Change of commission policy at Play.com.

[Markup]

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Unfortunately our product pricing structure makes the margins so keen that that we are no longer able to include hardware (console) sales as part of the affiliate program commission calculations.
I want to apologize to any of our affiliates who are affected by this and hope that you can come to see it as a “stopping the rot” exercise that will keep our affiliate program, which we are fully committed to, healthy in the long term.

Any outstanding hardware sales and any that are made between now and Monday the 22nd August, when the new system will take effect, will be honoured, as will all ordered sales that are shipped.

If there are any questions I will be happy to discuss them.

Regards

Mark Anderson

[drivetowin]

Mark

I can understand why they may not be able to afford 4% - I cant understand how they cannot afford to pay anything - even if they were to pay 1% it would be better than nothing...

And I assume that the timing of this and the launch of Sony PSP is purely coincidental........

[Markup]

Hi Keith

I think that the fact that they have been losing so much on Hardware for so long is what tipped this idea right over to drop hardware altogether.

Coincidence isn't a pert of it mate, but on balance all of the hardware has been making the program less attractive to Play from a policy point of view. Personally I am slightly relieved that it has happened now so that the rest of the program can be left to grow, rather when (as an example) the psp comes out and they get stung with a load of preorders that do not covert into actual sales. That could have had someone really hopping.

[Jon]

Hey Mark

Did I miss an email notification of this to Play.com affiliates? (this forum is great, but isn't a substitute for direct communication). And why such short advance notice? Surely this breaches some condition, somewhere?

Tripping over this thread - purely by chance - enabled me to remove a number of links that would otherwise remained in place, delivering hardware-related leads for no return. In view of the change, btw, I'm also removing software-related links as I'd rather send the traffic to a merchant who will also pay for the occasional hardware sale that results.

Cheers

[marky]

If they are losing money on hardware, are they stopping selling hardware altogether ?
If not , and they are making a margin, however small, then some of it could and indeed should be surely be used to pay the promoter ?

Would be interesting to see from anyone that promotes this merchant quite heavily what sort of % of sales/rev comes from hardware .. maybe it isn't that much to worry about ? Or maybe it is going to be quite a major issue ...

[christh]

I'd written a reply here earlier this morning but I guess my connection died. Anyway, I'd written a webpage on the new Sony handheld - linking to Play just the other day, which I've taken down. I know the margins on consoles are tiny, but I'm a bit peeved I had to find out this information though a forum.

I'm going to have to consider advertising them as my performance with the programme seems to have dipped this quarter. This news on the hardware side isn't going to help.

[Markup]

Jon, Marky, Christh, all…

Again I can only apologise for any inconvenience and loss that may have been caused by this announcement. The short notice was unfortunate but the decision was made on Friday afternoon and I drafted a mail to all affiliates immediately, I then forwarded it into a queuing system and expected it to go out before I had typed the forum posting or at least at the same time. I will check now as to why it did not and report back!

The software side of things still offers a great affiliate program to promote and I hope that after reflection, you will consider this and accept that the decision was taken to keep the program as a whole healthy and leave your links in place.

I am at fault for not allowing your mail notification to land before I posted in the forum, but that is done now and as unfortunate as it is. I cannot change it.

The level of customer service that Play.com give, coupled with the excellent tracking, reporting AND paying solutions provided by Buy.at, make this program one of the very best available anywhere gents. I hope that we can put this behind us and go forward from here.

Kind regards

Mark

[Rich]

Can you make it clear what now no longer earns a commission? Is it just consoles or is it all gaming hardware (controllers,leads,etc)? And will purchases for these items not be reported or will they track and later be deleted? Will you also be removing these non commission items from the product feed?

[Jon]

Mark

Thanks for the clarification regarding your email - but the point regarding advance notice still stands. Does Play.com really think that zero working days notice is sufficient when withdrawing what for many may be a key element of its commission structure? It's hardly a supportive or considerate way to treat its referrers.

A more suitable notice period should have been implemented, giving affiliates (some of whom may be away on holiday at any given time) sufficient time to adapt their links accordingly. One month would not be an unreasonable period.

By the way, the Buy.at interface still says they pay on hardware...

[Malcolm Cowley]

Hi

I have spoken with the guys at Summit about this decision and we are trying to organise an extension to the timeline to give everyone including ourselves the time needed to put this decision into action sensibly.

I will update when I know more.

Thanks

Mal

[Markup]

I may not have been as clear as I should have been earlier in this message, this only applies to consoles.
Leads, controllers etc will still pay commission.
The reporting was being looked at over the weekend at Play and they will not report from today onward to avoid confusion.
They will be removed from the feed too.

Jon
Almost every decision that Play.com takes regarding the affiliate program is for the first time as they have been live for less than a year. There is no excusing the fact that a woefully inadequate amount of time was given to you guys to prepare yourselves but I do think that they are fully committed to the program and am sure that any decision, from today onward, will have been taken after a lengthier consultation with us.

I should make it clear that this affects the Play program across networks and is not exclusive to buy.at.