I seem to have opened a can of worms here by reading your response to my post, so let’s clarify a few things;

1) I won’t go over all your points individually but wanted to ensure that you realised first of all that my comment was from a personal point of view, not one of AffiliateFuture, hence using a personal email address and URL!

2) As you bought up the point of an AffiliateFuture response I will say that we are going to me informing all of our merchants the policy across the board on missed transactions and explain why these happen. We believe that we have the strongest tracking in the industry but missed transactions will always happen across all networks – it’s not a unique thing with AffiliateFuture and from what our stats and affiliates have told us, we now have less coming through than anyone else since releasing our Veracitag tracking technology.

3) I was not suggesting for one moment that you were a sheep and am unsure where that comment came from. I was also not saying as you have suggested that every merchant should check every transaction from every cashback site, I was suggesting that the issue here is all to do with missed transactions.

4) As mentioned – all networks have missed transactions to deal with from most incentive based sites, some submit more than others and Quidco probably submit the most, but this is because they get more traffic than most other incentive sites.

5) We have not experienced the same challenge as AffiliateWindow from Quidco – i.e. we have seen no increase or concerns about fraudulent transactions. The point I was making is that when missed transactions are submitted to merchants, be it via an agency or not, the merchant should check the small amount that come through to see if they are genuine or not. Some of which may have already been paid via another affiliate and should then be rejected – some of which will not have tracked via the Affiliate Network and should then be validated – this is not a Quidco issue, it’s just how merchants deal with missed transactions in general.

6) I won’t comment on the Affiliate Window response as I’m not sure what one to comment on – their first response suggested it was to do with Sureshop and fraudulent transactions and then the second response said that they had cleared all these and it was actually to do with Affiliate Window not giving Quidco a kickback – it’s really none of my business and I obviously don’t have the full facts so I’ll not comment pro or negatively about the situation.

7) In terms of the Sureshop agreement that most networks have signed, it’s just an SLA to say that the networks will aim to get response times about missed transactions in a suitable time period – it is not unique and other incentive sites have the same agreement in place.

Lastly I’ll just reiterate (is that the right word?) a few of my points: With the network hat on we’ve not seen an issue with Quidco. With the personal hat on the point I was making was that it really is not different to other cashback sites in terms of the way in which they deal with missed transactions of the quality of these that are coming though, that was the only point I was trying to make.

I hope that clears up a few of your questions – as always you know where I am if you want to talk about them in more detail!

Cheers
James

I don’t think I need to look at the other cash back sites as most if not all have never come under my radar in terms of consumers being allowed to submit fraudulent cash backs. Im not a sheep and I have no intention in joining any flock any time soon. But thanks and I have taken it onboard. This is not APA versus Quidco, I believe all I have done is support a network in their decision. Who we chose to work with in terms of affiliates is up to us and our clients as it should be.

The issue as I see it right now is that all the other networks are now instead of asking questions of quidco are now trying to justify why they are still working with them including affiliatefuture.co.uk, as always its about securing your revenue rather then biting the bullet and saying to quidco, you got problems your suspended until you can fix them.

Less you forget we have one very savvy client in your affiliate network that is himself a tech head, ex affiliate and tracks everything and any thing that moves. Indeed, we have challenged the cash back sales raised by affiliatefuture.co.uk from Quidco about untracked cash backs and we are STILL waiting for a response from you guys on untracked sales. In the interests of my client, I no longer want to work with an affiliate that seems unable to police their own members, same can be said for their voucher site. Tracking is tracking so either your tracking is skew or theirs is, which is it? If its your tracking then all the other affiliate networks tracking must be skew too? Cj, TD, so you see the dilemma here? Where this is all leading to?

One or two missed cash backs per month is acceptable, but the volumes now coming in and across how many merchants and networks? Cause to raise an eyebrow regardless if they are legit or not, that’s the point here surely? You don’t need a maths degree to see the volume of sales that merchants have paid out in terms of commissions for untracked cash backs? It can’t be a small number, you guys forget I have past and present clients across most of the networks, just because we may not manage their aff programs, does not means to say that we are no longer working with them.

“Just goes to show that all merchants should look at the missed transactions and check that they are all legitimate.” Im sure all the merchants will be recoiling by this should they stumble upon this thread and that comment is wrong for so many reasons. What planet are we living on? You think merchants have the time and trawl through all cash back site transactions, affiliate marketing is supposed to make life easier for them, now they have to police it all. Let’s get real, what is this myth that merchants have abundance and limitless resources in place to cross reference one affiliates sales? They have anti credit card fraud features in place, they have done their job, but so as to make affiliate networks life and revenue easier they now have to stop what they are doing and cross reference cash back site commissions. What is the most important thing for a merchant re sales their primary goal is to ensure that the sales they do get are not bogus credit card transactions, affiliates will be pleased to know that most are on the ball, but how many merchants don’t use a local cookie and operate across two or more affiliate networks? How many affiliate networks have de-duping in place? It goes way deeper then just throwing this problem back on to merchants. I love the way this industry tosses the ball to some one else when it suites them. I think all affiliate networks need to take ownership of their space, merchants their space and affiliates their space and all work together instead of finger pointing and passing the buck.

Utopia James and that’s the problem here, the assumption is all merchants have this huge marketing department and endless time, of course merchants should be doing a lot of things but hey guess what, some of them don’t but in this case it’s a red herring anyway. The reality is, quidco have been caught bang to rights. Instead of networks trying to protect their revenue stream why don’t they just say, you know what Quidco, sort it out and then come back when your own policing has been sorted. The Buck stops squarely at quidcos door. You see its this bit that caught my attention. “Affiliate Window have become increasingly concerned how Quidco are prepared to sacrifice protection for merchants in favour of members by securing cashback to its members, in some cases where no cashback is due”. http://blog.affiliatewindow.com/?p=143
For no other reason, I don’t care if affiliatewindow.com had rows with Quidco over exclusive merchant deals or not. What I care about is how this one affiliate has knowingly now continued to work with other networks knowing that some of their members are issuing dodgy claims for cash backs = affiliate commission. It makes me angry that other affiliate networks knowingly continue to work with Quidco, what part of this sentence does not make sense? “Quidco are prepared to sacrifice protection for merchants in favour of members” There is no political motive here, fraud is fraud how ever you would like to dress it up, its monies obtained that does not rightfully belong to this affiliate in some cases. Let me reword this is how I see it today..” some affiliate networks are prepared to sacrifice protection for merchants in favour of Quidco”.

How ever on that note, this is just my personal opinion and affiliate management decisions for the clients I work directly with. The other affiliate managers at APA will review their own practices and factor in the current climate.

My belief in life is never rely on any one person/company for your business, so if quidco fell off the planet tomorrow would it have a significant impact on my own clients revenue? (please make the distinction) answer is no not really.

Personal feelings on this..

Might be an idea to have an overall review of all the cashback partnerships, rather than just Quidco. The stuff that gets submitted is not different at all to other incentive sites – there is just more of it as it’s the biggest one.

Just goes to show that all merchants should look at the missed transactions and check that they are all legitimate.