Comment Replies (8)
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messmer (Disabled)
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Thanks for re-enforcing my warnings, BubbaGump. I hope it will make people sit up and take notice. Bangbros. have become a site that cannot be trusted. They were fine at one time but no longer.
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01-05-13 02:14pm
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2
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BubbaGump (0)
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REPLY TO #1 - messmer :
Well, what goes around comes around. You can't survive with that kind of business model. They will eventually self-destruct. They must really be hurting financially if they resort to this type of tactic. I would think the last thing you want to do in this business is get a bad reputation regarding trust.
Who knows what their plans are. I have no idea how the site is structured in terms of ownership. But they are headed in the wrong direction with games like this.
I also noticed that they took over their own billing. I signed up last year with CCBill but it got transferred to their internal setup. You have to call a number to cancel. Which also points to financial trouble. The reason you would want to do that is to avoid having to pay the processors like CCBill or Epoch to manage the accounts and billing. Others also complain about lack of 1080P downloads without upgrades.
Putting it all together, it sounds like a site that is in the red financially and is trying to find ways to cut corners, get more income, and get back into the green. They are doing it the wrong way, however.
Regardless, I think that the recent string of bad comments here would be fair warning to anyone who is considering dealing with this site. Obviously, it's more than me complaining. They cannot be trusted, from a survery of recent comments here.
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01-05-13 03:33pm
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3
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Marcus (0)
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Wow, all of these comments about their upsells by stealth are incredible. Never heard of such a cynical way of tricking people out of their money.
I really hope someone writes an up-to-date review for Bang Bros, as with this comment, the comment by messmer and also by whowho, 85/100 seems grossly generous now!
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01-06-13 07:57am
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BubbaGump (0)
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REPLY TO #3 - Marcus :
Well, I noticed that when the upsells started last year, they began with just advertising them on the main page when you log in. The upsells then started showing up as scenes within specific site pages. If you click the scene and view it, you now have a monthly subscription to whatever site it belongs to. I was careful not to do this, but the way they it is structured, I can see a lot of people out there wondering what those extra monthly charges are on their credit card.
The thing that is scary is that there is no warning that you are about to subscribe. I intetionally signed up for the culuneros site because I wanted to add it. But when I clicked the scene link, there was no warning, no info about what was just charged, etc..It just went on as business as usual, but I could now access the site.
The monthly charge for the site was the same as the bangbros main site. So if people are not carefull or have twtichy fingers on the mouse, they are going to get popped and without warning that you just signed up for a monthly subscription.
The site planners probably said, 'Hey, not enough people are falling for the red pre-checked cross sell when they signed up. Let's mix the cross-sells in with the galleries and menus.'
Regarding actual content, I think what they are doing is just breaking off a lot of content that would normally appear at bangbros and creating new sites that you have to sign up for. For example, at culluneros, a lot of the models appear at bangbros but it looks like they saved a few scenes for this specific site. So if you are into that model, you would want to view the scene. There is nothing wrong with this strategy itself. It's the way they go about it that is dirty pool.
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01-06-13 08:54am
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Marcus (0)
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REPLY TO #4 - BubbaGump :
I've got no problem with upsells so long as the website is up-front and honest about it, and doesn't try and trick members. I don't have as much of an issue with pre-checked cross sells as other members here, but this is beyond the pale in my opinion, and I'd never give a website that's basically disguising the cross sells the time of day.
The fact it doesn't even say "you're about to do this, and it will add $X onto your membership" is absolutely incredulous.
I appreciate times are tough for the porn industry, but alienating the people joining the sites is not the way to go about business. While times are tough for the industry, they're also tough for consumers and trying to pick-pocket members is nothing short of shady and I'd never entertain websites who use such underhanded techniques.
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01-06-13 09:10am
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6
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BubbaGump (0)
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REPLY TO #5 - Marcus :
Well, this business makes it easy to do this. First of all, due to the sensitive nature of the material, a lot of consumers don't want anyone knowing their business. They are therefore less inclined to run to the bank to complain when they get ripped off. I believe some vendors will capitalize on this. I think that is the risk a consumer has to accept if they want to subscribe to online vendors in this arena. Eventually, you are likely to run across stuff that is not on the level.
I am going to say something here that might rub some people the wrong way. There is a pink elephant in the room that a lot of people know is there but few will admit its existence, especially the manfuactuers and producers. The Pink Elephant is this--Porn is going to involve a number of individuals who are not the most noble of characters when it comes to their approach to commerce. Some players will be tempted to stretch the limits and see how much they can get away with.
I certainly am not saying that everyone in the business is like this. But the anonymity I mentioned, the sensitive nature of things, etc is going to be a magnet for shady practices by some players. Most people in the industry I suspect will just look the other way, not wanting to rock the boat or police others.
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01-06-13 12:28pm
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7
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rearadmiral (0)
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This kind of crap could be the beginning of the end. I was a member here a while back and I signed up for two of the add-on sites. I didn't have a problem cancelling then, but if it wasn't for the comments here I probably wouldn't have discovered that the add-ons need to be cancelled separately from the main membership. That is counter-intuitive (and more than just a bit shady) given that the add-ons I added were actual company sites.
Fucking me over on a payment or cancellation is probably the quickest way to ensure that a website never gets another dime from me - and thanks to sites like PU we can share that information.
Based on this and other comments, my chances of every taking another membership to Bangbros is zero unless I see good evidence that they've changed their ways and treat customers with respect.
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01-07-13 03:49pm
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8
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KET924aab (0)
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Wow, I was a member at BangBros a few years ago, and there wasn't any of this crap going on! As I remember it, it was a network with about a dozen sites--I joined for one, and then found good content on several of the others. I thought it was a great value. But similar content can be found at many other sites. How pathetic that they now resort to such shady practices!
Thanks for the heads up Bubba!
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01-08-13 04:43am
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