Sales declined "Not Last Referer"

[Bud]

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OneDay

You've managed to put my feelings in words that had eluded me...

This one merchant (for me) has been putting this as a reason for numerous declines, despite seeing the customer clickthru with my web stats (confirmed by AW's) and then having the transaction being completed in about the time it takes to fill out the order.

On the odd occasion I suppose this just may be possible. Not for 1 in 5 orders :sneaky

This has to be a tracking problem - I would like to think any other explanation is unlikely.

Update: 22nd Dec - after a long time waiting for pending sales to be verified (and now the Christmas buying has stopped), we're now running at not 1 in 5 declined but almost 6 out of 10 being declined for this reason!! :sneaky

[confuscius]

Try asking a fairly simple question like "If I was not the last referrer but MY ACCOUNT says that I was the last referrer then who was the last referrer, when did that referral take place and what route did the referral come through?"

Paul

PS You will have probably reached retirement age before you get an answer or you will learn the internal workings of the Data Protection legislation.

[Bud]

PS You will have probably reached retirement age before you get an answer or you will learn the internal workings of the Data Protection legislation.

...exactly my thoughts Paul, you can see why I haven't even bothered asking this already!

the cynical would say this makes for an ideal cover story - not me though

Unless, of course, anyone from AW would be willing to help?

[adamski]

Hi bud

I didn't get a PM from you. I prefer email anyway. Just drop me a note to adam@affiliatewindow.com and I'll look into it tomorrow.

Adam

[Bud]

Thanks Adam - have emailed you.

Do you always work this late? Didn't realise they worked you that hard at AW! :scared

[cashchampion]

Hi Adam,

I am having the same issue as Bud so have also emailed u.

cheers,
Marc

[adamski]

Thanks Adam - have emailed you.

Do you always work this late? Didn't realise they worked you that hard at AW! :scared

Lol! What better thing to do on a Sunday evening than take a look at what's going on down at A4U?

Received both your emails and we're due to speak to the merchant later today. As it's their busy period, I expect it will be quite difficult to get this resolved quickly but we will try our best.

Adam

[Bud]

Adam

Probably not really the place to post this... however...

I'm really ANGRY now!! :td

55% of today's verified sales have been declined for this 'supposed' reason

Please make this a matter of importance.

[adamski]

Adam

Probably not really the place to post this... however...

I'm really ANGRY now!! :td

55% of today's verified sales have been declined for this 'supposed' reason - Rubbish!

Please make this a matter of importance.

Hi Bud

Rest assured this is being dealt with as priority. We struggled today, despite numerous attempts, to get hold of the relevant people at the merchant.

We will keep trying tomorrow until we get an explanation. We share your frustration and would ask you to understand that we too are subject to a great deal of revenue loss as a result of this. We therefore have a vested interest in getting this resolved.

However, we do have to rely on people phoning us back and responding to emails as we are not about to go and knock their office door down (although I know that may be a course of action some of you feel like taking!)

I will update this post as soon as I know more and thank you for your patience.

Adam

[Bud]

Great stuff - Thanks Adam

I've clamed down a little now so I'll leave it in your good hands.

Really appreciated

[cashchampion]

Hi Adam,

I have just checked my stats and Yes I am running at around the same decline rate as Bud. (we are promoting the same merchant and actually the same product range).

This is unbelievable! This will probably push me into the red - I have spent the entire month pushing them and now have a nice hefty cc bill to pay and they decide to rather pay the agency...utter rubbish.

Please let me know what details you need from me to help get this involved

thanks,
Marc

[cashchampion]

The thing which really gets to me, is that they do not validate anything until yesterday. So that for the entire month of december we have no idea 'how' we are actually doing and continue to see sales coming through so continue to push with seo and more importantly ppc.
I have just checked and out of my declined sales, 87% were for 'Not Last Referer'.

This does seem a little strange to me that they would wait until basically the last day to do this.
This has basically cut my revenue by 50%, so imagine what has happened to my tight margins...

Does this happen with any other merchant that the particular agency works with Adam?, or is it specific to this merchant.

thanks ,
Marc

[KevinEdwards]

Hi everyone,

Not specific to this example but as a general source of information you can find the average validation rates for every live merchant (and the average time they take to process sales) from the home page of the affiliate interface.

Click on the 'show latest merchants' link (below 'featured merchants') and then export to Excel for all the latest data.

Alternatively if you drop me your email address we can send the data direct to you.


Thanks,

[cashchampion]

Hi Kevin,

I have just had a look at this.
Now, for this particular merchant my approval was roughly the same as you have at 94% and I was being approved like they say almost daily.

However in december, sales were only validated on the 22nd december (nothing for the rest of the month), and the approval rate is around 45%. They have said that the reason for all the declined is 'Not last referer'. I have had a look at all the declines for this merchant and around 80% was all for that same reason. Basically the merchant has declined all of my profit and I am now in the red, and as they only validated on basically the last day of xmas shopping (yesterday for the whole month) I only found this out too late.

There is another affiliate pushing the same thing and he is also experiencing around the same, i.e. 55% decline rate for reason 'Not last referer'. The merchant has said that this is as a result of the ppc agency getting the sale.

This all sounds a little dubious to me.

Marc

[KevinEdwards]

Hi Marc,

It certainly warrants further investigation but I'm sure you can appreciate at this time of year it can be difficult getting hold of people.

We will keep you posted with developments.

Thanks,