AdultWork support extremely rude

[NinjaBabe]

So this happened to me today. I've never felt so disrespected and I've never been talked down like this. This is the e-mail that the support of AdultWork sent me after I asked them what's the solution on a simple situation. I couldn't set my account to stream and I didn't know what was wrong. Also I noticed on their site that my activity was monitored by some sort of admin and I read that that admin can withdraw money from my account to theirs at any moment. That they are kind of 'in charge' of my account .
Anyway...is this the way to talk to models who want to work with you ? Because I feel very discriminated and I would NOT recommend anyone to work with them! Not because they were assholes to me but because if the support of a site talkes with their models like this I don't think they deserve any time or energy spent there. I'm going to be bitchy now but what's with the attitude when you're definitely not nearly a top site ? You'll think that just by this fact I would've stayed away but I'm on a mission to find the perfect private based site for me . I love making my clips and all but it can be a little lonely to do this all day so I decided to try some camsites. I've never ecountered in my 7 years in this industry a site more against romanians as them. This blows my mind. The way they choose to respond to a simple question.
So ofc I deleted my account as fast as I could and cut this off my list. I can never understand a business that has poor support or rude support or unresponsive support. This is how you make money! This is how you make your business grow. You can have all the ads and promo money can buy but you'll never buy respect. I'm curious what your oppinions are regarding this situation .
I already find it quite sad that romanians get paid 5% less on Streamate. I know that Romania has the best internet speed and there might be people trying to scam the sistem and the cases are very very rare. Not every romanian model breaks the rules and not every romanian model tries to scam members. There are charge back policies and ways to deal with the problems that might occur without being an asshole. End of rant.

 

[Mila_]

I don’t know.. feels like there is part of the situation you aren’t telling us. It feels like you violated a rule, got reprimanded, complained, and then support sent you this message. Since you are only posting what they replied we just have your word for what actually happened.

In regards to Romanian models getting a 5% less payout, it is unfair to honest models, but if you come from a region with a super high fraud rate compared to the rest of the world then the money to compensate the site for all the extra effort monitoring Romanian accounts to make sure they aren’t using the site to commit fraud has to come from somewhere. The alternative would be to simply ban Romania as a whole from working there.

 

[DoD404]

hum, by reading their term of service, I can't figure any kindness or minimum of understanding in these services.
Even the introduction is tinted of vanity and threats.
This doesn't sound like a community at all and goes fine with basic segregation.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

hum, by reading their term of service, I can't figure any kindness or minimum of understanding in these services.
Even the introduction is tinted of vanity and threats.
This doesn't sound like a community at all and goes fine with basic segregation.

The TOS doesn't even read like a real TOS just a rant about eastern Europeans

Yikes

I can understand that it may be very frustrating to have an overwhelming about of dodgy business happening from one geographic area but they still should handle it professionally. This comes off very badly to me. When mfc had constant issues w models and studios from the phillipines they finally just stopped accepting them which I can understand. I can also understand the % decrease. Adult processors charge us 15% compared to maybe 4% for regular businesses because we are considered high risk. It sucks, but it's due to a high amount of chargebacks coming from adult sites.

But OP is right, the language and phrasing this site is using is unprofessional and makes me leery of using them.

 

[NinjaBabe]

I don’t know.. feels like there is part of the situation you aren’t telling us. It feels like you violated a rule, got reprimanded, complained, and then support sent you this message. Since you are only posting what they replied we just have your word for what actually happened.

In regards to Romanian models getting a 5% less payout, it is unfair to honest models, but if you come from a region with a super high fraud rate compared to the rest of the world then the money to compensate the site for all the extra effort monitoring Romanian accounts to make sure they aren’t using the site to commit fraud has to come from somewhere. The alternative would be to simply ban Romania as a whole from working there.

I cammed on their site only once 2 years ago maybe, didn't break any rules because if I did I would've had my account deleted and I just kept my account open. As I was verifying the list of sites I want to try I saw this one and thought that I should give it a go. Here's the mail I sent them so there are no doubts that I'm hiding something, just for the story to be complete.


Hope everything is clear now. I posted here just to show people how this sites treats models and maybe some will have something to keep in mind before wanting to cam for them . It really touches a soft spot when my honesty is put into question because things are very simple to me : I don't break rules because if I'm choosing to cam or to post clips somewhere I read everything about the before I choose to work with them. If I make a mistake I'm not ashamed to apologize. Anyway..I hope it's very clear from my e-mail that I've been nothing but polite and nice to them.

 

[Lintilla]

AdultWork's customer support was generally rude to me whenever I dealt with them, and I'm an American. I had nothing but bad experiences with them. When I read @NinjaBabe was Romanian, I expected it to be much worse.

I don't know any more about the particular situation here. Maybe OP did something wrong, maybe not. Regardless, they've had a reputation for a long time for being unpleasant overall, and absolutely shitty to anyone in their "high-risk" countries.

Whether it's justified to pay less to or to more closely monitor people from certain countries, that's a completely different argument from whether or not everyone deserves to be treated professionally (and duh, they do).

I'm pretty sure Americans can't cam there anymore? I'm not entirely sure what was up with that, I ditched them years ago because I was just so angry with how the site was being run. I guess they haven't changed for the better in the meantime.

 

[Sansa]

With MFC and the Phillipines, iirc, it was because there was a massive amount of falsified documents for models who were actually underage, so that's a whole different issue and I think it's absolutely appropriate that MFC took that level of action.

As for SM taking and extra 5%, I really don't understand this, at least on that site. Like I don't even understand how it's possible to scam on SM because outside contact is not allowed at all. It's all pay-per-minute. If a model is doing something like promising a certain type of show and then not following through, I mean that's really shitty, but the member can always leave at any time and I am fairly certain, will be able to get a refund if they can prove that the show they asked for didn't happen. It's not like on token sites where someone can sell a Skype show and ban the member

That said, from experience, there are some members that get very pushy about what they want and will get angry with a model who doesn't do an entire show within 30 seconds. Models who charge less per minute get targeted by this type more often, so I genuinely wonder if it's less about models from Eastern Europe being scammers and more so that they tend to be the ones who are targeted by the type of member who will demand a refund. Just a thought.

Anyway, that ToS is totally inappropriate and absolutely discriminatory based on the wording. As @Lintilla mentioned, I don't think they even allow Americans to work on there anymore either, so that left a bad taste a while ago when I was looking for a new site.

 

[MousyLion]

Aren't all camsites are "in charge" of your account, and (I'll be happy to know there are exceptions...) when a model is banned permanently they "keep"(to be read "steal") all the money in that account? That's what I've heard from some East -EU models.

Yes , the language and phrasing sucks, but SIGNING UP to a site that has on a short page, and not in fine print: "[...] from Eastern Europe [...] cheat, steal and lie" , "we will be operating a guilty until proven innocent mantra" (wow!) , " You do not have to register here" and only when they treat you exactly like that in a reply you "feel very discriminated " makes me feel like I'm missing something.

A good call to leave, the fact that they treat models this way can only mean that still a lot of other models put up with it...why?

And Support gives rude and/or stupid replies on other sites, too, on CB I often need to exchange at least 4-5 replies to solve a problem or get an answer for exactly what I asked...with MFC I had only one exchange, their reply to my question was "unfortunately, our service is not available for all regions", I don't care for their sugar-coating and read it as "we don't want your money, you region stinks"...good riddance.

 

[NinjaBabe]

With MFC and the Phillipines, iirc, it was because there was a massive amount of falsified documents for models who were actually underage, so that's a whole different issue and I think it's absolutely appropriate that MFC took that level of action.

As for SM taking and extra 5%, I really don't understand this, at least on that site. Like I don't even understand how it's possible to scam on SM because outside contact is not allowed at all. It's all pay-per-minute. If a model is doing something like promising a certain type of show and then not following through, I mean that's really shitty, but the member can always leave at any time and I am fairly certain, will be able to get a refund if they can prove that the show they asked for didn't happen. It's not like on token sites where someone can sell a Skype show and ban the member

That said, from experience, there are some members that get very pushy about what they want and will get angry with a model who doesn't do an entire show within 30 seconds. Models who charge less per minute get targeted by this type more often, so I genuinely wonder if it's less about models from Eastern Europe being scammers and more so that they tend to be the ones who are targeted by the type of member who will demand a refund. Just a thought.

Anyway, that ToS is totally inappropriate and absolutely discriminatory based on the wording. As @Lintilla mentioned, I don't think they even allow Americans to work on there anymore either, so that left a bad taste a while ago when I was looking for a new site.

You are very right about SM. How could anyone scam them if there are many situations in which members can get refunds for shows?! I never thought about this possibility, that models in Eastern Europe could be targeted by scammers but it makes sense. Many of them work for studios and don't speak english well, have prices set by the admins of the studios so if they want to lower them to attract more costumers they can do that without questions.
In this e-mail exchange with AW I just thought that if I'm being professional,nice and polite I would get a similar professional, nice and polite answer back. My bad.
This wasn't meant to be a rant. I deleted my account immediately and that was it. I wanted to share this bad experience because I think that this should never happen to anyone. It's offensive, rude and disrespectful. It just sucks to be treated bad or talked down to for being romanian.
Some sites don't understand how this business works and have very bad,rude or non-responsive customer support.I'm surprised that they are still up and running because I bet that many of us would do a much better job than they are.

 

[Mila_]

The TOS doesn't even read like a real TOS just a rant about eastern Europeans

Yikes

I can understand that it may be very frustrating to have an overwhelming about of dodgy business happening from one geographic area but they still should handle it professionally. This comes off very badly to me. When mfc had constant issues w models and studios from the phillipines they finally just stopped accepting them which I can understand. I can also understand the % decrease. Adult processors charge us 15% compared to maybe 4% for regular businesses because we are considered high risk. It sucks, but it's due to a high amount of chargebacks coming from adult sites.

But OP is right, the language and phrasing this site is using is unprofessional and makes me leery of using them.

Aren't all camsites are "in charge" of your account, and (I'll be happy to know there are exceptions...) when a model is banned permanently they "keep"(to be read "steal") all the money in that account? That's what I've heard from some East -EU models.

Yes , the language and phrasing sucks, but SIGNING UP to a site that has on a short page, and not in fine print: "[...] from Eastern Europe [...] cheat, steal and lie" , "we will be operating a guilty until proven innocent mantra" (wow!) , " You do not have to register here" and only when they treat you exactly like that in a reply you "feel very discriminated " makes me feel like I'm missing something.

A good call to leave, the fact that they treat models this way can only mean that still a lot of other models put up with it...why?

And Support gives rude and/or stupid replies on other sites, too, on CB I often need to exchange at least 4-5 replies to solve a problem or get an answer for exactly what I asked...with MFC I had only one exchange, their reply to my question was "unfortunately, our service is not available for all regions", I don't care for their sugar-coating and read it as "we don't want your money, you region stinks"...good riddance.

Wow... I hadn’t read the TOS.. that’s insane

 

[Dan Epstein]

Romania is a place that gets a double standard treatment by lots of platforms. On the one hand, it’s the go to place for studios, and independent models are also on the rise.
On the other, it’s being treated as an enhanced compliance location. While it’s not an Office of Foreign Assets Control country, most if not all will ask for a proof of residence in addition to the standard ID requirement. There’s a better decorum however to ask for it. I don’t know the full details though, so I’m just sharing insights from my 6 years of experience in working with compliance and support.

 

[QuinnLane]

Damn, I was considering actually using AdultWork but I don't think so anymore.
Also, yeah when SESTA/FOSTA went down they basically shut Americans out of using the site :/

 

[JickyJuly]

Wow. They are grody. I used to have daily pay through them, and whomever I dealt with was always super polite. Glad I don't anymore. Just wow.

 

[SaffronBurke]

AdultWork's customer support was generally rude to me whenever I dealt with them, and I'm an American. I had nothing but bad experiences with them. When I read @NinjaBabe was Romanian, I expected it to be much worse.

I don't know any more about the particular situation here. Maybe OP did something wrong, maybe not. Regardless, they've had a reputation for a long time for being unpleasant overall, and absolutely shitty to anyone in their "high-risk" countries.

Whether it's justified to pay less to or to more closely monitor people from certain countries, that's a completely different argument from whether or not everyone deserves to be treated professionally (and duh, they do).

I'm pretty sure Americans can't cam there anymore? I'm not entirely sure what was up with that, I ditched them years ago because I was just so angry with how the site was being run. I guess they haven't changed for the better in the meantime.

Even when Americans were allowed, their requirements for verification were *ridiculous*. They don't take driver's licenses, so you need a passport, which a lot of Americans don't have, because other countries are so far away and the travel expenses are so high, it's just not feasible for some of us to travel internationally. Then, on top of that, they would ask for strange things - one girl mentioned being asked to take a picture holding a newspaper so you could see the date, while standing outside next to a street sign, like is this a hostage exchange or a camsite verification, wtf?

Americans are now prohibited because they have a prominent section to advertise escorting and FOSTA/SESTA would annihilate them so they booted us completely instead - we can't cam there, sell content, nothing, but honestly, good riddance, they seem to hate anyone not from the UK anyway.

 

[Dan Epstein]

This type of verification is only supposed to be used in case of re-gaining access after hacking etc. I really hope they don’t practice it on a regular basis.

 

[AudriTwo]

This type of verification is only supposed to be used in case of re-gaining access after hacking etc. I really hope they don’t practice it on a regular basis.

For US models, they did. I never sent in my verification when I was asked to do the same, because it made me hella uncomfortable. They asked me to stand outside and take a photo with my street sign.

This was after I provided them with my passport and driver's license. They told me I need to get an additional government ID. But our drivers license is considered that. States won't give you a basic ID card if you already have a driver's licence.

 

[Dan Epstein]

I’m a great believer in compliance, however, when you execute it excessively, you totally miss the point of it.
Larger platforms don’t need to probe you for hemorrhoids just for a basic approval. I’m just disappointed by their attitude, because I thought we’re all on the same side here.

 

[Lintilla]

This type of verification is only supposed to be used in case of re-gaining access after hacking etc. I really hope they don’t practice it on a regular basis.

I wasn't aware you worked for Adultwork. Yes, they asked for these kinds of things regularly.

 

[Dan Epstein]

I wasn't aware you worked for Adultwork. Yes, they asked for these kinds of things regularly.

I didn't work in Adultwork, but I have worked in the online payments and compliance industry. An ID and a proof of residence are a standard requirement in vanilla as well, however an enhanced proof of identity is another level of compliance that is usually triggered by a suspicion of hacking, matches on a data base etc.

 

[Diana_Devil]

I didn't work in Adultwork, but I have worked in the online payments and compliance industry. An ID and a proof of residence are a standard requirement in vanilla as well, however an enhanced proof of identity is another level of compliance that is usually triggered by a suspicion of hacking, matches on a data base etc.

I live in swiss , and they asked passport + id card+local id card+ picture with face and all these holding +face picture with a paper with day date and adult work written on it and my nickname + picture near my street sign with a local today newspaper where the date its visible and the street sign too.
I did any of them until they asked me the last one .... i mean wtf buddy i need to climb the fucking street sign with the newspaper to take a pic close up enough for you to be able to see the date on the newspaper and the streetsign in the same time!!!! Ridiculous!!!!!!
So i wrote them a message that if they do not want me as a model to tell me up front , but to not put me out there to make ridiculous thisgs, because if i want to show my pussy and make money they are not the only of the market. And even they were i would not a climb a street sign just to give a boner to some fapper from the support that i showed myself publicly like this and broke the law.

 

[Dan Epstein]

I don't envy the people who now copy and paste the same null answer in their ranks now. I've never heard of a platform that has too many models, and can afford this practice.

 

[QuinnLane]

This type of verification is only supposed to be used in case of re-gaining access after hacking etc. I really hope they don’t practice it on a regular basis.

Yeah no thats what they wanted from me as a NZ model to get verified the first time.

 

[AudriTwo]

I don't envy the people who now copy and paste the same null answer in their ranks now. I've never heard of a platform that has too many models, and can afford this practice.

I think because it's an escort listing site as well. I think the ridiculous hoops they make new signups jump through is a weird way to combat sex-trafficking.

Make sure the person is where they say they are. Or to frustrate the traffickers or legitimate models who want to work their site until they give up entirely.

Accurate representation of AW verification department

 

[NinjaBabe]

Same verification was required here but I swear to God I don't remember how I got out of it because I didn't do the whole newspaper and street sign thing. It was over 2 years ago. Still got verified. Glad I only cammed there once. I don't know what got into me that I wanted to give it another go. I don't know why anyone would run their business so poorly especially when you're not a top site. Not even close. The point of a business would be to grow it, expand it and make more money,right ? I guess they don't think the same. I hope they will delete my info someday because they seem to be keepig accounts in like an idle state. You press 'Remove Me', and that should delete you account, but nope. You can re-activate it any time you want. I didn't see a warning or anything stating that in x days my account will be permanently deleted.

 

[Dan Epstein]

The escort part sheds some light on their somewhat anal approach. I just love expressing myself as a non industry rep lately

 

[Dan Epstein]

I don't know why anyone would run their business so poorly especially when you're not a top site. Not even close.

As someone who worked alongside them in the payment industry, they are still a huge player that despite their UK centric approach, and general no can do behavior, outnumbers many smaller players.
I don’t like them, but I don’t argue with their numbers.
What some people in the adult biz however, failed to understand is that brands don’t die slowly or gracefully in the digital e-commerce age. It only took a few hipsters who got tired of shaving, to unknowingly make Gillette lose 15 Billion of their worth in less than a year, and that’s just one example

 

[NinjaBabe]

As someone who worked alongside them in the payment industry, they are still a huge player that despite their UK centric approach, and general no can do behavior, outnumbers many smaller players.
I don’t like them, but I don’t argue with their numbers.
What some people in the adult biz however, failed to understand is that brands don’t die slowly or gracefully in the digital e-commerce age. It only took a few hipsters who got tired of shaving, to unknowingly make Gillette lose 15 Billion of their worth in less than a year, and that’s just one example

Well I won't argue with that since you have the experience and the knowledge of years working in the payment industry. I say that they are not top because I barely see them anywhere or people talking about them or promoting them, plus their twitter following is pretty small after so so many years in the industry. Anyway, good for them and I hope that other models won't have to deal with this kind of behaviour.

 

[LydiaFrost]

Same verification was required here but I swear to God I don't remember how I got out of it because I didn't do the whole newspaper and street sign thing. It was over 2 years ago. Still got verified. Glad I only cammed there once. I don't know what got into me that I wanted to give it another go. I don't know why anyone would run their business so poorly especially when you're not a top site. Not even close. The point of a business would be to grow it, expand it and make more money,right ? I guess they don't think the same. I hope they will delete my info someday because they seem to be keepig accounts in like an idle state. You press 'Remove Me', and that should delete you account, but nope. You can re-activate it any time you want. I didn't see a warning or anything stating that in x days my account will be permanently deleted.

I think they added the newspaper/ phonebooth picture holding newspaper thing in the past 2 years.
Before that just the rest was required eg holding passport/ date/ username.

I got verified there, used it a few times and for some reason didn't log on for 2 weeks and they disabled my account. When i tried to get it enabled, they banned me.
I definitely did not break any rules.

They are a decent site to use for femdom/ fetish and splitcam especially if you work during uk customer friendly times.

I think they are also really paranoid of money laundering and whatever, because they were always strict about not allowing to use pictures on your profile, that you have anywhere else.

 

[Diana_Devil]

I think they added the newspaper/ phonebooth picture holding newspaper thing in the past 2 years.
Before that just the rest was required eg holding passport/ date/ username.

I got verified there, used it a few times and for some reason didn't log on for 2 weeks and they disabled my account. When i tried to get it enabled, they banned me.
I definitely did not break any rules.

They are a decent site to use for femdom/ fetish and splitcam especially if you work during uk customer friendly times.

I think they are also really paranoid of money laundering and whatever, because they were always strict about not allowing to use pictures on your profile, that you have anywhere else.

They were asking me these crap 7 year ago so it is not new at all they stupid requirment. To the other hand in that period a friend of mine registred with them same nationality same country as me and she did not had to make any of this draconic registration. She only sent them the id and id +face ( and her 2 huge pair of tits well visible ) So i definatelly think they accept the ones that give the support a boner , or they consider it profitable for the site. Ahh and another mention they made her the bio with the escort services included and when she contacted the support that she does not escort they blocked her account and did not paid her 72.12 euro that she had made.

 

[Fatquack]

The escorting part is their biggest moneymaker, the rest they don't really care about.