DENVER, CO—What's in a name? Everything, if you're iBill. Saturday, nearly eight months after the sudden appearence of an online billing company sporting the same name as the third-party processor that went belly up in 2006, leaving in its wake innumerable unpaid accounts and an industry seething in outrage, the new company says that it will honor "valid" promissory notes received by merchants of the previous iBill.
A statement by iBill issued Saturday and posted Sunday morning to GFY (registration required) says that a payback option for former iBill merchants will be included in a new 2.0 version of the payment processor's system, slated to be released April 7. Details of the payback option were not included in the statement but will be released April 2, said iBill President and CEO Jonas Brown.
According to Brown, the new iBill has little to do with its prior incarnation. He says he worked for iBill in the early part of this decade, as did a few others now with the new company, but left the processing operation in 2002.
The full statement as posted on GFY is, as follows:
It is a well-known fact that doing business with the old company known as iBill was a less than profitable experience from 2002-2007. Merchants often accepted worthless promissory notes with nothing more than hope of a future payout. For many, those notes are still tucked away in a closet or file cabinet. Much to their surprise, that long awaited payday has arrived.
On Saturday, February 27th, iBill President and CEO Jonas Brown announced that the newly founded iBill will honor all promissory notes issued by the former company of the same name. 'I know there are a lot of honest people out there who have waited far too long for this day. I’ve received numerous phone calls from former merchants who lost their sites as well as their only source of income. They were forced to turn to friends and family to pay rent and car payments while they waited on payment from iBill. These people deserve the money they earned and I’m proud to say we now have a solution to honor those debts."
"Brown added, 'Until now, there was no recourse, but earlier today our Board approved payback to all merchants who have a valid iBill promissory note.”
On April 7th, the company will release the new iBill 2.0. payment processing system. This newly developed, web-based technology will include a payback option for former iBill merchants.
Brown continued, ‘This is our way of saying we understand. It is important that we rebuild our image and establish trust with those who utilize our services. This solution will go a long way toward that goal and benefit all parties involved.”
According to Brown, details of the payback will be released on April 2nd, when a tour of the new iBill will be offered. A press release will follow there after. If you would like to register for the free webex, simply go to: ibill net webex aspx.
