For those of you who want to book a stripper for your private party, or want to strip at private parties, a quick search on Google will reveal numerous stripping companies. Most have professional looking websites and what appear to be the hottest dancers money can buy.
Here's a little known fact: Most of them are shady and crooked. I know this because I've worked for most of them at one point or another.
Now let's analyze some bullshit tactics these companies employ:
1) Overcharging the Customer
Some of these companies charge an upwards of $300 (price for male stripper) or more for a one-hour private show. The dancer will be lucky to see even half of this amount.
2) Having a Fake Roster on the Website
When choosing your stripper from the company website, you can often pick your top choices from a list of many hot candidates. This is all bullshit. First off, that company might be lucky to even have one of those guys/girls in their roster. Even if they do have that person, he or she is definitely not going to show up for your bachelorette party in the middle of Kansas.
3) Contracting Dancers Via Other Online Companies
This is a very common practice with almost every companies.
Sometimes these companies won't have even a single dancer in your area. When this happens, they don't turn the customer away. Instead, they'll lie to the customer and say they have a dancer and need to check for availability. This "checking" involves calling other Internet booking companies asking for available dancers. If another company has a dancer available, then the second company will tack on their own charge, and both companies will profit at the expense of the dancer and the customer.
In other words, Company A gets a call for a male stripper in Biloxi, Mississippi, but doesn't have a stripper in that area. Company B has a dancer available in Biloxi. So A calls B for the dancer. Then A calls the customer and assures them that a stripper will show up, but the normal price of $300 will now become $350, because B needs a share of the profit, and A is too greedy to reduce its price. Company A charges the customer's credit card, then turns over the customer's information to Company B to finish the business transaction with the customer and stripper, which involves having the stripper collect the remainder of the money as cash.
On top of all that, A has never even seen the dancer from B. Thus, the stripper shows up to the party unaware of any promises made by Company A. Also, if the stripper causes trouble, the customers cannot really complain to Company A, because the stripper works for Company B.
As a result, there is little to no accountability in this, plus the stripper makes much less in tips because the customers are already paying up the ass to both A and B.
4) Underpaying the Strippers
Like I said earlier, strippers would be lucky to see half the amount these companies charge customers.
Sometimes, it goes like this: Company A gives a price of $300 to the customer and charges the customer $100 on the credit card; the stripper collects $200 in cash from the customer and has to send $75 to $100 of it back to the company in the form of a "booking fee."
So out of a $300 transaction, the company makes $175 - $200, while the stripper makes only $100 - $125. Sometimes, the stripper makes even less than that.
That's complete bullshit since the stripper is the one doing all the work, all the driving, and causing all the wear-and-tear on his vehicle. All the company did was take the phone call and make the sale. Of course, maintaining a business and marketing has its own cost, but not enough to justify raking in most of the stripper's profits.
5) Lying to Customers
Having a fake roster is just one lie, and these companies will build on that.
For instance, if a bachelorette party requests a black guy only, and the company only has a white guy, you can bet that they will promise the customers a black guy and send the white one. I call this the ole "bait and switch."
This pisses the customers off to no end, and they often take it out on the stripper.
The companies will also tell the customers that every dancer will have every and any costume available without actually confirming with the dancer. So imagine the customers' surprise when they ask for a cop and the stripper shows up without looking like a cop.
It all comes down to this: some companies will tell the customer whatever they want to hear in order to make a sale; to hell with consideration for their customers.
6) Lying to Strippers
And to hell with consideration for their employees.
Many companies like to keep their strippers in the dark as much as possible. The more ignorant the stripper is about booking fees, then the less the company has to pay him or her.
On top of that, if the customers request a particular race (i.e. black, white, Latino, etc.), and the stripper does not fit the criteria, the companies will not only lie to the customer, but they will fail to inform the stripper of this fact. I know this, because I have stumbled upon several parties who requested a "black male stripper only." Their shocked looks were not amusing at all. I would have to do damage control or pull out every ounce of charm to calm these customers down and have them accept me. Nonetheless, some would still turn me away, causing me to waste my time and money spent on gas, which the company won't compensate.
7) Sending Shitty Strippers
All companies prefer sending their best strippers to these parties. And by best, I mean the ones who are the most reliable and least likely to generate a complaint. Once these companies make a sale, they don't want to hear from the customers again, and sending a pro is the best way to ensure this. However, if all the best are booked full, then they send the next best and so on. Sometimes they have no options and send the worst.
I call this tactic "sending a body." It means that the company has no one of quality available, but does not want to lose the sale, so they send someone they shouldn't. Basically, they're just send a living body to show up and collect the money without any regards to customer service.
This tactic hurts the industry as a whole, because it scares the customers from ever hiring strippers again. There are plenty of horror stories to go around. All because a company wants a single sale.
So there you have it... The 7 things you need to know about Internet stripping companies. Unfortunately, I'm not going to publicly list any names of bad companies here.
Keep in mind that not all internet stripping companies are bad. There are several good ones out there, which I will list in other posts (the next post will have one). However, the majority of these companies practice several--if not all--of these tactics to a certain degree.
Whether you're a customer or prospective employee, keep these things in mind when dealing with these companies so you can prepare yourself for bullshit situations and act accordingly should they arise.
