Amazon doesn't want to pay

OfirBeigel

OfirBeigel

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Apr 4, 2009
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www.nhm.co.il
I've been promoting Amazon for 3 months now, making $21,000 in earnings (not profit) during that time.
About a week ago I got an email from Amazon stating the I am bidding on their trademarks (Amazon, Kindle, Endelss etc.) and that I will not get paid.
This of course is not true and I even sent them my whole keyword list so they will be able to see for themselves.
I've been debating this with them for a week until they finally wrote the following:


"As outlined in the Operating Agreement, if we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have engaged in the purchase or registration of any keywords, search terms or other identifiers which include our Proprietary Terms, we may (without limiting any other rights or remedies available to us) withhold any referral fees otherwise payable to you under the Agreement and/or terminate the Agreement.

While I understand that you do not agree with this decision, it is final based on multiple reviews of your account history. Any further messages regarding this issue will not receive a response."

It's amazing how they can treat their affiliate like dirt. Throughout this whole period they wouldn't even talk to me on the phone, only emails.

I'm not writing this just to get this off my chest, I'm writing this to find out if there is someone else that this has happened to him or has heard of something like this with Amazon, since I'm sure I'm not the first person they have done this to.

Thanks a lot for your help.
 


Its a known fact that Amazon are scum of the earth when it comes to paying affiliates. Believe it or not they don't actually like thier affiliates to earn too many commissions. As soon as you get beyond the $5k a month mark they start asking questons, not delivering checks and basically doing everything in their power to make sure you don't get paid. I get paid from about 5 different networks and their checks ALWAYS get to me. Only amazon manage to make a fuck up of this everytime.

If you genuinely have not been bidding on their keywords then I would seriously get legal advice and have your lawyer send them some threatening letters.
 
Civil court case times. Be ready to pay court and lawyer costs if you lose.

In the future, add amazon's ip addresses to your htaccess, and cloak it until you cake it.

BTW: They send me email's every 3 days. NO RESPONSE is the best response
 
I have a guy named "Richard" that is supposedly dealing with this but that's all. No direct email or phone number. Any idea where I can find a good lawyer for this. I live in Israel so this is even worst, I'll have to manage this long distance.
Thanks for all of the replies.
 
OfirBeigel said:
I have a guy named "Richard" that is supposedly dealing with this but that's all. No direct email or phone number. Any idea where I can find a good lawyer for this. I live in Israel so this is even worst, I'll have to manage this long distance.
Thanks for all of the replies.
Click to expand...


Yep, Richard is the tool that keeps emailing me too.:action-smiley-052:
 
dollar said:
Civil court case times. Be ready to pay court and lawyer costs if you lose.

In the future, add amazon's ip addresses to your htaccess, and cloak it until you cake it.

BTW: They send me email's every 3 days. NO RESPONSE is the best response
Click to expand...

Not a chance in hell he will lose if they don't have proof. I doubt it would even get that far. They will probably realise that this is one affiliate that called them out and decide to pay up.
 
According to this blog post, Amazon doesn't even pay affiliates that use PPC anymore. Not entirely sure how accurate that post is, but if that's the case then it wouldn't matter what keywords you were bidding on...the fact that you were using PPC would be enough for them to decide not to pay you. Is that true?
 
theprodigy101 said:
According to this blog post, Amazon doesn't even pay affiliates that use PPC anymore. Not entirely sure how accurate that post is, but if that's the case then it wouldn't matter what keywords you were bidding on...the fact that you were using PPC would be enough for them to decide not to pay you. Is that true?
Click to expand...

They are fine with PPC as long as you dont direct link. You have to use a landing page.
 
exactly. And I didn't direct link, I put up a complete website and spent 3 months testing and tweaking it. The really sad thing is that I didn't only lose all of the money but also a complete source of income.
Well...I hope they'll realize their mistake soon.
 
OfirBeigel said:
exactly. And I didn't direct link, I put up a complete website and spent 3 months testing and tweaking it. The really sad thing is that I didn't only lose all of the money but also a complete source of income.
Well...I hope they'll realize their mistake soon.
Click to expand...

Tell me you're not going to just let this lie.
 
I've started my search for a good lawyer. Hope I'll get some more information later on today.
What's the deal with the IP addresses on the htaccess. I don't really understand that, can anyone explain ?
 
OfirBeigel said:
I've started my search for a good lawyer. Hope I'll get some more information later on today.
What's the deal with the IP addresses on the htaccess. I don't really understand that, can anyone explain ?
Click to expand...

Well if you've been doing things legit then you shouldn't need to worry about this however if you are cloaking amazon then you just redirect anything that looks like an amazon reviewer.

Its really easy to tell when Amazon come to your sites because they announce themselves very loudly.

Referrer No referring link
Host Name 207-171-180-101.amazon.com
IP Address 207.171.180.101 [Label IP Address]
Country United States
Region Washington
City Seattle
ISP Amazon.com

All you need is a script which does an RDNS lookup on visiting ip and if the ISP is Amazon.com you send them to a safe page which complies with all their TOS. You could then redirect all non amazon staff through your 202 tracking link or whatever you use to track your PPC keyworks and into their site, hence improving conversions and not having to comply with amazons sucky TOS.

Futher to this you can redirect the whole IP range 207.171.160.0 - 207.171.191.255 to safe WH pages just to make sure you are taking extra care.

For the record I don't actually cloak Amazon because I have no need to, my shit is 100% compliant and I don't use PPC, but the info is there if you need it.
 
Good to see there are some other Amazon associates here. I have been paid on time every month for the past two years from them with the highest monthly checks being above $5k. I am also in australia.

If you are sending traffic legit, then there should be no reason for them to withhold commissions. I remember when the kindle first came out, I banked about $8k from them but at the time i was also trade bidding on and holding a trademarked domains which contained the word kindle. They contacted me, asked me to transfer the domains or they will withhold earnings, so i guess times have changed.

I still have some kindle domains about but none that I promote.

Nothing stops you from having a kindle domain name and promoting ebay kindle listings however.. ;-)

Anyway, moral of story dont fuck with their terms of service cos they will cut you off quick smart.

I suggest, if you have proof, like traffic logs, ppc accounts, amazon tracking id's I would compile a video of all this and try and send to this richard "Dick" fella you have been dealing with, let them know you will be proceeding with a civil action if they do indeed with hold funds as you are confident of your actions not breaking their terms.

Good luck mate, you will need it.
 
Hey Ajay.
Thanks for posting, I already did everything you said.
I sent them my entire KW list and also told them that I can grant them access to my account as well so they'll see for themselves.
I'm a 150% legit. I made sure to read the TOS very carefully before starting to promote them.
What makes me so angry is there unwilling to settle this or even hear me out. All they say is "We have the right to decide that you've violated our terms and that's that..."

I hope my letter from a lawyer will put some sense into them. It's sad to see this attitude coming from a company the practically invented affiliate marketing on the internet.
 
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