I consider this very unethical. How would you handle this?
 

My traffic manager CJ_Ryan is one of my best friends and he is incredibly honest. Someone (I don?t want to disclose who) hit him up. Here is the conversation:

[10:03] Ryan Hogrefe: Session Start (ICQ - 137903833:117009101): Mon Mar 14 09:54:15 2005
117009101: Hey Ryan, this xxxxx from xxxxxxx hit me up when you get a chance, got something to ask you about your account? [Offline Message (3/8/2005 [17:12])]
Ryan: yo
Ryan: been on a trip
Ryan: hit me up when you're online
117009101: I'm here... did you go to the Cancun show?
Ryan: nope, I was on a cruise
*** 117009101 signed on at Mon Mar 14 09:56:25 2005.
117009101: cool...cool... Well, I just was going over some accts last week and noticed the CJ xxxxxx acct had no refferal and if your interested, I could set you personally up as the refferal and make you a few extra bucks?
Ryan: sure, sounds good
117009101: cool... figured it would... haha Just grab a personal acct, unless you already have one and I'll switch the refferal on CJ to you...
Ryan: oh, I can't do that
117009101: why?
Ryan: because that is unethical

So, I got pissed as hell and started talking to him. Our conversation is below:

[10:04] Rick Latona: you there?
[10:04] Xxxx: yea, whats up?
[10:04] Rick Latona: you trying to bribe my traffic manager?
[10:05] Xxxx: No, I thought he was part owner... I got miss info...
[10:05] Rick Latona: he is supposed to be sending traffic based on what makes me the most money. if you give him a referral fee he won't be making sound decisions. that's fucked up man.
[10:05] Rick Latona: so if he was part owner the other owners would get screwed
[10:05] Rick Latona: your logic isn't sound
[10:06] Xxxx: I was looking to send you guys more money... not trying to do anything shady...
[10:07] Rick Latona: your actions could cost me money if my traffic manager wasn't my best friend and incredibly honest.
[10:08] Rick Latona: if you wanted to "send" me more money you'd just raise our payout. you clearly knew exactly what you were doing.
[10:09] Xxxx: No problem, who would be best to send the the refferal to? Just add it on the sales? You guys have been a decent affiliate and just thought no reason the refferal should go to waste?
[10:10] Rick Latona: just increase our payout

So what do you guys think of this?

ba, give a chance to the guy, was just trying to pushing his stuff

If he's been around even a week in this biz I would think that he knew exactly who he was dealing with and what he was doing. Dunno though...I could be wrong....

this biz is full of unethical people Rick , Id be pissed to also

doesnt really seem intentional.

Yeah, I understand why he did it. Just bothers me a bit. Traffic managers can screw you big time if you can't trust them. It's a high-risk position. They can steal, take bribes, etc. If Ryan got hit by a truck I'd have my mother managing traffic.

seriously, count this as strike 1

lol, you didnt edit his ICQ number

that wasn't smart indeed..

Er...no I don't think he did.

huh? i just checked who that is

ok, i see you edited your post :)

see sig
8 chars

Doh! Well, he didn't get away with it so I wasn't going to tell anyone who he was. In fact, we are negotiating a big traffic swap right now. He's got one strike against him but still has two left. :)

Oops - still at least it makes the story more interesting to know who it was. Looks more like just a silly thing to do rather than an ethics thing from the limited info available. The guy was trying to get his stuff pushed harder without actually thinking through his actions.

:1orglaugh @ sig

Bravo to ryan for keeping things on the right track and above board.

No shit!

Ryan, just grab a personal acct with dieselaction and i promise no increase :)

blown out of proportion IMO

Its Wizzo from Stiffycash!

I don't think there was any malintent, he was just trying to be helpful for Ryan specifically, and not the company, his mistake, but it should of course be the company who benefits; which now it seems it will if your payout has increased?

I'd say strike 1, but it's not that harsh of a strike I don't think.

Matt

Definately so. We just cut a nice join trade deal. The whole thing has made for an interesting Monday.

Take it for what it is... Most know me and I have nothing to hide, I did hit Ryan up last week and maybe didn't reply this early Monday morning quite in the right fashion, bottom line is more biz got done for all involed... :thumbsup

:disgust

:disgust

OMG, how could you!

Who knows what was going through his brain.

:thumbsup

yeah i would be to

completely shady - no doubt at all

On a early Monday morning, not much...haha :pimp

this coming from the guy that stole our tours and continued to do so for months.

I'm glad it all worked out, deffinately a interesting Monday morning... :thumbsup

I'm glad it worked out for the better. All's well that ends well. :)

Not sure I could have been as ethical as Ryan (kudos). I'm sure you would generate a nice referral check.

Wizzo was just testing him for you Rick. He passed. Time to party.

Sounds like someone whose actually unethical? because wizzo has been a great acct. rep for me, he is one of the few that I've dealt with that have actually given me sugestions on how I can make more money and knows what he's talking about. glad it all worked out!

think it was just a misunderstanding really... glad it all worked out

Wizzo is a good guy, I highly doubt he had bad intentions.

Glad to see an actual good outcome. :thumbsup

JOKER

I think you are pretty stand up for even trying to give him the benfit of the doubt.

What I saw is that there was no ref id and you guys were sending traffic without getting paid for it. If he was trying to be on the up and up he would of just given Ryan the heads up that he needs to add the ref id for his company. Not hey why not take money from the big guys since they have no idea their ref id is not there.

I would be worried!!!!

Rick, I hope you realize how valueable somebody like Ryan is...its almost impossible to find people these days that would do what he did.