Well, just got the mail today and there was no check from Instabill/StarNetwork.

They send their payments out on the 20th, and in the past I normally got my check within 3 days in the past, seeing it came from Illinois and I am in Michigan. It has now been 4 days and it is cause for concern.

If I don't get my check I am going to request all my customers do a chargeback on their cards.

Anyone else who used Instabill.com can you let us know if you got your checks.

No checks for me either. I guess I'll just sit and stare at the mailbox now :bawling:

I sent a email to them today asking where my check was, no reply yet.

I am so glad my merchant account was just put in place when they closed up shop.

It has been a chore getting my customer's credit card info.
Only 18 left to get. Out of 140 customers.

I will lose a half of a month revenue if they don't send my check.
I got my check two weeks ago. I was worried then.

I guess if I don't get it soon I will tell my customers to charge back on them. I am not trying to cheat Instabill at all here, but they have no right keeping money that is not theirs.

Think they ran away with everyone's money? :bawling:

Originally posted by Synergy
Think they ran away with everyone's money? :bawling:

:confused: I don't know, but not getting my check when it normally comes is a bad sign. I just want to know if anyone else here who used instabill got their money.

I do not think a charge back will fly. Essentially in order for them to collect payment on your behalf, they must "resell" your service. That means they charge your customer rightfully as the service was delivered. Your clients agreed to pay instabill the amount they were charged. So, now the issue lies in your court and not your customers.

Although I am pretty sure the above is true, I could be missing something.

Patrick

I feel the service is this:

My customer pays them to pay me for my hosting service. If I don't get paid then they owe me for their hosting service.

So technically the service has not been provided. My customers
pay a month ahead, so that I did not get paid can I shut their hosting off? Would I? No.

I feel the service is this:

My customer pays them to pay me for my hosting service. If I don't get paid then they owe me for their hosting service.

So technically the service has not been provided. My customers
pay a month ahead, so that I did not get paid can I shut their hosting off? Would I? No.

The only legal way for instabill to bill your customers is if they are purchasing the services from instabill which means instabill resells your service. The order of operation is client->Instabill->you and not instabill->client->you. Based on this illustration, the reverse operation would be client<-instabill<-you. The break down of service occurred here "instabill->you" and not "client->instabill".

Now, you may have some legal recourse with instabill, but your client does not have ground for a charge back although because of Internet regulations instabill may not be able to contest a charge back very successfully. But anyway, the questions comes down to, was the client provided the service he/she agreed to pay for. The answer is yes. Between you and instabill you can ask the same question. We you (as the client) provided the service you paid for? No. So you must deal directly with instabill as your customer has no grounds for a charge back.

See? :D

If they don't pay everyone, I would encourage you guys to write letters until SOMEONE gets locked up.

Originally posted by Precise
But anyway, the questions comes down to, was the client provided the service he/she agreed to pay for. The answer is yes. I agree with Precise's view on this, and would add that there are only certain situations in which a chargeback can be requested; basically it would have to be that services were not delivered or were not as advertised, or the charge was fraudulent in the first place. None of those are true, so your clients could only request a chargeback by claiming -- wrongfully -- that they didn't get what they paid for. In short, you'd be asking them to commit fraud.

In any case, I'd think it was very unprofessional if my host asked me to do a chargeback because of a problem they're having with their own provider.

Originally posted by JayC
In any case, I'd think it was very unprofessional if my host asked me to do a chargeback because of a problem they're having with their own provider.

In the long run I will NOT ask my customers to do this. In the long run if I don't get paid it will be a loss for me.

It just frustrates me that they could be getting away with this. I should have picked a better third party biller. I said could be because I may still get my check.

I should have just gotten my merchant account in the first place, but at the time I was not in a position to get one.

Your right this would be unprofessional and I would never want to drag my customers into this whole situation, it is enough that I had to asked them for their billing info again.

I will keep you posted if they send my money.

Thanks for your comments, sure made me step back and think a little.

Originally posted by ljprevo
Well, just got the mail today and there was no check from Instabill/StarNetwork.

They send their payments out on the 20th, and in the past I normally got my check within 3 days in the past, seeing it came from Illinois and I am in Michigan. It has now been 4 days and it is cause for concern.

If I don't get my check I am going to request all my customers do a chargeback on their cards.

Anyone else who used Instabill.com can you let us know if you got your checks.

Same with my experience.
They did not send my money!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :angry: :angry:

Originally posted by sodapopinski


Same with my experience.
They did not send my money!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :angry: :angry:

Do I hear the sound "Class Action Lawsuit" coming soon?

I am about 4 hours away from them. I will be half temped to drive there. If their office is legit. This is the only thing stopping me from going, are they really there.

Do I hear the sound "Class Action Lawsuit" coming soon?
Hard to sue a company that has nothing left.

I'm not sure how this helps, but I did get my check from INstaBill yesterday - they even included the holdback there.

Originally posted by sbrad

Hard to sue a company that has nothing left.

That's true. Not to spend any more money that we have to on them.

As far as echoweb getting his check, that is good news. I may have jumped the gun.

You have a postmark on that envelope where it came from?

I was getting my checks from Illinois. Like I said, in the past I would have my check within 3 days, its been 4. Just a little worried. Will not kill me or shut me down if I don't get it, but it would be a good size loss.

Just got this email!!!!!! Saturday, Aug 25th, 1:16pm, this is from the other side of the globe.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ms. Hala Ali [mailto:support@instabill.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 1:16 PM
To: L. James Prevo
Subject: Re: My check


Hi,

As you know Instabill.com has officially stopped taking orders and processing credit cards for its merchants.

In lieu of these circumstances we have also began an internal audit under official supervision at a federal level. This has been the reason for the delay in payments being sent out.

All merchant's accounts are being carefully scrutinized and their past performances are being studied. Any merchants with a high charge back or refund rate or an expected high charge back or refund rate will be sent payments late. The schedule has not yet been decided.

If there is an ample hold back amount then the payments will be sent faster. This is to protect merchant customers from potential fraud.

Please rest assured that you would receive your payments they will merely be delayed as an official audit is being conducted. So we request you that as merchants, you try to keep the refund and charge back rate as low as possible and you customers satisfied so that the payments can be made on time.

Thank you for your cooperation and support.

Hala Ali
Customer and Accounts Support
hala@instabill.com

Considering the email above... doesn't this imply that chargebacks ARE possible.
I am inclined to do so because I had just opened my account and had one client make a payment via instabill before I got word of their closure and stopped using their service... so I would ask this one client to request a CC chargeback if i'm not expected to get paid by instabill anyway! So in my case, shouldn't I do this?

Originally posted by joat
so I would ask this one client to request a CC chargeback if i'm not expected to get paid by instabill anyway! So in my case, shouldn't I do this? Not sure how you'd define "should," but I'd stick with what I said earlier: your client got what he paid for, and so has no legal basis on which to request a chargeback.

We got our check...

hmm *still waiting*
i wonder if that means my account was suspect :D

the above posted email from them did reassure me though

still waiting for my check

Same here, I am still waiting. :angry:

hey there
i realize there are a lot of worried (and angry) folks out there. but, i contacted instabill (by phone & email) a few days ago and got a check within a few days. they did say that they are evaluating everyone's account and that this would take some time. i'm a small client and i imagine that my accounting was simple enough to make a quicker decision. i guess that if you have a good number of chargebacks or a more sophisticated business model it may take longer.

be persistant (and polite).

i also switched to revecom (paysystems). i've already spoken to them about the rumors of them being an instabill reincarnate. they acknowledge having developed instabill's software and having owned them at one point but, do they said they do not have any business ties other than their respective ceo's being friendly associates.

revecom's product is a little more sophisticated than instabill's yet just as easy to use. it's developed from the same platform so it looks very familiar. i haven't seen any checks yet, though.

i'll post again if the instabill check bounces or if something bad happens with the paysystems.


thanks

gregory

I still can't receive check from 3/31/2001. They ignore all message about it. And my friend, who used Instabill have the same problem. I think Instabill has made big money this way.

:angry: This upsets me to no end. I still don't have my check. I got a lame. "We are getting audited" response. I called their voice mail and sent another email. I will see if they respond.

Right now I am not happy with them. When they sent out their original email about closing down they assured everyone that they would indeed get paid, now it shows this may not be the case.

I am not very far from Chicago I may make a trip there.

I sent them an email yesterday, but no response yet. don't know when am I going to get my check.:mad:

I get this reply from them today:

-----Original Message-----
From: EMAIL BLOCKED WILL RELEASE IF THIS BECOMES A PROBLEM
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 5:35 PM
To: president@prevo.net
Subject: Instabill Check


Hello Mr. Prevo,

We apologize for the delay of your check in the amount of $ ###.##. The check has been mailed from California on the morning of 8/29/01. Due to Instabill going out of business, all merchants' accounts have been reviewed very carefully. Unfortunately, this task has caused us to take longer in processing the checks.

Sorry for any inconvenience this delay may have caused you.


Best Regards,
M. Russell, ZstarNetwork, Inc.
1-800-210-0233

:D :D :D

I got home from vacation today and my check was here!!

Yuppie!

They have turned themselves around in my eyes!