Originally Posted by Brad Mitchell
Looking forward to seeing everyone in Phoenix... Drinks are on me :)
Before I give my two cents, here's where I'm coming from:
1) I own a billing company that is integrated with both MPA2/MPA3 and NATS.
2) I own a hosting company and support about a dozen managed client programs that use either program, several clients that have been with each respective company through their upgrades and a few more still who have switched from one vendor to another.
3) I owned an affiliate program which was sold late last year, SinBucks, which was originally MPA2 then MPA3 then post-sale I provided technical support the new owner while he migrated to NATS.
Someone want to tell me I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about? HA, I can't fucking wait.
Now, here's my :2 cents:
All versions of every every back end package can have problems with "post-back". That's the process where the 3rd party billing company posts back to the accounting package so that a sale ultimately gets tracked and reported.
This isn't a shave, this is a technical problem. When it doesn't work, it just plain doesn't fucking work so nothing gets reported. This is something that won't start working again until gets fixed. Why does this usually happen? For one reason or another, it's usually a result of biller and merchant servers not being able to communicate properly either because of an authentication issue or a DB issue. I won't speak to the specifics of the Electracash issue that was identified, but I've seen problems with post back on both platforms with every 3rd party billing program.
Whose resposibility is what? Well, obviously when you buy software you expect it to work - and when it breaks due to no malfeasance of your own, it's reasonable to expect your software vendor to warranty it. If someone like a billing company who is somewhat of a 3rd party to the software vendor and the actual merchant decides to not be part of the solution, really everyone gets screwed except them I guess.
My point?
At the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility for the integrity of an affiliate program lies with the person signing the checks. Like was suggested earlier, you reconcile your 3rd party billing reports to your payout reports. An honest business person either fixes the problem or moves to another software solution. Obviously, J&A moved so it's clear their intention is to do right by their affiliates.
NATS got stuck with a billing company that evidently wouldn't fix the problem, they did what they could in the situation unfortunately it wasn't enough to make their client happy.
:321GFY
Is there some magic bullet solution out there? Fuck no. The integrity of a program is only as good as it's operators.
What are my honest thoughts on both pieces of software? You won't hear them unless we're drunk and naked at the next tradeshow. Any one of you that thinks either program is "perfect" is an idiot. I've lived in them from EVERY angle and there are nightmares and dramas with some vendors. The reality? The affiliate public can't handle the truth. Even with a great product sometimes communications are so bad that vendors and merchants will never see eye to eye. This thread is a perfect example, I think.
Get me started, get me drinking - let me tell you how many tens of thousands of dollars in support costs and lost productivity has come off my kitchen table for MojoHost doing "whatever" it takes to triage problems with accounting packages and their customers who are our hosting customer. What bugs me the most is the lack of humility and accountability when they royally fuck up.
I fully appreciate that as a host I'm responsible for my client's entire livelihood. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one that feels this sense of accountabilty and thankfulness for my client's business.
Mind you, I say they and them as if to indict everybody when in fact I might not really be doing that..
Is it both of them, one more than the other? I'll have to leave that up to speculation. I think I can plainly state that I'm the only guy out there that has the triple experience of being the hosting company, the affiliate program and a 3rd party billing company.
Finally, the reality check.
Despite whatever shortcomings such vendors might have, I will say that it's obvious they are all well-intentioned. The goals are simple for each program, to have the best affiliate management software out there. When you're growing a business it's not easy to please everyone and despite best efforts it's statistically impossible to anyways.
Who pulled it off, who has the better product? Buy and use both, find out for yourself. I'd love to get drunk with Garry, Oystein, John and Nathan but I don't think that'll ever happen. I certainly won't double talk any of them, I'm more than happy to tell them exactly what I think about their products but you had best believe such opinions won't end up in a public forum, published, online. LOL
Just don't be a fucking moron and start pointing fingers at one company or the other and be ignorant thinking that whoever you think is better isn't without sin. You're simply unaware of what such sins might be.
Cheers,
Brad
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