Green referrals turned red

[carulcards]

Today I noticed that 3 referrals that already were cleared (green), suddenly turned red. How could this happen? I didn't think this could happen. Cleared is cleared... right?

Really sorry about this.

[Harmony]

I have been noticing that as well. I had about 19 cancellations recently. As the cancellation stats show very little info it is sometimes hard to determine exactly when things were cancelled (and why)

[ColsCreations · Accepted solution]

Cleared (green) just means the sale has passed the 30-day mark and has been cleared for payment to you so those funds become part of your available balance. The customer can still "cancel" though and the funds will be deducted from your available balance if they do. A couple of years ago I got a $20 referral on a Save-the-Date order which "went pink" eight months later. So yeah, "cleared" just means you're cleared to get paid for that, it doesn't mean you can't get un-paid for it at a later date.

[carulcards]

Thank you, @ColsCreations 

I'm not exactly happy to hear that this is the way of things, but thank you for the explanation.

Did you really have to 'get unpaid' for the eight month old referral?

But what if you don't have any money left on Zazzle?

[ColsCreations]

But what if you don't have any money left on Zazzle?

Then you have a negative available balance. I remember several designers reporting being in that boat back when there were mass cancellations of puzzle orders due to Covid issues. If you're set to receive automatic payments every month once the threshold is reached, and you have a weird situation like that where the cancellations coming in on already-paid out earnings total more than the current period's earnings, yeah, you can end up with a negative balance.

[Emma]

Hi @carulcards , 

Many thanks for reaching out. I just wanted to provide a little more context on this. Firstly, please rest assured that this is not the general way of things. Royalties and/or referrals that are canceled much later than the date of the original purchase, as @ColsCreations has mentioned above (that have also exceeded the return policy), are only processed in exceptional circumstances. 

Regarding cancellations that occur after clearance, just to advise of the following: 

1. The clearance period is a period of 30 days, from the date the order was placed. 

2. Zazzle's return policy allows customers to return their order for a period of up to 30 days, from the date of delivery. 

With the return policy in mind, there is always a risk that a cleared Royalty/Referral may be canceled, although minimal as customers usually contact us quite quickly if there is an issue with an order. Here's an example scenario: 

An order placed on April 1st will put that Royalty into the pending stage on the Creator's account, for clearance by May 1st. The order is for Invitations, with Standard Shipping. Approximately 7-10 business days for the total turnaround, so can be delivered between April 12th and 15th. The customer then has 30 days to return their order, meaning the initial earning may be cleared, but may be canceled shortly afterward if the customer requests a refund/Zazzle credit in the final days of the 30 day return policy. 

I hope this helps! 

- Emma 🌻

[carulcards]

Thank you @Emma . Good to know that this doesn't happen very often.