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OK, here's a natural extension to this thread. Personally I hope Epoch will prevail but the very fact MC/VISA have a lock on our money as well as the internet, and MC/VISA isn't being looked at askance by the FTC for monopoly violations, says something about the chances of success, I'm afraid.
IBill/Intercept does not have seem to have deep pockets. They can't even pay us, and as I understand it they're up to their eyeballs in debt and other problems, caused in part because of the WorldCom fiasco, to the point where we've noticed transactions that took place *after* the resolution of it are still unpaid. 85% of their processing is adult. They can't chuck it without stripping their entire operation down to almost nothing, and as it stands now they apparently have trouble keeping their statistics server online.
So far, at least two IPSPs I know of have gone under, and Dutch Billing just introduced immediate new rules that make it pretty much unworkable to do business with them.
What to do? It seems clear that as a minimum the IPSPs will have to completely restructure or die, and perhaps even VISA/MC will not be an option for adult merchants in the future. We got our own merchant account just for this reason but there seem to be concerns there as well for the future given the earthquakes that keep coming, starting with the VISA registration fees last year.
There are no other options that look trustworthy. Anyone have any ideas? Anyone more than just a little nervous at the way things are proceeding in general for payment solutions?
-doug
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