A simple solution to the perceived "rebill" problem
 

It seems that many webmasters here and on other boards think that recurrent billing for memberships to adult-related content is causing the CC companies some concern. So here's a simple solution (from a simple mind):

A few days before the customers membership is due to expire, an e-mail is sent... "Your membership to goatse.cx is about to expire. Please visit goatse.cx/confirmrenewal.htm to confirm renewal of your monthly membership within xx days."

You can have them enter just their CVVS number (or whatever info will confirm that they agree to be rebilled) instead of having them fill out the whole billing form again. If they do not want to be rebilled, they ignore the e-mail and their membership expires. If they miss the e-mail but really like your site, they'll sign up again once they find out their u/p doesn't work anymore.

Whaddaya think?

I already predicted that or some process like that is inevitable.

Verotel has sent out emails telling customers they are about to be rebilled for a long time.

Ask somebody who uses Verotel how that affects their biz. Gotta be horrible.

actually with verotel I get paid every week... with ccbill i could never figure out what, how much, or when i would get a check..

I would rather they cancel because they dont want another charge on their credit card then to say.."fuck, i should have cancelled that site.. now i am stuck for another month, or maybe i should do a refund or chargeback"...

or maybe when he would be logging to members area, he could have the possibility to buy a membership for another month and there would be some big alert ( also within the members area ) "Good evening John Smith. Your membership is going to expire in 3 days. If you wish to continue your memebrship, please click here and renew it..."

Easy cancellation is better than the alternative in the long run. All the problems I've seen on the internet business scene, both main stream and adult, have had to do with short-sighted greed.

I don't get this mentality, hoping the surfer isn't reminded about his membership and cancels.

If your site has the goods and is not overpriced they should not mind being rebilled.

This is why this industry is being fucked right now. Shitty paysites need to be wiped out so surfers will actually build up confidence to join the nice ones left over.

Verified By Visa is the future for adult CC transactions.

I wish to officialy nominate this for the 'Understatement of the year' Award. :Graucho

Look its simple, guys get HORNY, they see a website and want to get inside, they pay $30 to join a site cause there dicks are in control of there minds. Later on they forget to cancel on the exact days and get rebilled, thats another $30. Thats perfectly fine it was there responibility to cancel before the due date.

Problem is when you send out a email to customer telling them there about to be charged another $30. They might be at work or at home about to have dinner and get the email. Shit they are not thinking about wanking off right then and $30 seems like a lot. They log on and cancel. Thats why nobody uses Verotol cause they do that.

Just watch rebills drop 30-50% if that happend. And program owners payouts along with it.

Yes the way it may go is the email sent to them so they can resign up with just part of there credit card number or something, but believe me thats NOT GOOD.

Sure run a professional site and you'll still do fine but it will effect a whole lot of people if it ever did happen.

Try non recurring membership options, strategically structured to bring your surfers back every time they are horny, and avoid the bullshit hassle of rebills altogether.

I have cable tv in my home. I get rebilled every month for this service. I don't always watch tv, but when the bills hit I don't freak out and cancel it because its not overpriced and is a pretty good service. And there should be no difference with a quality adult website.

Adult sites are just another fucking entertainment service. If my cable tv was screwing me over like some sites do to their surfers I'd cancel and possibly charge back as well. Go figure.

Asking people to do something proactive (ie opt-in) is NOT a good idea. No matter how happy your members are, you'd still loose a HUGE chunk of your rebills. However an e-mail saying, "Your goatse.cx membership is about to rebill, if you do not want your membership to be renewed please click here" would probably be a good thing. This opt-out approach would have a much lower impact on rebills and would inevitably reduce chargebacks.

I have a test account rebilled monthly and I have never received this email. I think you are getting confused with 'smart recurring', which is a once-off charge with a reminder email sent to the surfer just before their account expires. I'm not 100% sure, but I think they can be rebilled by clicking on a link - a rejoin without the need to re-enter all of the CC data.