untracked sales - tip of the iceberg

gunneradt · 20-07-07

I have made 2 personal purchases from my own shopwindow shop this week and both sales have been untracked.

The offending merchants have been Laptops Direct and Maplins.

So I began wondering just how many sales/commissions do we miss . My record is 100% this week in untracked sales out of 2 purchases - very worrying.

gunner

tbp · 20-07-07

Unfortunately, some firewalls / anti virus packages can block cookies etc, and this can stop sales being tracked. On my home computer sales never get tracked unless I turn the firewall off temporarily.

I have wondered about this too, how many sales go untracked? Unfortunately though, as a developer I know that it can be impossible to work around, as there are no alternative solutions.

MarkCo · 20-07-07

Would the tighteing up of these antivirus and firewall software in the future lead to more and more untracked sales ?

If so, it must be a major worry for the whole affiliate marketing industry....

gunneradt · 20-07-07

when I reported the untracked sale from laptops direct I was told there was a problem with their tracking. Now would that have come to light if I hadn't discovered it by chance?

warren_p · 20-07-07

The same has happened to me this week in that I bought through one of my own links and did not recieve any commission. I have contacted the merchant and also the program provider but have not yet had any response from either. Very annoying and I am wondering if it is something that I have done when installing the links so I could fix it ASAP.

Barry · 20-07-07

Yep, it happens on a regular basis. I guess you just have to put these little glitches in you business plan just like stores have to account for theft in their accounts and profit margins.

I have had so many sales that have gone untracked - I just cant be bothered to chase them up anymore.

There has also been a program realeased this week on one network that didnt have the proper codes installed - you would think that it would be checked first wouldn't you?

petro · 20-07-07

Hi all,

There was an issue at the end of last week with the tracking on Laptops Direct, the total downtime was 4 days and due to coding changes made by the merchant.

We are not aware of any current tracking problems with the Maplin program in fact the last sale tracked 6 minutes ago, GunnarADT feel free to PM the details of the order (value, order reference, date, time, affiliate id) and I will get an Account Manager to investigate this on your behalf.

If anyone else feels sales have gone untracked please drop me a line.

Kind regards

_____________________________
Peter Owens
Head of Account Development
0208 269 4850
peter.owens@affiliatewindow.com
peterowens111@msn.com

Barry · 20-07-07

I dont think Maplin is in realtime? Though I may be wrong as they use their own tracking system? Have a look later to see if it appears.

darrat · 22-07-07

It has been confirmed to me by Awin that Drinkstuff sales are not being tracked for over a week and yet and that time:

1. Affiliates have not been informed of this problem
2. Newsletters/emails have been sent out twice to affiliates with details of current promotions etc.

Strange

aaclapham · 22-07-07

Some networks seem to track their sales better than others, and some networks are better at untracked sales than others.

After a while you get to know the culprits and stay clear of them.

What I cannot understand is untracked sales are lost money for the networks too, if I ran a network it would be my main priority!!

MarkCo · 22-07-07

Funny enough that this thread is in the Affiliate Window section, as I find AWIN to be one of the better ones when it comes to tracking....

gunneradt · 23-07-07

yes they are but there are still problems and the networks are often less than honest about it.

My problem with laptops direct is that no-one was informed of the problem - it was only when I bought a laptop that it was discovered!!!