Being Honest & Keeping Your Word is Important… duh.
It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant & stupid some people can be. Why have a support desk if you’re not going to answer or even read the tickets (I admit sometimes I’m a little slow on this – but I ALWAYS answer dammit!)? Why ask someone to promote your product as an affiliate if you’re not going to pay them the commissions they earn? Why bother even being in business if you’re shady, dishonest, misleading, or just a big jerkoff in general?
I’ll be leaving out the name of the guilty party behind this blog post because I don’t aim to drag his/her name through the mud – as much as I’d really like to I’ll refrain, for now at least. Here’s the story in a nutshell:
I meet a person at the hotel bar during an internet marketing seminar and I quickly realize they have little personality & are there for one reason: “pitch, pitch, pitch.” I eventually submit to then neverending barrage of self-promotion & salesmanship & take a few minutes to listen to their well rehearsed script. Surprisingly, the idea behind the product was really great. I checked out the website later that night in my hotel room, and I even signed up for an account. The product itself was ROCK SOLID. I did a little “googling” and couldn’t find a single person with anything bad to say about the marketer behind this product.
I finally decide to put out a promotion for this person. The promo did pretty well. I earned over $500 from sending one email to a sub-list of my subscribers. I go ahead and add a promo to this product in my auto-responder at this point – realizing I’ve found what looks to be a winner. After a few months of running the follow up message I earned several hundred more dollars in commissions for a grand total approaching $1,000.
The first affiliate payment took about 60 days longer than expected to arrive. I was a little concerned but I realize sometimes stuff comes up. Life happens fast, people get busy, everyone needs a vacation, and so on. At this point I kind of “red-flagged” this guy in my mind but I continued promoting his product even though he never replied to my email informing him I went ahead and did a promo. The follow-up message I setup in my auto-responder continued to bring in sales.
Fast forward a few more months, and I’m owed 3 months worth of commissions worth a couple hundred bucks, and they’re ranging in delinquency from 2 months – 4 months. I open a support ticket with a gentle nudge to see what’s going on… only to get no reply. I send another email, no reply. I open my office window and yell up the street, my neighbors reply telling me to shutup. I verified there is signs of life on this planet & people can hear me… I email again, no reply. So now I know it’s not me… it’s just HIM.
Bad customer support + doesn’t pay affiliates + ignores support desk & emails = jerkoff marketer
It’s a shame the product was pretty good. I’m glad he at least delivered a little value to the customers I sent him but quite disappointed that I’ll likely never get the money owed to me. I can only hope I see him being annoying at the hotel bar of a future seminar and I can warn his next possible affiliate victim of the risks associated with falling for his trap.
Then again, perhaps this is an isolated incident? Maybe I somehow fell between the cracks…
Well, I opened one last support ticket in the hopes this dude redeems himself but I think the outlook is grim. I’m just glad that my customers got what they paid for and every one who purchased the product really liked it… I’d rather get ripped off myself then ever let my customers fall victim to someone like this – and that’s exactly why I review every product I promote.
END OF RANT