Deecash responds

[gonzo]

The other day I get an e-mail from Chef Jeff telling me he was leaving porn. This throws me for a loop, so I call him. Chef Jeff, you see, was the face guy for iBangPornStars.com and citing Alexa rankings, etc., lent the impression that it was becoming the biggest Internet show on earth. So it didn't make sense why Jeff would be giving all that up. [Turns out he was fired, but I didn't know that at the time.]

Jeff told me he was leaving porn to join the army, then pointed out all these things about the site to me. In our conversation he said he disagreed with the company's billing practices and that's another reason why he was leaving. Judging from the contents of this following e-mail, apparently Jeff was wrong on just about every billing issue he objected to.

And here I figured Jeff knew what he was talking about. I humbly apologize to Dee Cash for all those misconstrusions that Jeff relayed to me as fact and allowing myself to be duped and led down some primrose path of spin control.

Dee from Dee Cash writes:

Hi Gene, This is Dee from Deecash. I would have appreciated if someone would have contacted me first to verify stuff before posting an article with false comments:

www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=28633

These are some FACTS:

1. There is no instant upgrade, just like any other limited access trials. They have to confirm and accept the upgrade.
2. The two cross sells are NOT $39.95 memberships but rather TRIALS, the cross sells are VERY visible. Furthermore its not aggressive because of two reasons:
A. We give a refund if the member doens't login and use their cross sell.
B. We have customer service available around the clock and they instantly give a refund if someone disputes the charge. No questions asked.
C. We send out an e-mail receipt when the cross sell goes through, telling them about the trial membership , with the cancel link.
C. We collectively operate at 1.3% chargeback rate.

80% of the programs out there these days have 2 precheck cross sells, there is nothing aggressive about this.

2. Why don't you mention how Deecash spent $50,000 on the site and Chef Jeff was overcharging me for scenes, I spent more than Mayor did prior to acquisition, and what was delivered to me? A site that has and always will do 10 joins a day and 15 rebills a day - always have and always will.

Sure Chef Jeff wanted me to continue to shoot, so he continues to make money, but the only person gaining from that relationship is him. The concept sounds good, but the site never took off and that happens in this business.

3. Did you mention the fact that soon iBang members will get access to a much larger network of 800+ paysites? 0 upsells?

False statements:

"From the time Dee Cash purchased iBangPornStars they rarely updated the free area since its purchase. And in the members area they've only updated two new episodes. Apparently leaving the site stagnating is part of the new business model."

- We've spent over $50,000 with Chef Jeff since I have purchased the site. I have invoices to prove it.

"If the customer doesn't uncheck those boxes, he's automatically billed for joining two additional sites at full price which is $39.95 for each site. "

- Not true. They get billed the trial membership, if they dont cancel that then they get billed the $39.95

"Which means a lot of people who participate in trial sign ups will be billed $81. The option is given you to uncheck the boxes, but the system banks on the fact that most people won't bother to scroll down the page and even notice.

After someone signs on for a trial membership, the next billing practice is put into effect which is called the "instant upgrade". So when you have a trial membership and go into the members area, you can browse around but the minute you click on something, be it a video or photo, that means you’ve just agreed to upgrade to a full membership at $39.95. Which means theoretically a trial membership can cost you $121."

- This again is not true, industry standard is that 30% of the signups select the check boxes, which mean we only make 30% of the $25 we get paid for cross sell on each initial.

"With the fact that their affiliates send them traffic for which they pay $30 to $35 a signup, Dee Cash is still generating a pretty good piece of change. And most customers never bother to complain, anyway, about porn bills on their credit cards. With the fact that the company is located in the Philippines means that customer service isn’t exactly to the ready."

- This again is not true. We have over 30 dedicated customer support agents. They are available via toll-free, e-mail and live chat that instantly give refunds to any people that by mistake feel that they weren't. Furthermore, we pay much more than $30 to 35 per signup typically and we also have high promos such as $200 pps per trial membership. Our collective affiliate payouts is more than $3 million a month.

http://www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=28667

[Hammer]

Dude, who the fuck is "I" in the first part, you? If not, why is Dee responding to a guy named Gene.

You keep posting things written by other people without indicating when you're talking or they're talking.

Normally when a guy named Gonzo starts a thread with... "The other day I get an e-mail from Chef Jeff telling me he was leaving porn." the reader assumes the "I" is Gonzo.

[sarettah]

Originally Posted by accusation

"Which means a lot of people who participate in trial sign ups will be billed $81. The option is given you to uncheck the boxes, but the system banks on the fact that most people won't bother to scroll down the page and even notice.


After someone signs on for a trial membership, the next billing practice is put into effect which is called the "instant upgrade". So when you have a trial membership and go into the members area, you can browse around but the minute you click on something, be it a video or photo, that means you’ve just agreed to upgrade to a full membership at $39.95. Which means theoretically a trial membership can cost you $121."

Originally Posted by response

- This again is not true, industry standard is that 30% of the signups select the check boxes, which mean we only make 30% of the $25 we get paid for cross sell on each initial.

Am I just stupid or does the answer given not address most of the accusation ?

[tony404]

it would be interesting if someone signed up and to see if it works as stated.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Hammer

Dude, who the fuck is "I" in the first part, you? If not, why is Dee responding to a guy named Gene.

You keep posting things written by other people without indicating when you're talking or they're talking.

Normally when a guy named Gonzo starts a thread with... "The other day I get an e-mail from Chef Jeff telling me he was leaving porn." the reader assumes the "I" is Gonzo.

Link to the original article is linked at the bottom of the post.

And Danny Cox has already stated in the other thread this isnt true. Hes tried it himself.

[RawAlex]

Actually, Dee (or whoever this is) really just let the cat out of the bag - it would appear that they are going to meld all their content into one giant mega site, once again making it harder and harder for affiliates to sell and retain members because they will have seen all that content before coming into another door.

Instead of there being 800 distinct sites over a range of programs, there appears that it will end up with 1 site, 800 doors, and basically once the surfer has bought one membership in one place, he will have seen all the content and have no interest in buying again.

Conversions get worse.

Thanks for the tip guys, makes it easier to plan what to promote next

[DannyCox]

WOW! I think whoever wrote that response from Deecash got their hands on an old post from back in the day when CE was trying to justify their use of cross-sales!

80% of the programs out there these days have 2 precheck cross sells, there is nothing aggressive about this.

Really?? As far as I can see, very few are doing cross-sales anymore. That was a big thing at one time, but with the fall out than ensued, most people were forces to drop them. I always check and test join pages before I use a site and cross sales just aren't that common these days.

The only purpose for prechecked cross-sales is to screw with your customer. If that wasn't the case, you wouldn't precheck them in the first place! They may also be doing e-mail notifications of the extra sales, but I can guarantee you that the information will be buried in a huge e-mail that they know very few people will actually read. They may also give refunds, as that does help keep chargeback percentages down, but I doubt all that many people even ask for them.

Their program is screwing with customers and with the affiliates that promote them. I keep hoping that the house of cards that is Deecash will soon come tumbling down, but unfortunately, they have too many fools more than willing to support their shady antics.

[Hammer]

Originally Posted by gonzo

Link to the original article is linked at the bottom of the post.

And Danny Cox has already stated in the other thread this isnt true. Hes tried it himself.

The point is that when I start reading a post and there is no mention that this is a cut and paste from someplace else, I assume that the person using the word "I" in the first paragraph is the poster.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by gonzo

[font=Tahoma]80% of the programs out there these days have 2 precheck cross sells, there is nothing aggressive about this.

Is that 80% of all programs or 80% of programs that pay webmasters so much they have to squeeze the surfer dry? Nothing aggressive?????

2. Why don't you mention how Deecash spent $50,000 on the site and Chef Jeff was overcharging me for scenes, I spent more than Mayor did prior to acquisition, and what was delivered to me?

What has the price he charged to Mayor got to do with the price he paid? Are we all to pay the same price for content and the same price to affiliates for traffic. Who ever wrote this was not aware of the fundamentals of business and negotiating a price.

- Not true. They get billed the trial membership, if they dont cancel that then they get billed the $39.95

This is why so many trial buyers immediately cancel the trial sign ups. Welcome to 2008 the day the novice surfer became a thing of the past. So many people complain the surfer is getting educated. When they should say getting wise to the tricks.

This again is not true. We have over 30 dedicated customer support agents. They are available via toll-free, e-mail and live chat that instantly give refunds to any people that by mistake feel that they weren't. Furthermore, we pay much more than $30 to 35 per signup typically and we also have high promos such as $200 pps per trial membership. Our collective affiliate payouts is more than $3 million a month.

So the justification for making the surfer more wary and less willing to buy is to pay out to affiliates. Well done Deecash. While more and more surfers decide buying porn is not the best method of consuming it you are doing your utmost to speed the process up.

Porn is a repeat purchase, no one buys it once. Unless the experience was so bad they decide to not buy again. What are the odds they thought porn was not worth buying after joining or they saw their credit card statement and realised we were not worth buying from?

Every customer ripped off is a lost customer in todays market. Yes you earn some today and tomorrow you lose.