Amazon - the dirty Truth.

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO?

This week I have learned some things about Amazon's affiliate program that I feel are worthy of posting here. Have you had any qualifying 'sales' commission from them? Did you know that they 'have ways' of knowing if anyone who uses your links to them is someone you 'know'? And they WON'T TELL US HOW. [PM me for a .doc of the entire transcript]

"Proprietary information", both of the chat-reps said. The first time I didn't, but today I DID ask the first-line-staff for a supervisor. She told me they would not 'have the ability' to answer my question either......

I said, When you say "you don't have the ability to tell me" - does that mean because YOU CAN'T, or YOU DON'T KNOW?'

WHAT DID SHE SAY?

well - I could copy/paste the chat for you all to see; but that's three full pages of chat, and I don't want to take advantage of our WA servers bandwidth. If you want the transcript, please PM me.

Bottom line - Amazon will (and can, and DOES) disqualify any purchases that 'their system detects/determines' to be made by a person ordering through your site who is someone you 'know' - whether it's a friend, colleague, relative, associate, or anyone else who you 'know.'

I flat out asked her: Are you stalking our email, FB, G+ accounts, etc? Looking for links to those people?

I even gave this example - "Two years ago I ordered a dining set from you and had it shipped to her. So, because her mailing address is linked to my 'amazon' account, she would be ineligible? Is that what you're saying?"

Which is when she said "I don't have the ability to tell you that."

CONCLUSION

So, now you know what I know as of this date. She said she would pass the concern along to upper management. In any case, THIS IS NOT THE FAULT of the Affiliate Program chat-rep. We concluded on very amiable terms, and I invited her to email me anytime; in case anything comes up - and she said she'd been there 10 years, and understands. So - perhaps she's 'senior' enough herself to have some leverage. Or will be one day. Of that, I'm thankful.

But, that doesn't change the current facts for us - WA students..

Some weeks ago, I suggested in my blog here that we could all 'shop through each other's sites for the holidays.' I was all, "Yeah! Networking!! Why not!?!!". Some colleagues were agreeable - and some were frowny-facers.....discouraging it.

Mention of Amazon's disqualification-from-eligibility system came up. I looked into it. I'm sure others have done, too - either through the 'Lane of Hard Knocks', or, like me, just exploring the idea.

Now I know why the masters here take that stance.... And yeah - it's a secret recipe. I don't know HOW they do it, but I know they DO IT - and that, frankly, makes me want to look elsewhere for independent affiliate programs, and use of CJ, Linkshare, and ShareaSale (all of which I also participate in, but have been playing with conversion analytics to see which ones produce.)

Okay - so, I suppose this blog could get me into trouble, or even 'banned', but I wanted you all to know. If anyone is interested --- like I said, holler and I'll send you the link.

Wishing you ALL all the best of success :)

Vicki