages here that a lot (a majority?) of smaller sites are giving up on them, and new sites are being advised not to use them.

Of course, today's small sites may be tomorrow's big programs.

And people have long memories.

50

And how much do you think the other processors lost due to the Visa registration issue? They all admit losing business. 11% doesn't sound alarmingly high to me.

my nuts itch

http://biz.yahoo.com/e/021114/icpt10-q.html

This Quarterly Report wasn't too pretty from November 14, 2002 and did a lot of finger pointing some of which was at Ibill (and Netzee amoong others) and some of ICPT other acquisitions and bluntly stats don't expect profits

Looks like they are trying to turn around things now or at least put a good face on it


I hope they do well, it's hard to live down some of Ibill's history and will take some time even under new leadership

and what I am saying bottom line is ....
don't be taken in by the dog and pony show just yet

This is crap!

Of course Ibill will blow smoke and take care of their largest accounts. They have proven over and over again that they do not give a shit about their webmasters. Intercept is a public company and we all know the last thing any public company wants to show is support for Adult sites. There are many other great processors out their that do care. So, why go with one that show repeatedly that they do not?

Sputter

Lensman,
I said it before and I'll say it again:
Marc's balls are bigger than yours and I have a proof!!!

Here they are:
http://www.therapytoyshop.com/images/ball1.jpg

posted by Marc himself!
http://www.oprano.com/msgboard/index...=ST&f=1&t=3322

This is good news for me I have a shit load of re-bills with Ibill and still use them as my primary processor, I have never had a late check or any problems in three years except for the web 900 issue.

I have two back-up billers now, but I would rather stay with Ibill.

Wow Kimmy

What you said here sounds just like what I said to you in Feb/March 2003.

I too was invited to the sit down at iBill (but couldnt make it, as I had already been in the States for three weeks), and the preliminary info I received on the financials of iBill and their strategies led me to believe that iBill is DEFINITELY here to stay.

My only thoughts re iBill right now concern their ability to provide proper accounting via the CMI for Premium accounts, as my accountant is pulling his hair out with their accounting standards.

And the other thought goes along with Steve from Light Speed - iBill should attempt to make amends for that Web900 debacle.

Otherwise, iBill is top notch and I have no hesitation in recemmending them to any webmaster considering their billing options.

Daniel...

How was your holiday?

Ready?

Mitch

I have. They wouldn't fucking change my address on the checks they were sending me for years. they said I had to do it thru the program I was using.
Bullshit, it was a change of address, not a name change. send the fucking check to the new address.
Instead, they've been pocketing whatever money should have been coming my way.
Nice work assholes.

(sorry lens, I know of 3 processors I'd rather use. CCbill, Jettis, Paycom)

lol good one.

Words are cheap and Ibills words are the cheapest.
Its been more than 6 years and Ibill has always had the same problems, Poor to non existent customer service, CMI problems, antiquated software , delays, non payment of 900 # to webmasters, The list goes on and on.
Why even risk using Ibill when there are better alternatives around. Every processor has had problems of one sort or another but they got over them. Ibills problems have been continuous all the 6 plus years we have dealt with them and they are not going away over night, i doubt they ever will. All i can say from our experience is that when we changed to Epoch our income ( that's the money we get to keep and play with ) increased a lot . That's proof enough that we made the correct choice, wish we had done it years ago.

Cindy xx

:2 cents:

Without the arrival of John Perry, I don't know that I'd have believed it at all.

Those are just logistical issues. Quit your whining.

They must have cut Lensman a great deal or something. It's going to take them the rest of the year to clean up their technical problems alone. That's not even taking into account the payout problems.

shit, I never looked at it like that.:winkwink:

never had anything but problems with ibill and they've never been anything but cocksuckers when we try to get them to assist us with their billing.

sounds to me like a whole lotta smoke blowin... corporate america is always very good at that, and making adult operators feel loved is easy if you're willing to tell them "oh, we have no problem with adult, we love adult. you're not pornographers, your businessmen... really. thats how we think of you."

my 2 cents. stay away.

Mitch - I am preparing a checklist of issues for our company now, which I will be forwarding to you after the weekend ;-)

And my holiday was awesome thanks. Stayed at all the best hotels around your wonderful country seeing anything and everything

KimmyKim - Where's my photos sweetie???

12Clicks - I ahev to agree with Lensman. Deal with iBill direct, and maybe get a better Rep (probably the same message for you too Hoop)

and what makes you beleive that people who were in business long before you discovered the difference between the internet and fishing net
haven't done it already?

do they look like somebody who'd go to the boards first before trying to resolve it with the company?

c'mon,
you don't impress me like somebody who knows what he is talking about

Thanks Serge - coming from you, that makes me feel so warm and fuzzy :321GFY

You can agree with Lens all you want. I just prefer to do business with people who have their act together.
Ibill sent me an email saying something like,"hey, we just had some of your checks returned to us saying you are no longer at this address. You need to update this"
I replied with,"ok, great. here is my new address:xxxxx"
They replied with, "oh no, we can't change your address, you've got to do that thru the program you're advertising"
I reply with,"you just contacted me about an address, I give you the updated address and you won't take it?"
They reply with "yes, thats correct"
That's where I tell them to go fuck themselves.
(the above exchange was not verbatim except for the "go fuck yourselves" part)

I simply refuse to accept any company that stops paying me but keeps billing my customers. All without any written notification or termination of our valid contract. IBill did that to me and to many others and if you want to overlook the fact because you are earning big bucks from them and get priotity treatment than this is the same shit that makes America tick and never gets any real changes done. Money can make everything better even getting a big guy to make some public publicity. I don't trust this at all

Once again a question for ibill and all their ass kissers here, "Where is all the 900 money You owe ??? and don't say you didn't get paid ...thats NO excuse for not paying out to those you owe it to??...

Were you aware that iBill did pay out for monies they never collected from Worldcom? That was the month of May just prior to Worldcom's bankruptcy. Absolutely there were monies from June and part of July that were not paid out and we as well as you want to get that money too, but I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this fact before you call people asskissers.

Partnerships in business sometimes mean both parties have to shoulder unexpected losses that are not the fault of either party.

Any proof that worldcom didn't pay?

If you ask me it was pretty weak of ibill to "hire" a few big guns to mount a public relations drive for them.

The fact that they can not speak for themselfs speaks volumes.

While i do not discount the pony show they may have shown a few industry leaders.. I truly doubt they are interested in doing buisness with the small to medium size webmasters... let alone, make sure they are paid.

I would have been much more impressed if they had invited a cross-section of the industry. Better yet... they should have used that money to pay the people that have gone unpaid rather then pull off a two day pony show for the most vocal.

Just my :2 cents:

That is a good question also:thumbsup But the fact still remains, that it is ibill that owes the money, wether They are owed from Worldcom or not isnt ibills customers problem.

If I owe you $10.00 bucks and dont pay you, do you give a rats ass (or is it even pertinant) that some shmuck owes me money and thats why I didn't pay you??...:winkwink:

Quite frankly I don't see where Ibill hired any big anything to speak for them.

I don't get a dime from Ibill, I just happen to talk to their upper management a fair bit, and it does seem to me that now that John Perry is at the helm, they are working to get themselves into a position such as they had prior to getting into "let's get sold" mode.

I think everyone is quite aware of my former association with CCBill (and I am still really good friends with everyone there) as well as my relationship with ePassporte, which does involved dealing with many of the people from Epoch on a close basis.

So if I'm telling you that I think Ibill is getting it together, it's not becuase they are paying me to say so...

People are entitled to their opinions for sure, but you'd all best remember that it's in your best interest for every possible processing option to stay open in the business... unless you like the feel of Visa/MC's boot on your neck.

did they give you enough to cover my check?

We have used ibill for over 2.5 yrs, they always pay on time but the customer service is going from bad to worst. Customers contacted them about problems they not sending me emails so I can fix the problem. The guy gets a refund, I call cs and say noone got in touch with me. She says to me ,I dont know if you are telling the truth. I wanted to lose it and my wife heard from another customer thankfully he reached us first. He wrote ibill last thursday and never heard from them. I dont even bother with my account either she yeses me to death or says she will call me right back and doesnt. I have to tell you I love the adult business but the getting treated by everybody like a third class citizen is getting played especially when they take a good chunk of my money and we run a very honest business. The goal is next year is to go with my own merchant account , I am going to have to handle my own customer service the way it looks now anyway.