[esnagel]

Panties.com was running a $50 bonus if you placed their banner on your homepage & didn't make a sale in February. Just hours before the bonus period was over, I received a sale ($7 commission), meaning I lost out on $43. I was able to track the sale back to panties.com affiliate manager! What a dirty thing to do...

The whole write-up is on my blog: Got My Panties.com In A Bunch

Did anyone else participate in this bonus? What results did you see?

[Zeus]

That's a dirty trick! I was wondering about this bonus. How can they afford it? It pushed me to add a few links. (No Sales) I didn't ask for the bonus. Lesson learned.

[Dani]

I'd say this is the result of maybe hundreds of affiliates placing this banner on their sites and not making a single sale, which could have set Panties.com back several thousand dollars...

Are you certain it was the affiliate manager who referred the sale? If so, I'd have to say that Panties.com has indeed been naughty.

[Bill]

As Zeus says, "That's a dirty trick!" Unethical for sure.

I, too, had wondered about such a bonus. Glad we didn't sign up.

[BlogBonnieBlog]

Nice catch on the server logs! Let us know how they respond.

[Julian]

Exact same thing happened to me. I placed a banner on a site that has not had a sale for any program for over 12 months.

A few hours before the end of February, I got a sale from panties.com the sale was for $9.95

So I get $1.49 commission, but obviously miss out on the $50

Amazing coincidence, a sale right at the end, on a site that has had no sales for over a year.

This affiliate manager has really damaged their reputation with this

[esnagel]

Hi Dani - I'm 99.9% positive it was the AM who made the purchase. Same IP, same browser (1 upgrade during the time away) and the way the person navigated from my homepage (type-in, no referring URL) directly to the merchant page then jump link - it's quite obvious.

If they couldn't afford to pay these bonuses, don't offer it! Or, offer to a few, select affiliates.

I'm sure some affiliates will be happy with their commission. I don't care about the $50 - I care about a clean program.

[Dani]

Originally Posted by esnagel

If they couldn't afford to pay these bonuses, don't offer it! Or, offer to a few, select affiliates.

I couldn't agree with you more esnagel!

And by the sounds of things from Julian's comment, it's happened to quite a few affiliates too.

It's things like this that make me wonder why people even bothe attempting to build an affiliate program when all they seem to do is to screw their affiliates!

[Carolyn - ShareASale]

Hey guys, I'm in touch with the merchant and will hopefully get everything sorted out!

[MichaelColey]

Moderator Note: Rant by IAmMe (and the ensuing response) has been removed.

[MichaelColey]

ShareASale should be able to see the IP addresses for all of the end of month orders and see very easily what happened.

Let's give them some time to work through the channels to get proper resolution.

[Uncle Rico]

Here is the original email from 1/24/2010:

Dear XXXX

We are so confident you'll make a sale that we'll pay you $50 if you put one of our new panties.com banners on your website and do not make a sale by February 28th!

CONTEST GUIDELINES:
Put up panties.com banner ad by Feb. 1st
email the page with banner to Lila(at)panties.com for approval, so we know it is not being placed in an obscure, cluttered or hard to find area.

Note our $10 First Sale Bonus is still running!

All the best,

Lila

panties.com

[Brian - ShareASale]

Eric - as Carolyn pointed out earlier, we are working on this and will see what we can do to right the wrongs.

[Lila]

Hi Everyone,

I did contact Carolyn as soon as I received the email from Julian yesterday. We visited sites to check to make sure banners were still up. We also made a series of test transactions at the end of the month to test tracking. Evidently we did not follow steps to clear cache and were able to determine that a few transactions should not have been recorded as affiliate sales. It was entirely an unintentional error, as you can see by our EPC trend in ShareASale, we’re actually pretty consistent with the exception of a spike around Valentine’s Day.


I apologize for the confusion, I understand how this looks and I am working with Carolyn to determine how to best remedy the situation.

[BurgerBoy]

We also made a series of test transactions at the end of the month to test tracking.

It all seems pretty simple to me.

You know what sites you made a test transaction on and made them lose their bonus.

You need to pay those sites the bonus that is due to them.

[markwelch]

While I haven't promoted this merchant, the explanation offered by Lila on behalf of the merchant is simply not credible. I look forward to seeing ShareASale's response.

[AffiliateHound]

Originally Posted by Lila

Hi Everyone,

I did contact Carolyn as soon as I received the email from Julian yesterday. We visited sites to check to make sure banners were still up. We also made a series of test transactions at the end of the month to test tracking. Evidently we did not follow steps to clear cache and were able to determine that a few transactions should not have been recorded as affiliate sales. It was entirely an unintentional error, as you can see by our EPC trend in ShareASale, we’re actually pretty consistent with the exception of a spike around Valentine’s Day.


I apologize for the confusion, I understand how this looks and I am working with Carolyn to determine how to best remedy the situation.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

-Sir Walter Scott

Tell me, did you plan this response in advance knowing you would be caught, or did you come up with it this morning?

[Trust]

There's only one right response. Either they pay everybody the $50 that's due. If not, remove them from the network. What else is there.

[davidh]

I agree with Mark. Seems kind of contorted for a different affiliate's cookie to be set in between each of a series of "test transactions".

And if there is consistent sales activity as claimed, then there is no need for test transactions. Why would the very idea of testing even occur?

[Anne]

I loaded a page with banners when the promotion was first introduced, and had a sale sail in hours before the promotion expired... I wondered the same thing but was trying to think nice..
USD 02/28/2010 05:29:08 PM [25218356] 9.95 $1.49
but now I am not so sure...

[sam_park]

They can spin it anyway they like. Irrespective of the outcome of this issue, it should be noted that they are unethical and will remain so in future. So affiliates tread carefully with this merchant.

This thread should be stickied to forewarn others.

[PandaMarketer]

As a new SaS affiliate, I am eagerly awaiting the final outcome of this situation. It's like a soap drama, but with more impact. Ramifications are pending.

/me grabs some

[Julian]

This just shows how important Abestweb is to the affiliate community. It highlights this kind of behaviour, so that affiliates can always make informed decisions about which merchants are the ones that should be promoted (and of course those that should be avoided)

It will be interesting to find out how this progresses.

[MichaelColey]

Originally Posted by markwelch

While I haven't promoted this merchant, the explanation offered by Lila on behalf of the merchant is simply not credible. I look forward to seeing ShareASale's response.

I totally agree with Mark. Lila's story just isn't credible.

First, if they were checking banners, they would have gone to the sites and LOOKED, not clicked the links.

Second, if they had checked sites and then done test orders, all of the test orders would have been for ONE affiliate, not one separate order for mulitple affiliates.

I would like to believe that most affiliates would have forgiven a merchant who did this and then came back and said something like, "I apologize. I had a momentary lapse in judgment and made a huge mistake. Everyone who earned a $50 bonus will be paid, and I've asked ShareASale to audit everything to confirm that we've met our obligations. I hope you can forgive me and give me a second chance. I've learned from my mistake."

But instead, they add insult to injury with an infeasible story.

[meadowmufn]

1. Collect unethical underpants test sales.
2. ?
3. Profit

Their story doesn't add up in my mind either. So many "test sales" right before the deadline on several different affiliate sites, not just one.

Glad I didn't sign up.