Failed adBrite Still Billing Advertisers But Not Paying Publishers

adBrite, an independent ad exchange, continues to bill advertisers despite closing shop on February 1, according to Style Dragon, a style website based in the UK.

Eliza, from StyleDragon, recently told us that their latest check from adBrite bounced.  But she’s not the only one.  She has spoken with six adBrite advertisers who claimed that adBrite has charged or been attempting to charge their credit cards for payments, despite the fact ads are no longer running.

Obviously, under their previous contract they could have simply logged into the site and cancelled their campaigns.  However, since adBrite’s website is nonfunctional, canceling accounts in this way is impossible.  AdBrite also appears to be trying to bill advertisers as though their campaigns were still operational, according to Eliza.  Many of them have had to resort to seeking some remedy through their credit card companies, though no specific figures have been mentioned at this stage, she said.

Some of our friends on BestTechie have told us they have yet to receive money from adBrite:

If you look on Twitter and other websites, Style Dragon and our friends at BestTechie aren’t the only one that are owed money.  Blogging site JWCEY.com made a similar claim, according to a post by their admin:

“It looks like Adbrite will sad-fully be shutting their doors. Darn, and they still owe me my damn money! It’s only a couple hundred dollars but every bit counts during these tough times. Unfortunately, this was the letter that was sent out to publishers who were serving impressions for the ad network.”

As we reported last month, AdBrite sent a letter to its advertisers at the end of January explaining its intentions to shut down.  In the letter the company said:

There will be a team in place as needed to assist with winding down your campaign, and final reporting and invoicing.

Thank you for being part of the adBrite community.

The adBrite Team

A team in place?  Is the team on the planet Earth?  Basically, all that’s left of adBrite is a 404 Error on their website.  Cheapskates.

Eliza at TheStyleDragon also told me that she has been attempting to contact the company since they made their announcement and hasn’t received a single response.  She also said that she knows the emails have been read as she embedded them with a system that notifies her when a message is opened (brilliant!).  The embedding system, though not perfect, did reveal that her last message, two days ago, was in fact read.

While we’re not seeing record numbers of complaints yet, it does look like its picking up.  I imagine the Better Business Bureau is going to start getting busy…