GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Problems with CCBILL and their script not deleting users

Well, *chuckle*, I hate to say it, but I think I have you all beat as far as problems with ccbill. And until you have your own server Tech go in and check and test, I wouldn't believe a word of what ccbill says. Like they say in the TV show, "Just the Facts, Ma'am"

In March of this year, after being with ccbill for about 11 months, we noticed that user accounts were not being deleted from the ccbill password file. We notified ccbill about it and we were told at that time that nothing was done, as they didn't really know what was going on. ??

Again in May, same thing, and this time ccbill blamed us for the problem saying that it was because we had upgraded to Apache 2.0. Never mind this started in March while we were running Apache 1.3. But it has to be Apache's fault. The stable 2.0, the out of beta and being installed on thousands of servers around the world, 2.0. So it was our problem for being on top of things and keeping our server up to date, not the fault of the programmers at ccbill for ignoring the fact that software marches on. So we did what every good group of people would do. We sent them a patch. Nice of us, huh.

Then again in June, and this time I asked for a way to do this myself since nothing was being done on their end. Here is what ccbill had to say:

"It seems that with the recent modification to the ccbill-local.cgi
Script, cleanups have gotten worse. Previously, you needed to manually run the cleanup process due to God knows what. Now, even triggering the manual cleanup doesn't do anything. It doesn't expire users, and there is no mention whatsoever that the process was even attempted in the ccbill.log file. I'll report this issue to our programmers and see if they might be able to look into it sometime soon. I just wanted to let you know that the link I gave you to trigger the cleanup will not do anything right now."

So much for me doing it. Then were informed that everything was fine now and that the clean program was indeed working. And never a word back from the guys in programming.

Then in September we were back at square one. Actually, square one and a half. More blaming Apache 2.0. Now this is September, Apache 2.0 has been out in a stable form since May. Again, some kind of fix was put into place. Not sure what it was and not sure if it did anything.

In November of this year, we had finally had enough. As well, this is the time when Visa had reared its head concerning third party processors. So we were forced (Canada Company) to setup our own Merchant Account and do our own processing. I have to admit, despite the money and the hassle, it's the best move we have ever made.

And here are the reasons. Our sales were getting so weak that we were having shut outs. Yup, a day without sales is like an ummm, day without sales. This had never happened before. On November 24th I checked into the password file personally. Because we had added passwords manually, Through the ccbill script, I need to cross-reference the user names in the file both against my own records and as well, with the records that ccbill kept. Now why did I do this? I had noticed that ccbill listed 99 current users. I then noticed that there we 1310 users listed in the password file. Hmmm, now call me crazy, but I don't think I added 1200 users myself.

So started a 4-day trek into the wonderful world of cross-reference. And while I was doing that, my Server Tech was working on the server to see what she could come up with. In the end, it turns out that there were User Names in the password file going back as far as a Year and a Half. The average extended access time was 5-8 months.

In a nutshell, after spending all this time to do manually what the ccbill script wasn't doing, 900 plus user names were cleaned from the list. Yup, people that should have been expired from the list still had access to the sites. As I said, most had 5 - 8 months extra access. But let?s be real about sales. Even if all 900 had signed up again and only for one month, that's still around 27,000.00 in lost revenue.

So at the end of it all, ccbill went back into the server and tested it. Guess what. No Problem. Works fine with Apache 2. And that was the last thing I have head from them!? Has nothing to do with the jump in my bandwidth, the extra costs to have my own Server people look into this and fix things that ccbill should have been fixing, and of course the angry emails I received from clients who thought there had been switched to a re-bill program as they still had access. As well, the forty pounds of paper that has been generated concerning this and showing proof of the mishap. Nope, must be all in my mind.

In conclusion, I would strongly suggest the following things be done.

If you are a Webmaster who uses ccbill, Phone them and Tell them to check your .htpasswd file to make sure that it is working properly. Ask for proof that it is. As well, if you have one, get your Server Tech to check the password file to make sure it's not bloated. ccbill is banking on the fact that you wont' know how to do this, or what it is. Remember that it's their script that handles this. That's part of why you pay 14.5 percent. And trust me, you are only loosing money if you don't call them. Don't write them, call them.

Someone mentioned a TOS. Well, in that TOS it states that ccbill will manage their own scripts and tools. Demand proof that this is being done.

As well, if you used them for Visa and now you don't, you may want to go in and check your Active Users. Seems that on a rebill, if the User signed up with Visa, and lets say this was suppose to Re-Bill on November 16th, but ccbill won't process Visa for you anymore because it is after November 15th, well, guess what. It doesn't do the rebill. However, the users account is still active. Cute, huh. More free time.

In closing, I wish any and all ccbill clients much luck. Never in my life have I had such poor dealings with a company. In the entire nine months that this has gone on, one person at ccbill contacted us. Not our Account Rep, not someone in programming, just the poor guy who not only has to do the installs but had to deal with our concerns as well. Never once did someone else from ccbill email or phone us to follow up, ask more questions or at least to say *Hey, sorry, we screwed up* And believe me, there have been plenty of people in the mix during this time. I even started cc'ing Ron towards the end of all of this, and nada a word from him as well.

All I can say is thank god we don't use them for our processing anymore. I've had much better service from a one guy PHP script writing company. Oh, and much better scripts as well.

Cheers,

Anna Christopher
Femme Fatale Inc.