What's up AEBN?

For a company that is supposed to be the leader, or at least one of the biggest players in the VOD market place, I must say they have a lousy phone system.

Anyone tried to get a person on the phone over there lately?

I called their 800 number in their affiliate newsletter to speak to the rep (a new name. my rep keeps changing.. actually both of my reps keep changing. my affiliate rep and my studio rep. ) anyway, can't get her on the phone despite a notice in the email to call with any questions. Voice Mail. Okay fair enough...I'm calling from Thailand and don't want to leave a voice message because they are probably not going to call me back.

I want to call to talk to a person about expanding my affiliate relationship with them, which, in my opinion is already substantial with my monthly sales a solid 5 figures with them. It's a conversation that needs answers from a real person, and not an email exchange, yet I can't seem to get anyone on the phone.

I called back 4 times. I tried my new rep.. voice mail. I tried the CUSTOMER SERVICE line (extension 3) and was put in a que...then kicked out of the Que and given the initial menu again. 4 Times. I then called back and tried to get the operator at extension 0. Noone is there to answer the call and the voice mail box is full and not accepting any new messages.

I am not rating this experience very highly and would say that if I am experiencing this..others are too....and what's that doing to sales? The customer service line not working? That's serious business.

Anyone else having difficulties like this ?

Tom,
My apologies for any difficulties getting through to your rep. I am no longer your rep. but I would be more than willing to help in this matter. I can be reached at 1-800-628-0241 ext.276 or dennis.durand@aebn.net and ICQ#230893449
If you should get voice mail please leave a message with the number that you can be reached at and the time that is most convenient for you. I will return your call even over seas.
Regards
Dennis

AJ, who handles all our VOD stuff, says that he's always had problems getting through to anyone at AEBN.

At one point we had a rep who was really good and called back promptly (once they figured out our titles were actually selling really well for them) but that guy left and now we have somebody else that doesn't return calls. I hear this from a lot of people about AEBN from a lot of producers.

You'd think that with the volume of business they have, they'd take their producers more seriously, but from everything I've heard, gay is a drop in the bucket for them and so it's not really a major priority.

Hi gaybucks_chip,

It's hard for an answering system to distinguish between straight and gay. When you get into the customer service Que they don't know your sexual orientation or what the call is in reference to.....for all they know, god forbid, it could be a CUSTOMER! I got kicked OUT or recycled BACK into the beginning of the customer service Que FOUR times! All I did was select option 3 during the opening answering monolog.

Further, dialing "0" has no sexual orientation to it. Getting to a NON human when dialing 0, and then to be told i could not leave a voice mail because their central operator voice mail box was either full or not taking messages? How smart is that? Orientation of the call aside, these are basic customer service issues, studio, affiliates or worse yet, customers, should never encounter.

It's troubling to me that you never seem to have a rep very long as either a studio or an affiliate over at AEBN. They either churn and burn them, lose them to other programs that harvest their industry contacts, or they are simply growing so fast that everyone over there is getting promoted every few months.

As an affiliate, I have a new rep within the last month. There was no history on my account notes and she had to start from scratch on my account. Now I appear to have a new studio rep too.....AGAIN!

Straight or Gay, should not matter. If this company is, as rumored, taking a silent apathy approach to the gay dollar it would not only be a sad day for a company that has certainly founded a good deal of it's growth on gay studios and gay affiliates, but also a sad day for business online in general. In a time when many major programs on the straight side of the market are trying to cash in on the gay dollar by starting some form of gay product development, to ignore this market, even off handedly, seems a bit short sighted.....if indeed this is the case.

I tend to believe that the company is not ignoring the gay market, they are just growing too fast and are not paying attention to the details along the way..... and this will cause a ground swell of erosion in both their customer base as well as their affiliate base..... which can be catastrophic if they are not careful....tantamount to having termites in your building foundation.

I simply went over and placed a call to their competitor....got what I was seeking, and am now weighing the decision to shift at least one of my VOD theaters to the competition who at least answered the phone.

chip, gay isn't the issue - a friend of mine sends them straight content and uses their feeds in a straight site and the same issues exist.

I use AEBN alot. I'm an affiliate and also a consumer. I'm very thankful that they have assembled such a great product, the studios, the variety, etc. but I don't think a company should ever - ever - take their clients for granted and that's what's going on now.

Tombarr, you did the right thing in simply going with a better company. Companies need to be accountable. I think we've all learned that the hard way. If they go unchecked, we end up with these Ibill's out their that take advantage of their name for so long, people forget that they have to perform, not just work on branding and showing up... i don't have to tell you that though tombarr.

I read years ago that this thing will come down to customer and client services over content. I can see that happening now.

We send a ton of traffic to AEBN, up until recently I had no problems getting a hold of anyone. but in the last 3 to 4 months I have had what seems to be about 3 or so reps. I had to hand hold an AEBN rep to help with an over billing issue and they didn't even try to help, they just kept referring my company and the customer to their billing company that made the error.

Anyways, if it wasn't for the large deposit we get every month I would complain more about my emails and calls not being answered.

Chris

Tom,

Guess I wasn't clear. I was speaking of AJ leaving messages for the specific rep and not getting calls returned. The impression was that there were less reps for gay and so they were all overloaded, but that may not be true.

I totally agree that for all the money AEBN is making, they could certainly afford to provide a little better service to their studios and larger traffic sources. But honestly, with the exception of Doggone Media, our experience is that pretty much all the VOD providers are pretty lax on customer service.

And, as Chris said, AEBN has absolutely no incentive to change because they know they generate more sales and traffic than anyone, so no one is going to leave them... therefore, they can provide service that is just barely better than "abysmally bad" and people will stick around. But, as I said, there are a lot of other players, including one that spams their shit incessantly here at GWW, that are REALLY unresponsive.

AEBN really has either no idea how much money they leave on the table or they don't care. everyone on this board knows how much better sales are with a good tour than a bad one, yet AEBN's front ends are dismal, with content extremely old and dusty and text that is almost guaranteed not to make anyone want to join. honestly their tours are among the worst on the web right now - and that's silly for a program that is as successful as AEBN.

Hi guys,
In regards to this thread... We at AEBN do believe strongly that you should have someone working closely with your account and getting to your questions in the most prompt matter. And true we are growing and are working to accomodate the influx of new studios and affiliates. We did at one point and time mainly have myself and Keith Suttles working on all of the accounts in the system.

Then when the growth began to go crazy we took on Dennis to work with our Affiliate system alongside with Keith on his accounts. For those of you who are not aware, we have lost Keith. I am working with Keiths accounts temporarily and training Dennis to work with the position that Keith Held before he left.

April Lemiuex will be stepping in to work with what Dennis has been doing with the affiliate accounts. This is a major transition point for us and we are looking to make this work. But please always remember if you cannot get ahold of anyone, I am still here in the background and will get you to anyone that you need to speak with.

As far as the customer service issue, please contact me directly - chrisb@aebn.net with further details and I will see that it gets to the proper department and fixed ASAP.

Thanks
Chris

In defense of AEBN...

We do AMAZINGLY well with them and have since we sent them our first title over 3 years ago. We have almost always been able to get through to Chirs Baker directly via phone and also Keith prior to his departure.

Yes, things do get slowed down from time to time however, this is true in all business.

Personnel and rep transitions have been seamless for us over the past couple of years.

I suppose that it would be fabulous if we had a permanent photo spot on the front page but, that won't ever happen and in the interim, we are very happy to be featured as often as we are...Thanks Chris and Keith (wherever you are)

We are happy; I wish you were too Tom...

Chis, do something for Tom! He's our friend!!!