Streamate: Impossible!
Streamate offers its performers tools to work with (ie: a veriety of different pricing options from the per/minute rate to the special Gold Show rates), but remains with piss-poor customer retention objectives. The (antiquated) e-mail system currently in place offers us a way to contact members – one at a time, (or up to about 6, if you use the bcc option), entering their handles and numbers, one at a time. In each mailing, however, a few will be returned because their accounts are invalid/closed/changed or whatnot. The entire system is quite confusing, as they allow members to change their ‘display handle’ as often as they want from their account settings page. To contact a member, however, the member would have had to first send an a-mail to the performer. The performer is then furnished with his special assigned number to go along with his handle and now, we can choose to contact him back. I’m not even really sure if it is their ‘display handle’ (you know .. that name they can change at any time), and if that would affect the validity of his account when trying to send him an e-mail, or if one number applies to all the names he has under that same account. So, even if he changes his ‘display handle’ a hundred times, would I still be able to e-mail him using the one he gave me 2 days ago? Or … is that now lost? Either way, this is the stupidest and most useless e-mail system I have ever seen in my life! Very confusing and useless. In the case of a member gone MIA, for whatever reason (it isn’t clear as to why), a returned e-mail stating “user does not exist” or “user no longer exists” will appear and the e-mail will not send to any of them. I will then have to delete that contact from the bcc list and try sending again, to the rest of the group. Add ‘time-consuming’ to that list.
Some other obstacles include, but are not limited to:
According to members, I am either disappearing from their favorites list or have moved to the last page (when I used to be on the 1st).
Members get booted out of private, for no reason. They return to guest chat and no problem whatsoever staying connected in there.
Members give Gold in the room and before I have the chance to perform anything for them, they’re gone!
I often have less than a handful of members in my room at one time (not using the chat or the service, even after several attempts to get them chatting). Keep in mind that, all the while, the Streamate-owned studios (better known as ‘the first 4 rows’) are consistent with anywhere between 15 and 200 members in their rooms, during the shift that I work. On average, about 40. Independents like me, at 35% commision, are lucky to have a handful at any given time.
Salespeople in the real world maintain a customer base by utiizing the services of social networking platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.).
They are given tools that are designed to help them, like a functional internal e-mail system that allows you to contact multiple customers at one time.
Not in our world. For some reason, Streamate forbids us to take their customers to these powerful social networking platforms to take advantage of their marketing capabilities. It would be perfectly understandable if Streamate provided a way, through their own site, to retain customers, but they don’t. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. Their efforts to keep us from diverting traffic, in actuality, are keeping us from retaining customers.
Streamate: Impossible. It is completely impossible for an independent model (35%er) to retain customers on this site. While tools exist to adhere to the market as far as price goes, retention is lacking in a big way.
Is this the vision of someone with a degree on the wall but unable to shift the focus of their thinking to the industry and market that they’re in? Degree does not = common sense. If only they handed out degrees to people with common sense.
This entire industry needs to start treating the people who work hard to earn them money a heck of a lot better than this. If you want people to make you money, give them every tool possible to do so. Listen to them (they just might know more than you do about some things, believe it or not) and get your head out of the sand. If your site is so great, then everyone will be on it. You won’t need to be so paranoid about traffic diversion. By not allowing performers to keep in close contact with their members (via Twitter, for example), you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
And I won’t even start on your studios. Run your casino, run your tables, run them all into the ground. As long as it makes you money today, what do you care about tomorrow? It’s that very mindset that creates desperation and struggle for the future, rather than planning for it now. But shit, what do I know?
Streamate needs a real wake-up call!
Sam 4:04 am on March 14, 2013 Permalink |
I have read your blog and I agree with what you say and have many issues with Streamate. I am a punter and enjoy the delights of asian and latin american girls. BUT, Streamate clearly seems to be abusing girls with the amount they get for the work they do and the hours they are available. I know that is becasue of the studio that owns the account, but Streamate seems only to support them and not the girls or the customer.. However, some girls have been very inventive with me and we have had successful e-mails on the account..but now share our yahoo e-mails. Even better, i have now actually met a few of the girls and made personal contact. This has been better for me AND for them, where I can help them financially without having to lose about 60% to the studio and to Streamate. We continue to have private shows on Messenger where we can C2C and I can send them money directly. Yes, they take a risk that I am honest with them..but I have met them and they know I will pay them. It works better all round. But meanwhile, Streamate is overall…a rip-off to both customers and the girls….. Sam x
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amanda36c 5:35 pm on March 17, 2013 Permalink |
Hi Sam,
Yes, they appear to promote the studios more because they own some themselves. That’s the only way they can promise higher traffic to girls for signing up to studios (or ‘agencies’ or whatever they want to call them). The 10% lower commission sounds good to the girls, if there’s a guarantee they will gain in traffic. I’m embarrassed for the girls who took them up on this offer because they have no thought whatsoever to the future of their career (if this is even a career option to them at all). Where else in the world do you see a salesperson’s commission go down a whopping 10%? There’s no minimum wage law in this industry. Those who have accepted this ‘deal with the devil’, will reap the benefits of short-term gain but there are only so many girls the site can promote. Pretty soon, they will slide down the page, making room for the newest, latest additions, who are willing to work for even less. They have a great site but a horrible way of doing business, which is only going to hurt their bottomline in the long-term but they can’t see past today, unfortunately. As long as they’re making money …
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Spamuel 3:03 am on March 23, 2013 Permalink |
hey amanda, it’s SpamuelJackson, from streamate, i hope you remember me. Anyways, i just wanted to let you know that i complained to streamate live support about you disappearing from my favorites list and guess what they did? They closed my account right then and there, and do you know what they told me? they said it was for security reasons…I went back the next day and talked to someone else from live support and they told me that they couldn’t give give me a specific reason as it was an “internal matter” and they told me not try and create another account with them because i would be denied and i’m not about to get another credit card just to join their shitty site. Please do me a favor miss and tell the “live support” team at streamate to fuck themselves, thanks and i do miss chatting with you late at night. Best of luck to you,
Spamuel
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amanda36c 7:30 pm on March 24, 2013 Permalink |
Hi Spamuel,
I’m sorry to hear that and wish there was something I could do. Makes no sense to me why they would decide to just close your account. As a paying customer who hasn’t done anything to warrant a closing of their account (you haven’t broken any rules or laws, right?), you have as much right to be there as anyone else. I’ve seen this happen on another site I worked on that practically screams money laundering. So I can’t say the behavior is unfamiliar, though it makes absolutely no business sense whatsoever, to treat customers this way. I have an idea. Follow me on Twitter and dm me after I follow you back. I don’t like to talk here. Not private enough. http://twitter.com/amanda36c
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chris 6:17 am on June 6, 2014 Permalink |
I signed up for streamate and they say your card wont be charged.They charged a small fee. I questioned this and they abruptly said they will refund money and also said they will block my card from all their sites lol. These guys dont have a clue about customer service.
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gatorschampions 5:51 pm on April 27, 2015 Permalink |
Hey Amanda. I read a lot of your articles on Streamate and I couldn’t agree more with what you posted. The way the girls are compensated is appalling and the way they’re treated is just sad. Additionally, your article on being harassed from the inside is just pathetic. As for my own experiences, much like Sam, I met someone from there and we planned on meeting up. Sadly, Streamate blocked my account before I could get her contact info (she sent me a message to my account, but got blocked before I could read it. It came up in my e-mail). I disputed some charges I saw on my bank statement and after discussing it with the chat support guy, I made a call to customer service and indeed I was told that was the reason why. Really? Turns out I got an e-mail for an “outstanding balance” for those charges, so I wound up having to pay. I went to DDF Cams and got banned there, too. Why? Making another account, yet no one told me this. Shocker. Turns out I had to wait until AFTER they got my money order to make a new account, yet they told me AFTER I went through Customer Support yet again. They also never told me any of these other sites are really run by them. Just says they run over 1,000 sites. To boot, I was told I may have to agree to MORE terms, services and provide “additional documentation” just to open up a new account. As for the girl I was preparing to meet, I just wish I had her contact info since I sent her mine so I could see her and help her out much the way Sam is helping out the girls he’s seeing. Keep up the outstanding work.
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amanda36c 7:52 am on April 28, 2015 Permalink |
Two years later and people are still finding this blog article. Though I can’t say I’m surprised, it is interesting to know some things never change. I would exercise extreme caution with any adult site nowadays. If you’re going to use a credit card to sign up, make it a ‘debit credit card’. This way, you have full control over where the billing stops. Keep just enough on the card to cover the amount you intend to spend or the maximum amount you would want to spend that day. Honestly Gatorschampions, I would be leery of any camgirls that you ‘hit it off’ with. Being extra nice is part of our job and does us well in customer retention but more often than not, these girls are not who you think they are. Much of the industry now is recordings of what was once a live session. The videos are manipulated and programs are used, to make it appear live (for upwards of $2.99/minute, it’s easy to see why the sites would want 100% profit). If you haven’t already taken a close look at this, then do so now and know that this program was created in 2010. You can be sure there are programs even more advanced than this, floating around today. https://amanda36c.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/cam-decoy-where-have-all-the-camgirls-gone/ Take my advice and be very careful with this. Also, wanted to mention the possible reason you guys are getting your accounts closed so quickly after a small dispute and then the account re-opened is because the system they have in place to track your visit links with an affiliate code (meaning someone sent you there, initially) and in order for the site to not have to pay the affiliate, they would need to close your account. Another sneaky way for them to steal money from people that make them money. Don’t worry though, they steal from us girls the most. Watch your credit cards and use debits if you can. Trust no one. I’ve been in this industry way too long, for my own good but I do know what I’m talking about. Thanks for sharing, guys.
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