Thread: Gadgets, Games & Gifts New affiliates program

Having just seen this announcement for the benefit of my fellow affiliates I feel I must advise of experiences one of my clients encounted when trying to buy from Otherland Toys.
My client was trying to finally confirm an order with this company when the page froze and the order was not confirmed by OT. My concerned client then attempted to ring OT on three occasions in order to clarify the situation and was met each time with an answerphone, on each occasion he left a message with a home,work & mobile number - not one message was returned. My client contacted me out of frustration and concern that his credit card details may have been mislaid, I in turn contacted Your Cheque who in fairness tried to contact OT and again was met with an answerphone and the lady at YC tried to reassure me that all would be ok but the situation would be looked into.
Myself or my client has never had a response from OT or YC since doing absolutley nothing to reassure a nervous, first time online shopper who in fairness had no problems with his credit card. On my recommendation my client ordered the same item trouble free from Big Boys Toys and I still retained my commision.
My point is we affiliates work hard to reassure and install confidence in our would be online shoppers and instances such as this only damage our ground work, to this end I therefore dropped OT permantly.
Barry
www.bargainboard.co.uk

Not so bad after all?
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On the affiliate sign-up section of www.otherlandtoys.co.uk they have a quote from one of their affiliates:

"Just a quick thank you for the speedy bank transfer, it's the first time a merchant has pestered me for bank details! Some others have much to learn when working with affiliates!

It has been easy to promote your site, clean linking, loads of banners and buttons when required, regular updates on statistics and a nice niche market which appeals to many.

The low minimum and a monthly payment will, I'm sure, be attractive to other affiliates AND you answer emails on the same day, almost unheard of in this game ! If you carry on like this we can't lose. As of today, Otherlandtoys has been moved to the top of the page, well deserved."

Regards, Alastair Holgate (Managing Director) click-deliveries.co.uk

As a toy company i can imagine they got pretty overwhelmed at xmas but they dont look so bad to me! I am an affiliate of theirs and they have also earned me good money and are good to deal with most of the time.

The PrinceB

Dear Barry, Thank you for your feedback.

When pages freeze or there is some software failure concerning our site with respect to customers and users, we will not receive the order and subsequently will not transact.

When we signed up with Yourcheque we quickly began to see that there were problems as always when you work through a third party. We decided that we would move to an in-house program that would enable us to give a better service to our partners, namely our affiliates and primarily 'our' customers. And most importantly 'Guarantee' payments to our affiliates.

While I'll admit as you are aware there is room for error in all areas of running a business, I am and my staff are always available via multiple email addresses, telephone, fax, ICQ.

Yes there are times when we are extremely busy and response times fall, but our priority is always the customer, and with respect to affiliate partners, that’s the most important aspect an online shop should concentrate on.

I cannot guarantee that the information you have given here is correct or not with respect to 'this' customer, who seems to have had problems right from the outset. You cannot guarantee whether or not a customer once purchased has or hasn’t got problems with their credit card since this is information you would not be privy too, I assume you were taking the customers word for it. Your subsequent approach to Yourcheque was doomed to failure as we ourselves found out.

In my long experience in the business world you do not take knee jerk reactions to other business's based on a single 'perceived' mistake, you judge business's on a long term basis and measure their performance over the distance.

Otherland Toys has worked and continues to work with most of the online community, with shopping portals, and with leading online shops as a drop shipper and supplier, both in the B2B and B2C world. We have a reputation to maintain and will continue to work hard to do so.

Should you wish to discuss this further please contact myself or one of my staff. We will always take the time to speak and listen to our afiliates.

Alex Badini.
0871 717 9200
Director