Hello all, I had tried to sign-up to be an advertiser with Chitika to run a PPC campaign with their network. However, upon entering my billing info in, their system wouldn't take my card, in which it gave me an error code E00027. I looked this error code up and it was pertaining to "test" transactions. However, my transaction was a "real" transaction. I tried using 2 other credit cards (both Visa and Mastercard) and it did the same thing. So, Monday morning I called them and left a message to help me with the problem. No one emailed me back to help. Tuesday...same thing. Wednesday...same thing. WTF. I can't start my campaign until I get the billing info in, but, the system keeps rejecting it as a "test" transaction. Chitika is incompetent as hell and neither fixed the issue or even contacted me about my problems. Has anyone else experienced this issue? I wanted to try a different PPC platform instead of Adwords and Yahoo, but, they seem oblivious to helping me or correcting the problem. Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks for any assistance you could give.
Hi loosechange, Sorry it's taken so long in getting this info public, and I can really do nothing but apologize that our support team has failed to support you in this regard. I've got an explanation of what's going on with credit cards from my ad-side guru: "Chitika's advertising team apologizes for the confusion caused by a recent upgrade of our credit card processing system. All payments and transactions are handled by a highly secure and reputable credit card processing firm. We implement stringent security measures and credit card verification measures to ensure efficient transactions and to protect you, the card holder. Please disregard any emails sent regarding a failed payment to Chitika. Again, this email was sent due to an error--best described as a 'hyper-active verification check'--in our processing system that effected a small number of Chitika advertisers using the pay by credit card option. To clarify -- we are not questioning or challenging the validity of your credit card. We take full responsibility for--and most often share the frustration brought on by-- the delay + confusion caused by our strict credit card security measures. I appreciate your understanding of the matter and we will send an update via email to all parties effected as soon as possible. - Chitika's Advertiser Support Team" So in other words, we're experiencing a rather major SNAFU at the moment. I think you didn't hear anything back from us because, quite frankly, we didn't fully understand what was going on and had to go through level upon level of bank bureaucracy to track it down. I can, however, promise you that we're working frantically to fix this issue, and while it doesn't make up for the fact that the system is malfunctioning now, it should be up and running soon - and we'll make sure to let everyone know when it is. Dan Ruby Chitika Director of Marketing