Affiliate programs and no phone number? HELP!

[pearce6]

ok i am experiencing massive problems with ebay/clicktrade to the value of about $4000 (which is needed to keep the website afloat). I have tried contacting every e-mail address i can find on ebay and got not one single reply. Clicktrade say it is down to ebay to make a DEPOSIT.

I know what as happened, ebay have left clicktrade on gone to CJ but left me with over $4000 in unpaid leads. What now i am asking myself?

Can someone tell me where to go from there? How can i get EBAY phone number (im in the UK but need the American phone number for ebay.com as they are the ones who run the affiliate programs)

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP

[pearce6]

Just to update this is the e-mail i have been sending them now:

Dear Ebay.com,

For the 23rd time I have decided to contact you regarding your affiliate programs. I have
contacted you using the support buttons on your site, through the affiliate forum, through
other divisions of ebay eg ebay UK and also through an e-mail address supplied to me by
Clicktrade and CJ.com. Below is the problem

THE PROBLEM
- I was a member of your affiliate program at clicktrade.com for some time now and for the
majority of the time no problems occured. However now you have transfered the program over
to CJ.com and rather conviently didnt tell any of the affiliates at CLICKTRADE. So therefore
as you can imagine for 2 weeks our website continued to send you alot of leads. In a 2
week period with your affiliate program we usually make about $4000. When this wasnt showing
on the account we contacted clicktrade and they said that you was going to make a deposit
however now nealry 4 weeks later no deposit as been made and we have still not been credited
for our leads. To see we are disapointed is an understatement, if you didn't recieve the
commision from people selling on Ebay you would also be disapointed and probably out of
business. Just because you are a big organization and a profitable one doesnt mean you can
treat webmasters like this.
This e-mail is being written on behalf of alot of webmasters in that program and not just
myself. We have tried to do it the proper way and use the correct communication channels but
you are being ignorant to the problem. The action I would like to be taken is that you make
a deposit to Clicktrade.com at least enough to pay all the afifliates that have generated
leads and then if you wish close the program. Affiliates must generate alot of business
for yourself and with the introduction of some of your new policies at ebay (not allowed
to link to website from auctions) quite alot of affiliates are losing patience.

Because the problem as been going on for so long quite alot of negative press as been
written about how you treat affiliates on your own forum and highly influential webmaster
forums across the web (links shown at the bottom of this e-mail). Also http://www.ebmagz.com/
have picked up the story and are considering writing an article about it. We are not trying
to threaten you we just want support and action in this situation.

I include my Clicktrade acount number: 410409 and at the end of this e-mail is a full list of
the stats that have gone unpaid. Also contact me on e-mail darrenbeale100@ntlworld.com thankyou. Just as a passing note when contacting CLicktrade
they said:

"We already contacted them and they told us that they will make a deposit 2 weeks ago but still
nothing seems to be happening to their account, it is still marked as Insufficient Funds. They
are not authorizing leads because of this problem as well, their tracking system froze up and
will never be functioning properly unless they will make a deposit to their account."

DISCUSSIONS ABOT EBAY.COM TREATING AFFILIATES http://remarq.ebay.com/ebay/transcri...56be11b&idx=-1 http://remarq.ebay.com/ebay/transcri...8f2e5d4&idx=-1

Magazine http://www.ebmagz.com/ also contacted regarding story.
Alot more discussions on other webmaster forums as well.


FULL LIST OF MISSING AUTHORIZED LEADS
05/07/2001
Monday 91 37 $ 148.00
05/08/2001
Tuesday 96 3 $ 12.00
05/09/2001
Wednesday 108 0 $ 0.00
05/10/2001
Thursday 102 0 $ 0.00
05/11/2001
Friday 115 0 $ 0.00
05/12/2001
Saturday 147 0 $ 0.00
05/13/2001
Sunday 122 0 $ 0.00
05/14/2001
Monday 122 0 $ 0.00
05/15/2001
Tuesday 120 0 $ 0.00
05/16/2001
Wednesday 120 0 $ 0.00
05/17/2001
Thursday 115 0 $ 0.00
05/18/2001
Friday 109 0 $ 0.00
05/19/2001
Saturday 114 0 $ 0.00
05/20/2001
Sunday 113 0 $ 0.00
05/21/2001
Monday 66 0 $ 0.00
05/22/2001
Tuesday 65 0 $ 0.00
05/23/2001
Wednesday 121 0 $ 0.00
05/24/2001
Thursday 7 0 $ 0.00
05/25/2001
Friday 2 0 $ 0.00
05/26/2001
Saturday 2 0 $ 0.00
05/27/2001
Sunday 1 0 $ 0.00
05/28/2001
Monday 0 0 $ 0.00

[Czar]

I'm not sure exactly which number you'd call to reach the company's affiliate manager, but their most public phone number is as follows:

(408) 558 7400

This has been sourced from both Whois (which claims that the number connects with their Accounts Payable dept), and from Yahoo! Finance, where the number is presented as an investor relations contact. Most likely, then, this is their switchboard, so someone there should be able to point you in the right direction.


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Czar

• NET-ADS - Online Advertising News & Reviews
• All-4-Free Freebie Tree
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[emailer]

I was a member/merchant of ClickTrade until it dropped its click offers some months ago.

eBay may have a moral obligation to pay you, but under its agreement with ClickTrade it may have no legal obligation to pay you. ClickTrade, like many other offer aggregators, does not have the stringent deposit requirements. Or at least I was unaware of any when I was involved with CT.

eBay is reputable and should pay you if through ClickTrade it received what it was supposed to receive for payment for leads. I am curious what eBay has to say.

[zMan]

I called at that number too in the morning to get some info for you guys, got to a customer service representative but she didn't have any phone number for their affiliate program support, all she gave me was the e-mail address affiliates@ebay.com which I am sure you guys already know.

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zMan

[pearce6]

ZMAn i really appreciate that, I phoned and they said no one available becasue of the holiday, i got the feeling the representative had no idea what i was talking about. This really does **** with not many companies making a profit on the web you would think that at least the one that makes a good profit would. i cant believe im the only affiliatre here that used them up to now with clicktrade? I suppose everyone jumped boat to CJ.com - stupid me. any advice on how to continuw on this matter from the experienced webmasters here will be much appreciated

[zMan]

I am a bit surprised on how Click-Trade works. Aren't they supposed to ask the merchants to deposit $$$ into their accounts first, before their affiliate program can go Live. And don't they report the affiliates when/if the merchant runs out of funds from their accounts and the merchant don't deposit more $$$ (ex: suspend the merchant's program for the time-being). After all, $4,000.00 is a large sum of money and I am VERY surprised that Click-Trade didn't pay attention to what was going on when all that $$$ was adding up.

On the other hand, eBay is a reputable company, so they will hopefully pay you, but it will requrie some work on your part, and of course, hassle!

I replied to your other thread in the morning "Where can you report companies that dont pay their affiliates?" ... http://geekvillage.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/006119.html - I suspect you were talking about eBay, right?

What I suggest is that you should report eBay to Better Business Bureau, that will catch their attention all-right. Wait 1-2 weeks for their reply, and see how they're willing to co-operate, etc. Also write them a letter by SNAIL mail, send it by Registered mail & request proof of delivery, so you'll have proof of the letter you sent, if needed later on. Basically all you can do is wait, wait, & wait... But hopefully you'll get their attention after reporting 'em to BBB.org.

Make sure to save your ClickTrade affiliate reports for later proof (Print it, capture the screen using a Image-capturing program, Save the pages onto your computer, as well as the complete HTML of the pages). I am not aware of any other methods.

Well anyways, good luck. And try to get in touch with them tomorrow by phone, maybe you'll have better luck!

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zMan

[This message has been edited by zMan (edited 05-28-2001).]

[pearce6]

This is our it works with clicktrade - the company pays a deposit upfront then when that runs out the company pays another deposit - now ebay are always a little late paying this so when 5-7 days went by no tracked leads i wondered what was going on. I contacted Clicktrade who said ebay have paid a deposit and all leads will be tracked in 48 hours but then that didnt happen and clicktrade gave me different answers every time i asked. The strange thing was though in clicktrade there is a section which tells you when a company as insufficient funds and when that shows i take the sponsor off straight away however in this case this doesnt show up and in fact still doesnt, again thanks zman for your help i will do as you say http://geekvillage.com/ubb/smile.gif

[pearce6]

Contacted them by phone but no one in the office to talk to today, apparently. will keep u posted

[pearce6]

Still no help anywhere - i think ive kissed goodbye.

[Czar]

Ouch! I hope not.

A missing $4000 makes for quite a hole in your pocket.

So you didn't get anywhere by reaching the company via phone?


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Czar

• NET-ADS - Online Advertising News & Reviews
• All-4-Free Freebie Tree
• HEADLINES.com.au - News for Aussies!

[pearce6]

CZAR put on hold for 10 misn then a operative came on (machine) and said contact ebay at "support@ebay.com"

What would u do?

[zMan]

Haunt them down! http://geekvillage.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Call 408-558-7400, press 3 to reach the operator & ask her/him to connect you to their Affiliate Support, say it's urgent and you DO need to speak to a real, live person.

The message you get while holding is something like this... "Thank you for holding. Currently eBay provides customer service via email. Please send ur inquries to support@ebay.com. You will receive a response based on the order your e-mail is received. Should you inqurie that you need to leave a message, please press 1 now or remain on the line for the next available eBay agent".

The recorded message says "Remain on the line" at the very end, which probably causes some confusion 'cause it says please e-mail us at support@ebay.com first. Though I have noticed that eBay's phone support is nowhere near being good, and it's very hard to reach a _real_ person!

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zMan

[pearce6]

Can we list all the sites that REVIEW affiliate programs if they wont listen i will report them to these sites, i would just like to say its not just myself who as this problem

[pearce6]

GRRRRR!! women had no idea what i was talking about put me through to an answering machine left message ;*(