Peter T.

I used to license a lot of code from vendors who used Digital River for payment processing and marketing.

The past couple of days I had been trying to license a piece of code for $14.02. The transaction kept failing whether or not I tried a credit card (!) or PayPal.

I spoke to their customer service representative this morning who informed me that only if I reversed charges which I had disputed in 2009 for $60 (code which did not work as described) would I be permitted to make the current license purchase.

I informed the company's agent that I would not accede to waiving my rights as a consumer.

Digital River's extortionist tactics appear to have been copied from an Al Qaeda terrorist manuals. I will NEVER do business with ANY company affiliated with them.

Tangentially, prior to 2005, I used a credit card kept on file at Digital River for small software purchases from boutique, niche coders in different parts of the world. It wasn't until I rescinded my statements with purchases for taxes one year that I saw I had over a thousand dollars in "mini-charges" from companies I never heard of or had done business with.

Maybe it was a coincidence. But Digital River was the only on-line company that had my credit card information during those years.

Since that time I cancel my debit/credit cards once a year and replace them with new ones to help avoid Digital Theft.

I do know that I have not had a problem paying vendors directly using PayPal and Authorize.net, ever.