Confusing referral scenario - What would you do?
 

Not sure what my responsibility, if any in this scenario is:

Affiliate A signs up to my program in late 2009. Account remains completely inactive.

Affiliate B signs up in late 2010, does a trickle of joins, enough to make minimum payout every 2 pay periods or so.

Affiliate B eventually refers several other affiliates, including C who?s volume is about 5 times that of B.

B eventually becomes an account rep for my program, repping 5 or 6 affiliates, C is much larger volume-wise than all combined, and quality is pretty consistent as well. (easily the best of the group) Since the entire group of affiliates live in a 3rd world country with shitty banking, they request that payments will be bundled wired to B who will then distribute funds.

Things are fine for 6 months or so, suddenly C goes quiet, no more joins, and A comes alive doing the exact same volume that C has been doing. I compare IP addresses and, as I suspected they are the same affiliate.

I hit up A on ICQ and mention that I know he is actually C, ask what happened with B and what I should do about several refunds that are pending on C?s account, deduct them from A?s account or what, otherwise B is stuck with them and we both know B already paid C out and is not getting any more joins from C.

A denies being C, denies having any knowledge of B and says: ?check my account you will see I joined in 2009? (the names are different)

I know it?s not true but it occurs to me that it?s not really any of my business. Everything is fine for me but I know B is being screwed by C for several hundred dollars, and as an affiliate A is worth more than B.

Do I have a responsibility to make these people play fair with each other? Or should I just ignore the situation?

I would like to simply not deduct the refunds from C and eat that cost myself because I know it will hurt B, but then B will know that I know C went over their heads and it could cause unnecessary drama all around.

TL;DR:
Affiliate sets up separate account to get out from under aff rep and stick aff rep with some deductions for refunds. Affiliate has much higher value than rep in this case.

If affiliate C/A will screw Affiliate B then they will eventually screw you under some conditions too. Especially if they also lie to you about it. It almost always works like that. Keep it in mind. Just be sure that affiliate A really is the same as affiliate C and that there isn't something else going on.

You answered your own question.

Dark Jedi:

Why is it not his business? They are his affiliates whether they are called A,B, or C so he should make it his business to make sure they aren't doing anything screwy.

PompousJohn:

Professionally, you should continue to pay under the original terms. Let them sort it out if they changed their own arrangement because that is their business.

On a side note, you quite possibly already are probably creating tax issues for yourself by paying all three under one account. That is not ok in case you didn't know. So the first thing I would suggest is getting them in line in a way that is not going to come back on you negatively. :2 cents:

You really don't want to comprimise your business just because they don't necessarily have to answer to the same legal and tax issues you probably do.

Absolutely not your business in the sense that you should be doing weird shit with payouts. Far-L's point that they are your affiliates and your business in general is irrelevant.

did C complained on B not getting paid or not getting paid on time etc.. ?
did B complained about it's drop in referral revenues?

tell them all to fuck off and concentrate on normal people you can build a proper ongoing business relationship with.

Thanks all, everything seems fine for now, the only reason I am concerned at all is that I once unwisely allowed myself to be placed in B's position, so I am doing my best to look out for them, but then I don't really know them so I can't speak for C/A's reason for doing what they are doing and don't really have any reliable way of finding out.

At the end of the day, I am under an obligation to pay each affiliate account according to the agreement we made when they began sending joins, affiliates having more than one account is not something I disallow, (unless it's a scammer who's been banned) so there's not really anything I can do except keep my eyes open for fraud and keep making on-time payments as agreed.

QFT. Crooked people are crooked. If you know he's scamming B, he's either going to scam PJ or he already is scamming you. He may appear "more valuable" right now but he's likely to become a liabilty.

I wonder if A, B, and C aren't the same person, collecting the commission for referring himself. If he was, he might ask you to send one big payment instead of three different payments for his three different accounts.

First, it's quite obvious these people know each other in person. And sounds very much like your 'account representative' B is running a chat traffic 'call center', presumably with your encouragement.

If C is A then B did not legitimately refer C; the reason C signed up (again) under B is obviously so that B could make money too. So give B the option of taking the hit for chargebacks or for taking the penalty for all the illegitimate referral money he has made from referring someone who had already signed up before.

If C isn't A, then there's no issue.

For all you know this could all be the same person. Either way, not having the first clue who is working for you is something you might wanna start thinking about.

:thumbsup Why not just let ccbill handle it.

Most of my friends have started their adult webmaster adventures at my home, on my computer, all with the same IP.

be careful when assuming same identity from ip address :2 cents: