Greetings, I'm not sure if this is within the purview of the list or not, but 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