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Tell HN: DigitalRiver/MyCommerce stopped paying vendors since July

154 points grujicd | 4 comments | 15 Oct 24 12:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source

We're a small family company and the $20k MyCommerce owes us is a big deal.

For those who don't know MyCommerce is a platform for selling software online. They're merchant of record, they handle taxes, generate license keys, etc so they're a bit higher level than Stripe or PayPal. We're with them since 2005. Things started going south in August. July payment was due on August 15 but never came. Few days afterwards they sent and email that they're changing contract terms and that payments will now be sent 60 days instead of 15 days after the month. Sadly, I didn't switch to another payment processor immediately that day - accountants were on holiday, we were investigating our options, and we were generally happy for 20 years with them. We switched only in September, where they worsened contract terms even more, introducing monthly fee, hourly fee for support, increased payment thresholds, etc. By the time we switched, MyCommerce already sat on entire revenue from July, August, and half of September. Their support is not helpful.

This is not only about us, it's about myriad other vendors, mostly small ones. Unfortunately, we didn't have online space to share our findings and experiences. I only found today that it was discussed on kvraudio forum, and a bit on LinkedIn. There are many small vendors who are now in a hole for tens of thousands of dollars/euros.

It looks pretty much that MyCommerce / DigitarRiver Gmbh are in financial trouble. There are news of layoffs and new management. It's questionable whether we'll see any of our money and when. But the troubling part is MyCommerce still operates and takes orders. If there are vendors who still only know about what MyCommerce officially told them and wait for delayed payments - please reconsider your position.

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612462

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=614929&start=...

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lorant-barla_mycommerce-digit...

1. csomar ◴[18 Oct 24 06:10 UTC] No.41876744[source]▶
Write off your loss and move on. Based on previous instances of this happening, you have more chance to recover your money from a crypto exchange gone bust than a traditional credit card processor.

I, also, would not consider this a major hit. You had been sailing with them for 20 years. I've seen many more things break in a shorter time frame. Such is life.

replies(1): >>41876967 #
2. grujicd ◴[18 Oct 24 06:54 UTC] No.41876967[source]▶
You are of course right. However, there are two aspects of "write off your loss". Mental one, and a legal one. Unfortunately in our jurisdiction (Serbia), as soon as your company issues an invoice, it's counted as realized income for tax purposes. I've just opened this can of worms, but apparently you can delay that on-paper income if payment is late, but in the end you might need to sue the other party and get court documents to prove they can't pay.
replies(2): >>41877436 #>>41885844 #
3. csomar ◴[18 Oct 24 08:37 UTC] No.41877436[source]▶
Back then I only issued an invoice when the payment was made. My accountant tried to explain to me otherwise but it never made sense to me. Not getting paid and also having to pay taxes on that?
4. bruce511 ◴[19 Oct 24 05:32 UTC] No.41885844[source]▶
I obviously can't speak to Serbian tax law, but this rule (invoice =income) is applied universally.

In my country if the invoice is not paid then that becomes a "bad debt", which in accounting terms is an expense (which in effect is then a tax credit.)

There is sometimes a tax approach for very small companies where tax is calculated purely from invoice, and not from net-income, but there are typically benefits to that which outweigh the bad debts.