Taniwha:

Sounds like an iBill rep living in hope! :-)

Personally I don't give a shit about US law - lawyers do that for me. Tho there are questions as to whether US law actually applies in some instances.

I've also ran more businesses over years than ever the net was heard of.

Like probably most, I also have moved on and already dismissed iBill. However, there are plenty more webmasters here who are entangled with this lying company and have substantial rebilling. Some are small, others more substantial. Frankly, the "big boy" stuff is irrelevant since several are what you could describe as "big boys".

Basically, you have a company that failed thru their own mismanagement and inability to even see potential problems by just having one bank in the US, First Data. That alone is not even a sane commercial decision.

There is also the matter of why First Data pulled the plug on iBill. If First Data are in the wrong, why have iBill not commenced action for recovery of funds, but pleading with First Data instead??

Then we have the lying about payments, constant lying. We have US webmasters who were promised some form of security in promissory notes which iBill, once again, failed in delivery. We have a number of webmasters who have not been paid in months, yet get more bullshit.

Frankly, this is a company on the verge, not just of a civil action, but a criminal one. Tho there is possibly *some* hope of recovery, but this is not a company many will trust again. I'd want secured funds/insurance policy from iBill deposited into the hands of a third party to be paid in the event of a future demise, before ever considering dealing with them in the future.

Unless iBill do have some magical recovery - there are going to be a number of webmasters taking action for recovery of their membership records and any funds owing - if such funds still remain and have not been sqaundered already.

This stuff above... This is something I've been ranting on about for long enough.

*All* third party payment processors should have indeminity insurance to cover losses in the event of their liquidation or any other ceasing of business.

Whether this is wholly paid by the processor or shared cost with webmasters, - that is a point for discussion.

Any webmaster who is owed money from iBill who would not be willing to contribute a percentage extra on costs, needs the iBill they have and enjoys gambling :-)

Yep, it has happened to me.. i got a lot of pissed off people from it too

I was told in Nov. that I will see my money SOMETIME in the next 365 days and if I wait it out I will get 4% interest on it. Problem with that is MY credit card interest is 10 % .

If I am not mistaken I think you only need 12 or more people in the state of Ca. for a class action suit.

This is Scotty,

First of all I hear Penthouse's stock is 7 cents a share right not to good

Care Concepts back out of the deal on December 3rd to buy Ibill for numerous reasons

from xbiz

The Justice Department is investigating Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based iBill in an antitrust probe along with two other large adult processors. The probe is seeking to determine whether the two competing online adult payment providers, as well as iBill, collaborated to set fees and if so, whether practices are anti-competitive.

Penthouse told XBiz last month that it believes potential legal claims relating to iBill are in the tens of millions of dollars.


http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=42...eral%20medi a

Im looking for other intresting news now that may intrest you all that I had read about the new owners of ibill.

The first data excuse is starting to run dry that worked for the first month. But now that they have gkard and everything there is no excuse for not having funds.

Everyone is cancelling all their members as we speak now after the missed check for the december 15 th after they said payments were on squedule nove 1st on. How the hell can they secure capital now, they couldnt last before and now the money is drying up more and more... doubtful it will get any brighter...

Of course they will most likely bury their name Ibill and resurface as Gkard and in 2006 all the newbies will be saying Ibill Rocks cause they wont know the history.

Lets not forget that Paycom was Epoch....

Excuse the spelling errors but in a hurry
Scotty


Le

http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=25...n ternational

Media Billing purchased the unit of Atlanta-based InterCept Inc. for $700,000 in cash, $800,000 in a short-term loan and the assumption of $22 million in debt.

Media Billing, formed to purchase iBill, is owned by iBill?s former chief executive, Garrett Bender, and Jason Galanis.

Galanis told Forbes that he is only acting as an intermediary for a ?handsome fee? in the iBill deal, not as a principal, on behalf of Luis Enrique Fernando Molina, who is the majority stockholder of Penthouse International, a Galanis business associate and Mexican hotel developer whose family controlled Pepsi-Gemex, the largest independent Pepsi bottler outside the United States. But Forbes said Galanis is more deeply involved than he lets on.

Galanis described himself to Forbes as a ?part of the investment banking team? that took Penthouse magazine public in 2002, then helped Molina in a deal in November to put another $107 million into Penthouse in a real estate/equity swap.

He is the son of John Peter Galanis, who bilked investors of $400 million before he was sent to prison. Jason Galanis has never been convicted of a crime, but served as chief executive in 2001 of EGX Funds Transfer (formerly known as Incubator Capital), a once-publicly traded financial processing outfit

Jason Galanis and his brother and business partner Derek were arrested as part of a big Drug Enforcement Agency bust of a San Diego ecstasy manufacturing and distribution ring, Forbes said. Derek Galanis was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in jail, but charges were dropped against Jason Galanis.

Jason Galanis has also been identified as recently as last fall as the only person associated with Penthouse Financial, a separate company that controls Penthouse?s website. Galanis now says it was more of a licensing deal, and that the contract has since been terminated.

Forbes said that the fact that First Data, iBill?s merchant bank, would have to sign off on any deal that hands over a treasure trove of sensitive credit card data to Galanis, or whomever he purports to represent, doesn?t sit well with the conservative Greenwood Village, Colo., company, which also owns Western Union, TeleCheck and now Concord EFS.

First Data has been shopping around its more than $1 billion porn and high-risk merchant portfolio, made up mostly of iBill and a handful of other large adult online payment intermediaries like it, Forbes said.

The deal, announced late Monday, ends a chapter for credit card processor Intercept, which purchased iBill in 2002 for $104 million. IBill said that it shed the unit as part of a plan to focus on its core business of outsourced tech solutions to community banks.

I am in for a class action suit!

I am also ready to fly to Florida after the convention
to collect my money in person!

I wish you guys good luck :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

sure you can sue Ibill and you will win


that leaves you with a problem....collecting.

you can attach thier assets....oops they dont have any

leaving you in the same place you are now.

my advice sue to get your rebills thats the only thing you stand a chance of getting from them.

If you are still processing with Ibill you are going to get what you deserve....fucked.

move on and hope they pull out of it...THEN sue them for what they owe you....they are prolly going to file for bankruptcy anyhow so cut your loses....

my 0.02 worth

mikesouth:

That 0.02 cents worth is probably more than the net assets of iBill... and agree on the rest! Sadly!!

Scottybunky:

People such as Galanis have been hovering around Penthouse for decades now - often with a different face, but fundamentally the same outlook.

If you don't know who they are... have a think! :-)

And... of course it was a licensing deal and his hands have been washed - not a new statement, - Pontius Pilate said the same thing a while back.... and I believe every word :-)

July 8th, 2004. Old news and something Care Concepts would have been well aware of before they committed to buying.

1. 2. Gee. I wonder if the two things are connected. But hey you keep talking about those "newbies" and people will start thinking you're a big experienced business honcho.


Probably accurate. But remember that Ibill would have either succeeded or failed by the time you win your rebills back in court.

For those searching about Jason Galanis, I know he now runs a company called EGX Funds Transfer now focused on the payment space. The management team at least looks impressive - ex Citibank, First Data and Western Union. Let us know what else you find.

Maybe my memory really is getting bad with old age but wasn't it a lot clearer than that? iBill had a LOT of warning that the bank was pulling the plug (ie at least 6 months probably more). Then because iBill has always been run by monkeys they totally ignored the fact that it was ending instead hoping that a flimsy verbal agreement to extend the cut-off date would give them time to arrange something else. A 'verbal' agreement when millions of $'s are involved.

The bank unsurprisingly changed their minds as nothing was on paper (have you ever known a bank to keep a verbal agreement?) and all of a sudden the bank was a bitch for pulling the plug??? What the fuck were they ever thinking allowing it to get to that stage.

Forgetting everything that's happened since, that alone should be a reason for nobody to ever go near them again. No company that incompetent should be handling sums in the millions of dollars.

Tipsy:

Ah.. yep! You are correct Tipsy - I forgot that bit of history! :-) They did have prior notice.

That fits well with a gut feeling that the management were/are? loaded with a cavalier attitude to business, plus a touch of cowboy in the mix as well:-) I've seen it before, - all mouth, ego and out of control - they never last! I may be doing em an injustice by thinking/saying this - but not much indicates otherwise.

Just heard there is shit in the air on the Euro side - there has obviously some "borrowing" of Euro funds. Several Euro webmasters ain't been paid for months either.

You are 100% correct in that folks like that don't need to be handling any money belonging to others.



PS especially for iBill ... Charles, you got your pen handy?? Sign some promissory notes as promised - but I doubt they are worth one cent unless liability comes out of your pocket, - which, of course, it won't be.

iBill is supposedly going to Internext in Las Vegas in January. Their booth #139. I would love to go and see just what kind of people are actually working at iBill... oh... wait... I can't afford milk thanks to iBill let alone a plane ticket to Las Vegas.

Fact:Gkard has been processing for 1 1/2 months now.Ibill received US webmaster revenue for the sales and re-bills during this time and has not passed this on to clients.

Fact: According to Ibill,its service reps,and account reps the webmasters main source of payment information is the CMI pages.Ibill has not Updated there CMI information page in over a week <which also included the christmas holliday>.

Fact:The promises of Better communication,promissary notes ,and more reliable proccessing and payments with the gkard solution during the "client conference call "have not been met.

Fact: Acount reps<atleast mine> have not been communicating with clients and are out of the office until jan3rd 2005.

Opinion:Whatever they case may be with missed payments,The facts that i have just stated not only shows a lack buissness sense but also a lack of personal respect. Considering these last missed payments were during the Holliday season one would think there would be some show of empathy on Ibills part to atleast post in the cmi to let us know the status of where things stand .By showing no signs of communication whatosever is in noway increasing the chances for Ibills survival.Would you keep showing up to work everyday if your boss didnt pay you,didnt talk to you and made several promises to you in the past that were not kept? How can TANIWAH < OBVIOUS IBILL REP or GFY Instigator> try and make disgruntled webmasters look like crybabys or fools for losing faith in IBILL.They way they are conducting buissness or MOVING FOWARD as they put it is shamefull and Noone in there right mind would think diffrent.What im talking about here is not about missed payments,,but more how a company that has been doing buissnes for 9 years and is a so-called leader in the industry is treating its clients. :2 cents:

Thats not true. I received gkard payouts for October in the Dec 1 payments. It was added on as an adjustment.

Doesn't change much but atleast the monies were paid and not kept by ibill as people are claiming.

I just received an email from one of the iBill affiliates I signed up with awhile back (and that's another thing - all the money they owe the revshare guys; They haven't sent a revshare cheque for a very very long time nor have they mentioned a thing about the revshare monies which they are in arrears)...

Anyhow, in his email, he apologizes to his revshare affiliates for iBill's current state (we all seem to be apologizing for iBill, yet iBill has yet to apologize to anyone), and he stated that he is going to all his rebill clients that he has with iBill, asking them to re-sign up with his new third party billing company but at a reduced price.

I didn't think of that. It's a very good idea - emailing all those who are being rebilled right now with iBill, telling them 'listen - if you want, we can cancel your present rebill with iBill, which I will refund if you re-sign up with my new company at a very reduced cost'.

The way I see it, it's a win win win situation. Win #1 - iBill is no longer rebilling my clients while holding that cash. Win #2 - altho I'm allowing my clients to sign up at a reduced cost, at least I will be seeing the money, if just a portion of it. Win #3 - iBill is forced to refund since they now are dealing with Visa, and I'm sure iBill does not want to fuck with Visa.

So rather than iBill collecting the monies from each rebill, they will start seeing them cancelled as well as being refunded. The way I see it, iBill is fucking with my money, it's time I fuck back with theirs (well, it's my money, but iBill is claiming it's theirs since it doesn't look like they are releasing our funds anytime soon).

I repeat:
Email your rebill clients, offer them a refund if they sign up with your new third party billing, cancel that rebill, refund them the cash after you've seen they re-signed up. This way you won't be losing out customers.

I got a 70% re-signup when I did this to salvage my ibill users - I just explained to them honestly how ibill was screwing everything up, and they were sympathetic, and craving a good deal... just make sure you're not pushing your refunds too high, otherwise you'll never get anything if/when(?) it does come time for iBill to pay out... I've still some hope.

bcbud:

That is the most constructive and cost-effective action you could have taken. It cuts out boring legal suits to extract your customers from this share-shuffling, merging, re-organizing bullshit company.

Next bit is funds you may be owed! If you ever get one statement in an email about how they are not going to pay because you are not sending them traffic - you need a lawyer :-)

Here's some more crap on iBill... which has probably been posted before.. but what the hell..

http://xbiz.com/article_piece.php?ca...string=ibil l

tony, you have to be working for ibill

i agree with everything that you had posted in this thread, but feel very sorry for anybody that, months ago, fell for all of the naivie and supportive things that you posted about ibill. "hold tight, they will pay you, they are good people" those posts were cluelless and the end result, where we are now, was predictible from mid september

if anybody got burned from listening to your advice, that has to be on your concioence
(sp?), and it takes huge balls to keep supporting them after all of this time

please dont get me wrong, i think you are a nice guy, this is not a personal attack on you

First off I dont work for ibill and I never gave advice I gave my opinion. I told people what I was going to do I never told anyone to do anything. Lets get that straight, they have my rebills and my money. I picked ibill to be my processor no one forced me, What the fuck else im I going to do but support them and hope for the best? Crying like a child and making baseless threats will not get me my money any quicker.Use your fucking head, with the recurring model you are in bed with your processor til the end basically.

first person to make sense in this thread! lol

you know whats cool?

a few select IBILL EU clients are being paid, weekly, on time, since all this started. which means all the shit theyve posted about bank problems, wires, etc... are total lies.

I've surmised as much.

:upsidedow

Dawgy:

100% correct! :winkwink:

It would be hard not to pay anyone in the EU - the fraud issue steps in and it's nice to have some witnesses to support a defense in court should that arise. If that is what they hoped for - forget it - it just lays out a pattern for a prosecutor.

It's amazing how banks becoming totally unable to take simple wire instructions from iBill and never seem to be able to track any wires from em:-)

So did I one week ago.

I am on IBILL EU and haven't been paid for 2+ months.

jennycards:

Curious if you have the same excuses offered to other webmasters there.. They give a reason for no payment or you still at the avoidance stage with them?

You are wrong. We use Netbilling and have access to all of our data and could take it weith us to another processor anytime we wanted to leave. Not that would want to, but we could.

Z

No Im right you have your own merchant account those are your customers. With a third party processor its their customers that you are servicing.

Where in the fuck is that "MARKIBILL" GUY NOW ?

WOULD LOVE TO SEE HIM POST HERE!

And SinCity

and Lawyersucks...

http://www.ibillsucks.info :321GFY

directfiesta:


That's a bit harsh df! :)

You remember the days of announcements on GFY that Penthouse have become the saviours of iBill and we are all going to have fun??

I remember chatting with this asshole and the bottom line of the conversation was Penthouse is in good hands now and there were very sustainable plans for some amazing new release of a title (mag) in some obscure country with nada population and this was going to save the Penthouse empire and illustrated how they were MOVING FORWARD.

Truth is, Penthouse never actually turned an overall profit in literally decades....

They need fucking closing down - screw Chapter whatever - they are bankrupt and never will recover - just be a liability for anyone near em.

Excuse those harsh words :winkwink:

I thought it being Monday, they would post something new up on their CMI. Nothing. And when I tried calling my rep, all I get is a machine.

Hi Forrest

Na... they are still in the "blank everyone" stage at the moment. Can't say for sure with anything to do with iBill - it's all face, but think they may be trying to hold off till after the end of January, tho other pending stuff will probably have happened before that time.

Meantime all rumors, claimed payments, promised payments and "gonna be" payments are just bs and lies.

Webby im curious as to your interest in all this. Are you owed monies as well?

Garrett Bender and Jason Galanis are the ones that formed the Media Billing corp which controls Ibill. You can see by the links the guys we are dealing with.

Some other aricles i found about Jason and his Dad.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/20...322galanis.html

His Dad's schemes:
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2000/0918/6608186a.html

Ibill is trying to buy more time. Time for what, that is the million dollar question. For now at least, they expect people to wait till sometime in Feb. Then when Feb comes, hmm who knows.

I'm guessing they just want to get their hands on that First Data money when it comes due in March and cut and run. Can Ibill keep the scam going that long? We shall find out. In order for the scam to finish out, Visa/Mastercard have to keep processing, the Flordia DA has to stay off their backs and delay any current civil actions against them.