Validated to Pending

**afinlr** · 19-07-04

Hi,

Just noticed that several of my May sales that had an auto validation date of 30 June (which were validated at the beginning of this month) have been set back to pending. Anyone else? I thought that the auto validation was brought in to prevent this from happening.

**afinlr** · 20-07-04

It seems that these 'pending' sales are gradually being moved to deleted sales - even though they were once validated.

**drivetowin** · 20-07-04

Have you asked DGM for an explanation.

Unless the merchant is now suspended I can't see any way that moving from validated to any other status should be allowed - if it is then the implementation of auto validation is a total waste of time and farcical in its implementation

**afinlr** · 20-07-04

Apparently they were autovalidated 'by accident' as they hadn't been checked to see if they were valid - and when they were checked it was found that they weren't valid.

The only reason I noticed this was that there was once sale worth over £250. I expected this to be deleted soon after it appeared - as that seems to be the general rule for large commissions - but it stayed pending until the auto validation date. As that was approaching I thought 'I bet it will be deleted just before it gets validated' but then the auto validation date passed and it got validated. I was very surprised. But I did think that meant that I would receive the commission - it seems not.

I'm going to be paying very close attention to what happens to my 'validated' commissions at the end of this month as I'm pretty certain that something similar happened at the end of May.

**drivetowin** · 20-07-04

I find this incredible - surely the whole point of auto validation is that it is just that.

If they were auto validated by accident but had gone past the auto validation date - then tough - either DGM or the merchant should have pulled their finger out and validated / deleted them on time - otherwise what is the point of autovalidation.

To my mind DGM should honour the commissions involved.

Hopefully someone from DGM will be bold enough to answer this - we know you read the forum guys - you're always quick enough to let us know of new programmes so perhaps you can be as quick in explaining exactly how you see auto validation working because your interpretation is certainly not the same as mine nor I suspect of the majority of affiliates on this forum.

DGM have gone up greatly in my and other affiliate's eyes over the last few months (and indeed I was one of the first to congratulate them on auto validation). They seemed to be improving again but this smacks of falling back into the old pitfalls of their validation system

**Coopson** · 20-07-04

uhm yes it is confusing, whats the point of auto validation if it gets deleted later....

**DaveR** · 20-07-04

There was a post by Jeff recently about Validated --> Deleted:

http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/showthread...threadid=21045

Quite unbelievable.

Dave

**renegade** · 20-07-04

Originally posted by kbudden
I find this incredible - surely the whole point of auto validation is that it is just that.

If they were auto validated by accident but had gone past the auto validation date - then tough - either DGM or the merchant should have pulled their finger out and validated / deleted them on time - otherwise what is the point of autovalidation.

To my mind DGM should honour the commissions involved.

I totally agree, come on DGM, let's have a response to this please.

**rich2nd** · 21-07-04

Hi afinlr

Our auto-validation system was introduced as a way to avoid pending sales building up for slow validating advertisers.

Unfortunately at the time of our last auto-validation, several britart sales were auto-validated before they could be checked. Our contact at britart was away at the time so was unable to extend these sales to be checked.

After the auto-validation had occurred these sales had to be reversed in order to check they were genuine. After further investigation by britart a number of sales were found to be invalid including a '£10,000 sale'. These invalid sales were then removed from the system.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience the approval of this sale has caused you.

The account manager has said you can email her for further clarification if you wish. Just email me directly and I will give you her email address.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

Richard Way
Channel Support

dealgroupmedia more performance more return

Unit 800 Highgate Studios
53 - 79 Highgate Road
London NW5 1TL

richard@dealgroupmedia.com
+44 (0) 20 7691 1880
+44 (0) 20 7691 1881
www.dealgroupmedia.com

**Pete Taylor** · 21-07-04

The same thing happend to Bonusprint yesterday. They were validated and are now deleted!

**afinlr** · 21-07-04

I've just had a very helpful discussion with Joseph from DGM.

The problem seems to be that some of the merchants don't understand the autovalidation process but I'm convinced now that this is being dealt with. Once sales are validated they should not be deleted and they have promised to honour my previously validated sales.

Joseph said that he will post here when he's back in the office tomorrow to clear up any issues about autovalidation.

**joseph** · 26-07-04

Hi afinlr

Apologies for not getting abck to you sooner - this is the first chance I've had to sit at my desk for more than 10mins!!

As mentioned by rich2nd, the auto validation process was introduced to simplify and streamline the whole sales and commission process. The changes we made earlier this year have proved to be effective and some merchants are going through an education process, hence the problem you experienced.

I am reviewing the overall situation as we speak, with the aim to reduce the occurrences of reversals. Please feel free to get back to me if you have any further questions.

Thanks

Joseph Hammond-Hagan
Head of Performance & Email

**drivetowin** · 26-07-04

Joseph

I don't see why merchants should still need educating on this - you implemented auto validations a few months ago so all merchants should be familiar by now.

To my mind the example given where transactions were not extended because the relevant person at the merchant was away is a pretty lame excuse - surely they should have delegated someone else to do the processing while they were away.

as for the bonusprint transactions that confuses me as they have been suspended as a merchant for ages, surely these transactions should never have appeared in the first place.

**Pete Taylor** · 26-07-04

Bonusprint have indeed been suspended for ages, but the fact remains that the transactions were validated and then reversed. The problem with the DGM interface is that it is not immedatly obvious that transactions have been reversed, unlike Tradedoubler or CJ when you can tell at a glance that your balance has dropped.

With DGM you need to run reports almost daily, as figures seem to change when they should not!

**joseph** · 26-07-04

Hi kbudden

I am focused entirely on the performance side of the business, which will allow me to effectively deal with any problems and issues you may have.

I'm in complete agreement with you with regard the education process, as it relates to some merchants and the time required to understand the 'new' format - this should not be an issue in the future - and in conversation with afinlr, this matter has been resolved.

As to other reversal issues, I am looking into them this week in order to give you an answer asap. In the meantime please feel free to get back to me with any questions on my direct line - 020 7693 5948 or you can email me - joseph@dealgroupmedia.com.

If you're at the A4U Get Together this week, we can catch up then.

Thanks

Joseph Hammond-Hagan
Head of Performance & Email