Mansion Productions' MPA2 affiliate software will no longer support PSW Billing as one of the three main processors effective immediately. Jettis will be added as the replacement and integration has already begun. Epoch Systems, CCBill and Jettis will serve as the three standard processors in MPA2.
“It was a decision that was made by Mansion and PSW that was made in the best interest for everybody,” said Mansion Productions' Partner Oystein Wright told AVN.com “It was mutually decided upon that Jettis would be a viable solution and just seemed to make sense. Jettis was something that was to be integrated anyway so this put it on the fast track. PSW is going through some growing pains and it is in the best interest for Mansion Production clients that their business for now needs to be with somebody else.”
Mansion Productions management has been working with both PSW Billing and Jettis to facilitate this change. Jettis will be added for free to all customers at the time of your next upgrade in January 2004. Details about this upgrade will be announced shortly.
“This isn’t a bad falling our or a screaming match, this isn’t a negative or anything,” clarified Wright. “The guys at PSW are friends of ours and we’ve had a long-standing working relationship with this company, so it’s been a very difficult decision and that’s why they were involved in it. PSW, looking out for their own client, actually thought this would be a better move for them right now.”
“I want all the MPA2 clients to know they will all be contacted and this integration will be seamless for them, not painful in any way. It will just happen in the next upgrade and will be like nothing ever happened, yet they will continue to get all the benefits from it.”
Current customers of Mansion Productions’ MPA2 will receive additional information about what to do over the next few days.
It’s been a rough time for Internet billing company PSW Billing since Visa announced their new requirements earlier this year. PSW is negotiating with Visa and MasterCard over what PSW in September called "friendly fraud," meaning customers claiming never to have made the transaction in the first place but the credit companies still charging $100 chargeback fees on such transactions, which PSW called "unfair and unjustified." PSW is also in litigation against E-Commerce Billing and Processing, Fenlight Properties, and Leumi Bank over breach-of-contract and unfair trade practices, including charges they began unfounded rumors that PSW was going out of business in midsummer over a broken credit processing deal.
A court filing in that case suggested ECB and Fenlight reneged on that deal at mid-summer over what the two companies called "projected high future chargebacks" and not PSW's actual record of "well below agreed-upon contracted maximum" chargebacks. PSW also accused the companies and Leumi of withholding monies due clients and provoking rumors about PSW which helped create further cash flow issues for PSW and its clients.
As a result of all this turmoil. Many employees are currently working with pay as the company tries to stay afloat.
“I have no problem with them moving,” PSW Billing chief executive officer John Lombardi told AVN.com “Everybody has to do what they have to do to protect themselves. One thing PSW is doing and will keep doing is to keep fighting this bullshit with Visa, Mastercard and the banks. This is just part of doing business. If everybody were smart they’d have two or three billing companies anyways and not leave all heir eggs in one basket because you never know when that god-awful hammer is going to come down on anybody for any reason.”
"Without a doubt, our struggle over the last few months has been exceptionally frustrating, putting immense strain on both our staff and our clients," Lombardi told AVN.com November 12. "However, at this time our will to endure in the face of unjustified and irrational conduct by the card associations and acquiring banks holds strong. This is not about PSW making or holding money, but rather that we stay alive and fight unfair business practices levied against merchants and processors worldwide."
