Problems with Affiliate Window Feed system

[Jeff]

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Following the problems with AW's create-a-feed system I reported in another thread, I decided to have a thorough look at the feeds I'm getting from AW to see if any other merchants are affected.



The create a feed system is only supposed to provide product feeds for programmes you're a member of. But it's including products for many more merchants than it should.



It is giving me product data for the following merchants that don't even appear on AW/Darwin. Maybe they're hidden programmes or not yet launched:

2347 Orange
2570 Monster.co.uk - datafeed account
2958 DavidTest (this shows products from adinionline.co.uk)
3162 PhotoWorld
3205 CD WOW



It's giving me product data for the following merchants that are live, but I'm not a member:

1998 Parcel2go
2277 InkXpress Direct
2607 Business IT Online Office Shop
2658 lenstore.co.uk
3048 Teufel
3233 O2 Accessories
3536 Next Day DIY



It's giving me product data for these programmes that closed on 24/6/11, although they're still showing as live on Darwin:

3091 Additionsdirect.co.uk
3092 choice.co.uk


It's giving me product data for this merchant that is showing as suspended (I don't know how long they've been suspended, I've received no notification):

1818 The Beauty Room






I used the Merchant Metadata download to help me determine which merchants are showing in the feed but shouldn't be. There are problems with that too.


I am a member of the following programmes, I am getting product data for them, but they do not appear in my metadata download:
1346 Art of metal
1375 118golf
1529 QuickRooms.com
2018 Optimalprint UK
2031 mySupermarket.co.uk
2043 Haysom Interiors
2516 Ideal World
2598 Goldsmiths Outlet
2801 Yourfavouritewines.com
2888 Blossom and Twigs
2889 iflorist
3158 NZ Nature
3187 EcoCharlie
3207 Mamas & Papas
3540 CRUISE



As a result of this problem I've included lots of links on my sites to merchants that I'm not a member of, for several months at least. I have no idea how much money this could have cost me in lost commission.

If you use the create-a-feed system I suggest you check your own feed to make sure it doesn't include products from merchants you're not a member of.

[Jeff]

I have also raised a ticket with AW, I will post here if I get a response.

[Sam Surry]

Hi Jeff,

I have raised your query with our technical services and technical development teams who are looking into this as we speak.

As soon as we have more information we will post a full response.

Kind Regards,

Sam

[ManonAW]

Hi Jeff,

First of all, our apologies for the delayed response, and thank you for your patience.

Some of the merchants you've outlined are set to auto-approve affiliates onto their programmes. This also means they allow all affiliates to access their datafeeds, even if they do not have a membership on the merchant programme. In this case, we create a membership for you 'on-the-fly', allowing you to earn commission for that merchant if you drive traffic (membership is created on first click).

Although this explains a few of the merchants appearing in the your downloads, it clearly doesn't apply to everything you've listed. Our developers have been working on getting to the bottom of the specific cases you've outlined, and we agree that there appears to be some issues with the data you're grabbing.

We're currently working on getting to the root of the problem, and would like to assure you that the issues will be resolved as soon as possible. We're obviously treating this as a high priority, and understand that it may be affecting others.

Again, we appreciate your patience, and will update you as soon as we've resolved the issues.

In the meantime, feel free to get in touch with me via email if you have any further questions or concerns about ShopWindow, Create-a-Feed, or any other Affiliate Window technology.

Regards,

Manon Dave
Product Manager
manon.dave@digitalwindow.com