Quote:
Originally posted by NetRodent
I'm going to be running those numbers today. I imagine the majority of idle accounts don't chargeback and culling them would probably result in a huge loss of revenue. If that's the case, there's a potentially fatal flaw in our business.
Lets take your cellphone example. What percentage of cellphone subscribers don't get any value from their phones for months at a time? A cell phone can still be of value even if you don't use it (ie in case of emergencies or to recieve infrequent but important calls). I would venture to guess that most cellphone subscibers use their phone. I would also venture to guess that most cellphone subscribers know they have a phone and understand their financial responsability to the phone company.
In the case of a porn site, there is no value to someone who doesn't use it. You can't claim that someone would keep a subscription for an emergency session of masturbation. Also, convention wisdon in our industry is to make sure the subscriber understands a little as possible about the fact they will be rebilled.
In short I assume that most cellphone users know they have a phone and know they have to pay for it while most porn site members don't know they have a membership or that they have to pay for it. That seems like a pretty major problem. Perhaps that's the problem Visa is trying to correct?
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Dude, you're really stretching on this one. Your analogy is wrong and no matter how many words you use it will continue being wrong. When you agree to pay a flat fee for a service, it's tough noogies for you if you don't use it. It doesn't matter whether or not most people use their cell phones every month. Whether or not they use it, they pay. If you rent a house and go on vacation for a month, you still pay the rent for the month you were gone. If you buy or lease a car and it sits in your garage rotting away, you still have to pay. If you pay $39.95 per month for DSL and never use it, you still pay. It doesn't matter if you never watch your TV, if you have cable you pay for it. Subscribe to the newspaper? You pay whether or not you read it. Have insurance? You pay even if you never need it (yes it is a valid comparison... it's there when you need it, just like a porn site).
As for people understanding their obligation to the cell phone ocmpany, that's total crap. Unless you buried the rebill statement under the join button in a -3 font size, they know they will be paying monthly. Let's just see you try and pull that shit with any of the services I mentioned above. There is no excuse for this behavior. Unless the card was stolen, they owe for every month they were a member. If the card <I>was</I> stolen they should be required to get a new one. No more of this easy scam bullshit.
SpaceAce