Discount Code Sites and Forced Clicks & IFRAMES

[Frostie]

Originally Posted by Cheapdvds sorry but i guess for me anyway its because when i search discount codes , u are number one so that is the one i looked at

hahahaa Here is an example of the next step that needs to be tackled.

- Visitor heads off to: UK Promo Codes Vouchers Free Shipping Coupons for ElectricalDiscountUK.co.uk GadgetsUK.com
- According to this website, there is... "Next.co.uk (1 Promo Code / Free Delivery)"
- When visitor clicks on the link, it then changes to simply say "Next.co.uk save money at Next"
- At this point, cookie is dropped and merchant page is loaded. The website then goes on to say "Coupon Code: No Code is Needed - Expires: Unknown"

The truth? There was no promo code. There was no way of saving any money. The affiliate has a cookie dropped. Way to go

I'm aware that this isn't specific to a merchant or any network in particular, and as we already know Awins, Webgains and PORs stance on this, I have asked Buy.At and Affilinet to pop along here to comment in general, and on this particular case.

[Andy-QuidsInUK]

Next's Specific terms, Buy.at:

Voucher Codes Affiliates are not permitted to use free delivery or any other voucher codes under any circumstances. Any affiliate found to be in breach of the above terms will have commissions reversed and may be removed from the program.

[Tyson Pearcey]

Thanks for the I.M.on this one Frosted Flakes.

one of the team will be on here to put our thoughts down for ya.

cheers
Tyson

[chrismockford]

I would agree with the general sentiments so far in this thread that there are many grey areas related to the wordings on discount code site that do need to be tightened up and reflected in our program terms and conditions.

I am sure the "is it a forced click or not" debate will rage on - personally I do not believe it is a forced click, but I do not believe it is acceptable for sites to purport to have codes when they in fact do not - Frostie clearly the situation you have outlined is an example of this, and whilst by definition they have not broken the term suggested by Andy above as they havent actually used a code they are still misrepresenting the brand and this will be investigated.

On a technical side buy.at have put in significant resource to build solutions where we can match exclusive codes with affiliates, which also allows us to delete or reattribute sales that are coming through from other affiliates- this does involve action on the merchants side so please discuss how this can work for you with the relevant programs account manager.

I hope this clears up the buy.at position and we will look to make ongoing improvements in our offering to affiliates in this area

Regards

Chris Mockford
Affiliate Development Manager

[loquax]

Thanks Chris for posting up the info!

Jason

[Barry]

Hi chris and buy.at I would love to know more please about your system.

If you have any exclusives running on your system that are tied to merchants I would love to know about them.

Ta

[aotagain]

Just playing devils advocate for a moment...

Given that the discount code sites have what you might call a market advantage over content sites (in that the general public now use them en mass in the hunt for savings), it is inevitable that content affiliates will lose visitors to the code sites.

So is it right that any code site should drop any cookie at any time if there isn't a code present at that time ? You could take the view that if a code site is being run properly then there would hardly ever be old codes on it. ie. enough manpower should be put into it to ensure that customers are not misled and merchants have their codes used absolutely accurately.

Of course that would eat into margins, but that's a viability question, in the same way that some content sites viability is probably being affected by code site cookies.

Or, given a Thatcherite view, you could take the view that the code sites have simply been entrepreneurial enough to exploit a large demand in the market and the market will sort itself out.

ie. if a content sites content is out of date, people stop using it and if a code sites codes don't work, people won't use it either.

[sgpratley]

I assume merchants inform affiliates of expiry dates for codes?

Not always I'm afraid, although they usually start to to when their customer service lines start ringing off the hook because their checkout is 'broken'.

[befuddle]

Originally Posted by aotagain You could take the view that if a code site is being run properly then there would hardly ever be old codes on it. ie. enough manpower should be put into it to ensure that customers are not misled and merchants have their codes used absolutely accurately.

I've no intentions to increase my manpower from 1 from 2. It would get a bit crammed in my bedroom ... so I'll continue my policy of removing old merchants expired codes when they send me a new one to replace it with.

[befuddle]

Originally Posted by stu-art I assume merchants inform affiliates of expiry dates for codes?

Don't assume anything. It is the code site owners who send emails back to the merchant asking for an expiry date ... and then it's the code site owners testing the code on the merchants site and emailing to say the code isn't yet valid.

Well that's how I feel I spend my time