Barditch Response

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for responding. The BBB thing is new. It only started when I began winning disputes where people used my service and then made blatant chargebacks. Believe, me, the users are a higher percentage of the scammers out there now on the "New" Internet than are the sites. My belief is that the people who complained were quite possibly people who were forced to pay and, as I said before, there are some people out there who spend an enormous amount of time bad-mouthing a service or site to try and ruin their business.

I learned in the first year that the WORST thing you can do is respond, because you cannot give out the confidential information necessary to defend yourself, they are generally positing in such a way as to hide who they really are, and the few times I did post a response, I got flamed and the situaton only got worse. Simply put, the accusers and members of the groups play judge, jury and executioner while trying to flaunt their intelligence and wisdom. The most egotistical people are in Usenet. They might be smart, but half of them are the reason that there is a tag on your blow-dryer saying "Do not use in shower". Intelligence and horse-sense are two different things, and most of these people are not even as intelligent as they seem. They might take two days and a dictionary to write a post or response. How do we know?

I neglected to menton in my first e-mail that I sent an e-mail to the BBB expliaining the risks services take and the hits we take from customers who use the service and then charge it back because there is no signed receipt. I told them I wanted to clear the air with them and the e-mail was friendly and informative. I did tell them that they needed to adjust their Internet Strategy to suit the environment and that virtually all of the letters I got from them (and there were only about 4) were from people who had not been refunded because they validated and used their accounts and that they were forced to pay by their financial institution.

My question is simple. If I win a dispute, what business is it of the Better Business Bureau to try and override that through arbrtration? The people going to them are whiners, or are people who created bad blood and tried to do what they could to do damage to my businnes. This happens all over the Net. The BBB never even bothered to reply to my e-mail. So since the only thing I did was not reply to them, the BBB should put themselves on the negative list, as I contacted them directly months ago, and they would not give me the time of day.

That is why I have so little respct for them. I call places like that "bottom feeders" or basically the little parasites that hang off of big fish. They say they are providing a service but are as worthless as a dingleberry hanging off a dog's ass. They charge bucks to have their sign, but what do they REALLY do? They provide a name. There are numerous bottom feeding businesses and many have moved to the Net. The BBB is another leech business along with the rest that don't really do a damned thing except hassle people.

The BBB is sort of like being hired on and forced to join a Union and pay Union dues. A business feels pressure to pay the money and hang the sign, because everybody else does. Do you really believe these people earn their pay? Believe me, they do not. When I was younger and lived in Abilene Texas, I found out very quickly that they were a waste of time.

Ever since then, I go to the source. The Chamber of Commerce, which is free, provides better results, but that is why they have an Attorney Genreal's office and an Insurance Commissioner and all of the other watchdog agencies. The BBB is a waste of time and I would love to see how much money this "non-profit" organization rakes in every year. At least the Red Cross and United Way provide soemthing real. The BBB is, in my opinion, similar to an old western town where the storefronts are huge, but behind it, it is smoke and mirrors. They, by pushing their supposed good points over the years, are really close to a union. You are in business and you better have that PLASTIC BBB sign in your store. They could at least give you a pen or something.

When I have a problem, I don't bother with the BBB. I go and straighten it out even if I have to haul their butt in front of a JP, which I have done. The bottom line is that the dispute/negotiation process on the net is between the bank, the service and the merchant service provider. Once a chargeback department makes a determination, that's it. Some people just won't abide by those decisions and figure if they have to pay they will get their pound of flesh. You see it all over usenet. Services such as mine are nothing but big fat targets.

The BBB is simply trying to take advantage of this new medium and all they really do is blackball people. Joining up with them is almost extortion. They are one of the biggest scams of all time and don't have a clue as to what goes on on the Internet. Their very presence ON the Net goes over about like a turd in the punch-bowl to me. They are just here to make bucks and blackball people.

MANY people feel the way I do and do not give the BBB the time of day. To arbitrate after a bank has forced the cardholder to pay, is like saying they know more than the bank. They also arbitrate anything. They do not have the expertise to properly arbitrate ANYTHING as they know NOTHING about most businesses and are not qualified to make a decison to blackball somebody.

I would love to see them arbitrate Lorena and John Bobbit's problem. How much is a dick worth after being thrown from a car? The ridiculous part is that as stupid as that sounded, they WOULD actually attempt to arbitrate it. I guess they would take the size and condition into consideation before measuring the angle of the dangle by the girth of the berth to come up with a fair settlement. Then Lorena wouldn't pay it and get blackballed. By the way, does anyobdy know when her last date was?

Consider this. They put me on a negative list because I did not respond to 4 letters which had already been closed by the financial institution, in my favor. What right do they have to do that? They obviously never dug into the compaintant's allegations or they would have known that the decision had already been made. If a Judge awards me a settlement because I win in court, is the BBB going to come in and override his decsion and blackball me? Yes. That is the extortion part of their business. It is a monopoly and they do things that they have no right to do. They cannot judge a business when, after all these years, they HAVE to know that the majority of complaints are from bad eggs. They are no different than any other business. They want to make money. It is HOW they make their money that sickens me. That should pretty much clear up how I feel about them.

One thinng I CAN tell you is that I do my best to keep people happy but some people were just born to be a pain in the ass and they do it with everybody. Poeple that rip off one service will do it over and over again until they are stopped. I just protect myself. If I have made a mistake, I ALWAYS offer Members compensation and give them at least two or three choices. When they make a mistake, they expect me to overlook it or make an exception of policy for them. I have one such case going on right now, and the guy is driving me nuts, but I am going to have to write him tonight and tell him I cannot reverse his charge because it would not be fair to others who did far less and honored theirs.

Being an owner and operator, I make tough customer decisions all the time. The few people that want to fight are going to continue to behave that way. In five years I have still not been able to come up with a way that works with them. And those who write to the BBB do not want artbitration. They are trying to use the BBB as a club to get money back that THEIR bank had already decided they should pay. Arbitration and negotiation has nothing to do with it. They want to use the BBB to get thir money back, and that is not going to happen. All I did with regard to the BBB is not respond because in all of the cases, the situation had been finalized but the individual would not let it go.

This problem of being a Service Owner and Merchant on the Net is far from being resolved, and the simple truth is that it is kind of like prison. People get on the net and they learn how the AVS system works, now they know about the CVV2 code and the worst part of all is that I receive almost no truly fraudulent transactions anymore....they all check out. I have to take them by the rules of Visa and MasterCard and what makes it particulary nasty is the fact that these transactions are perfecly legitimate but they just charge them back. They get the number's from their ex-girlfriend's credit cards, including the CVV2 and run a legit transaction, so I no longer take women's credit cards as EVERY one has been charged back. The people on the net have it made. The Merchants and Services....we are just kewpie dolls and targets.

These people would never tell you the truth. I am not perfect and I have made mistakes. Sometimes, I have let my temper get the best of me in responding to some folks, but only after about 20 nasty e-mails. In one case the guy posted my final response on Usenet, not bothering to include his death threats and behavior that would not make you comfortable living next door to him. People hide behind a keyborad and it is an ego-trip. Just another mask, like Politcal Correctness.

I don't wear masks. My site reflects ME and my values. I occasionally screw up, but I always make it right. I have yet to run into a customer, with the exception of my long time people, who has made it right to me when they have screwed the pooch. They always just slip off into the darkness and find another home.

The biggest problem today is that our National Soul is disappearing and the Internet, Usenet in particular, is THE true reflection of society. To read the postings and flaming in groups tells you that people use Political Correctnes to hide behind, but they are still the same prejudiced, racist sons-of-bitches they were before Polical Correctness came along. Watch how peole treat each other in traffic and at the store where they are somewhat anonymous. I listen to what people say, but I make my judgement based on what they DO, as that is the true reflection of an individual.

The sad part is, this country is going down the shitter because with each passing generation, it degrades and the moral fiber gets a few more threads pulled out. The parallels you can make with what is going on in this country today nd the fall of the Roman Empire are scary. We are doomed to repeat history. The terrorists and countries that hate us don't have to do a thing but sit back and watch us destroy ourselves from the inside out. The Internet is the most revealing look at what we have become.and it is NOT a pretty sight.

The good thing is that I can look myself in the mirror and KNOW that I have been a part of making the Internet a BETTER place with my service and the way I operate it. I have always been determined to treat people the way I have wanted to be treated, but before I got cardholder fraud under control, I had to get tough, and there were some situations that got hot, but I was losing a lot of money and I no longer tolerate it. Since I have gotten tough in that area, I have not had one chargeback in two months, just like it used to be.

For the first time in over a year, I now have the money to expand my equipment which sorely needs it, because I keep my promises to Members and the service needs an upgrade. For a guy who built a premium service out of nothing and has survived this long, I think I should be entitled to a little respect, especially since I offer far more personal and helpful service than any other news server. And I use NO gimmicks at my site. What you see is what you get.

As you are well aware, there is really no place on the Internet that has any real authority to do something about the fraud problem, so the Merchants have to protect themselves. When you consider the 5 years I have been on the net, there are going to be at least a dozen or so of these whackos every year. I have watched other services try and defend themselves in the newsgroups, but we are viewed as rip-off artists and in virtually every case the responding service got flamed to death. My policy is to not respond as it just worsens the situation. That also covers the BBB as some idiot would take a letter from them and post it. These are lessons learned the hard way. Let it ride and do not respond or put yourself in a position to be flamed and make matters worse because, as the service, you are always going to be the bad guy.

People are blinded by their own prejudices. They make snap judgements on one side of a situation and, even if the service tries to defend themselves, they are not belived. It is the complaining individual, who is usually a lying sack of shit, that they respect and believe. That is not intelligence in play. It is sheer stupidity and lack of judgement. It is not worth my time to deal with idiots.

The people who are long-time members are almost entirely baby-boomers and there is a kinship there that generations after do not share. People today believe that they are the "One-percenters" and the sun revolves around them. They talk about being disrespected, whithout a clue as to the fact that respect is not a right or even a privilege. It is something you EARN and it takes time, based upon your actions and deeds. It is not something you pick up at a blue light special at K-Mart.

As to spam, I will say one thing. I have NEVER and will NEVER put spam in someone's e-mail. That is their private spot.

The simple fact is that Usenet is an open forum and and individual CHOOSES to go into newsgroups. If you don't want to see naked ladies, don't go to a strip club. There is a spam threshold, and the Internet does NOT have a zero toerance policy. A small amound is allowable. When you consider the quality of my service and the fact that I make a POSITIVE difference on the net, the gain far outweighs the "spam" I post. I totally agree that the automated spammers that inundate groups over and over with 100's of articles per group are abusing Usenet, but there is a tolerable amount allowed by the Internet. I do not know if I have exceeded that, but if so, it would only be by a little bit.

I hand-post a limited number of articles per week to promote my business. Banners are a rip-off. There is NO real advertising medium on the Net that the average user knows about that works. If there was an effective tool that useers frequented based on finding services, that would be great.

The fact that there IS so much spam on Usenet is because it is the only really effective tool in place. People can say that is not an excuse, but as I said, people CHOOSE to go into usenet, so you get what you get. I have gotten E-MAIL SPAM from more than one news service. That is low. I would never do anything like that but I will continue, proudly to post some articles a few times a week because I AM a news server and I have ALWAYS kept it under control and never used anything automated in any way.

I make no apologies. When some better method that WORKS comes along I will be happy to use it.In the meantime, with all of the Blue Ribbon stuff about the original CDA and how the Internet is free and open, I am free to use a service to post a few ads. If it was so bad, why does it work? Because many people ARE looking for a good, honest service. Those people don't complain. They join. To the others, ignore it. If you can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.

Because I offer a truly honest service that is a clear non-gimmick alternative to the large entities with their hidden rules, "use it or lose it" policies and open door policies for pedophiles, almost begging them to join with their stripping of headers, I have no problem putting my ads out there to give people an alternative.. How do you think they got so big so fast? I don't cater to pedophiles and as a result I will never be a big service. But I can still be a darned good one and offer the same quality as any other.

I have sacrificed finanacially because I will not let my service become part of the pedophilia problem. I cannot control other services, but my people do not post that stuff and never will. I will continue to work 16 hour days and provide the best service I can. I will continue to post a few ads to bring in new people who get screwed by these other services. I am a clealrly better alternative for someone who wants an up-front service that lays it all on the table and does not have fine print. That is why I have the retenetion rate I do with people. I will not change because of this or any other circumstances.

I do what is best for my Members. That has always been the case and it will remain that way as long as I choose to stay in this business. As we say down here, "Don't mess with me or mine." That goes double for the BBB or Biggest Bullshit Business. I have the teeth of a pirahna and speak my mind, but I also back it up and anything I create with this keyboard I will gladly say to someone's face. I don't hide out like many people. I am here in Victoria and my phone number is on the site. I wrote this letter becaue, once again, I am going to protect my Service and all of my Members and I do not take kindly to being singled out when these other entities are spamming and ripping people off by the thousands. I run an honest business which I will stand behind and protect to the end, and I don't give a damn what people think about that. My Members are the ones that count. Not some dumb-ass in Usenet who couldn't find his ass with both hands and a stick of dynamite.

You may post this as my response in whatever area you keep these things. I am human and make mistakes and get angry, but I treat people fairly and honestly, both in life and on whe Web. After dealing iwth over 8000 people in five years, the Law of Large Numbers comes into play and there are going to be some situations that happen where there IS no real resolution. I have come to terms with that, but the idiots that spend their time making trouble will never learn. They need to get a life.

Regards,
Don Shaw