Timberway.com - ALERT! Major StormPay Policy Change - Did StormPay Just Kill Your Business?

ALERT! Major StormPay Policy Change - Did StormPay Just Kill Your Business?

I really hope you are not using StormPay to take payments on your website.  If you are using StormPay (directly or through PayDotCom, this may be somewhat of a business emergency for you...  Likely you lost the ability for people to pay you as of March 23, 2006.  And likely Stormpay has not told you this.

StormPay implemented a total change in their policy on Thursday, March 23, 2006.  They do not appear to have notified anyone except by posting an inconspicuous notice in the news on their site.  So, what is StormPay's policy change?  They will no longer accept payments except for sales made through their auction service!

StormPay was previously a service similar to PayPal.  Many webmasters and Internet marketers have been using StormPay to accept payments for products and services.  Even PayDotCom allowed people to take payments by either PayPal or StormPay.  PayDotCom also allowed affiliate programs to pay affiliates using either PayPal or StormPay.

Here's a link to the news item on StormPay's site:

https://www.stormpay.com/stormpay/user/helpdesk.php?view=news&y=2006&article_id=50

In the article, StormPay says:

Important StormPay Policy Change:
23-Mar-2006 14:21

Dear Valued StormPay customer,

Effective immediately StormPay Inc. will no longer accept payments for sales made outside of StormPay Auctions. If you are an online seller who wishes to sell your product or service through the StormPay system, your item must be sold using the StormPay Auctions feature. Listing in the StormPay Auctions is FREE of charge unless utilizing our inexpensive upgraded listing options.

Q: Why has StormPay implemented this new policy?

A: StormPay has rendered certain policy changes to insure a safer online experience for both buyers and sellers. This policy change allows StormPay to more closely monitor the products/services sold, insuring that sold items are within StormPay’s acceptable use policies.

Under these new policy guidelines, customers may no longer log into a StormPay account for the purpose of sending money to another online user, or “offsite” website sale. All “spends” and “receives” are and only can be for the specific purchase of a user’s auction listing and successful purchase of.

Subscriptions (recurring billing) is no longer supported by the StormPay system. All current subscriptions have been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We appreciate your business. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

StormPay Inc.

StormPay has been having some problems lately.  But it's difficult to fathom why StormPay would make such a major change and not even notify customers who use their service to accept payments or pay others.  Fortunately for me, I am not currently accepting payments on any of my sites through StormPay.  I hope that you are equally lucky!

If you have been using StormPay (directly or through PayDotCom), please check and take action immediately.  Unless you are going through their auctions, it is likely no one can actually make a purchase from you right now.  And if you have affiliates that you pay through StormPay, you will need to find another method right away.

I want to sincerely thank Michael Hopkins, of BizzyDays.com, for giving me a heads-up on this.  StormPay certainly didn't tell me...

If you're affected by this and you need to set up an alternative payment option, Michael has a tutorial that you might find useful.  It's a guide to the different options available when it comes to accepting payment for downloadable products like ebooks.  You can download Michael's tutorial here: http://www.bizzydays.com/resources/tutorial.php

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