Whose Advantage?
Written: Jul 15 '00 (Updated Jul 16 '00)
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I’m horribly confused. AllAdvantage makes money off of advertising and passes on some of that money to us, right? We make $.53 an hour, so let us assume that they make $1 an hour. That’s a $.47 profit per person, per hour. So why on earth do they limit the number of hours you get paid?
Now wouldn’t it make more sense if, let us say, they have 10,000 members, each surfing their max and a couple thousand dingle-wits surf more than 15 hours, so that they make:
10,000 * 15 * .47 = $70,500 profit
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2,000 * 10 * 1 = $20,000 profit
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Total: $90,500 profit.
Or, they dissolve their limits and each member, on average, surfs 30 hours a month. They make:
10,000 * 30 * .47 = $141,000 profit
It just doesn’t make sense why anyone (and all Pay to Surf programs do!) would limit users to a certain number of hours per month, therefore limiting their very own advertisement propagation.
My Experiences
A few days ago I signed up with AllAdvantage. I gave them all my information, then hastily filled in random information for the “password question” (yes, they too assume that we dim-wits can’t remember our own password). What am I talking about? After the pertinent name and address and password information, they have a three question section asking three more questions:
Mother's Maiden Name
(My) City of Birth
My Birthday
If you ever forget your password and can answer those questions correctly, they will tell you your password so that you can access your account. Anyone who really cares could develop a rapport with me and/or do a little research and find the answers to all three of those questions. Since there is little security involved in this system, I just neglected the first two, and by extension, the last question. I didn't think of the birthdate being part of the registration process. In a way it's like saying "We don't need any personal information" and later asking for one's address so they can send a "free gift."
I still don’t know what I put in for the answers of any of the three questions (I think that my mother's maiden name, according to their files, is something like "kanzkjldajie"), but apparently it registered my birthday before this date, 1982--in other words, to them, I was a minor. Having signed into my account, I go to download the Viewbar, only to see this option ghosted out. I couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t let me download the software.
A couple of days later, after my anger subsided, I revisited my account. Guess what it said? “You need a Parental Consent form…and it will take 30 days to process…” blah blah blah. So I go in to edit my birthday, and lo! it won’t let me! I’m stuck being a minor (who knows, I might be six or seven?) for who knows how long.
I know many of you will say/have said "Stupid David--it's your fault." That it is, I admit, I should have entered my correct birthday along with my mother's real maiden name and my real city of birth. I shouldn't have been an iconoclast. But my question is, having made a mistake, how do I fix it? Sign up again? Hey! that's a great idea!
Tried Again
So yesterday I went in to set up another account. I entered a different address (my Yahoo! one) so that it wouldn’t give me lip about duplicate accounts. I opened my Yahoo! account, deleted the junk that was accumulating dust, and waited with an empty inbox upon my confirmation email so that I can download the viewbar.
And I waited.
And waited.
I turned around and stared at the wall to make time pass more quickly. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, but alas, it wasn’t the Yahoo! postman, just one of marvienhill’s monkeys chasing a panda outside. I closed my eyes to nap. I opened them again. No message.
Today I checked back. Guess what? No message from AllAdvantage! This means no account number and no viewbar, still. Am I going to try again? No.
Why waste my time?
Concluding Remarks
Some will say that this review isn’t complete because I haven’t actually used their software, tracked my hours, etc. Their rating will reflect said opinion. All that I can say is why would I want to use a service that disappointed me from the very beginning, and that obviously doesn’t want me using them (or they would let me download the viewbar or would send the email—and yes, I double-checked the address, it was correct).
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
lovdbyGod7
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Member: David Dinkins
Location: Rolla, Missouri
Reviews written: 139
Trusted by: 307 members
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