View Full Version : Sharp Declines
Confuscius
02-10-08, 19:50
"Sharp's Affiliate Programme is a great way to earn money online. If you have a website, all you need to do is link to the Sharp website. When a visitor clicks on the link and buys something from our site, you will earn an attractive commission for making the introduction. It's as simple as that."
.... except when the transaction is declined!
So, could someone explain why a commission is declined because the customer is an "Affinity Customer"?
Why would an Affinity customer go via an affiliate site or are we sending free traffic to a discount scheme that then loses the affiliate any commission?
A full explanation for the benefit of all affiliates, including me, would be appreciated.
Hello,
This has been forward to the account manager for Sharp.
A response will be issued in due time.
Regards
Hi
Thanks for your message and I appreciate your concern regarding these declines.
On the 18th of September Sharp sent out an email to all their affiliates explaining the recent increase in declined commissions. Sharp identified an issue in commission duplication between their Affiliate Programme and the Sharp Affinity Programme (the corporate scheme they run with larger organizations).
Sales are driven by Sharp's email marketing, but unfortunately it is common for members to compare their offers across the web, and may as a result be visiting affiliate websites. Sales from affinity customers in this case will be declined should they come via the affiliate channel. The merchant is currently working on a technical fix to resolve the issue, and should in fact be resolved by close of play today if all goes well.
Please feel free to contact me directly on any of the below details to discuss this further.
Best Wishes
Kathy Kiruiru
Account Manager
Kathy.kiruiru@affiliatewindow.com
MSN: kathynk@yahoo.com
So, basically Sharp think they are entitled to free traffic and sales courtesy of us affiliates, just cause the person who bought one of Sharps products through our websites has one of Sharps get it cheaper gimmicks. Absolutely rediculous!!! We still send them the sale, no matter who they are, therefore we should still be entitled to a commission...
Methinks Sharp will be getting blocked very quickly by me with that attitude. It's supposed to be mutual back scratching, not commercial slavery. I know there are plenty of other similar merchants willing and happy to pay out good commissions to see legitimate increases in their sales.
This to me is as bad as those companies with the "sales hotline" posted on every product, so that they get to sneakily avoid paying out commissions.
Confuscius
03-10-08, 17:26
So, if I am reading this correctly, Sharp have decided that last click referrer does not get the sale and the text from their website therefore appears to be a false statement. I assume that they will correct the text on their website to make clear the relationship between Affiliate traffic and Affinity sales.
Although I do not do PPC then I can imagine those that use PPC will be pretty peeved to be spending their money on what ostensibly appears to be free traffic for Sharp. Sharp sent out their email to Affinity customer, Affinity customer did not buy. Affinity customer visits affiliate site and visits Sharp and buys. Affinity customer = Decline properly earned commissions!
This begs the question that because the Affinity Customer was sent an email and then Sharp appear to be assuming that the Affinity Customer actually read the email then this gives them sufficient grounds to decline the commission, that does not seem reasonable, does it?
BUT if the customer did not read the email but were simply browsing then to take a blanket decision that last referrer loses is a dangerous precedent to set - I wonder what A4u'ers would make of this?
Paul
More and More merchants are starting to believe that is THEY who are doing US the favour!
Confuscius
07-10-08, 16:47
The merchant is currently working on a technical fix to resolve the issue
What is the technical fix? In the favour of whom?
Has this been implemented yet?
Hi Paul,
I have been chatting with Kathy and she is happy to run through the details with you :)
Her details are as follows:
Kathy Kiruiru
Account Manager
Kathy.kiruiru@affiliatewindow.com
Regards
Something ocured to me last night regarding this.
Scenario:
Affiliate refers a user to Sharp
User doesn't buy immediately but joins the Sharp affinity program
User then buys through affinity within the cookie period
In this scenario, the user should really still belong to the affiliate.
I feel that in this case, the user is being swiped from the affiliate and there should be some form of compensation.
If Sharp do not feel they are unfairly swiping users, then the affinity program should be treated exactly the same as a Phone Number to the sales department would be. ie: if an affiliate cookie is present, then there should be no mention anywhere on the site of the affinity program.
Nothing wrong with mentioning it in the sales confirmation email though.
Perhaps a Lead based commission for affiliates who provide members to affinity would do instead of removing it altogether.
Hi Andy,
I am of the opinion that the Affinity sign up is only for corporate users as opposed to the general public. I would have thought that the chance of this would be low :confused:
Regards
If it's corporate, the sales volumes are likely to be higher. In which case, there's even more reason to reward affiliates for producing affinity customers