[JBurrows]

Hi All,

Fantastic site - a really great resource and community. I have seen something a couple of times in these postings that I'm hoping someone can clarify for me (reasonably new to this).

My question is about the gaming software providers. I *completely* understand all of the many, many reasons that you would not use a turnkey site that any fool could launch without significant finanacial backing. What I don't understand (and I suspect I may be missing something obvious here) is why this community looks to the software vendors to resolve the issues we have with slow payment, etc. If I bought something off eBay and I was ripped off, I wouldn't complain to eBay. I used to work in the software world and it's pretty common for companies to, say, license software that processes ecommerce transactions. The customer licenses that software and then uses it however they like - for good or ill. If they use it to process transactions on some fraudulent transactions, I can't imagine complaining to the software manufacturer that they didn't investigate this customer's background and finanancing and ethics before selling them the software. I suspect that there may be something about how this market works that changes some of these basic assumptions, but I can't figure out what that is. It seems a lot like complaining to Bill Gates because someone writes a ransom note in Word...

Apologies for my ignorance - thanks in advance for your guidance.

[isetcap]

I think the issue at hand is that these providers are in fact "selling" much more than just a software license. They "guarantee" for a price that if you operate within the parameters and guidelines they establish then you will make money. If you do follow their rules and don't make money then they claim they will bail you out. Since that is what they are selling, that is why they are ultimately viewed as the ones responsible. The fact is, a large portion of the amount that is paid for a software provider is going toward this assurance and not toward the actual "software" which is far less valuable.

[JBurrows]

Thanks. I didn't realize that the software vendors were actually guaranteeing results and essentially underwriting these sites. That would make more sense, I suppose. Cheers.

[JBurrows]

On second thought... I am still confused. This means that if someone has been misled by the software vendor, it's these fly-by-night sites, right? The software company never promised anything to us, so why would we complain if they never represented to us that they would be financially covering the loses of the sites?