I think Azoogle is about to screw me.. Please advise

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Threejuice

New member
Jun 26, 2006
79
1
0
Hollywood, CA
I got to Azoogle from a recomendation from Jon he told me how great working with Jai was, And he was right Jai was the man and totally got me going with them. I knew phil from b4 so when Jai was passed he took over my account.

Anyway I started slow gave a few thousand and business and still havent seen my check from that, they said it was W9 issue. I said fine its a few thousand. so I started gearing up and gave 5 time the amount in Dec. waiting to get that check too.

Jan shows I said yeah they seem pretty ok I will give it a full push I give like 30k in business the first week. I was doind search on the offer so Phil is pushing me to kick it up totally cool with that so I looked at around at someother options like trademark terms anyway he never said anything to me about the terms I never saw the offer t/c he just sent me the link and didnt say a word about anything.

I start pushing harder to get more sales I probably increase over 4 or 5 days like 10% totaling like 290 leads total as a result of Trademeark terms. I get an email today that the advertiser doesnt want to pay them for any of the leads I sent like 2500+ I spent a fortune on this campaign. They havent paid me a dime yet I have been working with them for almost 3 months. Based on Azoogles reputation I never thought they could even do something like this, everyone says how great they are.

I was wondering if anyone has any advice they are into me for over 50k I have never seen a check I trusted Phil and Azoogle repuation that they are good for the money and this is what I am getting. I mean if they dont want to pay for the 290 leads I got from the Trademarks well I guess I ca understand that but pay on everything else, even though they didnt make me aware of the no trademark bidding policy. They could say I may be a bit at fault for not double checking which is why I say take the 290 leads.

In the meantime I have never seen a check from them it seems like they are trying to screw me and I dont know what to do, I invested so much in making money with them I am totally counting on the check, tried to be a good affiliate But now what. Come on evryone here seems so happy with them can any of you help me out with advice?

what is the proper course of action? what are we as the affiliates going to do togather? I am mean if they can screw one of us, they can screw all of us! I really think we need to utilize this bored and let each and evry network thay we can do something and no one can just decide not to pay any of us. They need our business, but we cant let anyone push us around. Please follow up on this thread and l would love some ideas with my problem but would also like to see if we can work togather and let the networks know.. if you mess with one, you mess with all" and at that point we start creating a system where these networks cany screw us as easily.

I super nervous and feel like and getting screwed PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES AND HELP ME OUT, THEN LETS HELP EACH OTHER OUT.


Threejuice
 


You really should be calling them right now. Lay everything out in detail and explain to them how many leads were against the terms (which you didn't know about).

Other networks have been known to withhold everything, but I really doubt Azoogle will screw you like that. Anyway, yeah, call them and settle it all out. Don't go through email.
 
Paper trail

They are closed but I will in the morning! But if I dont have a paper trail (via email) why wouldnt they screw me again? I would hope based on reputation they wouldnt screw me.
 
I am not sure why you did not get paid. Did you send in the proper documentation for the W9? If not, that is why you have not been paid.

As for the trademark stuff, it really sucks but different vendors have different terms and rules. Some offers I don't touch because the terms and/or rules are too restrictive and make it too likely I could slip up. While I do think your AM should have advised you of the conditions when he sent you the offer, or the very least told you to check the actual offer page, you should have also checked the offer page to get the full details of what you are doing. It is the first thing I do before I start working on any offer.

I really don't know how this will play out for you, but since you are a brand new affiliate, I doubt it is going to work out in your favor.

I think your best course of action is to plead ignorance and admit to the mistake you made by not checking the terms of the offer. You will probably need to eat the leads as it was ultimately your responsibility, then see if you can move on from there.

I am not sure why you let 3 months going by without getting payment and kept dumping more money into it. Seriously that makes no sense and is not a real wise business decision. Neither is not understanding what you are doing before you do it.

I hope they can work something out with you, but I suspect it is going to be a very expensive lesson for you and one you need to take to heart.
 
The thing to remember is that AM's have goals to reach. Cutting you out would only make them harder. When you hear about networks not cutting the checks, it's because the advertiser won't pay them. Thus, they would have to front the money and aren't always willing to do that. It really depends on the situation and the network.

Some networks aren't smart enough to realize fronting you the money will help ensure a longer business relationship that will pay for itself over time, which is unfortunate.

Approach Azoogle as if you were entering a negotiation, let them understand what you can bring to the table, and why not paying you would be a bad idea. Tell them that what they owe you is your budget for the next few months, and without it you can't continue doing business (and promoting their offers). Just keep it casual, human, friendly. Most of the time you can work it out. Explain to them that only X amount of leads were bid on trademarked terms, maybe the can renegotiate with the advertiser.

In the end, if the advertiser won't cough up the cash, and Azoogle tells you they can't pay up... then you've got some renegotiating to do.

Let us know what happens after you call...
 
They aren't screwing you, you did that to yourself by not reading the terms of the offer. Sorry to say, but it sounds like you are going to learn a tough lesson about affiliate marketing. This has nothing to do with Azoogle, not paying you. Their advertiser had conditions that you broke, therefore they don't have to pay for your leads. When you are laying out thousands on advertising you really need to cover your bases.
 
SonicReducer said:
They aren't screwing you, you did that to yourself by not reading the terms of the offer. Sorry to say, but it sounds like you are going to learn a tough lesson about affiliate marketing. This has nothing to do with Azoogle, not paying you. Their advertiser had conditions that you broke, therefore they don't have to pay for your leads. When you are laying out thousands on advertising you really need to cover your bases.
Click to expand...

I can see where you are coming from with the statement but to not pay for all of the leads? That makes sense to you. I did admit that I was faulty in not double checking. But appreciate the input I would figure that as a new affiliate with a network wouldnt the AM tell me something? I accpet my rsponsibility but to not pay for the hwole thing is a bit much.
 
The problem is it is simply easier for them to assume all your leads violated their rules then to try and figure out which ones did and which ones didn't. It may not even be possible for them to determine independent of you telling them.

I do think they AM should have told you and my experience is the Azoogle AMs and pretty much all AMs with all networks do a very poor job with this. They don't reinforce people to check the rules and guidelines, especially when they send you a hot lead or tip.

So a note to all AM's and Networks out there.. you need to do a better job in getting your AM's to remind affiliates to check the conditions for a given offer when they go to implement it. Right now I don't know of anyone who does a good job of that.

That being said, that is unlikely to get you any of that money.

I hope you did not spend too much getting those leads. I am still curious about whether or not you sent in a W9.
 
SonicReducer said:
They aren't screwing you, you did that to yourself by not reading the terms of the offer. Sorry to say, but it sounds like you are going to learn a tough lesson about affiliate marketing. This has nothing to do with Azoogle, not paying you. Their advertiser had conditions that you broke, therefore they don't have to pay for your leads. When you are laying out thousands on advertising you really need to cover your bases.
Click to expand...

The fact taht the link was given in an email without the affiliate having to view the terms and conditions would make this a very interesting legal case.

Anyway, please post back how this turns out and good luck with it all.
 
aeiouy said:
The problem is it is simply easier for them to assume all your leads violated their rules then to try and figure out which ones did and which ones didn't. It may not even be possible for them to determine independent of you telling them.

I do think they AM should have told you and my experience is the Azoogle AMs and pretty much all AMs with all networks do a very poor job with this. They don't reinforce people to check the rules and guidelines, especially when they send you a hot lead or tip.

So a note to all AM's and Networks out there.. you need to do a better job in getting your AM's to remind affiliates to check the conditions for a given offer when they go to implement it. Right now I don't know of anyone who does a good job of that.

That being said, that is unlikely to get you any of that money.

I hope you did not spend too much getting those leads. I am still curious about whether or not you sent in a W9.
Click to expand...
I really hope your wrong!! but I do hear it. I sent in the W 9 though
 
contact the advertiser and tell them that if they don't want to pay for the leads you provided is fine but the advertiser must not sell to those people etc because they are business gotten by bad marketing, would be funny to see what they tell you!
 
sure, I mean if the leads make them money no matter what the terms say you are owed something! just cause there is a TOS does not mean legally it can not be challenged and for 50k bet your ass I would!
 
This is what bugs me about some of these smaller affiliate networks like azoogle or copeac - a lot of times they don't even post any terms on an offer, then you start doing something and all of a sudden they're telling you "sorry, our merchant just told us you can't do that". At least with CJ they're pretty clear about what you can and can't do.
 
trust me, CJ is bad apple

look around, people get ripped off all the time on CJ. I think Jon lost 20k in leads in one month for no apparent reason.
at least azoogle has better reputation in paying
 
I need to defend Copeac for a sec cause they pay me if they get paid or not both Mike & Dani are people of honor and keep there word.

But I agree here is something super important WE ARE THE AFFILIATES WE DRIVE THE TRAFFIC AND CASH so if these networks are screwing us, lets all get together and start BOYCOTTING them untill they work with us. The networks pretty much have all simliar offers. Together we can help each other get the same deals elsewhere. Untill these guys start listening. I think that id Azoogle screws one they should know we will ban them or there will be some sort of action taken. Cause I am willing to spend time and money on making something like this happen. The networks CAN NOT do this. even if I am noy completely in the right 290 leads ok let them take it pay less. but to screw a guy for everything. WE AS A GROUP CANT LET THAT HAppen or this thread will just go from network to network.
 
waz67 said:
This is what bugs me about some of these smaller affiliate networks like azoogle or copeac - a lot of times they don't even post any terms on an offer, then you start doing something and all of a sudden they're telling you "sorry, our merchant just told us you can't do that". At least with CJ they're pretty clear about what you can and can't do.
Click to expand...

I wasn't going to post here, because I wanted to take a neutral stand, being that I know Threejuice really well, and when he was working with Jai, things were peachy, but to say Azoogle and Copeac are small, is just plain ignorant. To even say CJ is a "pretty clear" just shows you are most likely not doing volume on any offers with them.

First off, Azoogle is the largest affiliate network company. CJ, Linkshare, Shareasale, etc are in a seperate category, because they charge merchants to advertise with them. An affiliate network just gets paid on the volume of the leads/sales made, the other guys tack on their own %'s to every merchant's offer. Second, CJ has screwed me twice, and pretty hard both times because they allow the merchants to have a ton of power without checking things over. Without going into much detail, when I was doing mortgage leads last year, one of their "trusted merchants" decided that since THEY couldn't sell the leads I generated that it was all fraud, but they didn't tell me about it, instead they refunded them as fraud 30 days AFTER I generated the leads. It took me nearly 2 weeks to get in touch with someone at CJ in regards to it, and even then, there were no dedicated managers to deal with. So I was pretty much told that the $60k or so I was owed wouldn't be paid to me. But CJ is so great and lays everything out right? Yeah, sure. I followed every single rule, and I was using PPC traffic on Adwords. I had 7 other merchants who got the same quality leads and traffic and they all told me the leads were great. So overall, I hold CJ responsible for allowing their merchants to do shit like that.

From reading Threejuice's post, I know what he feels like. I had a similar thing happen to me with an affiliate network, and maybe I was at fault for not double checking the T/C, but the manager assured me that I was doing everything correctly, so when they do that, I kind of believe "well, they deal with these offers all the time so they must know it very well". Unfortunately for me, I wasn't paid, so I just walked away and decided to never use them again. In Threejuice's case, I think he should be paid in full, even for the trademarked keywords, because when your AM tells you, "do this, here's the link" and knows the type of traffic you're pushing, they are in a sense speaking on behalf of the advertiser and affiliate network, so the blame is on the AM for not being clear about everything.

Overall it's one of the screwed up situations. I know something similar happened to a member here with Copeac, and Mike ended up paying for it out of Copeac's pocket because they knew it wasn't worth losing a major affiliate over. I am good friends with the Azoogle team too, and I'm pretty sure they'll get this resolved quickly, and most likely side with the affiliate, because they are a reputable firm for that same reason. Losing a super affiliate over this would suck for any network, so I really do hope it gets taken care or that some type of mutual agreement is reached, and maybe this is a lesson for all the affiliate networks out there to educate their AM's with the fact that they should include a link in the email to the offer's T/C so it's on record just in case.

:2twocents:
 
waz67 said:
This is what bugs me about some of these smaller affiliate networks like azoogle or copeac - a lot of times they don't even post any terms on an offer, then you start doing something and all of a sudden they're telling you "sorry, our merchant just told us you can't do that". At least with CJ they're pretty clear about what you can and can't do.
Click to expand...

Andrew said:
oh really? Commission Junction To Start Reversing Paid Out Commissions On Yahoo
Click to expand...

ownedtj3.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom