Quidco no longer working with Affiliate Window

[prepaid365]

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....... I think this is handled differently by each network - with our 5 day validation we don't have the issue of pending sales as once it's past the 5 days it's locked in the system and we pay.

Hi James,
How does your 5 day validation period work? We deal with prepaid cards and in most cases, the applicant has not even received their prepaid card in 5 days. So how would those merchants work with you?

I am sure you have got one of the prepaid merchants working with you. So definitely not sure how you could be sticking to this 5 day window.

Then again, maybe a different thread for this one....

Thanks

Ash

[aotagain]

If I was the 'other network' trying to poach merchants, I would be worried that what Quidco have done by going behind AW's back, could just as easily happen to them in due course for some other reason.

Plus any merchants involved might also need to consider that if they give in to that sort of pressure, then within a short space of time, they might well find themselves giving in to other pressures, having already been seen as fair game for that sort of business manoevre.

Unless of course I was infested by short-termism and/or pressure from somewhere else for whatever reason to show profit growth, whether for shareholders or to value the company upwards for sale.

[darrenb]

Quidco have posted on their blog about the subject here:

Quidblog Blog Archive Hard decisions at Quidco - Making our voice heard as a consumers

[csn]

Quidco have posted on their blog about the subject here:

Quidblog Blog Archive Hard decisions at Quidco - Making our voice heard as a consumers

Interesting article explaining their stance. Naturally their members are behind them and affiliates over here are behind AW. They also state:

When we made this decision after many conversations with our tracking networks we felt it was mutually understood that we would be best able to improve your Quidco cashback experience by reducing our network partners. You can imagine we were surprised when a network we have decided to close posted public statements about Quidco SureShop and our members on their blog and a popular industry forum. You can read this statement and the merchant responses here and here.

As far as I'm aware it was a merchant that posted this and AW were unaware of Quidco's intentions until this point.

I don't know how this will play out. I'm most interested to see how the DSG Group will react, being an AW-only merchant. Hopefully they'll see the light and stay put. Who knows though. Anything can change.

[KevinEdwards]

Hi there,

I'd like to make a direct post to any Quidco members who maybe reading this and are concerned about how this may affect their ability to earn cashback with some of the UK's biggest and most well known retailers.

We're sorry we're unable to continue working with Quidco; this is a decision they made and not us but we want to make sure you aren't hit in the pocket. We and all our merchants working with Quidco value your purchasing power and want to ensure you get the cashback you deserve. Many of the merchants we work with have excellent turnaround times on making sure you get the cash you've generated via Quidco because unlike most of the merchants Quidco will continue to work with we pay them and therefore YOU more often than our competitors.

It's a shame that you as the consumer won't be able to continue to benefit from this through their site.

The great news for you though is you will still be able to earn on all your current Quidco retailers so don't panic! Put simply you just need to use alternative methods.

I'd be delighted to help anyone concerned about this and show them how they needn't lose out.

Please drop me an email or contact me on my mobile - 07974 810 547 - at any time to discuss how you can still use cashback to carry on earning.

Kind regards,

[morleymouse]

Hi,

I have a few rather raw and simple thoughts on this - apologies if it doesn't fit with the 'professional' theme of this thread - to clarify alpharoomscom work with Quidco but not via Affiliate Window, this post is posted as Dan Morley, at home, watching tele, not as an alpharooms representative

• Quidco were harsh to stop using all AW merchants
  
• Affiliate Window were right to stick to their views, but via their API make it very easy for affiliates to submit 'untracked' sales - although Quidco should have measures in place to stop members submitting transactions over and over, maybe AW should also stop this?
  
  memebers pay quidco > onus on quidco. merchant pays network > onus on network.
• Quidco should have stopped using merchant not prepared to work with them, they advertise themselves in 'their story' as a cooperative. What one member does affects all members. If a member submits multiple transactions that gt rejected - should they reject the member rather than the merchant?
  
• Quidco going to AW at top level was lazy, they should deal with merchants individually with regards to transactions and queries.
  
• Merchants that have lost quidco need not fear, retain your customers via another channel.

[renegade]

You will still be able to earn on all your current Quidco retailers so don't panic, it maybe you just need to use alternative methods.
I'd be delighted to help anyone concerned about this and show them how they needn't lose out.

No need to ring Kevin, there are loads of other cashback site owners that post here regularly that will be more than happy to to offer you cashback and answer any queries you may have.

[philhancox]

No need to ring Kevin, there are loads of other cashback site owners that post here regularly that will be more than happy to to offer you cashback and answer any queries you may have.

Or maybe AW want to encourage more sign ups for that Facebook cashback application whatsit

[Matt.Lovett]

Well done AffiliateWindow.

Just been reading Quidcos bost on their blog. There telling quidco members to come on here and AWs blog. lol.

Matt

[Gavinio]

I'm really interested to see what impact this will have on merchants. Some people believe that cashback sites are just a subsitution channel for sales that would've come from elsewhere anyway, whether it be other affiliates, search, SEO or offline.

I'm sure that's not 100% right, and that cashback does deliver some incremental sales, but I would be really interested to see the impact that this move has on sales across merchants affiliate programmes and the merchants total online sales.

I would wager a large proportion of sales that went to these merchants via Quidco will find their way there through another channel.

Oh, and I know cashback is here to stay and it's great for the consumer, but this is just a period of a few weeks where we get the chance to take a look at the data and see what the impact is before the market re-adjusts.

[Graham@Buyagift]

From the Quidco posting:

"There should be a minimal effect as most important merchants run on several networks so we can simply move tracking to a network which fully supports that merchant."

Not sure how they define an important merchant, but they'll certainly be losing us. In the popularity list on their site we're 13th so I'd like to think we're an 'important merchant' for them.

I don't want to go into the ins and outs of this, because I'm sure more has gone on behind the scenes than has been discussed, but I believe AW have acted on the interests of thier Merchants in this case and I applaud them for that.

Seems to me the main issue is re-submission of queries - a shame something couldn't be technically implemented by Quidco before taking this step.

Graham

[drivetowin]

Interesting that although Quidco clearly know of this thread (since they linked to it from their blog), they're not willing to enter the debate here and argue their corner.

Perhaps also worth noting that of the big players in the cashback industry, a noticeable absentee from the Loyalty Association is Quidco.

[monkeyprojects]

I think the only way this works for Quidco (the only way their business model works to be honest) is if they create a source of income that cannot be attributed to a particular member (say a fixed amount for each fixed amount of income).

I wonder if such a deal has been agreed with another network, even if its just for any merchants forced to become dual network to keep their quidco traffic.

[3wdl]

Interesting that although Quidco clearly know of this thread (since they linked to it from their blog), they're not willing to enter the debate here and argue their corner.

Perhaps also worth noting that of the big players in the cashback industry, a noticeable absentee from the Loyalty Association is Quidco.

Some would respect them for not getting involved on the forum - it's not always right to air your dirty laundry in public and personally I don't think that the forum is the right place for them to respond & get into an argument as you suggest.

I would hope that there are discussions going on in private to resolve this dispute and I don't expect this topic to end just yet.

If affiliate window merchants are removed from Quidco then I think the most interesting thing to come out of this will be what kind of dedication Quidco members have; do cashback sites have a brand and have devoted users that will not use other sites?

[hooking-up]

Matt the police aren't in the slightest bit interested unless the fraud runs into tens of thousands of pounds and they just tell you to talk to the credit card companies, who in turn aren't interested either as they don't lose out themselves as if there is a fraudulent payment then the customer claims the money back from the card company who in turn claim it from the merchant PLUS chargeback fees (this is from experience I know this) unless of course their 3d-secure system is implemented which is a complete joke in itself.

I have to disagree there, We run a cashback site and we called in the police for a merchant, who operates from over seas, so wasn't easy for them to do themselves.

The were selling mobile phone ring tones, they received payment via the phone, charging for the down load.

we had a group of members using phones for the download that could not be charged as the sims were not registered. The police took this very seriously, and the case was taken up by their online fraud department.

I think it is a matter of whether it is clear cut fraud, not the amount of money involved.

At the end of the day they have to believe they can get a conviction.