Dear Ms. Merchant
Written by Rosalind Gardner on January 17, 2006 · Comments (8)
Filed Under Scams & Scumbags ·
Dear Ms. BlahBlah.com Merchant,
I have a huge list of established customers with a demonstrated need for your company’s products. I therefore applied to your program through the Linkshare affiliate network on November 28th, 2005 while readying my sites for Christmas.
I could hardly contain my excitement therefore, when today, on January 17th, 2006, I saw in my Inbox :
“Subject: BlahBlah.com BlahBlah.com Application Approved”
WooHOO!
It was very heartening to learn that:
“BlahBlah’s commitment to providing premium quality BlahBlahproducts at or below published wholesale cost has made us one of Inc Magazine’s Top 500 fastest growing companies - 3 years in a row!”
The BlahBlah.com Affiliate Partner Program provides:
** BlahBlah.com is a Preferred Merchant of the LinkShare Affiliate Network - that ensures regular monthly payments, accurate tracking, and convenient reporting
Thanks especially for sending the following instructions along:
To get started, just follow the directions below:
- Go to http://www.linkshare.com) to log on to your account with your Username and Password.
- Click on “Create Links” on your main control panel
- Click on “BlahBlah.com”
- Select from the link types available to you from BlahBlah.com in the left frame tool bar
- Copy and paste the appropriate code into your Web site. Please allow up to 1 hour for the links to function accurately.
Actually, the following instructions would have been more helpful:
- Go to http://www.linkshare.com) to log on to your account with your Username and Password.
- Click on “Your Account” in the top navigation bar.
- Select BlahBlah.com in the Program Controls Merchant drop-down box.
- Click the “Delete this Merchant from my account” at the bottom of the page.
But no worries, I found what I was looking for - no problem.
Regarding “We’re sure you’ll find your partnership with BlahBlah.com most rewarding. Thank you for your particpation in our program.”
Well, you know where I went with that.
Actually, if you’d started with “I’m SO sorry! There’s absolutely no excuse for making you wait almost 2 months to have your application approved. On bended knee, I beg your forgiveness and am willing to offer you a 10% commission increase to promote BlahBlah.com’s products on your excellent sites”, I might have considered putting a BlahBlah.com link up in a dark corner of my site.
But as it stands, BlahBlah.com, you’re blacklisted. Consider yourselves lucky that I won’t publish BlahBlah.com’s real name on my blog.
Sincerely,
Rosalind Gardner
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Comments
8 Responses to “Dear Ms. Merchant”
jpwipf on January 17th, 2006 19:49 pm
Rosalind..
How sad that a merchant can be so ignorant.. If it took BlahBah 2 months to approve an app from a SUPER AFFILIATE then you are probably better of without them on your quality sites..
By all means..I think you should publish their name to warn others not to waste their time with these fools..But I respect your opinion.
Keep Up The Good Work
Jerry
[Reply]
Jim on January 17th, 2006 20:51 pm
Hi Rosalind,
I think I understand the BlahBlah.com but I would like to know the company so as not to waste my time with them.
Thank You,
Jim
[Reply]
Jim on January 17th, 2006 20:54 pm
Hi Rosalind,
I would like to know the company so as not to try to deal with them myself. Since I’m a newbie. Can you email me.
Thank You,
Jim
[Reply]
asr_guy on January 17th, 2006 20:56 pm
Don’t be so nice Ros. Post the merchant’s name. The Affiliate Manager shouldn’t get away with such mediocrity.
[Reply]
Scottydog on January 18th, 2006 10:38 am
AMEN!! Rosalind, this is exactly correct. I also love the immediate response that states your website does not meet our requirements!!
It seems to me that if you associate with a reputable site, even if it has a low traffic volume, one sale is better than no sale! I contacted a few BlahBlah.coms about this and and I always get the same response. We’re sorry, but we need to keep our affiliate sites under strict guidelines.
Does it cost them anything if I link to their site? If not they are truly missing the boat. As a smaller site I’m trying many different ways to gain traffic and appreciate all the Merchants who are not afraid to be my Partner!
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner on January 18th, 2006 14:32 pm
Hi all! and thanks for your comments.
As much as I’d love to ‘out’ this particular merchant, I cannot.
We ALL make mistakes, and publicly trashing a company on the basis of one mistake isn’t right or fair.
I did send the company a link to the blog entry by way of response, and will hope and trust that they correct whatever caused them to delay approval of my application.
Because I also didn’t report their niche, you really shouldn’t be worried that you’ll have the same experience.
Part of the blame rests with me, as well. If I’d REALLY wanted to promote their products, I would have contacted them myself to hasten the process. That is something you can do too if you think the approval is taking too long.
So, no fears. Sign up, promote and prosper!
Cheers,
Rosalind
[Reply]
Jim on January 20th, 2006 6:59 am
How do i get the RSS feed without the source code?
Jim
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner on January 20th, 2006 8:44 am
Reply to Jim’s question… You can sign up to receive blog posts by email (so you won’t have to put the URL into a feed reader) or check under RSS/XML Feeds: in the right hand navigation to get the code for many of your favorite blog / rss readers.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
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