Hi all. I am noticing that several people on UMD are still negotiating customs without being approved. I am serious about protecting my members, so this year, I am going to start removing accounts of those who do not respect this rule, regardless of whether you own a UMD store or not. Please read our terms and faq.

Peace,
Messmaster
[Edited: To sound nicer]

So basically what you're saying is those unapproved customs are expensive and soaking wet.

Does this apply to sessions, or only custom videos? Am guessing just the videos but want to be sure.

Also, does it apply if one producer is commissioning another to shoot material (so business-to-business instead of business-to-consumer)?

i wont be producing anymore customs (not from the umd, possibly some for people that i now speak to on the phone and such, not through umd at all...) so, all yall follow the rules! he laid the smack down on me before and i fully deserved it.
he is not playing! he will do it to yas! i felt like a total ass but i did not read his posts about it or anything bc well......i am pretty dim witted so....read what he puts up, follow it to the "t" and do it right! i got a pretty big slap on the wrist. more like a spanking but i actually like those...hahah! XD

Did you get any pics of the spanking?

Good advice, Jayce! I hope that people listen to the voice of experience in this matter!

Norman

I DONT want people to mess up like i did. MAKE SURE TO READ WHAT HE PUTS UP!! IT IS PROBABLY IMPORTANT TO YOU IF YOU ARE A PRODUCER OR PROMOTING CUSTOMS! that is where i messed up.....eeeep.
but, he put his foot down on me. like i said, i deserved it! I was just so wrapped up in my own world (that tends to happen) that i made a mistake but please, you girls and guys, DONT MAKE THAT MISTAKE!
we want the umd to keep bringing awesome material and without customs, producers can barely make material. i know this from experience so, do it right! we wanna see messy!!

Any chance of clarification on these please?

(I know I could send a PM but am thinking a definitive answer may help others too)

Hey, here is some clarification. The whole point behind this is that I don't want untrusted people taking money from UMD members with promise of a future product in return. Because when that product doesn't materialize, I feel that I and my site have been implicated in a scheme to cheat my own members.

Sessions are similar to customs, but there is no missing "product" to dispute over, so historically we haven't seen as many problems from those. What we have seen is models taking money from a bunch of people, promising some wam tour, and then dropping off the face of the earth. That's why we don't allow crowdfunding for sessions or any other reason. Plain fundraisers with no resultant product could be okay, because nobody is expecting anything in return.

I couldn't have any less of an interest to be involved in any producer's negotiations! But the same rule has to apply--please let me know if you intend to do any business with another UMD producer that involves taking money in advance for some commissioned product. I find myself in the middle of those disputes, too.

The bottom line is that I don't want any of my members to be in this limbo, waiting for content that was promised but never delivered. I can't control what all the producers do, so all I can really do is slowly build up a list of those who have proven their legitimacy over time, and then make their operations as transparent as possible for everyone to review.

Hope this answers
P.S. Thanks for the input, Jayce--but you were already listed a trusted producer! That's not the rule you violated.

I posted this a while back and it got some positive comments. The custom video business is screaming for an escrow system similar to elance or even fiverr.

This all but eliminates fraud since the producers/model does not get the money released until they show proof the assignment is completed.

For models and producers, the money has to be full funded for the project upfront, so they don't have to worry about getting paid.

A portion in escrow could be released based on ratings to cover some hard costs.

Someone is going to do it one day and that someone is gonna make a lot of money.

I agree! But man I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. If someone would offer that, I'd consider using their service. Meanwhile, all we really have to go by is history and reputation. It's like an escrow of trust.

Ok, cool, thanks for that MM. I know the history of the "paid in advance - producer vanished" stuff, just wanted to nail down exactly where the boundaries are.

Re sessions, we're not on the list of custom producers because customs are something we do very rarely (last in 2013 I think), tend to be quite specific, and they are hard work - customs are not something we currently want to advertise for, we simply don't have the time to handle that kind of business. But we do occasionally get approached for sessions and one of the girls is up for doing that, so wanted to be sure we weren't breaking any rules if we occasionally do those while not being on the custom producer list.

You're fine. I'm really not trying to bust balls here. I'm not going to pounce on somebody if they've made a mistake or we had a misunderstanding. But there are some people here, who despite months of huge, interactive warnings thoughout the inboxing system, continue to actively solicit customs business, and then they use Paypal, too. They know who they are and so do I.

All they have to do is own a store and show us that they are not fly-by-night. If you're in the business of producing videos, then it should be no problem to supply a some scenes as examples for us to see. That's what the store is for--it becomes a showcase for those examples, provides us a history of your prolificness, and becomes the entity that people actually rate in our Customs Producer ratings system.

So newer producers absolutely can be approved, but not like 1-week new! I outline in more detail at the FAQ and TOS.

Thanks for asking!
M