Ebay ACRU Tracking Errors and AuctionAds.com

Yesterday evening I received a disturbing email, which got me wondering just how secure my earnings in any affiliate program really were. This email was sent through CommissionJunction.com and not directly from Ebay.

Essentially, this means that for the past 4-5 days my referrals could either be up or down. I’m not a big player by any means, but a few hundred dollars a month is enough to make me wince when I see an communicator such as this. Also, taking this a bit further, how has this tracking issue with the ebay affiliate program affected AuctionAds.com?

There has been no word from AuctionAds end, yet I don’t quite understand how this referral tracking issue could only affect me. Will Ebay Affiliate Publishers be owing money or will they be getting a fat check in the near future? My money is on the fact that any referrals lost, are just that, lost.

In the past 2 days I’ve served AuctionAds over 3,800 impressions, with more than 130 clicks, and earned just enough to receive payout. When the Ebay tracking issue is resolved, in any way, will AuctionAds be repsonsible for going back through Paypal and making adjustments with it’s publishers? This tracking issue obviously does not effect everyone, but I’ll be interested to see how it takes a toll on this new startup.

Drop a Digg if You So See Fit

 

I also received that email, so don't think you're the only one.

 

Yeah, figured I wasn't the only one, just hadn't seen any news on it.

 

Hi,

Old lurker, new member here.

Did you get the second email on the 14th?

pretty similar to the first email , but note the bit I've bolded -

No information about how they calculate the bonus or whether we'll be delighted or gutted. At risk of showing myself to be a cynic, I can hazard a guess...

There were a couple of threads on ebay's affiliate forum that discuss this issue.

This one from an ebay mod -
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000476130&tstart=0&mod=1176682299088

And this one full of concerned affiliates -
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=2000347705&tstart=0&mod=1176751427023

And this quote, from the same ebay mod, suggests that perhaps I'm not such a foolish cynic -

Well the 'fraction' they refer to is around 99/100 in my case - but I doubt from their tone that they will see it that way. It's a little depressing when you try and build a livelihood as an affiliate, and avoid the little guys for the sake of your sanity - then the big guys act like this.



But there's nothing much new there except this -

 

Hey, TheSage, I did get that second email, which I posted in my blog. It seems they are being about as vague as possible, a quality I do not look for in my Affiliate Programs.

Perhaps this bonus will surprise me, perhaps not. Unfortunately, I just started using AuctionAds, so I may not even see the bonus, depending on how it's distributed and how AA handles it.

BTW, welcome to the forums.

 

Hi cldnails,

Cheers!

I don't use auction ads, so I can't help there. I think perhaps I'm the cause of the problem because recently, everything I even think about goes belly up j/k

And I recently started actively promoting their affiliate program - and had high hopes. But frankly, this sucks. I spent a lot of time on ebay as a seller in the past and decided to drop it because a) I wasn't breaking the bank b) I was tired of their ummm non-communicative treatment of their customers (IE - me).

I really hope that the same thing doesn't happen as an affiliate because I was testing the first site in what will turn out to be a major project for me, across many of their categories on different sites. Their response to this fiasco will decide whether I spend more of my valuable time on promoting their site.

I've regrettably learnt to accept that these big companies will treat their average customer with more than a little disdain - but affiliates too? We should get the red carpet treatment

 

my cj account shows funds earned but do's not say from affiliate program i wonder if it could be ebay i got the same email friday the 13th

 

Hopefully AuctionAds will update the blog or news with something (hint hint)

 

I've sent messages, commented in the blog, and posted over at ShoeMoney's forums...nothing.

 

You sent one message to support with a bunch of FAQs. What are you expecting?

 

I was not asking any frequently asked questions, if that's what you meant. Which btw, their FAQ list is laughable.

 

Nevermind, someone was nice enough to delete my comment, BUT NOT SEND ME A RESPONSE TO MY INQUIRY. Not the type of service I would expect...pathetic.

 

Lets cut right through the BS here.

You sent a email

Now if you don't see any of those answered in our FAQ I will be more then happy to respond personally.

We do answer every email we receive we just have to prioritize them. We have only been running 1 month and with such rapid growth we are gaging our support needs as I am sure you can guess. Generally there is only a few hours delay for support questions.

Also posting questions here or on other forums are not official support channels.

 

Wow Shoe, if you wanna cut through the bullshit, why didn' you say so a week ago?

I'm not sure why you see fit to post a publishers private message in a public forum, since I never once posted the original contact message, I don't see why you see fit now.

I'll be taking this with a grain of salt, as I hope you grow up and take responsibility for 'prioritizing' and your successful 'rapid growth'. These 'excuses' only go so far with me in regards to customer support, it's a business, act like one.

*Edit.

One last thing, I suppose I should expect a lack of professionalism, given the nature of some of the responses I've seen throughout this forum. However, you'd be surprised how many support contacts I received by others who received no response from your contact forms on AuctionAds and PM's here on the forum.

 

I have been traveling for the last week and I do not do the support but I was stunned with your blog post and your response above.

Our support staff works there ass of and handles hundreds of questions a day so yes... you rubbed be the wrong way.

So did you have any question I can answer then or?

 

Hi,

Just to update the original points, in case anyone didn't receive an email (from ebay>cj) about the tracking issue (just now), the one I received says -

Any positive news is good news in my opinion - my niche needs servicing. Traffic tap = back on.

 

Your traveling has nothing to do with having to wait days for a response. To be honest, most businesses probably wish they had it so good, to where their PUBLISHERS would be so willing to accept second rate service.

I don't doubt that your support staff works their ass off, but apparently it's not enough. It wasn't until I made my frustration increasingly clear that I got a response, no excuses. I received emails from my blog, that I wasn't the only one 'prioritized'. My frustration escalated from a number of affiliate programs taking advantage of their publishers 'support' and early adoption, so yes, my blog posts were somewhat heated.

The otherside to the coin is that I wasn't traveling, I was working my ass off trying to maximize every squre inch of real estate on my webpage and was concerned with my cut on the referral from ebay.

I did receive an answer to all of my questions, 2 seconds before seeing your post here, so I can only assume it's from you. There was no name attached to the email, but the questions were answered. As for your FAQ, the questions that I asked were not covered.

My only suggestion is that you take the time to support the ones supporting you and your not the only company guilty of this, just the latest. To further make matters worse, having a representative without any manners doesn't help.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=2836016#post2836016
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=2853745#post2853745
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=2737550#post2737550
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=2732966#post2732966

If I'm way off base on him being a representative, I'm sorry, but it certainly appears that way. ShoeMoney, please go pick on someone your own size, I'm obviously to small to matter, like other early adopters of your program here. Whether you were traveling or not, it's a shame that it had to escalate to a public forum before any response was given.

Now, take your time on getting back to us on how you will be handling the tracking of the eBay bonus.

 

I'm not into any of the drama above, but could all this be the reason that my daily income dropped from $20 to around $4 (or nothing) the last 5 days with AuctionAds?

I have been running them since launch so the snowball effect has nothing to do with it.

 

As soon as we know something it will be posted. Make sure you check the official blog.

 

Take it to PM's, email or an appropriate forum.

Thread closed....