This is the interview today with ePassporte’s business account manager (from post 1081) worth reposting:

By Tom Hymes
Sep 3rd, 2010

SANTA MONICA, Calif.—In response to a call from AVN seeking further clarification on the sudden suspension by Visa of the ability by ePassport’s West Indies-based bank—St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd.—to process Visa transactions, ePassporte’s business account manager called to comment on the situation.

“The problem,” he said, “is not our bank. Our bank is perfectly fine. Everybody’s money is safe. The issue is literally with Visa. Visa functionality is the only thing that’s down, which means eCards and vCards. We are working to resolve the issue and we will have a resolution by next week, but at this point in time we don’t have any more information and we will contact everyone as soon as we do have any update at all.”

When asked about the increasing concern among some ePassporte clients that their money might remain inaccessible for some time to come, leading them to seek alternative means of delivery, he said, “I think the most important thing right now is for people to be patient until we have a solution. I wouldn’t move any [funds] at this point, because by the time you would receive a wire we’ll either have Visa functionality back up or we will have found another solution.

“The problem,” he added, “is that yesterday we were given about an hour’s notice of the situation, so there really wasn’t enough time for us to prepare any sort of documented statements other than the message that came from our CEO and owner, Christopher Mallick.

“There’s nothing to worry about," he stressed. "It’s an issue with Visa, not with our bank. All of our functions outside of Visa are working perfectly. If people’s funds are in their wallets, they can feel free to contact customer service and do a wire disbursement, but if they can wait, that would be my recommendation. I wouldn’t make any hasty decisions. But we’re not going anywhere; there’s nothing wrong with the business. This was an unforeseen issue, and we’re not exactly sure where it came from on Visa’s side.”

Before hanging up, he once again expressed his hope that calm would prevail over the long holiday weekend, after which the company expects that the situation will be quickly resolved.

“There really is nothing to be panicked about,” he said. “We just have to be patient and see what the solution is. All I can say is that if we had been given more notice, we obviously would have been better prepared and would have contacted all of our clients beforehand.”

In the meantime we have learned that several affiliate programs have sent letters to their affiliates notifying them that they are temporarily suspending the use of ePassporte until the Visa issues are resolved, and recommending that people log in to their accounts and change their payment options to either checks or wire transfers.

this is horrible news.

Well, that makes it sound like it'll only be a few days.. I hope so.

Someone over extended credit

Indeed that sounds very positive. Doesnt sound like bs. The guy says (in essence) about 3 times that things will be back one way or another to regular operation within a week or so.

He sounds like a tech and not a bs artist to me. :thumbsup

when is going to end???

Well, it's their bad how they used it :Oh crap It should have never been any thing more than a pass through. I do realize some people loaded it up recently to make payments etc... I guess just bad timing in those cases or people who just received payments but didn't get a chance to move the money.

keeping money in the hands of a third party off shore depending on a bank in the Caribbean + Visa is crazy. The epass service of moving money around was great, just the people who used it like a bank and kept it there were nuts.

Your logic is good, but banks defy logic - in one of the banks here I have normal (savings I guess) account and a VISA card account. I cannot transfer money from my VISA account to my savings account - I have to go to the ATM and withdraw money with the VISA card or go to the bank and withdraw money from the VISA account and then give them the cash to deposit it to the savings account.

I cannot simply ask them to move say 500 bucks from the VISA account to the savings account .... so all in all Epass and its bank should have a way to move the funds from Visa to wallet, but this would probably take them quite a few days + paper work etc. and that's only if everything is good with the bank and b/n the bank and Epass.

just got an email saying my hosting payment has failed (its set up to my epassporte visa)

Wonder how many people's hosting payments will fail? A LOT

Michael O, how to transfer money from personal account to business account?

Hey Canadians, what's up with the tax obsession. What about looking into your own backyard. Vancouver is a notorious washing machine for 'dirty' money from China. And we are not talking about $1000 here and there, but more like $10 million here and there.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/1..._n_340613.html

Vancouver harbors tax cheats from all over China, London from all over the world, and Delaware from all over the financial galaxy, so...

Please mind your own business, thank you.

Does anyone else find it odd that if the bank partner's visa has been suspended why is that not in Google News? Are the banks only client's porn pushers? This is a pretty big bank (St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd)....from what I read they look healthy and are actually trying to assume a failed bank along with another bank. Also very odd timing considering this from the LA Times on August 9th...

"While receipts for the well-reviewed "Flipped" were soft, they were far better than the dismal starts for two other movies. "Middle Men," about the beginnings of the online porn industry, grossed just $305,000 at 252 theaters, giving it an average take of only $1,210. Christopher Mallick, one of the movie's subjects, bankrolled its $20-million budget and paid for advertising. It was distributed, for a fee, by Paramount Pictures."

:winkwink:

http://i55.tinypic.com/fdempd.jpg

done ! my email [email protected]

Holy cow. Don't the studios usually assume the risk when they greenlight a movie? This is the other way around! So Mr. Mallick and his private investors (if any) are basically out $20m?

WHOA! Mum managed to send me $100 on a weekend.

All charged up, I was like a kid in a candy store at the supermarket.

Back To Business!

Maybe someone from Visa watched the movie...

Looks like there is another one coming out as well... Mallick Media/Oxymoron Entertainment. Columbus Circle...first listed producer is Christopher Mallick. From the way I read it rowan he paid the $20m to do the film + paid for advertising + paid Paramount to distribute.

New letter just arrived at epass.

They also removed the Virtual Visa option completely in Wallet Settings.

In the letter they mention they are ready for biz and fund transfers to continue as normal with only the Wallet being used.

So those are good signs.

it's the same fucking letter that they posted last time.

Ah fuck your right, sorry. I seen the new message and read it and it sounded different. But yeah, exact same message.

yep......

Yep. Nothing new, yet.

no there's not, it's the same exact message. At least mine is.

Nope I just analysed them in a text pad and they are the exact same except they are strangely cut up a bit diff. Like longer spaces between paragraphs. But the text is the same.

heh, have you ever lived in downtown Vancouver. It's quite funny. Classified as the world's most livable city, the downtown is extremely wealthy, clean, etc... yet, almost everything in downtown Van is cash based.

I lived there for over a year, and basically never used my ATM machine, or any plastic. Time to get paid? Visit a client at a cafe, and pickup a ziploc bag full of cash. Time to pay rent? Put 20 $100 bills into an envelope, and wait for the landlord to arrive. Nothing plastic in downtown Van.

Might be one of the wealthier cities out there, but it's a huge black market economy.

I didn't get any new letter

Might be a glitch and only some of us got it but no worries, it is the exact same letter as the one yesterday. No need for me to post it.

So if you got at least one letter yesterday from Mr Mallick then you are up to snuff.

I doubt anything will get done or announced till start of business next week USA time. As the visa part is frozen over time if it all goes to shit what the current visa policy’s about debit cards will apply imo

same... :error

Thanks for that! :thumbsup

Could be a paragraph adjustment conspiracy, what does it really mean?

Yeah this could turn out in a classic bank run

It's pretty common a bank only has about 20% of the funds actually there...

http://www.germaine.be/images/2009/0...nnorthrock.gif

It is awful weird but what isnt now days. :)

Like someone was reading the orig, leaned on the keyboard by mistake, threw a ? in where an apostrophe was before, (notice that) hit enter a few times here and there and hit SEND. Maybe by mistake.

Or... there could be something way more sinister at work here.

2 options. :)

You said it

Thanks for that! :thumbsup </SARCASM>

Dude, he sent the same letter and spent 3 seconds prettying it up. FFS

I've got epass money to spend. Time for some deals!
 

I've got epass money to spend. Time for some deals!

https://gfy.com/showthread.php?p=17467173

So why are they lying to us? Let just say: "Sorry guys, we spend 80% of your money to drugs, hookers, and film making". And we'll understand them.

</SARCASM>
on your
</SARCASM>

Just playing along. :)

More importantly, changing sponsors away from epass tonight is kind of a bummer. I guess if the sponsor contacts me or places a notice within stats I change.

If I dont hear anything then it is still up in the air. That is the procedure I am following. I imagine more will email as time goes on. Playing it by ear.

Edit: everyone seems to have ACH now which is way better for us in the US anyhow.