CJ.COM sux any advice.

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AdExhibitJason

AdExhibitJason

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Apr 12, 2008
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I am not one for long stories or posts. However I am in a situation. Wondering what others think about it.

I am a smaller publisher network. I actually purchased Ad Exhibit at the beginning of February. I have been in various small things over the last 5 years. Anyways...

I have been with commission junction forever. The problem with them is they let the advertisers remove leads without any proof. On top of it when you try to get down to wtf is going on cj.com has the most retarded canned responses.

I had an offer from there that was doing fairly well. I am on the Direct Track system so I decided to cross publish it. The other site let some shady assholes get a hold of the offer. Which I did not know at the time, it was generating well over 200 leads a day on the offer. Soon after they got it, the offer decided to terminate me and place all commissions I had gotten from the previous month into extended.

Ok, well soon after it was extended all commissions I generated from the offer where reversed. I had no idea why and started trying to figure it out. During this time the shady people came to my site and started running offers. Which at the time I did not know.

FLASH FORWARD 2 MONTHS ABOUT, That is how long it took me to figure out wtf was going on and actually get a hold of the advertiser/offer. Here is the basics of what they told me.

Them
"From March 1st-5th you had 2 urls generating fraudulent traffic so we reversed all your leads."
Me
"I understand your feelings you should have contacted me. Can I have the information as to where the bad lads where coming from"
Them
"Sure (not going to post who), All the other leads where fine but because you had these bad leads we reversed all your leads"
Me
"So is there a way I can get the ones you reversed that where actually good back. I mean if you would have contacted me I would have known.
Them
"We just assume you are a frauder and did not feel the need to contact you. We will not reverse any of the leads back to pay you"

Ok, well once I found out who it was I placed their account inactive. Tried to get to the bottom of it. During the time they where on my site they generated more bad leads for 2 other offers that I got dropped from. Since I didn't know it was them. In the course of this I am out over 100K total for these offers. My questions are these.

1. Anyone know a good lawyer to get my money back for at least the good leads that where generated

2. Should I also go after the site that generated the bad leads

3. Why does cj.com suck so damn bad.

Funny story about a conversation with a rep at cj.com

I got a lawyer and talked to them on Wednesday to get things moving figured I would contact cj.com and maybe gather some more information for them, Here is how the conversation went.
Me
"Hello I have some questions about reversed commissions for an offer. I contacted you over a month ago and have heard nothing back I would like to know what is going on"
Them
"I have no record of this, What I can do is email the rep here for the offer and also forward it to the company who runs the offer"
Me
"That is what the last person said they would do and I have not heard nothing back. Can I have the information on who to contact so I can do it directly?"
Them
"We do not give that information out. I will send them an email and if they feel like following up with you then you will get a response"
Me
"And if they don't then what?"
Them
"They are under no obligation to repsond to you. If they chose not to then they chose not to"
Me
"So let me get this straight. You will not tell me how to fix this in anyway. You will not give me the information to contact anyone about this but do it for me. They can contact me if they want. If they do not there is nothing I can do about it? Am I understanding this correct?"
Them
"yes that is the way we do it"
Me
"Does that make any sense to you at all?"
Them
"that is how it is done"
Me
"Well let me ask you this if I wanted to sue over this would I sue you or them?"
Them
"I cannot give out legal advice I can forward your concern to our legal department or you can open a ticket and ask them about it."
Me
"I bet if I ask for a direct number you will tell me there isn't one or that we are not allowed to contact them that way?"
Them
"Yes sir"
Me
"Ok thanks"
This isn't exact words but basically what was said. I was about to start yelling and calling him a fucking moron but did restrain myself to be professional.

LOL
 


pretty ridiculous. They are well known for their bad customer service. Sorry to hear this is happening to you.
 
If you report to CJ that all your leads were reversed, and not just the fraudulent leads, CJ will get on the advertiser's case, as that move is against CJ's TOS, and CJ no longer gets their percentage fees from those leads.
 
johu said:
If you report to CJ that all your leads were reversed, and not just the fraudulent leads, CJ will get on the advertiser's case, as that move is against CJ's TOS, and CJ no longer gets their percentage fees from those leads.
Click to expand...
I have tried doing that. With no luck.
 
I just finished up an email with them about a comission issue. Something that was paying x dollars is now paying x+20 more. I noticed my conversions were still being paid the x dollars. When I asked them why they said it was because I had not accepted the new terms. The idea of having to accept terms to get paid more is ridiculous to me. Does anyone ever say...hmm no I would like to stay with my lower payout, thank you.
 
I feel your pain. The people I've contacted at CJ are some of the dumbest fucking retards I've dealt with.
 
I have heard so much bad shit about CJ and now that eBay left them (and that has got to husr them) i am really glad that i can dump them, there are better networks out there besides CJ.com
 
whodoesdo said:
I just finished up an email with them about a comission issue. Something that was paying x dollars is now paying x+20 more. I noticed my conversions were still being paid the x dollars. When I asked them why they said it was because I had not accepted the new terms. The idea of having to accept terms to get paid more is ridiculous to me. Does anyone ever say...hmm no I would like to stay with my lower payout, thank you.
Click to expand...
There's a 7 day lag between getting an offer and it being automatically accepted. As a merchant and an affiliate, I think that requiring manual acceptance for higher paying offers is stupid, but it's necessary for when a merchant cuts payout, changes cookie duration, or adds or removes offers from the commission structure. I wouldn't count on their tech team changing that any time soon...

If you contact the affiliate manager of the program, they may be willing to bonus you for the $20 extra per sale between when the new offer went out and when you accepted it. I've done that a few times in my program at CJ.
 
Dutch Harry said:
I have heard so much bad shit about CJ and now that eBay left them (and that has got to husr them) i am really glad that i can dump them, there are better networks out there besides CJ.com
Click to expand...
What other "bad shit" have you heard about CJ? In my book, they're the best traditional affiliate network.
 
I've been having to deal with a lot of shit with commission junction and one of their advertisers. Not with leads being reversed, but with what I thought could be a serious tracking/reporting issue.
Heres how the wheel goes round:

CJ: Your Impressions / Clicks tracked properly so IF THERE WAS a tracking issue, it would be on the advertiser's side.
Advertiser: No, Commission Junction handles everything
CJ: No, the advertiser is supposed to track via pixels and report "actions" back to CJ.

Im in a position to where I was generating about 100-150 leads/ month on about 8000 clicks. Through the month of April I didn't run volume like I normally do as I have been re-formatting the way I grab links, database pages, etc. Near the end of April, I was able to scale the bajesus out of this offer. Generating nearly 7500 clicks in just one week 04/21-04/27. Guess what? 30 leads!

I don't know what the hell to do because CJ says "everything is fine with us, check the advertiser." Then the advertiser says "Its possible, but not likely at all." This pretty much leaves me with the "I'm fucked" attitude.

Like Jason, it leaves me to question who the fuck is supposed to be RESPONSIBLE

I've offered to email my entire traffic log to the advertiser, but they say it won't help. Why can't they cross reference the IP information with a user's actions on their website? I think what I was offering to do is way beyond what most other affiliates would offer to the advertiser but they said "We don't need that information"... what the fuck ever.

Who would I sue if I feel I am being taken advantage of, and leads are being skimmed off? Why can't I just take these fuckers to court and say "Here your honor, these are records of every single person who clicked through to their site. Now why can't they go through their records and say "these 30 signed up, and here is proof, but these other 7470 did not do a thing"" Ya'll see what I'm getting at? Where is the fucking recourse for us?
 
-Bill- said:
Who would I sue if I feel I am being taken advantage of, and leads are being skimmed off?
Click to expand...
Welcome to the fucking shady industry of paying CPA for leads... Same question applies to EVERY network.
 
I hate CJ too. I also hate Linkshare. The Performics site gives me a headache and what should be a great feature, the ability to make banners from any graphic on the advertisiers site has never worked properly for me.

Where do I go for my retail affiliate links? seriously, I have a shopping mall on my site and it's full of CJ and Linkshare links. The checks that I make with them are laughable. Compared to the other affiliate marketing sites that I use CJ and Linkshare BITE. I completely agree with you that the phone reps who take our calls at CJ are idiots. It would be nice if they had a clue about what I do. I believe that they have a notebook in front of them full of likely questions that they'll be asked and generic answers. Try to get one to think outside of the box and they get flustered and put me on hold a dozen times.

Oh an another thing...

What's up with these horrible companies that only offer commissions such as 4% and offer links to offers that earn us NO commission. Lets take Walmart for instance, yet another reason to hate those bastards. Walmart, one of the biggest companies on the planet offers a measly 4% and tries to trick us into putting links on our site that they will never pay for activity. It was either videos or books that they do that with. I figured that out and I quit using their links at all. (4%, I may as well pay THEM to put links on my site.)

Screw them. I hate them.

Linkshare, what's up with those whopping $3 checks? Some of those companies suck hard too. Avon for instance, they try to take online traffic OFF the site by steering people to local Avon reps. I seriously hate them.

I could go on and on about dozens of companies associated with those guys.

What's a girl to do?
 
Oh and another thing....

What's up with the affiliates on CJ who you apply to, companies that would fit PERFECTLY with your site's demographics and they NEVER respond to the application or they turn down your application for no apparent reason without giving you any explanation? Are they in business to make money or what?

I've got traffic and I've got a nice site...WTF!

(There...that feels better.)
 
At least I am not the only one. FSHD contact me on AIm I would like to see what sites you are running.

I talked to my lawyer and the advertiser is saying they have a clause that basically stated they can do what they want, when they want, how they want:O My lawyer is waiting for the disclaimer saying that. Thanks to everyone helping and giving advice. I appreciate it.

I did not want to bring this to the forefront because it makes companies look bad and that is something I do not like to do. I feel I should be able to handle things myself and get things going myself. I really appreciate everything from everyone.
 
I feel your pain, just bang your head against the wall you'll feel better than wasting your time trying to get any sense out of them.

I got dropped after years with them, because a warning email they sent went in my spam box. They had issues because 2 sites I had in my list of sites, had links to content they did not approve of. I missed the deadline to take action and they banned me with 2k in the account. the thing that really pissed me off was never had I put ads on these 2 sites!

Pleading got me nowhere I did get the money about 2 months later .... Total bunch of twats
 
TWATS... hilarious

OF course an email from CJ goes to your spam inbox, I thought that was common sense :)

I have had multiple issues with CJ and decided to drop them before anything got worse. There are so many other sites like CJ out there to choose from.

I wish you good luck and I hope you get your money back.

Let me know, we might have to all go and kick CJ's ass.

Nick
 
nickclarson said:
TWATS... hilarious

OF course an email from CJ goes to your spam inbox, I thought that was common sense :)

I have had multiple issues with CJ and decided to drop them before anything got worse. There are so many other sites like CJ out there to choose from.

I wish you good luck and I hope you get your money back.

Let me know, we might have to all go and kick CJ's ass.

Nick
Click to expand...
I am thinking a more in your face approach like a booth at adtech telling people how bad other places are.
With shirts that say CJ SUX MY BALLZ and I Heart Dickbooth
 
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