Hello heywoodfloyd2001,

Your P411 status will help you verify with providers and if you see a provider who is on P411, you can ask them for a "like" via logging into P411, and some providers require a number of "likes" or vouches on P411.  If you have 3 "likes" your status is listed as "Basic +3" for example.

P411 screens indie providers + agencies and in that way when they are listed on P411 they are giving you a verification of that particular provider. P411 will also list the discounts that some providers offer for P411 members.  Some providers also offer discounts for TER members as well.

When a provider lists her donation amounts on her site, she is listing, and many will say so expicitly for her time only, not for anything illegal, so it is not a "big red flag" and need not worry you.  Many provider websites state this as part of their welcoming or home page. The dollar amounts listed on provider web pages are clear statement of what a specific time spent with that provider will cost.  Many web sites of indies or agencies will list specials in which there is a discount on time spent with that provider.

Joining TER VIP which costs $30/month, will definitely help you research providers and give you access to information you will want via the reviews. It will also allow you to PM.  I highly recommend doing that.  This investment will save you considerable money by helping you to make an informed choice after doing research by reading TER reviews.

"perfect storm" gave excellent advice on this thread the other day and offered valuable perspective on why TER VIP is so useful, and I want to quote him for you:

"There are good agencies and bad agencies. There are good independents and bad independents. the only way to truly know is to read the reviews, and possibly by PMing the reviewers. Both of which you need to have VIP for.  If you don't have VIP, you can't read the juicy details, you can't see the services offered, you can't see the number ratings, and you can't even see their rates. You say the lady has "only 7" reviews. Seven is actually a good number of reviews if at least 4 of them are from reviewers with several reviews themselves (preferably the reviewers have five or more reviews written). However withour VIP, how can you tell if they are good reviews? Or if the reviews for the other ladies form the agency are any good?

Yes without VIP, you are shooting in the dark. Look into "trustcash" to pay for your membership if you are worrying about a trail. There is info on it on the "buy VIP" link, and there have been several discussions on this board. Try doing a search.

The reputable, well reviewed providers never upsell. (the only exception is some charge extra for trips to greece). In general, you will pay for the 1 hour or 90 minute (or whatever time frame) rate, and you can expect the services stated in her reviews. The question is, are you seeing a reputable well reviewed provider?

Before making an appointment with a provider, you should research them well. As a newbie, you should only see well reviewed providers (Minimum of 6 or so reviews, and at least half of those from experienced hobbyists). If you don't have VIP here on TER, I suggest you get it. It is only 30 bucks a month, and it will more than pay for itself with your first appointment, by allowing you to do proper research, and virtually assure you of having a good session, rather than running into a scam, rob, sting, upsell, or just a not so good session.

You should also read the self help manual (top of the page near the life presrever).

This is the newbie board, so don't be afraid to ask anything here. However, you should also just read back 10 or so pages here, and also use the search feature at the top of the page to search for speciific topics. The default date range is 30 days, but if you set the date range to 300 or so, you will find that pretty much every question has been asked and answered already."

Also on the same thread, xyz23 offered an important source of information:

"There are reviews of agencies here on TER....
...Look under the tab "Site Reviews" The agency you are asking about may be reviewed here. That would be some useful extra information to determine their reputation for quality."


Good luck. i hope your first session turns out to be awesome, but I do hope you heed the advice and do more research before jumping into it!"

http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewall.asp?MessageID=101456&boardID=33&page=1#101456

Read the information on the links by clicking on the life preserver at the upper right of a TER page, read several back posts on the Newbie forum, and go to the bottom of a TER page and click the hyperlink for site map and FAQs and read the FAQs and get an idea of the areas TER offers for you.

Do check out:

Discussion>Board in your local area
Discussion>Provider Ads in your local area or an area where you may be travelling for business or pleasure. This will introduce you to providers in your area, and visiting providers as well.
The discussion boards in your area and this board will answer many questions you might have so time going back and picking out threads that interest you is time well spent.

One way to get an idea of providers you may want to see and research by reading their TER reviews is to click on Reviews>New Reviews for your particular locale and click the web site if listed on a provider profile where you can get an idea of who she is and what she offers and see her pics.  Some profiles list no websites because the provider may not have a website, or the website is no longer up.  In that case, one way to see pics of the provider is to google or bing her name with the phone number given on the profile.  You can also use www.tineye.com to put a web page url that has the provider on it and sometimes extract pics of the provider from that page.

Site Map
http://www.theeroticreview.com/site_map/

FAQs
http://www.theeroticreview.com/info_policies/generalFAQ.asp

You can put questions up on this board and your local board and get valuable help and answers.  In addition with TER VIP you can PM TER members and/or providers and gain valuable information and help.

Good luck,

JeffEng16