3 Mobile Affiliates - Worst Performing Mobile Merchant?

[BruceyBonus]

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

I thought they went well at the time, but just more false promises from 3. I passed on some transaction details and was told that the sale had now been set to Approved at buy.at (back in December or January). This obviously wasn't the case as the cashback site still haven't been paid (I last contacted them last week).

As I've said previously, I've used this particular cashback site for 4 years and have no reason to doubt that they are telling the truth.

[Ballswinger]

Another month, another set of poor results from 3 Mobile:



I noticed that there has still been no constructive responses from 3 Mobile regardless of them being made aware of this thread

Come on 3 - Give it up!

Anyone else care to share?

[mobiles4everyone]

46% approved and 54% declined for me in April, which isn't too bad. I had 43% approved in March.

[mallyord]

Three did monitor his thread a while back however haven't replied for a while!

Thread should be chaned to best performer, worst payer as all the orders tend to be cancelled!

It totally makes a mess of my affmeter results!
Posted via my Mobile Device

[tomhanks]

Three is not going to change.

It is getting worst this year.

[re8976]

I spoke via email with buy.at about my own 90% plus rejection rate, who then also spoke to Adam prior to replying.

They suggested I should avoid laptops due to cost, credit checks etc, and focus on mobile broadband. The reply was helpful, if not a little confusing based on my original query - All but one of my 20 sales I was referring to were mobile broadband, and all but 2 were rejected -

sound advice..

doesnt matter if its prepay, or contract, and working for o2 as I do in my day job, even in this relatively new vertical with additional issues of speed and coverage, the return rate for 3 - if its legit, should see them go bankrupt within a week.

clearly, there is major issues with this network, and the relationships with affiliates.

maybe its because I only pull upto 20 sales a month, do higher volume affiliates see the same issues ?

[bewise]

I can only speculate here, but 3 mobile have shops on the UK high streets don't they? How on earth in the current climate could they keep shops open and profitable if they have a 75% decline rate? (a rate which we were running at at one point). Myself and many colleagues have been into many different mobile phone stores on the high street and have never been turned down for a contract. I would say that 90% of my friends are on a contract, in their own name, so how on earth can 3 mobile be justifiying rejection rates of between 60% - 90%? Furthermore how is it that other retailers that promote online have rejection rates of between 20% and 50%, far lower than 3mobiles program?? And please don't tell me that it is because they have stricter credit checking, because I simply do not believe that is the case and have been given no evidence to support this!

Affiliates are large drivers of sales and work hard for what they do. I forsee the sector delivering more volume in the future and if this mess of a program continues then affiliates have every right to boycot the program. As I have said in previous posts, all affiliates want is a fair deal. There have been promises to fix things and it doesn't materialise time and again. Perhaps 3 don't care about their affiliate channel, but I think that is a dangerous game to play. After all, is it not true that affiliates are the best in the industry at finding eyeballs to sell products? I'm sure there are a few affiliates out there who are pretty good at starting viral campaigns. I could forsee it getting nasty very quickly if people are seeing thousands of pounds getting cancelled every month for all the hard work they put in.... I feel for you guys, I really do. We have begged, argued, shouted, threatened and to no avail.

I simply decided to send them less traffic and work with other retailers more closely. I have to say it has worked very well. I get less hassle, less angry and less frustrated and furthermore I actually enjoy working with these merchants, as they are helpfull and want to work towards a common goal.. more sales and more revenue for themselves and thier affiliates. These are the guys who will perform well in the affiliate vertical in the future and hats of to them for being honest and supportive. It really isn't that hard.

I don't know why I am writing this, as 3 are such a small part of our mix now, I guess I feel by bmping the thread and expressing my concern for fellow affiliates, may (although I doubt it) make 3 radically overhaul their program and make it worthwhile promoting them again.

OK tuesday morning rant over.... I knew I shouldn't have looked at this thread LOL!

[max99]

probably the only way to get some kind of action on this, would be for all affiliates to pause 3mobile promotion, but doubt this would happen.
If it did, then the networks would have explaining to do to 3 and then 3 may actually do something instead of happily declining the majourtiy of leads

[re8976]

looking at these numbers, someone somewhere is getting plenty of sales validated..

Blogcetera: UK Mobile Dongle User Numbers – Feb/March 2009

[martin321]

Today, i just checked my account for previous month sales of 3 network and found that almost all sales have been declined, only one sale got approved of 16 pounds.
I got more than 15 sales and only one approved....It's totally ridiculous.....

[GregFin]

I'm looking to launch a new site soon promoting as many mobile networks as possible, after reading through this entire thread I'm re-thinking the idea of including Three!

Does anyone have any stats that are product specific? ie. do some of their products have a higher rejection rate than others, as Adam from Three was suggesting earlier in the thread?

Thanks

[futureweb]

I don't do that bad on 3 - well not as bad as you lot but what is worth noting is the 3 programe is run by sumit media - they have always been good to me but it is a 3rd party prog and if you contact their support they are normaly pretty good - Well Adam is a good bloke.

[liquidroofcoatings]

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[justice]

3 mobile steals from affiliates, they promise heaven and earth in commission, you work extra hard to promote their products, and they dont pay - it's stealing. Whether you work with them directly through their inhouse affiliate marketing programme, or sign up through third party organisations like Buy.At, 3 mobile will still steal from you.

In 3 months I've made 50 sales for 3 mobile, with only 2 conversions. In same period I made 16 sales for T-mobile, all 16 sales were approved. Infact, in this 3 months period, I've made twice as much money as I made from 3 Mobile, from Vodafone which pays only £17 per application, and to think I made a mistake not promoting Vodafone more. Even Virgin Mobile which got the fewest clicks due to low end product range, still made me much more money.

LET US ALL STOP PROMOTING 3 NETWORK, I've taken them down from my site. SAVE AFFILIATE MARKETING, USE PEOPLE POWER, AND BLACKLIST THIS FAKE THIEVING COMPANY.

[kingraja]

OK, it's been a while since this thread has started and since Adam from 3 has posted here. Any idea if any of these issues have been resolved? We had initially removed all of 3's links and not sure if its worth going back. As we're no longer sending 3 referrals, we have no idea if anything has improved.

Any response would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Raja