I did a recent story over at my news site about an affiliate breaking the terms of the affiliate agreement then proceeding to bash the customer at RipoffReport.com.
A couple of things that the affiliate did wrong -
- She did not read the affiliate agreement.
- Had errors on her website.
- Refuse to accept responsibility for her mistakes!!
Let’s face it folks if you do not read your affiliate agreement and something you do comes around to bite you, blaming the customer is not the right thing to do. If you screw up in an offer or design don’t behave like the affiliate did in the article suck it up and do the right thing.
The affiliate basically was offering a rebate if a consumer made a purchase through Green Mountain Coffee Rosters through their site. However in her original design it did not say that the order had to be completed online. After the customer went to the merchant site she called in to place her order. Of course the affiliate did not get credit for the sale, but the customer thought she was entitled to the rebate, because the affiliate did not word the offer correctly.
Once the affiliate informed the consumer that they were not going to get the rebate they changed their site to be more clear in the terms of the rebate offer. Of course the consumer felt slighted by this and filed a report at RipOffReport.com. Instead of the affiliate sucking it up and paying the consumer the $10 rebate they proceeded to denigrate the consumer through troll responses at ROR and in email.
Not only was the rebate a violation of the affiliate agreement the behavior of the affiliate was atrocious. Donna-Lee Moore-Stout the affiliate in question should of known better as she has several affiliate websites and owns a few traffic exchanges.
Yes I posed her name here as she took shots at the customer at RipOffReport.com to give up the customers first and last name while Donna was using an alias.
I am greatful for what affiliate marketing has done for my family and myself. It allows me to spend time with my children while they are still young at the same only answering to myself and I would not want to do anything to jeopardize my affiliate/merchant relationships by behaving improperly or not making sure that my promotion efforts were in line with the affiliate agreement.
As of this posting Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has not terminated the affiliate agreement with Donna-Lee Moore-Stout and her associated company but merely placed her on probation.
She is fortunate I am not her affiliate manager.
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