"The rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated. We get these almost every three or four months." So said PSW Billing Solutions Web technician Stuart of speculation midday July 31 that the adult Internet payment processor had gone out of business practically as representatives landed for this weekend's Internext trade show in Florida.
"We're at the show," Stuart said, "though we are a little understaffed because we are at the show." Indeed, a line on PSW's Web homepage says it outright: "Yes…Yes…We're Still Here ;)"
Marketing vice president Cynthia (Cyndalie) Fanshaw said company representatives had been asked how they were doing with recent and alarming changes in credit card company policies on chargebacks and refunds, and in basic procedures involving so-called "high-risk" businesses, but otherwise the company was in no immediate danger.
"It's kind of a frustrating situation, but we're doing all right with all the changes," she said, before departing herself for Internext.
Vice president Matt Gardner said PSW Billing expected to send out a client notice either later July 31 or early August 1 discussing "some changes we're dealing with. But we're still here, we're exhibiting (at Internext), and we're doing business as usual."
Gardner said PSW was dealing with negotiations with one of their banks involving their international business and with other bank reserves, but otherwise he maintained the "business as usual" theme.
Both Stuart and Gardner suggested the speculation to be the work of one particular rumormonger, though neither man would say just which one they had in mind. But both men suggested the individual in question was probably more a troublemaker than anything else.
"We had heard this (speculation), too," Gardner said. "It seems like with all the (credit) changes everybody's just getting kind of scared and freaked out. Back in January, there was a guy posting trying to deny official statements from us were official statements. The impression we got is it's some guy who does it to everybody, goes around and tries to make trouble.
"But there's going to be a client notice going out; otherwise, business is running as usual," Gardner continued. "There are no plans to shut down, and we're not going bankrupt."
Earlier in July, Visa announced new regulations for IPSPs, changing acceptable chargeback levels from 2.5 percent to 1 percent on domestic transactions and from 2.5 percent to 2 percent on international transactions. Gardner, Fanshaw, and other PSW personnel said the company would work as closely as possible with current and prospective clients on how to adjust to the changes without heavily taxing themselves.
"Every adult webmaster will be paid well for providing a good service," said chief executive officer John Lombardi at the time. "We…have worked with sites that have done very well from 1997 through today with a chargeback rate that has never gone over 1 percent. We know good business pays off when you make customer satisfaction your number one priority."
