CCBill: Am I on the right biller?
 

I love CCBill, but every now and then I like to assess these things...

With people I work closely with, I believe in loyalty over the best price, and will even pay a premium to stay with the same people when I think someone else has a better offer for an equally good service. However, I don't work closely with CCBill... I feel like a number. Not that I expect more, but it means I'm considering shopping around.

So... CCBill is taking 12.5% of my sales. Plus they hold back 5% for six months. They take Visa/MC plus a few others. I don't bother with their check option because I think I lost as much in chargebacks as I ever made with it. (Next time you get a check, think of this... Everything you need to shop with a check online is on that check. That can't be good...)

So, my question... and I really am asking because I am curious, not because I want to harsh on CCBill... is this: Could I be doing better? Is there a place that charges me less, offers as good a referral program, is as reliable, and will maybe treat me a little more personally?

I suspect I won't change. I hate to wander around between providers. Still, I thought it was worth a look. Anyone have feelings on this?

I like ccbill and affiliates like to send traffic to ccbill sites..so it is all good....

If you feel like a number with CCBill, just wait until you play with iBill. In my experience, CCBill treats their webmasters MUCH better than iBill. CCBill's support has been excellent for me, but I can't say the same for iBill. But anyway, my experience thus far has only been with CCBill and iBill, and I can defintely tell you that I prefer CCBill's service about 100 times more than iBill.

Additionally, I DEFINITELY prefer CCBill's affiliate program over iBill's revshare program. So do most webmasters, in my experience.

I think the term chargeback is inaccurate here...I believe you're just referring to checks that were returned with no such funds in their accounts. Think of it this way, even if you make just $20/day (after taking out the money from the returned checks) with online checks, then it's $20 more than you would had otherwise :) In my experience, check subscribers let their memberships recur for more months than CC subscribers, so you might want to re-think that.

you should be using checks - we do around 10% of our revenue via checks.

Well, here's my biased opinion.

I worked for the company for years. I know the people there, and I know the company philosophy.

I don't think you can find better.

BUT -
It's up to you to get to know your rep, I don't mean you do all the work, but I mean find out who it is, and send them an email saying hey! I'm alive here and I'm one of your customers -- can you give me some help with making more money?

If your salesperson doesn't respond, then you let me know, because that's not the way they work. I'm looking forward to finally being able to have more SIC business with them since it's no longer a separation of work and private time, and I expect them to treat everyone (which they normally do) with the same attitude. After all, if I only push them 1k a month in sales to start, I shouldn't get any better service than someone who only does 1k a month in sales total.

People have problems with them, just like any other biller -- it always happens. How those problems are resolved is the key to whether or not you are in the right place with your business.

On the same note, you should get a backup processor and you definitely should take checks.

Anything else I can help you with getting started or making more money, even though I'm not there any more -- email me -- [email protected] :)

Every check has arrived on time from ccbill..

NOTHING means more to me than that :)

I prefer ccbill and jettis over any others at this point.

Ibill ownership and lil check boxes giving to child welfare associations scare me.. although they too have paid everytime..

Epoch.. well went thru some rough times there even though it is all supposed to be better I wouldnt hang my rep on them if you are running a program and counting on that money.

I hear you can save money with your own merchant account but jeez I dont want to open a support department for that kind of stuff..

To me the money is well spent..whatever percentage..that is the cost of doing business..

Chris

ccbill would be even better if they integrated paypal into their system. also i think a flat rat instead of percentage for large sites would make sense. is this sounding familiar (clearcard.com ) I have experience with ccbill and they rock, however new systems are coming out with some nice features that may be worth checking out, the question is do you want to be their guinea pig?

I"ll be the first to say that ccbill has its issues and that there are things about their processing and admin systems that i do not like.

However, I will also be the first to say that for years now, a wire hasn't even once been late or short by even one penny.

And as for service?

Well.... lets just put it this way... our ccbill rep (jeff.. nicest guy) not only worked his butt off to keep our business when we were small... but gave us the clothes off his back.

Literally. No shit.

The dude knew that one of our employees couldn't wear tennis shoes into a nice club we were about to walk into.

So what does he do? Not only does he let us know... but he takes off his shoes and gives them to us.

And when my daughter was born? Guess who was the first to send flowers?

It's that kinda shit that make me believe that they want our business more than fuckbill.. er.. ibill.

That's tight Kimmy. :thumbsup

Hello Gothwed,
It's 3 am, I would hope you never feel like a number with CCBill. We are also around to help. I'm not your account rep., but I'll help you out if you ever need anything. Just hit me up ICQ 144268948

Thanks to everyone for the feedback, and for the helpful offers. :)

Concerning the feeling like a number thing... I do pretty low sales, so I don't expect much. All I meant was that if I had a close business relationship with someone, I wouldn't shop them around, but in this case, it wasn't anything special. I don't feel slighted. Sometimes my personal support guy takes forever to get back to me, but generally when I use support@ I get a good, quick response.

Given the feedback, it doesn't sound like I could be doing better. I sortof figured that. So, I will be sticking with CCBill.

Thanks,
Ian X.

Its always good to get a fresh perspective on your site.
I looked and you have a nice site, gothweb.

As far as your sales..
I would recommend you add a much larger and
noticeable "Enter Here" link. Seriously, I think after
a few days you'll notice more traffic going into your
site instead of your exit consoles.

BTW, I switched from ccbill to ibill and it cost me a friggin
fortune. All the grief with the friggin pincodes.. it was
not worth it at all.

Sleepy-- Thanks for the feedback! :)

We're getting 80% of people inside our entry page and looking at our samples. How much higher am I likely to get it? It's not a bad idea, but with a maximum increase of 25% of current traffic in, and all of that coming from the bottom end (people who don't want in badly, or can't find an entry link) I wonder how much it would help.

Still, something for me to consider. Every little bit helps. :)

Eh, well maybe Im wrong.. wouldnt be the first time. I just went to your site and it took a minute to figure out where to enter. Most surfers are too impatient to look around much. I have just always been a believer that everything should be built for dummies.

Interesting thread...I was thinking to switch from CCBill and now I am having second thoughts.
The reason is Language support. Soon anybody that doesn't support different languages will just die. I see it every day in the Casino business (the international Market represents 43% of our sales - 3 years ago was not more than 10%).
I have the ability to Translate my paysites in 5-6 Languages but I need a proccesor that can give the support in these Languages too...

I love CCBill they are great what I would wish is if they add 900 number billing gosh that would increase my sales

I asked Colin about tours and traffic ratios ( guess he didnt know ).

With each tour page you see a decrease in clicks.
Example:
Tour Page 1. 100,000 hits
Tour Page 2. 80,000 hits
Tour Page 3. 40,000 hits
Signup Page. 5,000 hits

I have always been curious as to what the acceptable dropoff is between each page. Nobody has ever been able to answer me but then again I may be one of the few webmasters who actually looks at these things.

Also, gothweb .. you said you wonder if its worth the time to make the 'enter' link larger when it only offers a potential 25% increase. Lets say the increase is only 5% .. would you accept a 5% increase in sales if it was offered to you ? :winkwink: Im just thinking out loud .. And besides, if 80% of your traffic hits the homepage then enters the next page I thinks thats a damn good ratio. I dont have anything to compare with except my own numbers but thats right on target.

Can ccbill handle more than 1 referral level?

Im not 100% sure what you are asking.
Show me an example and I will answer you if I can.

I want to have multiple referral levels. So if you refer a webmaster, and they produce signups, you make money off those signups too. That would be one level. Now, if that referred webmaster refers more webmasters (level two), then both the referred webmaster and yourself will make money off all of those signups produced. I was wondering if they can do this for 5 or 6 levels deep.

Hope that explains it?

I called Ibill and CCbill about that and never got a straight answer from either. The word "pyramid" scheme came up several times in conversation. I got the feeling the software is in place but they dont encourage or advertise it. I recommend you call them and ask but be prepared to get varied answers.

2 Levels

Person A signs up the referral program. He gets a referral link.

Person A recommends program to Person B.

Person B clicks on Person A's referral link to go to the site and signs up for the program.

The program owner has the option to set it so that A gets a % of the sales that B sends.

Hope that makes sense...



Gothweb,

If you dont know who your sales rep is, email me and I will give you contact info

Feel free to ask me any questions or concerns that you might have as well...

[email protected]

45471840

:)

I know who my rep is, and for the most part, he has gotten back to me quickly. Thank you for looking after me, and offering help. Hopefully, I won't need much. ;)

Do you personally know how to set it up ?
When I called nobody could tell me how to do it, or if it was definetly available. They were all great about trying to help but nobody knew anything for sure.

Not sure who you were speaking to...but I would like to find out

It is really simple to set up, I believe that we have a sort of "wizard" to help walk you through it

But I would recommend calling and speaking to one of our installers to ensure that you get everything that you want set up properly, or having them check out your setup, if you choose to do it yourself.

It is simple to set up, but there is a lot at stake. Better have something like that double checked unless your *absolutley* sure that you have it right.

Contact me when you have some free time

I will definetly call you up when I do it.
Like you said.. it has to be absolutley perfect.
Thanks

Gothweb,
Your only as good as the people who take care of you. Service is what separates most companies. If you feel like a number then you are. I work for i-Bill and I can tell you that customer service is the most important part of my job as a National Account Rep.
I talk to all my customers....every month and they all have MY cell number. If you'd like to look at another option then feel free to contact me. Good luck!!

[email protected]

I need customer support once a month. I need a reliable service with a low %, and a very good referral partner program 24/7...