3 Mobile Affiliates - Worst Performing Mobile Merchant?

[max99]

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are buy.at ever going to do anything about this ?

[max99]

... I guess not

Do buy.at get paid based on all commission earnt or just that approved ? (or not based on commission at all , i know they get monthly fee's etc)

[Ballswinger]

Hi Guys,

I felt compelled to share our latest stats for the 3 Mobile direct program - Absolutely the WORST performing mobile affiliate program out of the 25+ we currently use.



Not even anywhere near the industry 50%+ average !

I'm sure I'm not alone in recent email conversations between affiliates using their program and the recent information that has come to light.

Looking forward to possibly, one day getting this resolved..........

[Ballswinger]

Has anyone been able to log-in to their direct 3 Mobile admin today?

We're wondering if we have finally upset them enough to have our account suspended as we have not been able to access the admin area for nearly 24 hours! :sneaky

[Ballswinger]

Still not able to login to admin - anyone else?

Just a blank page!

[max99]

not sure mate, do mine thru buy.at,

Had look at my total stats for last 4 months and they make reading.

Approved: £1800

Rejected and Pending(been told majourity will be declined): £12,000

Shame, but think I'll only really be working with 3mobile if they go to a pay per application method

[mobiles4everyone]

I've seen an improvement this month. My last six months approval rates on 3 Mobile through Buy.at...

Oct = 32% approved

Nov = 22% approved

Dec = 17% approved :td

Jan = 16% approved

Feb = 16% approved :scared

Mar = 43% approved :tup

I might have just been lucky this month. I placed an order for myself a while ago, it tracked fine but was rejected a couple of months later, despite the phone being connected and still in use today.

[Ballswinger]

HI Darren,

You're not the only one who has tested this theory - There are also another couple of affiliates who haven't replied to the thread directly but via email who experienced the exact same problem.
They ordered a phone for themselves, everything tracked fine and then the sale was deleted further down the road even though they are still using it today!

Robbin', Cheatin', Thievin' B*stards comes to mind.

This has been ongoing since the launch of their program and they seem unlikely and unwilling to sort this out.

Severe lack of respect for affiliates.

[Azam.net]

I placed an order for myself a while ago, it tracked fine but was rejected a couple of months later, despite the phone being connected and still in use today.

There are also another couple of affiliates who haven't replied to the thread directly but via email who experienced the exact same problem.
They ordered a phone for themselves, everything tracked fine and then the sale was deleted further down the road even though they are still using it today!

Even dodgy dealers in Peckham market don't behave in this way. Shocking that they can get away with this.

We have lost huge amounts of money through this mobile phone operator not paying for us for leads - and I know other affiliates in the same position. The other mobile phone networks don't scrub our leads by anything like the extent that this company does.

We certainly won't be sending customers to them unless they start paying fairly and squarely for valid leads like the other mobile networks do.

[Dazza30]

Im currently working on a pay as you go focused site, and i cant find an alternative merchant who actualy sells Three handsets.

Can anyone suggest one?

[Affili-Monsta]

We first noticed the high failure rate of 3 sales when I promoted through the direct 3 affiliate program. Back when we started the large bulk of these were due to the dedup process, which attributed sales to "other" affiliates.

We accepted that once the dedup problem was resolved that the failure rates would probably reduce, WRONG! The level of declines shot up, did anyone else see a similar pattern?

We moved over to Buy.at as many of you have, to see if this was purely 3 direct. No 97% Rejected!

To come on here and read all the stories from the affiliates, such as:

affiliatemarketingltd
"i know they bought a phone but funnily enough 3 havent paid out .. and it was a PAYG phone too"

BruceyBonus
"The purchase was for a PAYG USB modem back in September. The cost was £50 and the cashback/commission due would have been £11."

The sale has today been rejected."

Ballswinger
"They ordered a phone for themselves, everything tracked fine and then the sale was deleted further down the road even though they are still using it today!"


I've read the responses from Adam and Richard, I don't believe that Summit Media or Buy.at are directly to blame but somewhere in the processing of sales something is going VERY wrong.


Bottom-line: At this point its clear that Hutchinson 3G are committing fraud against the affiliates that work hard everyday to promote their products, brand & business.


What can we do about it?

I'm with Norras, bewise, Iceblox &, kungfumobiles

If somebody tried to pinch a fiver out of your wallet in the pub most people would punch that thief straight in the face. These guys are swindling thousands of pound from us!

We should pull together at take some action.

Do they think the work that we do generating online sales for them doesn't make difference to their business? Maybe we should show them this it does!

[BruceyBonus]

BruceyBonus
"The purchase was for a PAYG USB modem back in September. The cost was £50 and the cashback/commission due would have been £11."

The sale has today been rejected."

My saga continues. Just a re-cap, I used a "cashback" website as I don't have an affiliate relationship with 3. The sale was made in September 2008 and was rejected in December. Despite having been assured that the transaction is showing as approved at buy.at, the cashback website still haven't received any commission for the sale.

I've been a member of this cashback website for over 4 years so I trust them to pass on the commission correctly. It is now eight months since the sale and this is what the cashback site said last week: "Unfortunately the merchant has rejected your claim on this occasion. However, as you have provided all the information required of you, and we have verified that you clicked through the site, we have referred the claim back to the merchant."

I've been doing both cashback sites and a little affiliate marketing for a while so I know how these things work. There is absolutely no way this sale would have been attributed to any other affiliate or marketing channel. Since buying the £50 dongle, I've put £180.00 worth of top-ups on there, so they can't exactly say the sale was fraudulent/just for the commission.

[Affili-Monsta]

Hi BruceyBonus,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with cash back. As with all cash back arrangements there can be legitimate reasons why the sale failed however I'm sending you a PM to discuss your case further.

Kind regards,

Adam

:td Take it that the discussion of your case didn't go to well then?

[3Hater]

I have absolutely had enough of 3 and am seriously considering pulling all of their products off my sites, explaining exactly why we’ve had to resort to doing this to our valuable customers:

i.e. poor network coverage, poor customer service, huge amount of unhappy dissatisfied customers, to name but a few.

It’s heart sinking to see £5,000 of confirmed sales turn into a mere £700 of sales after a long two months of waiting. :td

If we promoted the other hugely more reliable providers as much as we do 3, our earnings would be huge!

I can’t believe your decline rate is 97% Affili-Monsta – I thought mine was terrible at 88%.

It is absolutely absurd that up to 97% of our hard-earned sales are not valid due to failed credit checks, a returned product etc.

If 3 are committing affiliate fraud (as it certainly when looks like they are), I dread to think the amount of damage that this could do to their business reputation………

3 have to keep records of their sales, so if they were ever ordered to be audited on this matter it would be a certainty that they would be found out.

Does anyone know if there is a governing body/regulator for this type of scenario?

I think it is certainly a viable option to boycott 3. This needs to be resolved once and for all.

[Dazza30]

Every 3 pay as you go handset sale ive made this year has been rejected, the sales go quickly from pending to held and then dissapear.