Comet pending transactions back to November '09

[Stavros]

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Hi,

I have a load of Comet transactions stretching back to late November 2009. 3 and a half months to validate a transaction is ridiculous. Can someone direct me to the correct person to speak to?

After discovering this I thought I'd take a look at my transaction history for Comet over the last few months...

9 pending
4 validated (unpaid)
36 validated (paid)
41 cancelled

(I stopped dealing with Comet a while back, hence the low number of pending transactions)
Roughly half have been cancelled. Is that normal? Is there any way to find out why they were cancelled?

Ta

[Mogga]

Hold the mouse over the red dot?

If you look at comet's stats on awin they show the decline rate

Merchant Performance

Awin Index (CAVE DATA): 63.90

Conversion rate: 3.41%

Approval Percentage: 58.31%

Average Validation Time: 9 days

Earnings per click: £0.27

[Stavros]

Thanks Mogga. Looks like my average validation time blows the quoted 9 days out of the water then!

[Mogga]

Yup but your reversals is in line with the figures.
Why did you stop dealing with them? Did the high reversals rate get you down?

[dc000000]

I'll bet they get cancelled for click and collect not validated
It amazes me how Comet stay in business given the number of customers who vanish into thin air on their way to collect their goods?

[Stavros]

Yep! Almost all were click and collect declines. Does whoever validates these transactions have to manually enter a reason for the decline? I have various decline reasons when I hover over the red traffic light which (I think) all mean the same thing...

click and collect
click and collect declined
c&c rejected
CC rejected (credit card? rejected)
The only other reason was "web declined"? Not sure what that means either!

Bad choice of words! I still deal with Comet but don't currently send much traffic their way, just the nature of the products I'm promoting at the moment. The above figures don't fill me with confidence but I'm sure I'll be sending them traffic again within the next month or so!

[dc000000]

All the C&C declines are the same - I think they have limited space for an explanation tbh?
The web declined could be all manner of reasons - possibly a fraudulent credit card or something like that - which is always going to happen regardless of who the merchant is.

The problem with this is that it isn't just Comet - DSG are just as bad. I can appreciate why the network involved might be reluctant to stamp it out but people will eventually stop promoting these comapanies altogether eventually - simply because there are better options available.
I sell laptops and the rejections for the aforementioned in December were ludicrous - it isn't going to happen next December I'm sure of that!
Interestingly, amazon, tesco, john lewis and m & S were all well stocked with laptops at Christmas and the likes of Comet, PC World, etc were not - maybe their suppliers don't trust 'em either?
BTW - Tesco do click and collect and manage not to lose anyone - funny that 'innit?

[aclements10]

Hi All,

I am sorry that affiliates here have had poor experiences with the decline rates on Comet and some of the DSGi programmes.

You can rest assured that we take every possible precaution to ensure sales are validated correctly, particularly with collect at store transactions. Unfortunately, higher than average decline rates are normal with collect at store transactions for some retailers, simply because many users will reserve the item online and then not show up to collect it. This is often the case with the likes of Comet and PC World, because the user does not need to part with any money to reserve the item. Some merchants treat collect at store like another delivery option, with full or part payment being taken online. This greatly reduces the chance of the user not showing up to collect the item, and consequently means less declined transactions. However, as I am sure you can all appreciate, logistics and sheer number of stores does not allow every merchant to implement such a strategy.

In all cases, we will try and provide as much visibility as to the reason for a declined transaction. In certain circumstances, like Comet's C&C sales, it is not always possible to get detailed reasons. However, if anyone would like us to check their declines to ensure they have been processed correctly please just get in touch with your affiliate id and we would be more than happy to investigate.

Kind Regards
Anthony Clements
Tel: 020 7553 0353 Email: aclements@affiliatewindow.com

[dc000000]

If a retailer is losing half it's sales by customers not showing up then I would expect them to start doing the transaction on-line pretty sharpish. The only reason they wouldn't is if the customers do actually turn up and it's just a great way of getting free sales from affiliates?

Of course I may be wrong but, just to put my mind at rest, would you care to publish the decline rate for cash-back sites?

[Stavros]

Unfortunately, higher than average decline rates are normal with collect at store transactions for some retailers, simply because many users will reserve the item online and then not show up to collect it

Totally understand this. Frankly I don't have a big problem with C&C cancellations (although as you said, why aren't Comet et al asking for at least a deposit on such orders?)
Anyway I think I may have dragged the topic off course a little... my original question was why do I still have 9 pending transactions pending from November to December '09?

Ta

[Shivaun]

We have pending Comet transactions dating back to last August. We'd like an answer to your question too. We have a support ticket open on this issue.

It seems to me that there should be some sort of auto-validate process that validates anything that's been pending longer than, say, 90 days.

[christophercampbell]

Hi All,

Comet have been validating sales on a weekly basis, however due to a technical issue there are some sales which were not processed and has caused the backlog. Comet are looking to resolve this issue as soon as possible so that the backlog can be cleared and we can ensure that the same problem does not happen in the future.

Rest assured that once the technical issue has been solved all commissions will be validated.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me on the details below.

Kind regards

Chris Campbell
chris.campbell@affiliatewindow.com
MSN: chriscampbell1986@live.co.uk
0207 553 0365