I’m not always sitting at the computer typing, as if anyone cares about anything I have to say. Sometimes I sit at the computer maintaining an adult web site, unconnected with this one. (That’s a picture of me, hard at work, on the left.) Things were going along quite nicely for years with minimum effort, providing me with an adequate income. Then everything changed.
iBill, the company who processes the credit card payments for my site, started having some financial problems. Actually, they were huge financial problems. They continued taking my customers’ monthy subscription fees but stopped paying me. In fact, they haven’t made a pay-out since the 1st of October. iBill is the largest company in the world who provide this service, so I’m not alone in this, by the way. They didn’t bother telling anyone about this situation until two days before they stopped payments. As of January 1, 2005, they will be holding three months worth of what is, for all intents and purposes, my salary. After three months of excuses on their web site and many unreturned phone calls, I’m essentially broke.
I know, boo-hoo, poor, destitute pornographer. Who cares? Well, I ain’t asking for sympathy, I'm just ranting and getting this out there.
I can switch to another company and have actually started that process. Unfortunately, it involves paying a hefty yearly “registration fee” required by VISA for “high risk” (meaning adult) sites. Since I haven’t been paid in such a long time this will essentially clean me out. Also, this will only be for my new customers. My other customers, some of whom have been with me for years will continue to pay money to iBill which I, most likely, will never see. Word on the adult webmaster street is that iBill will declare bankruptcy and the thousands of people they owe money to will be up the proverbial creek.
The InterNext porn convention is in Las Vegas next week. If iBill has a presence there’and they normally do’they will be converged upon by angry customers. And they certainly should be. If they don’t show up, they’ll be sending a really depressing message to their customers. We’ll see, I guess. The guys I’m staying with will be attending the convention. I’ll keep you informed.
