I also have major issues getting a response from CCBill too. Tried to change my address, but it just refuses to go through. Impossible to deal with.

There is an insane amount of paranoia going on in this thread. Everyone please read this.

Just because you get alot of steady traffic does not mean you will get alot of steady sales. And more so, just because you get less sales today than you did yesterday does not mean it has anything to do with the billing company that you use.

There are dozens if not hundreds of factors that add up to a purchase. Just a few of these factors might be these: Is the customer interested in buying? Buying Today? Buying right now? Does he have a credit card? Does he have room on his card? Has he made chargebacks in the past? (If so, how many?)? Is his wife around? Is he horny? Is he thinking about enjoying free content on tubes instead of paying for it on yours? Is his computer working well? Is his chair comfortable? Can he afford this? Is he considering clicking an ad for a competitor? Is he lost in pop-up hell? Is he drunk? Stoned? Etc etc etc.

Suspecting billing companies especially CCBill and dragging it out into a public arena is ridiculous and makes people who do look amateur when there are so many other things to consider.

If you think you're losing sales to scrubs, ask your biller if the scrub level can be adjusted for you. If not, cascade. If the cascading biller creates a new problem for you, find another biller or write some software to help you. ADAPT!

If you can't do any of the above, CONTACT YOUR REP at your billing company and talk to him. Trust me it is in their best interest to work with you, not against you. Constructing conspiracy theories and presenting suspicions as if they are facts is not the way to get to the actual root of the problem.

Well Mark, I was going to reply in a snarky fashion, stating that only a rank IDIOT would NOT consider the factors you outlined but then the Kush started to kick in so now I don't care. Yes, I contacted my rep, he's replied many times in this thread. Some in this thread may have higher degrees of paranoia than myself. LOL

We can't all be as handsome, rich and Canadian as you are Mark, so some of us micro-manage. :)

Nothing against you as you don't seem dickish to me at all but the first thing I'd do after sending "a shitload of traffic to my network" and not seeing an increase in sales would be to start "clicking around my own network". Checking around on your network is exactly what I did after reading your post. I went to all your sites, checked Google for all pages indexed, and a few other things. That was about noon my time and all your links were working then. I then made my first post in this thread.

Probably the very last thing to come to mind would be that my processor has put a cap on how much money they want to make with me.

I appreciate you taking the time to do that, I really do! And I really like it when people with experience offer their viewpoints. I'm here to learn, first and foremost.

I guess I should've said I don't, on a regular basis, start clicking around my network. LOL When I see more traffic and less sales the first thing I do is check every site and Join page, etc. But the error massages posted (screenshots) I've never seen before, or rarely if ever. So that was puzzling to me.

I also use a link-checker to check links. But your points are good ones. Also, I wouldn't suspect my processor of anything if I wasn't seeing strange numbers on the processor's end of things. Then I (logically?) question said processer. :)

Yeah I hear ya :thumbsup There's so much to miss and so many things that can go wrong on a site with a simple typo or wrong click, let alone a network of sites. It's a pain in the ass and easy to mess up.

When I ran the W3c linkchecker on just your themisterpeabody.com site they show that a join page you're linking to is a 404

They also show your recent updates page that's being linked to has 40 broken images.

You need TMM 4.1 NATS and a cascade!

Man, I gotta start counting the beers I owe people in this thread. LOL That makes a couple I owe YOU at least! :)

The first link http://www.themisterpeabody.com/join/index.htm was absolutely bad and is now fixed. But the 40 broken images on the recent updates page is not accurate. Link-checkers miss it cause it's in an I-frame. You can see they appear fine here:

www.misterpeabodyworld.com

I need to hire someone who's better at details than me to handle all this stuff. LOL Thanks again!! :)


One out of two ain't bad? LOL NATS is coming, TMM_John is just too damn persuasive.

No problem. I learned to delegate to other people long ago as I miss a lot of details when I have a lot on my mind :D

If you follow the link I gave to your recent updates page you'll see that all the images are broken.

The I-frame on your home page refers to /updates_new/updates.html and it works fine. The link I gave refers to /recentupdates.html . I just ran linkchecker again so I could tell you what page was linking to that page but now it doesn't come up so that's good :thumbsup

Oh wow, I know what that link is now! Holy shit, LOL. That was to my OLD design for my network page. Like two years old now. Haha! Sorry I didn't understand at first. Long day. :)

I'm testing out some off-shore "delegaters" now, actually. Hopefully by summertime I'll have some basic tasks outsourced and can then, you know, pay attention. :thumbsup

I concur about NATS and we are happy to help with an additional processor for you at rates much lower than you are probably paying now. You will also have full control with NETbilling and will be able to see all approvals, declines, and have full access to the scrub tools for your accounts.

Are you ready to take control?

Thanks, Mitch

Thanks for this - and since sales are still cocksuck-y with CCBill I am now seriously considering this. :thumbsup

Damn Mr. Peabody...sorry to hear that about your sales...I know what you mean 7 of my last 8 sales came from non ccbill processors... but everything is fine remember they have no motive or reason for not helping you make money!


ccbill reps tell you on the phone that a 200% join form percentage is "definitely inaccurate"

then another ccbill rep comes in gfy and apologizes for the other ccbill reps bad information, and suggests that a 200% join form submission percentage is certainly accurate.

Did you know that you could submit a join form with 2 different bogus names and get a decline message that says..."you currently have a subscription and are unable to sign up"

Did you also know that you can submit a join form that is not filled out completely and get two different results.

If you are a ccbill rep and you submit a form that is incomplete you get a prompt saying please fill out the rest of form before transaction can be submitted...

however if you are me and you submit a form that is incomplete it gets processed and a decline error like this...."declined by bank...please use another card"

I'm probably the biggest CCBILL complainer of all times.. well I used to be..

My experience is that when you're only doing like 20-40 sales a day the pattern can from time to time show some no-sales-holes that seem quite strange.. but every single time I tried to make a test sign up - or got someone else to do it.. it worked just fine. And trust me, I've been doing ALOT of these test signups..

I've seen 20 sales in 3 hours and 0 sales in the next 3 hours.. over and over again..

That being said.. when my traffic is up there.. when I buy a shitload of traffic.. I have been pulling everywhere from 200 to 1000 sales a day.. and when you have that number of sales, there are no holes to been seen.. there might be peaks and stuff, but no holes at all.

I think this is just how patterns are..

Definitely some odd things going on, maybe behind the scenes or on the backend. CCBill has been implementing "Beta", their new Admin, so maybe this is why certain percentages/reports have been screwy lately. I honestly don't kow and have no way of ever finding out. LOL

CCBill is a fine company, I keep saying that because it is true. But there are other "fine companies" out there that, either along with or instead of CCBill, may be a better match for you. This is how I am thinking since my #1 issue with CCBill is that no matter WHAT I seem to do - more traffic, more websites, etc etc - my overall transactions (sales and rebills) and REVENUE (THE most important number) remain shockingly, surprisingly, "the same" week after week for a couple months now. Now growth, no decline, just steady, steady averages. Now, believe you me, I am grateful for the consistency in these inconsistent and uncertain times! But I am trying to GROW my biz, not maintain "status quo" and this is the main and major (current) frustration.

Having said all of the above, I have 2 new websites a-cummin' in the next few weeks so this "plateau" will break out of itself by summertime. :)

As Teencat says: Hope your sales are good for everyone and your sites are doing okey dokey goodie!" Or whatever he says (love that guy). :)




Congrats on the 200-1000 sales A DAY there dude! LOL Depending on price points I'd say if you were doing those numbers anywhere near consistently then you'd be an Owner of GFY. :D Anyway, congrats - and the point here is: HOW can I (or anyone else for that matter) GROW from 20-40 sales daily TO 200-1000 sales daily when we're dealing with the issues in this thread. Can it be done? Oh sure, and I WILL do it. LOL Just would like some cooperation in terms of understanding these patterns simply so I can "adapt or die" (make adjustments).

I don't feel like I'm asking for the Moon here folks. :)

Growing is easy.. just buy traffic.. profit is the hard part..

MisterPeabody,

It really irritates me that every time sales drop off you make a thread calling out CCBill, and in the same thread say that you are not calling them out. (yet you make post after post insinuating that they have something screwed up, scrub turned up, sales capped, etc etc etc.....)

If you don't know 100% please quit fucking making these stupid ass threads. Why? because it casts unfair doubt on CCBill and all the other programs that use them. (like me)

Now we even have NATS and NetBilling coming in here and bottom feeding in a CCBill thread. Times must be real bad for them to do shit like that. However I am glad they did because I hope you take them up on their offer and move your shit over to them. AND please take SwirlyGirl with you!

I doubt CCBill would ever admit it but I bet they have their fingers crossed hoping you do switch and try them out. (my opinion)

Once you switch you will see that it's not going to make any difference at all. (my opinion) But good luck anyhow.

So you got 4 times the amount of traffic coming in this past week from quote: "3 of the biggest tubes on the planet" and you're wondering why your sales didn't go up 4 times?

You say your sites quote: "convert like crazy from tube traffic" lol ok right

That's like the oldest cliche in the book dude. "My sites convert like crazy from <insert traffic source here> traffic."

Everyone that knows anything knows that nothing "converts like crazy" off of tube traffic.

Nothing has "converted like crazy" for years.

Anyways I am through busting your balls for now. But when you bust CCBill's balls (which in turn busts every program that uses them balls) I will be here to keep you in check.

Peace,
BV

BV: eat my cock and choke on my cum.

You pray every single night that you have even a single site that converts "like crazy" like a few of my sites do. You don't know my numbers, I don't know your numbers, MY business does not affect YOUR business (CCBill questions or not) so basically shut the fuck up. Otherwise people might think you're on the CCBill payroll. Are you?

My issues with CCBill are being resolved and I have not bumped this thread because of that, you did. Was it on the first page before you felt the need to post your ridiculous assumptions?

I don't know you BV but what I DO know is that anytime anyone ever says a single WORD about CCBill you jump right in. Perhaps CCBill pays you by the post?

Who was the first person to comment in this thread again? Choke on my cum bud. Ignore.

You continually bashing CCBill could affect my business and everyone else that uses and trusts CCBill.

You think I am on CCBill's payroll? lol sorry you are wrong (again)

Get some help man. The paranoia is going to kill you.

First, Thank You BV for assuming I have the POWER to affect someone else's business. I guess that's a back-handed, reach-around way of complimenting my communication skills, my position in the Industry and my overall awesomeness.

Where's the org laugh icon again?

I really need to point out to you BV that I am not the only Webmaster posting threads questioning odd patterns they see with their cc processors. I am not the only Webmaster who comments in threads about CCBill. Many Webmasters I have communicated with publicly and privately have noticed similar mysterious patterns and have raised similar questions.

But, as you say, I am King of all CCBill businesses and what I say affects every other CCBill program owner. Oh wait, there it is:

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

100 billing problems.

Jesus. :Oh crap

That would be one of the issues I suppose.

Don't be cute and try to put words in my mouth to flatter yourself.

You and SwirlyGirl are the attention whore ringleaders who are always trying to blame their low sales on CCBill.

I'm sick of it.

You are wasting your time. Look for the answer to your problems elsewhere.

WOJ oh shit I mean JFK is crying somewhere in a corner cause you stole his spot

LOL That issue was resolved almost immediately, and after checking reports and server logs it appears it was a one-time occurance. But thanks for spotting that. :)


I know - and I left it open for Woj (or JFK), sitting all pretty at #99 for him (them). Maybe they're actually getting laid instead of thread-staking. LOL Let's hope. :)

BV

Promoting our companies is not bottom feeding. We are doing very very well and have been since 1998. You should give us a look at sometime.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I am not knocking CCbill at all or trying to jack their thread. We recommend new merchants to them regularly and have a great relationship with Ron and several of the long time employees there. We simply offer a different type of service, one that puts the merchant in control and gives them a great amount of flexibility. Some merchants can handle that and some just like others to run the show for them.

Thanks for the kind words Far-L and others. We are are always happy to help.

Mitch

Oh well since you are getting "sick" , I suppose in the interests of your health I may consider not "asking" anymore questions.

Well maybe I will ask just one more in spite of your sickness....Oh I know here's one...

When you submit an incomplete join form with a "bogus name", and a missing CV2 number...should you get a decline message that reads "you currently have a subscription and are unable to sign up"

I mean its like "asking" to see a birth certificate is twisted into accusing someone of fraud....

I am asking if you can submit an incomplete join form and get said results....and that question then gets twisted into whatever you want to twist it into.

I want a straight answer yes know,maybe,depends... but I don't expect to be called an attention whore for asking a question...that really starts to make you look as someone said on the "payroll"

There are other webmaster boards with current threads from this month asking the same questions by people who I am not familiar with, so to make it sound like its only 2 people in the adult biz asking thiese questions is a pathetic and futile attempt to distort and distract from serious questions

one more question... How is it that thursday when you submit 10 or more test transactions...each submission has a corresponding form hit...

but then friday when you submit 10 or more test transactions...there is only 1 corresponding form hit?

Those are not accusations...those are questions... I can post the definition for "question" for anyone else who wants to suggest that a question is not a question...

so please help me understand a little better how the join form submission process works..

I thought if I submit an incomplete form... I would get prompted by ccbill to finish the form before it can be submitted...

however I tried this several times and the form was submitted and returned a confusing decline... the decline read "you currently have a subscription and are unable to sign up"

If something is causing incorrect decline messages or submissions of incompleted join forms I would think someone especially webmasters would want an explanation...just maybe just maybe ccbilll themselves would want to understand why this happen

I can fill out your membership with my info or bogus info and a cc without the cv2 to see what happens so long as you agree to refund me if it somehow goes through :D. Maybe having a third party try will help everyone out.

Hey barcode thanks so much for offering to help with this "question" As far as a refund goes I would just like to call ccbill and have them issue the refund, as I do not see an option for me to refund you within the admin.

Please submit a bogus name into my join form and leave the CV2 field blank, and please post back here what happens with your submission, if there is an approval... I will call ccbill and request they refund you immediately!

This action should be very helpful because according to Paul K of ccbill he could not submit an incomplete join form without ccbill prompting him to finish filling out the form.

He posted that for all to see, and I countered that by insisting that when I submitted my incomplete join form It got submitted and the following message was returned .... "you already have a membership and are unable to sign up" remember the form was incomplete no CV2 number provided and I was using a bogus name..

I did this 3 times twice with two different bogus names 3rd time with real name and info, and simply want to know why would I not be prompted on my join form to fill in the rest of the form...as Paul K stated happened to him.

If you get pet prompted to finish filling in your form submission than that may mean that someone or something is manipulating my form submissions..who knows..but I certainly would appreciate your help in figuring this out since I am getting no where with ccbill, and bombarded with insults from possible shill bots

The name used on the form is apparently irrelevant. I get bogus names from time to time. From "Joe Dirt" to "Mas Mas" to "Chase Chase" and anything else you can think of.

I put in a bogus name, my info and left the cv2 info blank and was approved.

Sent ya an email with the screenshot of what I put in, as well as the recipt I received after I was approved

Not to pick a fight or anything but from what I am used to as far as filling out forms to buy anything online, if the cv2 isn't filled out you cant make the sale. The field has always been required.

Barcodes I am extremely grateful to you for the help...this has proven to be most illuminating! Now not sure what to post next as I will need some time to analyze and digest this...in the mean time I will call immediately and ask that your purchase is immediately refunded!

Also let me post this quote....
this comes directly from Mr. ccbill himself

"I am honestly not sure why you received the errors that you did. I submitted your form with the CVV2 missing and I was asked for it straight away." ...Paul K of ccbill


Now in addtion to your efforts there is another thread of mine where someone else did it and their transaction was declined at pre atuh

to recap guys....

4 different individuals.... submitting my INCOMPLETE join form with out filling in CV2 numbers and using bogus names

RESULTING IN 4 DIFFERENT RESULTS

1. "You currently have a subscription and are unable to sign up"

2. "Your transaction is approved"

3." Card declined at Pre auth"

4."please finish filling out form before form can be submitted"

Now Mr. Bv when I call the 1 800 for client support could you please post your extension so you and Paul K can pull your resources and provide a reasonable explanation for the wide and varied results here?

http://bladewire.com/HIREPMM.png

:1orglaugh

God bless you Barcodes your transaction has been refunded!

As you stated Barcodes in my world of purchasing online I have never been able to finish a transaction without CV2 number?

How ironic with all the so called fraud scrubbing in the world that transactions are being approved with bogus names, and missing CV2 fields....LOL HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH

I suddenly have a sick and strange sensation of supreme anger, hostility, aggression, blended with a little bit of twisted humour,

what a tangled web we weave when we practice to decieve

Hope it was helpful. In my experience, there are only really two issues the form can have. It isnt set as a required field or there is some other scripting somewhere on the page thats messing with the validation. To be honest, i think if you don't enter anything on your form, you get a prompt which means the form is validating, so it has to be that the cv2 field just isnt set to be required.

I suppose its possible that whatever formula it uses to validate the cvv against the card # could be interferred with by another script on the page but to be honest i dont have any of the code in front of me.

Note to Paul: I hope it doesn't seem as if I am against you or your company in any way. Right now I am but an affiliate web designer. I don't use your services as of yet but I plan to grow in the future (hopefully near future). The way I see it, if I help like this when I can, it improves your product, lets me know of any issues before i personally run into them later on down the road, and hopefully it helped swirl as well.

Also, I flood the QnA section with stupid newbie questions and get help all the time. If I can help anyone with anything it makes me feel like I am giving back and not just taking.

Best of luck with this guys. =D

On a side not, I did just receive this email:

Dear jomamma,

Your subscription #: with http://www.saraswirls.com has been cancelled as of 2011-04-30.

Your last billing date was 2011-04-30, when you were charged the amount of $29.95.

If you wish to resubscribe to this website using a different billing method, you may do so by clicking on the website's link offered below.

http://www.saraswirls.com

For further details regarding this transaction and direct access to our online billing support services, available 24-hours a day, 365-days a year, please visit our support website.

Thank you for choosing CCBill as the e-merchant for your subscription!
---------------------------------------------------

Thanks for resolving this so quickly swirls, the bill was pending and now that it has been cancelled I suppose my funds will reappear in my account within a couple of days. I appreciate it. =D

There is no requirement by a US-based merchant to use CVV2 validation, and is up to the merchant and the specific authorization gateway whether or not to require it. The lack of the number, or an incorrect number, can be used as a scoring mechanism. If other aspects of the transaction show a valid customer, not having a CVV2 number may indeed be permitted. It's all part of risk management, which at the end of the day is CCBill's business, just as it is with any company that deals with the flow of money.

Paul regularly uses his card for test transactions, so CCBill's own pre-auth screening will treat his card differently than yours.

The fact that it may have been required on some transactions through your site and not others only points to CCBill's likely use of a variety of gateways and acquiring banks, plus its own internal scoring mechanism (which is their trade secret).

Has it occurred to you that CCBill have even relaxed the banking rules for your site as a favor to you to reduce the declines? Now you're hitting them over the head with what you see as a discrepancy. Would you prefer their setting your banking rules to require a valid CVV2 on EVERY transaction for your site? Ask them; that could probably be arranged if you insist on it.

(How do I know all of this? Sorry, I'm not part of some vast CCBill conspiracy. It's only because I have my own merchant account, and I've chosen to educate myself about these issues.)

EXCUSE ME FOR TYPING IN CAPS....BUT I NEED YOU TO STAY ON POINT!!

FACT:
1. I am not hitting anyone over the head with anything...I am asking questions about contradictions and discrepancies first.

2. Paul K stated matter of factly that he "COULD NOT" submit my join form without filling it out completely! his words not mine...okay?? He insisted that a prompt required him to fill out form completely before he could submit it......period,pure,plain,and simple!

3. 3 other individuals including myself submitted the form incompletely and WERE NOT asked to finish filling out form first.

ALL 3 INDIVIDUALS USED BOGUS NAMES AND GOT COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RESULTS WOULD YOU NOT THINK THIS SHOULD BE AFFORDED AN EXPLANATION???

HEY IF NOBODY FINDS THAT A TEENIE EENIE BIT BIZARRE OR QUESTIONABLE THEN OUR INDUSTRY IS IN WORSE SHAPE THEN EVEN I THOUGHT

By the way thanks for clarifying how you know so much about banking regs, compliance issues and other DETAILED INTRICACIES that the average person doesn't know. Sounded alot like a rep and I am sure you know that or you would not have specified you are not...LOL

So you are telling me that clear and concise contradictory information form Paul K (could be honest mistake I don't know...I am only accusing him of contradiction thats all)

So you are telling me with such glaring contradictions and bizarre form behavior...should not be a concern??

What else can be said? Is the flouridated water and high fructose corn syrup really that effective??

I am more bewildered by some of your blind religous and zealous defense of these anomalies then I am of the ACTUAL ANOMALIES