APA Statement about Affiliate Quidco.co.uk
AffiliateProgramAdvice.com would like to state that as of today, all affiliate managers working under the AffiliateProgramAdvice.com umbrella have been requested to review the partnership they have in place with the cash back site, Quidco.co.uk.
Affiliate Program Advice affiliate managers will do their own due diligence.
We have read the statement that has been issued by affiliatewindow.com and we support Affiliatewindow.com their stance and openess in dialogue with all the members of the affiliate marketing community.
For any merchant who is working with quidco affiliate – cash back site, we encourage you to start asking questions and ask them to run a complete audit of historical transactions so you can cross reference, there maybe a case of a refund.
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Some of us received the following email from Quidco
We are contacting you to inform you that as of September 1st 2008, Quidco will no longer be operating on the Affiliate Window platform.
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We have worked with Affiliate Window since our launch in May 2005 and have enjoyed working closely with them over the last three years. We believe the Affiliate Window team are a great asset to the affiliate community and are strongly committed to raising the profile of the industry.
The rapid growth of Quidco along with the announced entry of Microsoft and Yahoo! into the UK cashback market (through Live Search and Kelkoo respectively) once again indicates that the cashback incentive channel is set to be a major part of any online media strategy.
The increasing mainstream use of cashback has brought greater pressure on the service we offer including the technical integration of Quidco with our network partners. As part of our effort to deeply integrate with network merchants and create bespoke solutions for their needs we have made the decision to reduce the number of our network partners. Unfortunately this means that we will be unable to promote you on the Affiliate Window platform as of September 1st 2008.
Kind Regards,
Paul Nikkel
Director
AffiliateWindow.com the rebuttal
This email is in response to a communication sent, without our knowledge, to our merchant and associated partners from Quidco . If you have not yet seen this email you can view a copy http://www.affiliatewindow.com/documents/quidco.php.
Affiliate Window have a long and successful history with Quidco that dates back to March 2005. We have always been advocates of the cashback model and in particular the value cashback can bring to this channel. As one of the network’s partners we have watched cashback interest grow over the past few years to a point where an affiliate is able to leverage considerable influence and restrictions over both networks and merchants.
However, over the past year it has only been Quidco’s influence over our merchants that has concerned us. Whilst we do not doubt that Quidco have a strong commitment to its members, 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.
This was highlighted eight months ago when Quidco asked all the networks they work with to enter into the Quidco ‘SureShop’ agreement. This was an obligation designed to guarantee members that networks resolve any Quidco member transaction queries within 28 days or they would be auto-approved. As I am sure you are aware, transaction approval should strictly lie with the merchant and cashback users can often submit requests for transaction queries because they have not received their cashback after making a purchase. The reasons for this are varied and often NOT associated with network tracking but more likely the user failing to access a merchant site via a Quidco link or the user clicked another affiliate link prior to sale, such as a discount voucher site. Nevertheless, we were happy to assist Quidco in processing these queries and as you have seen over the past few months we developed a solution to submit these queries into our system to be reviewed by merchants on the basis that you control how and when this occurs.
Our concerns regarding SureShop were heightened when Quidco members began submitting queries for transactions that had already been presented and declined by merchants. This effectively meant merchants declining a transaction and then subsequently having that same transaction auto-approved if they are unable to review it within the 28 days or bogus/fraudulent transactions being submitted on the off-chance of their approval. I am sure you agree, this system offers no protection to merchants and will inevitably end in a situation where the merchant is paying Quidco members commission for sales that are not valid.
After all any network has to feel confident that it tracks a very high percentage of sales (thus raising a serious question mark over the volume of Quidco transaction queries) or admit that their tracking is flawed and agree that Quidco members should be allowed to submit erroneous transaction queries.
As such, and after careful consideration, Affiliate Window decided to opt out of the SureShop agreement. This meant that the onus for the validity of member transaction queries was also shared with Quidco rather than our merchants alone. We felt this ensured transparency, accountability and above all protection to our merchants, something that we feel has been eroded by Quidco’s representation of the cashback market of late. We would ask all merchants operating in the affiliate industry to consider not just the merit of SureShop but the obvious disadvantages it brings.
This is obviously a carefully timed email designed to apply undue pressure on our clients. This is what we have come to expect of Quidco over recent months. We continue to work with all the other cashback partners many of whom appreciate our stance regarding the protection of merchants. It is well known that cashback users are not loyal to just one site and you will still be able to engage the broader cashback community through alternative partners with added peace of mind.
We would like to take you through this in more detail and ensure you have full visibility on the issue so we can address any concerns. Therefore, if you would like to contact us directly to discuss this please don’t hesitate to do so.
Kind Regards
Adam Ross
Client Services Director
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020 7553 0359
Mark Walters
COO
Sliver video
020 7553 0360
Kevin Edwards
Partnerships Director
020 7553 0354
Anthony Clements
Manager, Key Accounts Team
020 7553 0353
More information can be found on affiliatewindow.com blog
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Comments
Hi 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.
Hi Jess,
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.
8) 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
[…] Affiliate Programme Advice blog by Jess Luthi, describing how they intend to review all merchant relationships with Quidco through their agency […]
Hi Jess,
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.