Q: When an affiliate company stops paying commissions and owes you hundreds of dollars, how can you make them pay what is owed? I have had several contacts with the CEO of the company, and he promises to pay from August 2007 to the present.
I have gone so far as to post my troubles to two of my Web sites, one that is a URL saying this company sucks, but still no payment. Any ideas?
A: I can empathize with you, because I’ve had some scumbag merchants that left me hanging.
The thing to determine here is whether the pursuit of the commission owed to you is worth your hassle.
You mentioned the amount was in the hundreds of dollars. If it were more than that, I would suggest going to your lawyer and start the process to collect your money through legal means.
Perhaps sending with a nasty letter on lawyer letterhead to the offending merchant.
But that could very well cost as much as the money owed to you.
As far as telling your side of the story on your site(s), I am not a lawyer, so I don’t want to give the impression that I am giving any legal advice here, but I would say you should be careful.
Be sure everything is factual that you state. Personally, I wouldn’t want to post anything saying I was ripped off by a company without running it by a lawyer.
And again, that’s going to cost some more money.
At some point you should site down and figure whether it’s all worth the agony you’re going through for a few hundred dollars.
You’re spending time and energy and getting lots of aggravation in the process of trying to get your commissions.
I would suggest refocusing on the future and doing some due diligence on affiliate programs before you promote them.
Ask around in forums; search for hints about their reputation in other places online.
Do your homework and hopefully you can avoid working with shady merchants in the future.
I’m sorry this happened to you, but if it were me (and it has been), I’d suggest packing up and going home.
Consider this experience an unfortunate lesson learned, and be more careful next time.
Good luck with your future merchants.