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Affiliates beware! Did you know that merchants can leave negative feedback about you in ShareASale and every other merchant can see it? Here’s a story of how I was wrongly accused of trademark bidding violations this week and am unable to get the negative feedback removed despite there being no evidence that I did anything wrong.
Tuesday morning I received an email from Pets Warehouse that said:
“You are in someway linked to cashbackholic.com, you or them are using our trademark in vilation of our terms, you must take down that trademark not bid on that Mark ASAP or we will delete you from our program”
I responded immediately:
“We are in no way related to Cashbackholic. They simply link to our site without any permission from us. They link to all different kinds of sites without being related to them. They are just an informational site that tells people where they can shop online. We do not control them or their bidding or links in any way.”
I thought that would be the end of it or at least open up a dialog where the merchant and I could get to the bottom of things, especially since I don’t even do any PPC. Instead, I immediately received a notice that I had been removed from the program. Fine…I hadn’t promoted them in years since they had a strong OPM team working with them. So I just removed them from Sunshine Rewards and figured that was the end of it.
Then I received a message from another one of my merchants showing me that this had popped up when he logged into ShareASale:
The negative feedback read “TM bidding thru alias.” The merchant (who is a friend of mine) jokingly asked what I had gotten myself into. Within minutes I received an email from an OPM advising me that the negative feedback had also popped up when he logged into ShareASale. It was clear to me that potentially hundreds of my merchants were now being advised that I was illegally trademark bidding.
This was taking things too far. I emailed Pets Warehouse advising them that I wanted the negative feedback removed because it was not true and was defamatory of me and my company. The negative feedback could damage my reputation with current and prospective merchants. In addition, as an attorney and Executive Director of the Performance Marketing Association, I take things like this VERY seriously and do not in any way want to be associated with it.
What followed was a series of emails that showed that Pets Warehouse does not have an understanding of how affiliate marketing works and has no problem besmirching the reputation of its affiliate partners. I involved ShareASale in the situation and they supposedly told the merchant that I was not involved in any trademark violations. I’m not gonna lie….I got pretty nasty in those emails the more angry I got about the situation.
Pets Warehouse continued to allege that because Cashbackholic linked to my site, I must be in some way colluding with them. In point of fact, Sunshine Rewards was listed LAST of all of the cash back sites listed on the page. Logically speaking, why would I list my own site last if I was behind the website??
While I continued to demand that Pets Warehouse remove the negative feedback, they continued to demand that I somehow stop Cashbackholic from bidding on their name–although I tried repeatedly to explain that it was not my responsibility and I had no duty to interfere in the issue. (I don’t even know if there was any trademark bidding going on because it doesn’t concern me and I didn’t feel the need to investigate.)
Once Pets Warehouse was removed from Sunshine Rewards, Cashbackholic removed us from their Pets Warehouse page. It’s done automatically when they scrape our site for our listings. There was no communication between me and Cashbackholic. And yet Pets Warehouse now used our removal from the site as further evidence that we must have been colluding with them. Again–a true lack of understanding (or even desire to understand) on the part of Pets Warehouse.
When I again pointed out that 1) ShareASale did not believe I did anything wrong, 2) Pets Warehouse had no evidence I had done anything wrong, and 3) this was hurting my business, I received an email that ended with this:
“You my dear are guilty beyond doubt”
I’m not his “dear” and I don’t appreciate being talked to like a 6 year old girl. This email is a perfect demonstration of the attitude of the ownership of Pets Warehouse and their inability to understand our industry. There are MANY sites that merely aggregate information from other sites (such as cash back comparison sites or deal comparison sites). If he would have taken the time to appreciate my expertise and help him understand how these sites operate rather than immediately jumping to conclusions and refusing to listen to hard evidence, he could have learned something about our industry and hopefully not damaged the reputations of other affiliates.
Instead, he has now unfairly defamed Sunshine Rewards and potentially cost us business. As an affiliate, do you want to take the chance of working with Pets Warehouse and being the next one that he does this to?
I’m thankful to the merchants and OPMs who have jumped into ShareASale and left me positive feedback to try to counteract the negative feedback of Pets Warehouse. I so hoped that they would see reason and remove their feedback but since they won’t, I can only share what I have learned this week:
- Affiliates should watch their feedback in networks and respond immediately if something is incorrect.
- Merchants should leave positive feedback for affiliates they like working with because you never know how feedback is being manipulated by other unscrupulous merchants.
- Pets Warehouse shouldn’t be trusted because if they could do this to me, they could do this to anyone.
- Merchants who don’t completely understand affiliate marketing should hire OPMs to help them with things like this so that good affiliates do not have their reputations ruined.
I’m guessing that I am not the only site that got swept up into this and it won’t be the last time a merchant unfairly leaves negative feedback about a good affiliate. The best we can all do is call out the bad players and continue to give all of our support to the good ones.
Wow, thats no good! I’ve run into merchants with little experience in Affiliate Marketing that HAVE hired me, expecting results quickly, gaining back other influencers/pubs that simply have better value propositions elsewhere. Can’t please them all…at the same time we all know that there will always be new and other advertisers to come down the line anyways.
I’m totally confounded by how somebody with an online business that has a current affiliate program doesn’t see how something as straightforward as a connection work, considerably more bewildered that they’ve figured out how to remain in business so long with so much inconsiderateness thus small understanding.
Seems quite ridiculous to me. Looking at Links in this light can easily turn into a dirty link weapon to use on competition.
I’m completely baffled by how someone with an online business that has an existing affiliate program doesn’t understand how something as simple as a link works… even more baffled that they’ve managed to stay in business so long with so much rudeness and so little understanding.
Spending a few minutes to do some research about the traffic behavior and the publisher does go a long way before the accusation.
And a simple call after the initial email could have resolved the escalation.
That’s just crazy. It’s 2018… everyone and their grandma knows that we don’t control who links to us. Affiliates or not. The lack of understanding is one thing, that’s fixable, but to remedy this type of attitude and approach… impossible. — I also feel that SAS could at least send an email just to explain how things work. I know it’s not their job, but it wouldn’t hurt.
Wow. They clearly not only do not understand affiliate marketing, they don’t really understand how websites work period. I just checked and I am an affiliate of theirs, although I haven’t been promoting them. I definitely won’t be now. I can’t find a way to remove myself from their program or I would do so. Too bad that we as affiliates cant rate the merchants (or at least I don’t see any option to do so.)
Go into your account, click on manage/leave merchant….click that a list of your merchants come up, just look down the list, check mark Pets Warehouse then leave program.
I’ve had a couple dozen interviews and/or pitched myself to merchants over the past several months and I’ve been floored at the level of ignorance regarding the affiliate industry among most of those merchants. They don’t do the due diligence to understand the industry and don’t want to pay for an experienced manager. It seems the publisher side of the industry has come a long way since the early days when fraud and cheating were common. But unfortunately, many merchants are still stuck in 2002…
WOW. The level of unprofessional behavior on their part is just STAGGERING. I hope there’s an action that SAS can take against them for their rudeness (though probably not). I don’t make too many sales with them, but they’ll be removed from my websites by EOD. I don’t want to work with a merchant that doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing.
I’m seething on your behalf. I’m a bit flabbergasted that ShareASale isn’t doing more, but I’d imagine they kind of … can’t? I dunno.
But man, screw that guy. He should probably just close up shop at this point, because it’s gonna get ugly.
It’s a massive multinational franchise that’s been around since 1974. They’re just gonna “close up shop”. Clearly they should fire the assclown responsible for this fiasco though.
…*not gonna…
I think she meant more the affiliate program than the actual business. They already have a negative EPC and have now ostracized a LOT of big affiliates in the last 48 hours (I’m not one of the big ones. Just one of the loud ones!)
I did just find some interesting comments on this site: https://www.resellerratings.com/store/Pets_Warehouse
Apparently their rudeness isn’t limited to the affiliate program. They refused to give someone a refund for an item they returned because the person left a negative comment on Yelp (that’s illegal).
And here are just a sample of 5 other comments about their customer service (which is probably the same email address as the person who was emailing me):
“When we awoke to our email response the next day with the vulgar language and pure hostile attitude”
“But what really crossed the line was the customer service representative saying to me in writing via email saying “they’ve delt with people like me before” ” I need to put on my big boy pants grow up and order another one”
“Their staff is so unprofessional and rude, not to mention disorganized. ”
“Email recipient was very nasty. Will never order again!”
” Still haven’t received my product and I probably never will as the customer service is practically nonexistent. And if, god forbid, you do connect the reply will likely be breathtakingly rude. I was cursed at and told that I am “Fired”, whatever that means. “
One man. One shop. He is the brand.
Definitely one man, one shop. Yep he is the brand as well as something else. Actually kind of mild for him.
…*not gonna…
This commenting system is well messed up…
As soon as you told me the name of the merchant I immediately was concerned because I know this awful man, he has no concept of Affiliate Marketing and he thinks he knows it all. I can say this after having helped manage his affiliate program years ago. I wonder if he runs his brick and mortar stores as irresponsibly and rudely as he does his online store. Notice there are also several ripoff reports about him. I don’t think you need to worry about being kicked out of his program since his EPC sucks and quite frankly so does his site. He might also find spell check helpful. As for SAS, I am deeply disappointed in them that a merchant has the power to unjustly accuse an affiliate of something without proof and contribute to ruining their reputation.
So sorry that happened to you.
Unfortunately, that is a very similar description to what he did to me this week. I will no longer have anything to do with Pets Warehouse – EVER! I was accused of trademark bidding and I never, ever, do any PPC advertising. He removed me from his program and posted negative feedback before I could establish a dialog.
I have never received negative feedback in over a dozen years dealing with ShareASale merchants. What a jerk!
I agree with what Greg stated. You have a long and stellar reputation throughout the industry.
So sorry, Tricia! I can feel my blood boiling on your behalf. You’re stellar reputation and positive dealings with all other merchants will pull you through this. I will say, however, that I once left negative feedback for an affiliate. While I had hard evidence to do so, I did regret it later. I asked ShareASale to remove my comment and was told they would not. Even though it was my own comment I wanted removed. I hope this gets worked out for you. You are a class act.
It is a shame when merchants have someone doing a job and they have no idea what they are looking at and instantly assume they are correct in what they are seeing.
So sorry that you are going through this. It’s crazy! I am so shocked that the merchant approached you in that way. Hopefully they will come away from this with a better understanding of the logistics of PPC, and also a better understanding of you and your business principles. Although I’ve been an Affiliate for only a couple of years, I can say without a doubt that YOU of all people should never, ever, EVER be thought of in that way. You are one of the really good guys in internet sales and marketing, as evidenced by how well you are thought of, and your participation in leading organizations across the entire affiliate industry.
This definitely speaks to the need to be able to contest feedback based on inaccurate information. Mediation is needed!
Best of luck to get this resolved asap.
For years I’ve seen you have only the highest standards in your professional dealings. I’m stunned by this, and by a merchant who won’t listen to reason.
Logging into Shareasale now to make sure I’m not in that program.
When I leave negative feedback on an affiliate profile, it’s because I have hard evidence from Brand Verity and referring URLs to back up my claim. As an affiliate manager, I appreciate feedback from other managers. Typically, those that have lots of negative feedback will never change their style.
You should have nothing to worry about. Your outstanding reputation is known throughout the industry. Don’t let a clueless merchant bother you.