Adultwork complaint - chargebacks

[carlambrown]

Hi guys, this is my first post so sorry if it's not in the right place or if this has been posted already. I searched but couldn't see it.

Anyway my post is a complaint about something that Adultwork do that i think is incredibly unfair. This week I had a chunk of my credits just disappear. When I contacted AW they said it's because a member i'd spoken to (a long time ago now) had turned out to be using a stolen credit card, there had been a chargeback and they took the credits from me! I think this is an absolutely disgusting business practice. If a member commits fraud it's because their fraud detection systems are inferior. Also, they take a percentage of 40/50% from their models earnings and as far as i'm concerned that should include covering lost funds from fraud. I CANNOT BELIEVE that they take the credits from the model through their own sheer greed. In no way is this the model's responsibility. I worked hard for the money I earned and I needed it, Adultwork make millions in profit and yet they STOLE that money from me straight out of my account without even contacting me about it.

This isn't the first problem i've had with them, in fact i've had lots. They exploit models and show them no respect and no support. Their attitude is 'we'll do what we like and if you don't like it you can go elsewhere'. Has anyone else had this problem? If so what did you do about it? I am going to stop using the site but i don't want them to be allowed to get away with it, is there any one higher I can complain to?

[HornyinHampshire]

I've never had that happen but I too would be livid if I had that happen to me, I get guys spending upwards of £200 in 1 go so I would be so annoyed if they did that to me. Does it say anything in their T&C about being able to take the money from you?

[Lotus]

Don't forget, you are not employed by aw, they offer you nothing more than a platform to conduct your business from. When a credit card company or bank requests funds back, aw are under obligation to comply. It could be the card has only just been reported stolen. This is the case with a few sites also, however daily pay DO cover you for chargebacks, if you are in the group any chargebacks do not effect you, wether you can justify their % for the insurence is down to the individual. Sadly the funds were not that mans to give you, so they really really belonged to you. Same as if say your partner was Walter White, any money he gave you are proceeds of crime and would be taken and never returned to you once the police caught up with it all.

A few years back I bought myself a lovely Mercedes CLC, HPI clear etc, I had it a few days until the actual owners returned from holiday to find it missing, I had even sent off the logbook. I lost the car and everything I paid for it.
Could I press charges to the person they caught for stealing the car? Could I heck...

Sometimes life comes up to bite you in the ass but all you can do is smile and carry on - sorry this happened to you.

[carlambrown]

Thanks for your replies. Lotus I understand what you're saying but I don't think this is the same situation as with the car and Walter White as there is no middle man making a large profit. Adultwork take a substantial percentage of our earnings and in return they are meant to provide a safe, reliable platform for models to work on. That is what their cut is for. It is their responsibility to prevent fraud and if it is committed it should be covered by their profit margin or by their insurance.

I ran a successful webcam site for 8 years, in the first few years we had some fraud and chargebacks (which we covered, we would never dream of taking it off the models), and after that we developed a secure system that completely prevented fraud. We had no stolen credit cards after that at all. AW have no incentive to develop a reliable anti-fraud system as they are passing the damage onto models. They obviously don't care if anyone uses a fake credit card because it doesn't affect their profits at all.

[Lotus]

It is the same principle in my opinion.
Rather than dwelling on it, I would suggest you smile and move on. Unless the card turns out not to be stolen and the client was going through fraud tests with aw for spending an obcene amount of money (Only experienced this once), nothing will change, you'll still be out of pocket.
Aw is not the only site to do this, many other sites do also.

It may be worth asking if it was a stolen card or checks on their end. If I hadnt of asked before, I wouldnt have known and the credits were back in my account a few days later.

If the card is not registered as stolen at the time of credits being loaded, you know... (thats why I brought my example in of the HPI)

Just checked the T&Cs and the help desk for you and I cant find too much info.

Perhaps admin will come along

[Lotus]

Might be worth raking through the T&Cs, I cant seem to find anything on the site.

[cassey_fox]

iv had it happen to me to tune of around 80 credits, unfair but its how AW deal with it

[xKatieBabyx]

unfortunately chargebacks are something we camgirls have to deal with. Yes we've already provided the 'service', and yes it's completely unfair, but still, that's life. AW very rarely uphold chargebacks. I've never had one in over 3 years and the ones i do know of are few and far between. On other cam sites we are generally not protected at all and chargebacks are a regular occurrence so in comparison AW is very, very good.

[carlambrown]

I really hate how exploitative cam sites are of models. They are businesses, all they care about is money and you are nothing but a product to them. There is no reason why any live site should make models take responsibility for chargebacks in my opinion but their attitude is 'like it or lump it' and the models have to lump it. I have my own camsite and will work exclusively on there from now on, I'm not going to let any company make profit from me if they're not going to offer me any protections or guarantees in return. I have a database of 60,000 high spending members and I'll take them all off Adultwork, plus I'll take my £50k a year turnover off AW. They're going to lose a lot of money.

[admin]

Im not sure AW are going to care too much about you leaving the site or trying to take their clients. They probably wont even think about it in the slightest to be honest.

They have been the market leader for nearly a decade and will continue to be the leader well into the future.