Think Mainstream Is More Ethical Than Adult? Think Again.

[The Porn Nerd]

Let me share my recent mainstream buying experience with all of you. It's informative, indicative and totally frustrating and annoying. Think "mainstream" has more ethics, is easier to sell and gives the surfer/buyer a "better shopping experience"? Think again:

It begins with a TV commercial for the 'Micro Touch Switch Blade', a nifty little grooming device for those hairy monekys like me. Perfect for ear hair, nose hair, etc. PLUS you get a FREE 10 piece grooming kit! Okay sign me up! Here are the highlights of my ordering experience:

* Go to their website and try to order. Website does not accept my card so I try to call Customer Service (7 PM on a Tuesday). Closed!

* Call the next day and get an automated ordering system (where was it the night before?). After placing the order I then have to sit through EIGHT piece of crap "Special Offers" and refuse each one.

* Instead of asking me 'Yes' or 'No' questions if I want something they ask: "I'm going to place this order now for you, okay?" Clever assholes.

* After refusing everything but the original purchase, AT THE VERY END, the recording tells me: "You've been signed up to this special discount coupon service. IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE SERVICE YOU MUST CALL THE 800 NUMBER AND CANCEL WITHIN 3 DAYS OTHERWISE YOUR CARD WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY CHARGED $29.95 UNTIL CANCELED (sound familiar Adult Webmasters?)

* For the next 5 days I receive 4 emails a day for various offers. yes, I unsubscribed from every email but they kept on coming....19 in all until the 'unsubscribe' kicked in.

* This morning I get a PHONE CALL at 9:01 am asking me to confirm my mailing address for this lovely product. Great, no problem - but then the woman on the phone goes on and ON about this coupon club thing and how to cancel (see above).

* Then I'm transferred to a "Customer Satisfaction Expert" (I'm allowing this madness to continue just to see how far this hard sell bullshit goes). HE then goes over the same info as the person who called me and then - THE BEST PART - asks me to confirm my credit card number JUST FOR CONFIRMATION PURPOSES. So I give it to him and....

* "Great thank you Sir! You've just been signed up to ANOTHER discount club thing. Now, to cancel you must....blah blah blah."

That's when I hung up. Looking forward to QUICKLY canceling everything within 3 minutes after the product's arrival

So yeah, "mainstream customers" get treated WAY better than Adult customers. LOL Makes me feel like fucking Gandhi the way i treat my Customers with all the freebies, help, Customer Service and lack of pre-checked cross sells. Wanna sell mainstream products? Go ahead - then come back to Adult when you want to feel "clean" again.

[NewNick]

So did you get to trim the nose hair or not ?

[xNetworx]

[The Porn Nerd]

Originally Posted by NewNick

So did you get to trim the nose hair or not ?

LOL That's why I ordered it! That and ear hair yuck. (Turns out some women do not like long hairs sticking out of noses and ears. Who knew?)

Hasn't come yet but will keep you posted - and will maybe post the extracted hairs, just for your "enjoyment". LOL

[30SalesPlus]

Mainstream is way more cut throat, I left adult for 5years and just now getting back into it, I still have some mainstream stuff but people in MS will back stab you in heartbeat.

[DumpManager]

Wow that is crazy dude. I'm glad you got your thing but holy fuck that is a hell of a run around.

[Creatine]

Originally Posted by CamBoss

This is a lovely GIF. It describes my thoughts on the matter precisely.

[signupdamnit]

You should have canceled immediately after the second upsell attempt. As you've found once a company starts it only tends to get worse and worse. By continuing you've been labeled as a mark by them and they will continue to hit you until you have enough and drop them completely.

[Barefootsies]

Originally Posted by 30SalesPlus

Mainstream is way more cut throat, I left adult for 5years and just now getting back into it, I still have some mainstream stuff but people in MS will back stab you in heartbeat.

Very true.

I've never understood it honestly. They can be making soooo much money and knife you in the back over a few pennies. It just does not make a lot of sense for long term business. I see it all of the time where one person is bawling about another for any number of other cut throat deals. Crazy.

[RyuLion]

Originally Posted by CamBoss

[_Richard_]

Originally Posted by CamBoss

[mineistaken]

Not sure why would anyone think that, I mean those who at least dipped into mainstream knows that it is more scammy to the customers than adult. Plenty of rip off, card banging, shady crosssales, prechecked boxed. Way more popular than in adult. In adult, people doing that are known and bashed, in mainstream - its business as usual.

[SilentKnight]

[sandman!]

sounds about right

[ottopottomouse]

Was the customer service number premium rated too?

[The Porn Nerd]

Originally Posted by signupdamnit

You should have canceled immediately after the second upsell attempt. As you've found once a company starts it only tends to get worse and worse. By continuing you've been labeled as a mark by them and they will continue to hit you until you have enough and drop them completely.

I know you're right but at this point I'm using it as a "research project". LOL I want to see how many more times these fucktards call me/contact me over the next 30 days.

Originally Posted by Barefootsies

Very true.

I've never understood it honestly. They can be making soooo much money and knife you in the back over a few pennies. It just does not make a lot of sense for long term business. I see it all of the time where one person is bawling about another for any number of other cut throat deals. Crazy.

Absolutely, it's fucking wild. I remember Shap's thread about how to better treat your Customers and I thought, 'Yeah try telling mainstream that!" Compared to a lot of mainstream products I've seen sold on the Web Adult seems like an ethical paradise. LOL

Originally Posted by ottopottomouse

Was the customer service number premium rated too?

No but it was fucking ODD that on a Tuesday night I call and get a recording saying 'Due to bad weather our office is closed..." Yet this company/product advertises on TV many, many times a day on many cable channels. What does THAT cost and still they can't manage 24 hour Customer Service?

I should've known it was a scam when the people calling me this morning were clearly English-speaking Americans instead of outsourced asians. LOL

[CaptainHowdy]

Ethics have little to do with Morality ...

[Joshua G]

mr. nerd,

i think your threads are very thoughtful. especially your business threads, you are the type of webmaster i would like to be. I believe you are in the city so we are not far apart. theres not many porn webmasters in the tri state area.

but i have to question why you responded to an infomercial. all those TV products ads are scams. its obvious when you pay "separate shipping & handling" for the free second set of knives you dont need & dont want.

i would suggest going so far as to report that credit card lost & get it re-issued. You are ripe to get banged for even more mystery charges than you already have.

good luck.

[The Porn Nerd]

Originally Posted by JoshGirls Josh

mr. nerd,

i think your threads are very thoughtful. especially your business threads, you are the type of webmaster i would like to be. I believe you are in the city so we are not far apart. theres not many porn webmasters in the tri state area.

but i have to question why you responded to an infomercial. all those TV products ads are scams. its obvious when you pay "separate shipping & handling" for the free second set of knives you dont need & dont want.

i would suggest going so far as to report that credit card lost & get it re-issued. You are ripe to get banged for even more mystery charges than you already have.

good luck.

Actually it's funny you should mention getting a new card (and sure, we can meetup sometime in NYC). I intend to get a new card re-issued in the first week of March so there's another reason to "monitor" what these mainstream maggots are doing to me. LOL

And truth be told, I responded to this ad the night I pulled a nose hair and my eyes watered so bad and hurt like a mofo that I figured ANYthing is better than that! LOL So there it was, the perfect nose-trimmer, right there on my big screen HDTV.....with a website that doesn't work and a toll-free number they only answer once in awhile. Haha!!

[Joshua G]

Originally Posted by The Porn Nerd

(and sure, we can meetup sometime in NYC).

that would be cool. maybe spring cause its only snowing 4x a week nowadays. Damn global warming.

[Cyber Fucker]

In mainstream the fight seems to me totally out of control and unethical. Companies use all dirty tricks they can including illegal ones to undermine the competitions. If you manage to get top keyword for something in Google the shit begins immediately, first they report your site for for fake reasons like virus or malware with hope to take you down, then they go after review sites and flood them with negative fake reviews and comments. And you can do not much about it because no one will remove that shit, that's how ethical is mainstream business online.

[pornmasta]

And what do you wanted to buy ?

[bluebook18]

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

[XSAXS]

@Mr Nerd I've always wondered who answered those infomercials. I guess I now know. I say that laughing and groaning alongside you -- not at you, BTW.

To further "feel your pain" the original product that you saw, desired, and ordered will probably turn out to be a total piece of shit, performing 1/10 as well as advertised.

I hope that's not the case, but I'll be surprised if it actually does what you want it to do.

[Romainz]

Originally Posted by The Porn Nerd

Makes me feel like fucking Gandhi the way i treat my Customers .

[Mutt]

Why wouldn't you just go to Amazon and search 'male grooming' or 'nose trimmers'? You'd have found quality products by reputable manufacturers and had the thing at your house the next day.

Tell me about getting older and hair, the comedians are right, it's a curse of aging, less hair where you want it and more hair everywhere you don't and hair starts popping up in places you never even thought possible.

I just found hairs on my side, never noticed any hair there my entire life and now I see these hairs springing up - turning into a potato.

[mamaliga]

sounds legit
fuck mainstream i got bored everytime i have opened a mainstream project and my interested about these kind of projects went down soon or later. Not in adult.

[The Porn Nerd]

Originally Posted by XSAXS

@Mr Nerd I've always wondered who answered those infomercials. I guess I now know. I say that laughing and groaning alongside you -- not at you, BTW.

To further "feel your pain" the original product that you saw, desired, and ordered will probably turn out to be a total piece of shit, performing 1/10 as well as advertised.

I hope that's not the case, but I'll be surprised if it actually does what you want it to do.

Probably all true, will see when it arrives (in 2-6 weeks!!). But here's how much of a multi-tasking Nerd I am: the free 10 piece grooming kit's CASE looks like something I could re-purpose if the actual grooming tools suck balls. LOL!!

Originally Posted by Mutt

Why wouldn't you just go to Amazon and search 'male grooming' or 'nose trimmers'? You'd have found quality products by reputable manufacturers and had the thing at your house the next day.

Tell me about getting older and hair, the comedians are right, it's a curse of aging, less hair where you want it and more hair everywhere you don't and hair starts popping up in places you never even thought possible.

I just found hairs on my side, never noticed any hair there my entire life and now I see these hairs springing up - turning into a potato.

Like all manly men Mutt you and I suffer from too much testosterone. Be grateful for we have what most men pay to get via supplements and drugs. LOL And while I should've (could've, would've) used my Amazon account (remember when A only sold, you know, BOOKS?) this is what marketing/advertising can do to a (manly) man:

Show a hot chick on TV caressing a recently-groomed (and terribly gay) man's face and I reach for the phone. Damn my dreams of hairless coitus!! You got me Infomercial Genie damn you!!

[F-U-Jimmy]

Funny, just today i was doing a check on my Cap-One charges and noticed a $6.99 charge that i didn't recall. I went back 5 months and there it was again every month on the 12th a charge for $6.99, not a lot but its easy to miss. It turns out that http://www.4inkjets.com has been banging my card since Nov 2013 for a coupon club i never joined.

I called their customer service and was told that i joined when i purchased my last supply of ink. I asked the guy if this was some sort of pre-checked scam and he said there was no pre checked anything on their site. Surprise surprise the cunt lied. On the site is a pre checked box to join this club and i didn't notice it. I had to call another number to request that it be cancelled. But I was able to vent my frustration on the stupid bitch who finally agreed to refund all payments.

All in all not a lot of money but i get annoyed when people make charges by deceptive methods. So beware this is yet another company to avoid !

[Jel]

don't these mainstream companies know you have to give customers everything they want for free, more, bigger, better, faster, don't try to upsell/cross sell anything, and so on or else they won't make any money?

[The Porn Nerd]

Originally Posted by Jel

don't these mainstream companies know you have to give customers everything they want for free, more, bigger, better, faster, don't try to upsell/cross sell anything, and so on or else they won't make any money?

LOL Exactly!! They should've given me the damn groomer thingy FOR FREE then I would've....well, I would've....bought SOMEthing, right? Like maybe a fingernail clipper or a can of soup. Or a Cam Show.

Free is the new Paid.

[Jel]

Originally Posted by The Porn Nerd

LOL Exactly!! They should've given me the damn groomer thingy FOR FREE then I would've....well, I would've....bought SOMEthing, right? Like maybe a fingernail clipper or can of soup.

Free is the new Paid.

if they give away lots and lots of free stuff, they'll get even more 'quality' traffic

[tony286]

FYI They sell those things at amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Norelc...dp/B0075X0Z46/

[ErectMedia]

For something simple I'd probably check Amazon or just run to Walmart, Target etc... If I couldn't find it and it was the funky fly dope shit then I might order online or from TV but usually so much fine print to read and don't wanna end up in new shit shows up each month or the shipping/handling is more than the item is worth

[kane]

I recently read an article about a guy who made well over $100 million dollars selling supplements and things like that online. He started his own line of supplements (just had them made in China) and then sold them through various websites. If you signed up to buy one bottle of the supplements they automatically signed you up for several other sites that all billed annually. So you thought you were spending $30 and end up spending $250-$500 then he trained his customer service agents how to avoid giving refunds. They would only issue refunds if you threatened specifically with a chargeback. Eventually they got sued by a state Attorney General, but he was right back in business doing it again with different products.