The news keeps getting worse for Deerfield Beach, Florida-based payment processor iBill.
FRNK Technology Group, the parent company of Bondage.com, and a 20-plaintiff congregation have filed separate suits against the company in Broward County Circuit Court.
Add to the mix the fact that the planned revitalization efforts of the beleaguered processor by Corporate Revitalization Partners (CRP) are now on hold, perhaps forever, and the dark clouds continue to accumulate.
Despite an agreement between CRP and iBill that runs through June, certain contract terms have not been met. Effectively, the relationship has been discontinued because of CRP’s fees and iBill’s lack of capital.
“You could say (they aren’t paying). You could also say, ‘Scott, you’re the most expensive party at the table, maybe it’s just time for you to move on,’” CRP managing partner Scott Avila told AVNOnline.com.
Re-involvement by CRP in the iBill’s effort to prop itself up is unlikely.
“We’re a professional firm, like a law firm, and we bill by the hour. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to assume certain circumstances for companies (iBill’s) size, which is relatively small, to expend a grossly significant amount of time in a situation. Economically, it’s not the right solution for the business.”
Meanwhile, iBill is also dealing with more legal action. Following on the heels of suits filed by The Score Group and Chi Chi LaRue’s CCLR Internet, 20 companies filed a joint suit on March 2.
Named as plaintiffs are Advantage Multimedia, Ameriweb, Angelnet Productions, Bizmedia, Delaweb, Ever Crypt, Go-Cyber, Go-Online, Go-Surf, Lancaster Media, Low Tide, Marquis Communications, Media Loco, Netmedia, Remington Multimedia, Sun-Cyber, Sun-Online, Tempest Interactive, Virtua Web and WebJen.
FRNK, whose business relationship with iBill lasted from August of 1997 until late last year, filed their suit on March 4. Both cases are for contract indebtedness.
“We decided to go ahead with the suit because they’ve been alternating between saying, ‘next week,’ and then disappearing. This is real money and it’s worth spending some money to go after it,” Bondage.com CEO Brooks Talley told AVNOnline.com.
“It was certainly tough towards the end of last year, when they were continuing to bill our customers and not pay us. Of course the customers continue to expect the full service, including video add-ons that cost us money. So it was a substantial hit for us and a big customer service nightmare when we had to cancel all the iBill users and explain to them, ‘yes, you’ve been paying, but they haven’t been paying us.’”
While some sites have let iBill continue to collect their rebills, Talley and his staff decided to cancel those memberships in January.
“I’d rather eat it and not see the money, making sure nobody saw the money,” he said. “We have insane customer retention and loyalty, so a good amount of those we cancelled did go back and sign up again.”
When reached via telephone, Steve Markley, CEO of iBill’s parent company IBD, refused to comment on the lawsuits. Asked about the CRP deal, Markley said it “wasn’t necessarily” dead, but refused to elaborate.
Avila believes the revitalization efforts will indeed move forward, but in another direction.
“I don’t know that they’ve brought in someone else. They actually have quite a few people around the company, whether it’s employees or others, that I believe need to be more active in the business, primarily due to the fact that the cost structure can’t support a third party like CRP in the long term,” Avila said.
Regardless of which direction iBill goes, the legal issues will continue. AVNOnline.com has received word that two separate suits will be filed against the company in the coming week.
