The Associates Central homepage still shows reports based on the quarterly payment system. Does anyone else find this annoying? I just sent them my third e-mail. The response I got to the first one was that it was probably a title problem, and that the reports would reflect month-to-date numbers even if the title is wrong. Of course, that turned out to be wrong. It's now February and I am still seeing quarter-to-date numbers. Now that we are on a monthly payment system, quarter-to-date means nothing. Now I have to go clicking around to see how I am doing for the month. I always get the impression that anything that is just a problem for the sellers is low priority.
I alway picture the Amazon Associates group as about 4 folks all sitting in one cubicle and any time they ask to have something changed at Amazon Associates Central someone takes the request, rolls their eyes and shit cans it.
Four people, really? I would think more like an intern, or someone from one of those high school programs that let students out for afternoon jobs so they have work experience. I don't understand why they invest the money in programs such as a-stores then make some features such a pain to work with. Like, when you are selecting individual items, why can't you search, go through and check everything you are interested in, and add it all at once? When they do something for associates, they set the tools up as if they are for shoppers browsing the site, not for people running a business.
Same problem here. I thought it would clear up after a few days but it's still showing data from last month. Guess they still have some software glitches.
stilloutthere -- I think you have a great suggestion! I will discuss with Associates team next time I chat with them. I can assure you that the team is a LOT larger than 4 people.
Same with me on reports... I see that referrals are calculated with the right percentage, starting at February 1st, but overview report shows the whole Q1/2007. I hate it...
I agree -- it makes little sense to still have quarterly numbers in the reports. With that said, I know how long development cycles take and moving any complex system from quarterly to monthly payment cycle is not easy. I still think that between delaying introduction of monthly payments by a quarter vs. introducing the new cycle now and fixing the reports, the latter is the right choice and this is the choice that Amazon made. As an example of improvement, until Feb 1, you didn't even see "Month-to-date" option on the reports and now you do. I have no doubt that the rest of the reports will be updated in the next 30 days.
I like the new monthly payments. I just don't like seeing that I have to make 80 more sales this quarter to get an increase in my rate. Especially since that number comes from taking this month's sales and subtracting it from quarterly targets. Then I have to go to the individual reports to see how many products have shipped and been ordered, then actually (heaven forbid) do some subtractions to figure out where I stand with rates.
They have change it today. Right now you can see month-to-date report on homepage. I believe this is the reason why reports for February 6th are late.
I got a response from customer service that said they were working on it but couldn't say when it would be fixed, then today the month-to-date report was there. No more clicking, no more subtraction!