» How to be made to feel unimportantPlusOne

I am feeling like Dave Hughes from his Glass House days – I’m not happy.

Four months ago I was introduced to an affiliate network contact in the USA with the view of increasing the exposure of Caricature King to a couple of selected sites in the USA.

From the very start things were, well kind of unsatisfactory.

I asked for an overview of their business, but nothing arrived. But there was the news that a big USA membership shopping site said they would like to run with it at the commission rates we proposed.

I asked for some info on their backend, so I could see if I would be comfortable with what it did. Yes I got a link to an empty backend with so sample data and many of the links did not work.

So then we started to work on setup. For some reason their tracking pixel did not work. After several weeks of intermittent contact they realised they had forgotten to send me the required code.

I still had hopes for a launch for Christmas.

Then there was a period of no communication, then some other tracking problems. I wondered if their tech person was a high school kid working in his bedroom. This was pretty basic stuff that an agency with some big name clients should have been able to tackle in 10 minutes with their eyes closed.

Christmas passed with the news that my cart dis not seem to work with PayPal – except that it has for several years now.

Several weeks later they discover that my PayPal account needed to be upgraded to the top level - a business account because lower account levels returns shoppers to a different thank-you page. So this gets done in a couple of hours (and even with a helpul PayPal person – that is a first!)

Then a long wait till I contact them about what is going on – “priority customers needed attention first” they say.

I still have hopes for Valentines Day…..and have creatives done and sent.

Then more questions about commission percentages v flat payouts per sale….wasn’t this finalised in October??

Then there is an issue with getting creatives to load….I cannot do this myself, in which case difficulties could have been excused.

Now they inform me that they are looking for affiliates, some mention about some newsletter…I thought they had an affiliate lined up months ago.

That was last week. Today is Wednesday, and I have been waiting for news, good or bad about where we stand with a good affiliate.

Any hope for Valetines Day sales being boosted through this channel are now gone…

And I am thinking of giving them the flick….4 months and I see in my merchants login that everything is still pending.

But writing is cathartic and helps clarify things. So I am going now to set up with another affiliate network, admittedly that has not offered any promises of getting me on a good affiliate and that will cost me $500 more than the first and higher monthly payments.

And when the original guy remembers I exist – I’ll say no thanks, and wait for their tantrum.

+ou can only be made to feel unimportant for just so long.