do you use AEBN?
 

Is AEBN one of your sponsors ?
are you happy with them?
what support or marketing person over there is the best on returning emails, english comprehension, and communicating?

just wondering if I got the wrong sponsor or just the wrong rep.........

I've been using them for over 3 years. I really don't bother the reps. I do get an email each time a new rep takes my account. 4 so far.

I have talked with "ericb" once or twice and he is quick on returning emails and seems like a nice person...
I dont use AEBN much though... How do you promote them ?

I have only been signed up since Nov 05 and I am on rep number two.
And I think I promote the shit out of them - but my stats at their place look like shit. Met and talked to their guys at TWO SHOWS - very personable guys at the shows...........who NEVER return emails.....NEVER......
H
If you aint sure how the hell Bush got elected, deal with people from the red states and you'll figure out how it happened............

PM me with your information. Ill see if I can help.
They also have a 1-800 number to call your rep as well.

Well if you have a reps name you could pm me with thats a start. I'd rather not bring in a 3rd party while getting things worked out with aebn. If I could contact someone with reading comprehension and communication skills, I'll be fine. Even if they disagree with me or turn me down for whatever I am asking - if I at least get the feeling they underfuckingstand what I am saying, I'll be happy.

and when I am annoyed, typing is MUCH better than talking. My east coast accent doesnt disguise annoyance at all and things go down hill. At least with typing I can yell at the screen, you ignorant hillbilly fuck, but just type up, Oh well I think you misunderstood what I was asking in my last email.................

anyway if you like your rep and wanna pm me with their name and contact info, that would be cool
H

Gonzo works for AEBN :)

Wazza's rule for dealing with support #653

Place all facts and questions in the first sentence because that's all they will read.

Guestcam.. feel free to hit me up and I'll get you with someone who answers all your questions. I'm also curious to know who isn't answering your questions so I can address it with them.

All emails should be answered. If they are not please let me know.
All icq's should be answered. If they are not please let me know.
All phone calls should be answered. If they are not please let me know.

Here is some contact information to "let me know".

Bishop
icq: 33840775
email: bishop@aebn.net
phone: 1-800-628-0241 x141
or: 1-704-529-1600 x141

I'm not the guy to solve everyones problems but I am someone who will get you in touch with the right person ... AND hound the shit out of them to ensure your getting what you want.

Oh and as far as east coast accents - why the hell would you want to disguise being pissed off? If your pissy let them know your pissy!

oh well THATS different.

most of the problem was cleared up before I even posted here. It was the EFFORT it takes to communicate with these kids that makes my hair fall out (see profile pic):D

Their reps turnover so fast they make me dizzy.
Every time I've tried to phone, I get 'we're setting up a new phone system' (more than once, honest!) or endless ringing.

We've been with aebn since they began as both a manufacturer and an affiliate, but I agree, their support sucks. We'd both make much more money if that changed.

Thanks Bishop, I might just do that on next issue. But I dont want to getting any of the kids in trouble. At least not today I dont. They're just kids and not very educated and part of a generation doomed to failure. And I aint picking on the NC highschoolers either. California 18 year olds aint a prize by any means.

Why do I hide the accent and pissed off factor? When I want to get things done, its the best way to go about it. If I just want to show I am right or angry, then I let them fly their colors.

Maybe I have been living in CA for too long but I find when I get pissed the person on the other end of the phone or counter just 'shuts down'. They STOP listening, stop trying, and just waits it out til I am done and gone (or hang up).

So if the goal is "geterdone" then hiding my pissed mood is best.

thanks again to you and gonzo for offer your assistance.
H

Why are you assuming that they're 18 year olds?
Age is irrelevant. They are adults hired to do a job, and as a business owner, you should recognize the fact that their superiors should be made aware of the situation.

It's long been known that 'aebn will hire anybody'. Hell, I know people that have encouraged their significant other to get hired by aebn so that they can go to internext for free.

I'd love to see that part of the company improve. It's one of only a couple of areas of dissatisfaction with them. If they fixed it up, their competitors would not stand a chance!

Because of two factors. 1. I had not heard that 'aebn will hire anybody'.
and if you read this job description
at http://www.aebn.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.careers
I assume 18, 19 and 20 year olds were the main body of applicants

Then you live in a very magical place in the world. unfortunately for me, I am in the USA and age of the 'other person' means EVERYTHING.
again, sounds like where you live is where I might love to live too. Nope, 18 to 25 year olds in CA, or to be fair lets say southern CA, are adults in legal terms only. There are exceptions of course. But over all, if it isnt a latte or a lapdance and its somene in that age group there to provide service, then better hope you're havin a lucky day.

I agree with you in theory. However, again here where I live, the overriding factor that I must recognize as a business owner is LABOR IS EXPENSIVE. And I recognize that MOST companies cut corners as much as they can and OFTEN more than they should on their 'customer service center staff'. There's the least likely chance that the negatives will come to take there toll in that department than if you cut costs else where. Cut costs at the techie level - servers go down - right now - and workers PCs STAY down - right now. In the customer service center - you and I may bitch and moan about the terrible service but for the most part, half-wit Ted and half-wit Alice get to be part of the CS team without any immediate downfall to the company. And of course they work for under 30K a year to start.

H

I encourage you to call up there if things are stalled. If that fails let myself or Bishop know.

Bishop is onsite and will resolve the issue and more than likely faster than I will. Im not involed with the sales rep end of the company but I have a keen interest in seeing issues resolved.

Please contact either of us if we can help.

Never used them and won't in a near futur, nothing against them. Probably because too much webmasters are using them

Yeah - why bother promoting the #1 PPV porn movie on the net |crazy|

Shhhh dont tell him about the 15 minute give away. Leaves more for you and me!

Explanations for some of the situations your describing..

Your rep keeps changing. I know it happens from time to time on some accounts. It probably happens for one of the following reaons:

1. If a rep finds that they have more accounts than they can handle their accounts may be moves around to level out the work load.

2. The rep may have moved to another department in the company.

3. Your rep may have received a promotion within the department. Your new reps boss may be your old rep. If you have a problem escalate it you may find the next person your talking to is your old rep.

4. Your rep may have resigned or been let go.

Ok those are the most common reasons for having your rep changed both on the studio side and on the affiliate side.

The phone system was mentioned. We have had two different phone systems in the last year. The system we have now is great but we do have occasional down time for upgrades. Down time normally takes place in the middle of the night when nobody would notice. It has happened during the day but only briefly and only a couple of times.

Staffing.. AEBN has gone from almost 100 people in the office this time last year to nearly 200 this year. That is a MASSIVE number of people. We have expanded our office space several times and so some of the headaches your experiencing are our growing pains.

We hire the best people we can find. We can't hire 30 porn people and relocate them to Charlotte NC. If the candidate was a good industry person they would probably be making more money on their own. Not to say we haven't tried. Think about the people you know in this industry. How many of them would YOU hire? How many of them do you think would have a strong work ethic? Lets face it most of us in this industry only have enough energy to crawl out of bed and walk across the hall to the computer in our underwear. We have tried in the past to hire folks to work offsite. I can't begin to tell you how many people we have tried this with, people you would recognize from the industry. We don't make public announcements of these people working with us because they can't make it through the probation period. They are very bright people but they only seem to work well on their own projects.

I can't stress enough that if you have a problem you must escalate it beyond the person your having the problem with. It's not that difficult to get a hold of someone. Call me if you aren't satisfied. How many calls do you think I'll receive complaining about someone before that person either improves or finds another job? Don't get angry at the company. Get angry at the person who isn't helping you. AEBN is not one person. AEBN is a massive team of people that is doing a job that keeps a roof over our heads and food on the table. If someone here in the office is undermining the hard work of all the good people we need to know. We can't fix problem staff unless we know there is a problem with them. Not returning calls, emails, icqs, etc.. is not something management can see the staff doing. You have to tell us if your having a problem. If everyone we did business with did that we would be a better company.

Bishop

I assumed it was all of the reasons you stated. I believe I asked the same question to two of my rotating reps and they both answered.

Unfortunately it wasn't the answer I wanted so I'll ask you; when will you offer epassporte as an option?

Thank you for the response Bishop. I appreciate it!

Epassporte.. Not a question for me. I don't always have the answers but I can direct you to those who do. Contact Jerry Anders he is the head of the marketing group. He is having some dental work done so he is not in the office today but he should be in the office on Monday.

email: jerrya@aebn.net
phone: 800-628-0241 x137

If your can't get a hold of him let me know and I'll follow up.

Thanks

As a footnote I did get an email from:
Daniel Fairchild
Sales Executive
daniel.fairchild@aebn.net
1-800-628-0241 ext-239
ICQ : 342486846
http://www.aebn.com with a link to xpeeps.com that I found totally useless.

Whats your point? You have a problem with someone telling you about a new project? You lost me.

The email suggested that questions could be answered there and when I went there it's open to anyone. Not just affiliates. That is not what I was looking for.

I'm sorry to have hijacked this thread guestcam. I'm finished posting here.

Suggested questions could be answered there? That is way wrong. Please do me a favor and send me the email you received - bishop@aebn.net. This is an example of something we need to know about. I thought the rep simply mentioned the new site. If they are referring people over to the site for anything other than its intended purpose then we have a serious problem. Please take a moment and forward me the email.

Thanks.

Surfn is this the email you got from Daniel?

"Hello Surfn,

It’s Daniel, your account rep for AEBN. I hope you had a good Holiday and a good New Year. AEBN has been working on a new site to promote communication with people in the adult industry, www.xpeeps.com. If you haven’t checked it out, please do.

If you need anything, please let me know.

Thanks,
Daniel"

This was simply a holiday greeting that happens to mention the new site.

xpeeps is a blog community for both industry and non-industry people. It is not a support forum for studios and affiliates. It is a place for industry folks to create bios and interact with each other.. as well as market to the consumers. You as someone with an account on AEBN could create an account on xpeeps and put in your AEBN ID so any VOD sales that took place from your pages would be associated to your AEBN account. If you use the bulletin feature you can tell all your friends aka xpeeps about your sites or your models. This is simply a tool to market.

If you have questions I'm sure Daniel will do his best to address them. As I said before if you don't get your questions answered please escalate your concerns. We can't do a better job if nobody tells us about problems.

Man! if that's true i gots to get me an ap in over at AEBN! The company is awesome!


spaz

I'm going to be heading out of town here in a few minutes. I've ask Gonzo to keep an eye on this thread for me. If anyone has any concerns always feel free to contact me. I will do everything I can to get problems resolved. We all have enough work to do managing sites and generating traffic it shouldn't be difficult to deal with sponsors.

I appreciate everyones input. Have a great weekend everyone!

Call Daniel and I'm sure he'll help you out. He's my rep and he's called twice just to verify information.

EL HORREEBLAY!
 

Run away! LOL

Many years ago before DVD, I gave them a stack of VHS. They signed contracts, the whole 9 yeards, but they never put my stuff up. Then, the very same films began to get pirated in Montana and North Dakota. When I caught the guy through a private detective it turned out that he was associated with an old emplyee of theirs. What an awful mess! HotMovies is chasing me but I won't sign up with them either.
I'm pretty jaded I guess. I survived the CCBill server issues (remember the spying bots on their ports? If you didn't babysit your pennywize you were screwed) and I also survived GloBill. I don't put all my eggs in one basket with Verotel either.

My advise - don't give your money or content to anyone else if you can help it. Make the customers come directly to your site(s) to watch or buy your content. The big companies have so many damn producers anyway. If you are a little guy like me, do they really need you?

Irene

Hey Gonzo....question for you in regards to the AEBN cinemas....I signed up before and on a positive note, there is a BIG selection of movies etc....my only beef is and when talking with others, they even agree that the templates really needs some attention. Is there any plans to upgrade to something better in the near future? I do have a couple ideas in mind but won't put them in open here but can share with you....very secret design concept ;) hehe

Can you please email gonzo@aebn.net or PM me the name of this employee that you gave your VHS tapes to? I certainly hope you pressed charges against the pirated sites as well as the ex-employee. I know I would have.

What site is it that you run?

I will make sure Bishop sees this latest reply.
I certainly dont agree with your advice of "hoard your content all to yourself". Proper licensing of your content to develop a brand seems to be better advice. You only need to look at Jenna to see how that can be done sucessfully. I am confident she wouldnt be the brand that she is now had she chose to not license her content. The woman is everywhere and possibly the shrewdest person in the business when it comes to marketing.

As an aside...Ive probably been around longer than you have and used CCBill and Pennywise in conjunction as well. I dont recall any CCBill bots watching ports that effected Pennywise. I would be interested in hearing more about this issue though.

The only company you didnt name an issue with was Paycom/Epoch and Im sure there are many of us that can recall they days of..."You'll get paid when I get paid." And to their credit they have survived those problems of the past.

You have your own merchant account now I hope?

This would probably would be good in a different thread as it has nothing to do with AEBN or customer support.

I love the theatres. They are one of the best ways in the world to drive traffic to AEBN. I am thankful that Erin [my rep at the time] was persistant in contacting me so that I could have the custom ones built.
I went from no revenue to an ever growing source of revenue.

Before I answer your questions on the templates I should mention that the job I do for AEBN is not in the webmaster affiliate department and I work from Atlanta not Charlotte so I miss out on a lot of fast moving developments.

It is my understanding that the development team has many site improvements on the wish list that are being rolled out bit by bit each day. So there are good things coming and in some cases are already here. The infrastructure that is in place up there is mind boggling. I think someone said the other day that we are up to almost 50K of movies in the system. So yes the selection is pretty large and chances are that if your surfer is looking for a specific title...its on the system ready for them to purchase.

This is a great thread because it gives me a chance to say that you should work closer with your rep. They were hired to be dedicated to your success. Input from the affiliates is always welcomed as well as acted upon.

There was an issue with the FHG's a few months ago. Affiliates expressed concern to the reps and as a result more servers were put in place to address the issue.

If you dont know who your rep is just log into aebn.net with your affiliate id and go to the account admin tab. The name of your rep is under AEBN Agent... with their email address and phone extension.

I would be happy to answer any questions [so would Bishop] if needed. Your account rep is going to have more current information that will impact your success than we will.

I will also see that Bishop sees this post as well.

Hey Gonzo....cheers! I haven't used my affiliate acct for a long time (almost 2 years) so I will see if I can still login, if not, I will contact AEBN.

Should work. Mine hasnt changed in years!

Ask your rep about the 15 minute giveaway.

I have used AEBN for years and have never had any problems with them. They are good value!

cheers,
Luke

I've been promoting them for a while. I agree, reps are not always the most helpfull. I can understand turnover but does kinda suck to have a new rep every couple months, so it seems. Worst comes to worst, go to the top and get your answer. Bishop has helped me on the spot before..:)

One thing I have found with the reps, unless it's building a theater, they are not always much help.

ronnie

so then you would not have had any need to request help from customer support?

anyway, I am pretty sure this topic has been covered, answered, and put to bed................

I am still availible to help you with your problem.
What was it again you were calling support for help with?