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DyannaDoes - "Well, after we left last year's desert forum and returned to our "problems", we just decided it wasn't worth it anymore. Sort of
cut a deal with the district attorney. We were at the point where our story was going to hit the national news magazine
programs, and we just didn't want to do that. It was bad enough getting papers served on us monthly and having our neighbors
wonder what was going on. As you know, Texas isn't kind to the adult industry. Sucks, but . . . somethines things just turn out shitty.
So we sort of also went into hiding for awhile."
Well I guess thats the answer as to why you never replied to us when we tried numerous times to contact you about your sites not pulling up!
Now that we no you are around again Rand can help you get any issues resolved.
*************
FadeEP - I respect your concern for the industry and the free trial billing model,
it is a fact that we reinstated free trials at certain levels for almost a year now.
If you are able to manage the risk and only allow certain accounts based on processing history
to make these offers to cardholders then the billing model is acceptable.
Poor disclosure (or no disclosure for that matter) and poor customer service
are common reasons why this model caused problems in the past for some.
As far as marketing, conversions and cancellations associated with free trials or previews - that
is your area, we just build the products for the webmasters to use, it is up to the webmaster to determine what products work best
for his or her program. We just manage the risk.
Pornwolf - You're not quite getting the point. First of all I don't know who you are or what types of
volumes you do, so this is by no means directed at you.
Lets focus on mid range dollar volume merchants.
IF these type merchants are able to find a Tier 1 100M Acquiring Bank to underwrite a 5967
merchant account after Nov. 1, 2002 then I would be very surprised. And if they do underwrite the
account it may be for VISA ONLY. It is very unlikely that a merchant bank is going to underwrite an account doing say
75K or less per month when the Mastercard Chargeback ratios are 1% (one percent) knowing that if you exceed this ratio your
fine is 25K per month plus $25.00 per chargeback with the fines escalating each month thereafter. If
you are processing 75K per month you can't afford a 25K fine per month, period. So who eats the fine? The BANK!
The banks will most likely not be willing to take the risk on mid range accounts in regards to MC. There is just
to much risk and to little reward for the banks on these size accounts.
EPOCH as a 3rd party processor has a huge infrastructure built around processing 5967
credit card transactions and managing all aspects of the transaction, from the initial purchase, worlwide toll free
customer service numbers, 24/7 call center plus all the back office functionality which is required to manage these transactions
so that we can maintain our cbk and credit ratios within card association guidelines.
So when people talk about the high fee 3rd party billers take, they need to realize that it is quite costly to run a 3rd party billing
company.
If you do obtain your own merchant account either you are going to have to learn how to manage
the account properly (and very quickly) or you are going to have to rely on a 3rd party to "partially" manage the account for you.
3rd parties may answer your inbound CS inquiries but there not the ones who get your cbk and retrieval data, reconcile
your merchant statements, deal with the bank, etc....you are!
And how is a 3rd party managing your account supposed to make decisions on how to scrub 5967 transactions when they don't know
who is charging back and who is not? We know because we have 6 years of data. This data is priceless in
being able to adjust our front end filtering to reduce cbks and credits and maximize throughput.
Also in regards to the chunk we take for our services, if you add up all the fees associated with your own
account plus 3rd party fees then there is really not that big a difference in the fees we charge vs. your own merchant acct.
If you obtain your own account and blow it up you are potentially toast and banned from using a 3rd party
processor like Epoch, Ibill etc.. So is it really worth the risk and headaches to open your own merchant acccount to
possibly save a point or two if any?
MultiBill - Good summary, I agree, enough with the pissing, there are some very serious changes coming upon
this industry in regards to billing via credit card. Removal of the CC logos is just the tip of the iceberg.
Clay
EPOCH
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