VC worked by generating a payout file which was e-mailed to Chio and me at the end of each pay period. Once the payout file was generated, it was split in to a wire file, a cheque file, etc. and these were to be processed by Chio.
I can promise you that every single time I heard of aproblem with payment or saw a ticket I shouted at Chio on yoru behalf. From my perspective I could see the potential in VC being dwindled and the one thing I couldn't imagine was, this early on, giving the impression (pardon the pun) that we were a bunch of pirates. I was assured, DAILY, that payments had been made. When I went over a year ago was physically, in-person, shouting on a daily basis - and was told payments had been made that day, only to see a ticket a day later. I did try for you and would refuse to work until things were sorted on many occassions.
Where things weren't processed - I'm incredibgly sorry.
There were some bugs in the software - mea culpa - but any time they were reported to me (with one exception that took a couple of weeks) they were sorted within 24 hours. I'd hope those of you who dealt with me via support know I did try to sort a lot of issues out myself - all of which was entirely unpaid on the basis that I could turn this into my baby as it had potential.
After coming back from FL last year I left a big list of things to do... and I chased them up for 2 months, and nothing got done... then my e-mails started to be ignored, along with yours. Gone had the days where Chio would call me for hours or just to talk for no reason (which generally annoys me anyway as I'm much more a fan of productivity).
A number of family issues did occur to Chio - and I will not go in to these either as I don't think it is right. I do not think they were sufficient for completely cutting off, but I also don't think my direct parents dying should distract me from work either - I can mope in my time but work still needs to get done... they are things that some people would have not been able to deal with. Due to the lack of any staffing, finances or resources and no communication with me (else I would have taken the slack) - it meant nothing happened.
During this time VC also started to bill in some very gray areas. They billed 5x a month than the rest of VC put together. Problem was chargebacks started hitting left right and centre.
The letter from ACH people you were forwarded about problems paying was absolutely genuine. This was an unexpected spanner in the works. VC suffered from this... but it was told to you all far later tan it should hae been.
In about March of this year I finally spoke to Chio, I was doing my shopping at the time in the supermarket adn got a lot of odd looks during this phone call - it was the last time I spoke to him on the phone.
VC was insolvent.... Chio didn't want to admit it but roughtly 6x more was owed than was in the bank solely due to dodgy billing and chargebacks left right and centre that could not be disputed due to their nature.
I pointed out that 1 is less than 6, and that caused a fundamental problem. I suggested the sensible thing to do was stop billing for people immediately (eventually I took the billing side down myself after not having Chio do it despite requests). The site then stopped billing.
I assume none of you got paid after this point - but I do not know as since then I've only had 1 MSN conversation and about 10 one line e-mails with Chio. I infact sent a generic "Hey hows things" when I first saw this thread... my theory was if I got a response within 3 days then I'd possibly not send this message and talk through with him first - sadly no response which has forced my hand on this as I'm not going to sit on it forever.
UK3X which some of you mentioned is nothing to do with Chio. It was an entity setup and run entirely by me. The hosting side was merely a bit of cashflow whilst the software dev for epos got established. The hosting side has actually now been shut down as it was never intende to be long running. The only affiliation was Chio provided the domain name free of charge, and hence the registration details were the same.
Chio has a great family - I think they're all fantastic (especially to put up with him sometimes lol)... and I also love him dearly. He can be a creative genius and when the mood takes him he can be one of the most productive people I know. The key words there are when the mood takes him, this may be 1% of the time versus 99% of the time consisting of smoking and phone calls and grilling burgers. They're good burgers (not the film with Keenan and Kel although that is a great stoner film considering Nickelodeon make it...) - but not enough time was ever spent running it as a business... it was more spent as a lifestyle industry that could have supported his own billing.
He has now moved away from adult and in to the financial services in a different sector - I asked for (a relatively trivial) $1000 to help develop part of system for new thing he is working on - based on the fact my time is rationed ridiculously due to other comittments anyway and VC's epic fail - after this I didn't hear a lot back.
Chio doesn't deserve your hatred... although I can see why you'd think so. It was a misguided attempt, propper business ethics, ethos, procedures, policy and management were not followed. The same applies to every one of you who signed up - don't get on your high horses when there were so many warning alarm bells on this one and not one of you did propper due diligence. I'm not defending anyone... but everyone has a degree of blame in this and it's a lot easier to blame someone else than your own stupidity. Frankly - a lot of you really are 'stoopid americans (- joke for those of you who have had your senses of humour removed).
My financial gain from this? $5k for a few hundred hours of work. My usual rate is GBP £35/hour - if you split out the hours worked I ended up with *way* less than this.
My current finances? Fucked.
I'm actually a declared bankrupt from really bad student days. For a year I didn't even have a bank account and lived out of £20 notes I kept in my box of tea (yes I'm English of course I drink tea)... after finishing all that I started my current business which is run between three directors. We all elect to put almost 100% of profits back in to business so each month I take home a whopping £750, living with one of the other directors to make ends meet. This has been the case since last October. Prior to that I took home £0 and had to crash with family for a year to launch my venture. As it stands I am still broke... I'm not going to bullshit you about my nice shiny car, my big bank balance or my huge success. I have a business that's growing in a recession and gone from £0k to £100k turnover during 24 months - I'm proud of that... but I've not got any pimpin' cars or biatches drapsed on my hood (bonet for those of us that speak correct English).
Out of this I lost a huge chunk of my time, which if you add it up and take in to account the impact it had on my other business involvements actually comes to more than any one of your individual losses that I am aware of having looked in the database. I lost out as well - and whilst several of you have been able to just chalk it up to a loss I ended up pretty fucked too.
Despite all this, I think Chio is a great person and I hope he can sort his problems out. For what it's worth his life's been pretty dicked emotionally and now financially too - you can all smile that your wishes are not in vein on that front.
For those of you who do talk to him on a regular basis on the phone (and I know who you are lol)... I'm sure one of you will mention this thread. When you do I hope you also mention that I've tried to be balanced and am doing this for the right reasons... I don't want to dick anyone over - I just felt you should all receive a degree of explanaion.
If anyone has any specific questions (not related to legal, infrastructure setup, Chio's personal life or the size of my penis... it's woefully small) - then please post them and I'll try to answer them when I check back in this thread.
On behalf of what was Verified Charge, and for my invovlement in it, I would like to express apologies to you all. I take great pride in my work, and failure is the one thing I cannot stand. VC stands out like a sore thumb of failure that shouldn't be there for me... I feel bad for how it happened and I promise you I tried constnatly along the way - and my last phone call with Chio reflected my anger and possibly why he's avoided me since (words like useless, never trust you again, unbeliavable, fucktard, etc.).
I know VC could have worked - technically and as a business model. Sadly the model in my head was not the model ever rolled out to the real world, and my attempts to fix/change it were never applied.
If I had enough in my pocket to bank roll you all back I would... but first off I need to bank roll this month's rent lol.
I hope this will at least clarify things for people... and I hope I've not dragged this up unneccessarily and someone appreciates my mini-rant.
Guy
|