How do I get a cheating sponsor investigated?
 

Shitty thing to do I know, but it's also shitty cheating affiliates out of commission on a monthly basis. This is chicken feed, but the principle really pisses me off. Will try and abbreviate this as much as possible.

Company XXXYShite make niche products for the adult industry.

The only stats they give affiliates are the hits sent. I've been asking for tracking stats and sales figures for over 6 months since joining. Even offered to write it for them seeing they obviously have no clue.

The product is excellent - the program is total shite. Each month a hand written cheque arrives (a surprise each month as no idea what sales we've made), and hand written sheet describing the sales and who to.

A few months ago I decided to revamp our sites and we are now sitting at #1 in MSN - the result - a cheque arrived middle of last month for nearly 2K - not bad surprise I thought.

No cheque this month (17th now) so I wrote an email yesterday asking what sales we'd made and where the cheque was.

Response: "we posted your cheque for $215 yesterday".

WTF? The 3 sites we wrote for them are exactly in the same places in the search engines, and our own backend hits are even better than last month.

They are fucking affiliates over, I am 100% certain.

How can I get their asses investigated and by whom? They are in the US - tax dept? Trade and Industry regulators?

If I had the change lying around I'd love to buy their fricken company out and set the affiliate scheme up properly - assholes. :321GFY

hmm.. i wonder if he is talking about.....

does it have a sales section in the backend stats?

i am asking cause if this is the program i am thinking of, they are supposed to show sales.... maybe thats why i had zero adn stop sending traffic...

No sales section backend at all - the only thing we get are hits sent.

why would you send them traffic to begin with.

Why do you send anyone traffic to begin with? Stupid question.

They have a niche product, hardly any competition, no alternatives to promote, so they looked promising.

Wondering if the US is the same as the UK where companies have to make public their financial records? I'd like to see their balance sheet, P / L accounts etc.

sig spot

Not unless they are a public company.

And the person to report them to is the Attorney General of the State they "do business" in. In simple terms, this is where their office is.

If you tell me who it is in ICQ, I'll get you the telephone number to the proper authority.

This was turning out to be a good night and someone has to bring up cheating affiliates.

Thanks studiocritic :thumbsup - I didn't know how it works in the US - I'm down in Australia where it's totally different.

We are not talking about cheating Affiliates Tdog, talking about one cheating affiliate program owner.

You have to sue them first then wait for the discovery.

Name them and let the sharks pick them apart

This isn't necessarily a civil matter. The process I described was for criminal proceedings.

I just want to send someone in "authority" evidence of 247,623 keyword targetted hits, and show them the supposed 20 odd sales :1orglaugh I've made in the entire time I've promoted them :321GFY

2000 to 200 is a bit harsh, but it is a very shitty month
sponsorA - last month 1-15 700 bucks, this month 0 - same traffic, same traffic source

sponsorB - last month 1-15 400 bucks, this month 0 - slightly less traffic, same traffic source

and so on...

Name them, then you will get some answers

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

I don't buy the shitty month argument. Have not had any drop in sales across about 30 other programs.

Name and shame - if I had already decided to completely fuck them off I would have no hestitation.

Am not going to just yet because a) it would open up that whole niche to all you hungry dogs and competition would render the phrase next to useless, and b) I want to see what the one affiliate manager, lets call her for arguments sake "useless fucking bitch", has to say for herself.

"Why do you send them traffic in the first place" - blah blah - read my previous post dumbass.

Send the traffic someplace else. Tell them you'll send it back to them when they implement real stat/sales tracking.

I can feel an entry on www.fuckemoff.com coming on.

Who are these cheating bastards Phil_in_OZ - I want to know about them.

Write directly to Alberto Gonzales. Tell him that you found an online pornographer who is dishonest, and that he is cheating other online pornographers.