[maregee]

Last year the affiliate manager of an independent merchant recruited me to promote their product directly (I had previously been promoting it through Amazon.)

There were issues with automatic payments - both times a payment was due, I emailed the aff manager and both times they apologized and promptly sent a check. I got the impression that they're a small company and didn't quite have their act together (the checks were hand-written), but they seemed quite willing to pay and I wrote it off as just an annoyance.

It's a seasonal item, so sales were dormant for the winter, then started up again late spring. Once again, my account crossed the payment threshold (by a considerable amount!) and I got nothing, so I sent an email...no reply, no check. Sent another ... no reply, no check. Sent another ... still no reply.

According to their site, they still have an affiliate program, and I certainly didn't get any termination notice or other notifications. The person who I had been dealing with is still with the company. Someone actively posts on the company facebook page. I have screenshots of my affiliate dashboard showing the last time a payment was issued, the total commission earned since, and downloads of my transactions, showing them all "approved."

Any suggestions for next steps to take? I have the phone # of their main office, am planning to give them a call but who to ask for and how to best avoid them ducking my phone call? Do I directly ask for the person I had been dealing with and what do I say if they ask what it's in reference to?

Thanks in advance for any advice! Needless to say, their links are history...

[Chuck Hamrick]

Call them daily, leave a message and follow-up with an email stating that you left a message. If after 3 days you do not get a reply then find their fax number and send a fax detailing what you have done to get to someone. You can also ask to talk to the president of the company. We I worked for an agency, if that happened I was in his office 30 seconds after he got off the phone or listened to his voice mail.

You can also name the merchant and I will promote this to the unethical merchant section where there will be a permanent record pointing to their domain.

[I.M.O.G.]

Originally Posted by maregee

Any suggestions for next steps to take? I have the phone # of their main office, am planning to give them a call but who to ask for and how to best avoid them ducking my phone call? Do I directly ask for the person I had been dealing with and what do I say if they ask what it's in reference to?

I would ask to talk to their accounts payable team. If they ask, I would tell them its in reference to outstanding payments for advertising sales you have made. I would also take names of anyone you talk to, and also have your list of exact dates and who you emailed previously. Be prepared to put someone's toes to the fire by making it clear when you had emailed, the lack of response, and that will help to communicate the urgency to whoever you get on the phone. If they say someone will call you back, I always ask when I should expect to receive a call, and the name of the person I should be expecting to hear from. When the call doesn't come, I get in touch with that same person I had on the phone originally, and remind them of what they told me last time... They don't want to take grief for someone else, so usually they'll try to ensure you get answers from someone.

[Convergence]

Hi maregee, good to "see" you again (you should post more often!)

Create an invoice, email it to them, then follow-up with collection phone calls to their AP department...

[maregee]

Thanks everyone - gives me some ideas!

Originally Posted by Chuck Hamrick

You can also name the merchant and I will promote this to the unethical merchant section where there will be a permanent record pointing to their domain.

Thanks for the offer - I'm going to see if I can resolve this before I start naming names.

I do have their fax #, unfortunately showing up on their doorstep isn't an option.

Originally Posted by Convergence

Create an invoice, email it to them, then follow-up with collection phone calls to their AP department...

Hey Convergence ! Email's apparently been going into a black hole ... maybe I should fax it to them?

Ugh - I really despise having to chase after people with a pointy stick to get them to pay me!

Thanks again, and will let you know how it goes!

[Convergence]

Fax the invoice and then MAIL it via snail mail...

PS: Shoot me an email once in a while - can reminisce about the old place and catch up on new stuff...