[asterisk-biz] Payment bureau

[Alex Balashov]

Greetings,

I would like to get everyone's thoughts on the creation of something 
like a "credit bureau" specific to our industry.  I don't think we 
currently have anything like that in the VoIP cottage industry, unless 
I am mistaken.

Simply put, we should have a way of anonymously rating customers' 
payment history and noting any especially egregious disputes.  Access 
should be restricted only to verified companies legitimately engaged 
in VoIP-related trade.

My interest in this is from a consulting and professional services 
angle, since that's what Evariste Systems does.  However, I do not see 
why this could not also accommodate payment information from the ITSP 
and small carrier world.

There are lots of potential problems, of course:

1) Some customers would consider disclosure of any transactional 
information a violation of standing NDAs;

2) The possibility of clutter from small/irrelevant transactions, like 
$5 prepayments for O/T or calling cards;

3) Some need for moderation and standards enforcement;  there is a 
very real possibility of abuse by members by leveraging such a tool in 
frivolous business disputes, or business disputes in which their hands 
are not clean any more than the customer's;  example:  I could fail to 
deliver to a customer what I promised, and then report his refusal to 
pay as a financial misdeed;

4) Large deals and transactions often already go through credit checks 
with real credit bureaus and various ratings firms.

Nevertheless, I think there would be a lot of value as well.  And 
while there is the possibility that the existence of such a tool could 
be used to intimidate/threaten customers in business disputes, the 
value of catching fraudsters who go around from VoIP company to VoIP 
company ripping each one off and disappearing into a hole might 
outweigh that.

My father does, among other things, some freelance translation.  In 
that industry, there's a web site called:

    http://www.paymentpractices.net/

It is upon seeing this that I wondered why we do not have something 
like that in our world.

Eager to hear your thoughts,

-- Alex

-- 
Alex Balashov - Principal
Evariste Systems
Web     : http://www.evaristesys.com/
Tel     : (+1) (678) 954-0670
Direct  : (+1) (678) 954-0671