3rd party referral went to someone else!

[DailyMiracles]

I'm so frustrated with Zazzle third party referral.  I had a client that I made a custom order for.  I sent her a link with my affiliate number.  Within minutes she purchased the design.  It showed as a 3rd party referral.  So not only did I not receive the affiliate bonus, someone else did.  This is very suspicious to me and has happened to me multiple times.  Now it's time to complain.  There is absolutely no one on earth a third party would have even known about my client.  

I complained to customer service and received a cut and paste response about how it could have happened.  For example she may not have had cookies on or a new referral link was used.  There is no explanation at all.  This lack of transparency with Zazzle is wrong.  

Has this happened to any one else?

TIA Lori

[idraw]

@DailyMiracles 

Yes it has happened to me repeatedly over the span of over my 14 years here on z. 
There are ways around it but they don’t always work. Clearing cookies, clearing cache, closing browser, logging out of z, posting your link on an external site ie your blog, your website, etc. then sending your customer that link with your referral ID attached, and asking them to do all or most of the above before clicking on the link you sent. Even then it doesn’t always work, if the customer has previously been to z and has a z cookie that  supposedly lasts 45 days, or whatever z says it lasts. You probably get the general idea….
Have to add that z sends out emails to everyone on their email list,with zazzle’s code attached to the end of the link included in the email, making them the third party receiver of the fee. 

It is less than reliable, and has been posted about repeatedly over the years, with always the same explanations from z that you probably got from customer service reps.

[Cat]

I think part of the problem is that referrals are not intended to be used that way - they're intended to reward the person (or entity) that brought the customer to the site, NOT as a way for a designer to make extra money for doing custom work. So when a customer requests a custom order and you send them a referral link to override the code of the affiliate who actually brought them to the site - it's really (from Zazzle's point of view anyhow) "gaming the system." 

That used to make me mad until I read a thread on the old forum where several affiliates piped in with their perspective. From the affiliate point of view, they went to the work to bring the customer to the site, so they should get the referral, and it's really not fair for a designer to try to override the affiliate's code with their own referral code - even if the designer created something specifically for the customer - it was still the affiliate who brought the customer there in the first place.

In my opinion, Zazzle needs to create some different sort of a system to reward designers for doing custom work. I'm not sure what that would be, but I assume there's some way that Zazzle LIVE designers get paid for doing custom design work, so perhaps the same system could be used? I dunno, but it always strikes me as a bit odd that Zazzle will pay a LIVE designer to help a customer create a custom design based on my work, but they won't pay me to do the same thing!

I know some designers use a system where they actually charge customers separately for doing custom work (like they have the customer send them a payment through PayPal or something like that before they'll send them the link.) I personally am not comfortable with that approach, so I just don't do custom designs per se. If a customer asks for something that I don't offer, I'll either do it as a template/product that can go into the marketplace so it's worth the investment of time, or I'll refer them to the Zazzle LIVE service. Otherwise it's just not worth the hassle, IMHO.

[PenguinPower]

The third party most likely is Zazzle... If your customer was on the Z website ever before they purchased your product, they likely still have an active cookie from Zazzle themselves. 

[DailyMiracles]

Exactly, I'm certain that Z is receiving the affiliate bonus, they just won't admit it.  I get a cut and paste response.

[Cat]

I'm not necessarily defending the way Zazzle handles this, I'm just saying that you probably shouldn't hold your breath waiting for Zazzle to fix their system, because they clearly don't think it's broken.

[DailyMiracles]

I'm not holding my breath, and it's not about the money on this specific transaction, it's that Zazzle is racking it in on the affiliate sales in a sneaky way.  How often are the 3rd party transactions going to Zazzle when it was a designer who brought in the client!

[James]

I think you explained this well, Cat. The referral system on Zazzle is not intended to reward you for assisting a customer with design work. It's intended to reward the referee when they bring new customers to the site. These cookies last up to 7 days and as you said, are quite difficult to remove. Intentionally. The original referee deserves the fee as they managed to successfully convert a customer into visiting and purchasing on the site.  Thus rewarding them for their time and effort in their marketing. In any scenario we have a test has a referral has not been rewarded when a normal flow was done. Customers can be unpredictable. Making it harder to understand why a referral isn't successful.  But asking them to jump through hoops to ensure it might be, might not set a great tone while also potentially taking it from another referee who worked hard to get the customer to Zazzle. We understand you want to be rewarded for your time, but the referral program is not the way to get it. Not at the expense of other Affiliates.