Zazzle, in the absence of even an 'acknowledgment' of the affiliate redirect issue, I feel I have no alternative due to facing massive losses to take the next step.
Zazzle, Inc. Attn: Legal Department 1000 Broadway Oakland, CA 94607
Details here: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/general-zazzle-discussion/why-do-our-pinterest-marketing-efforts-pro...
Re: Complaint Regarding Affiliate Program Redirect
Dear Zazzle Legal Department,
I am writing to express my concern about a change made (without notice to affiliates at a date unknown) to your affiliate program that I believe is unfair and potentially illegal. Specifically, I am referring to the redirect that you 'appear' to have implemented that takes affiliate referrals (when shared on social media platforms) to a page that contains other sellers' products instead of the product page that we intended to send them to.
Specifically re P2 program. If I send a customer to MY product page they have the option there to buy, review my collection and only see a small carousel of products re other sellers. However, that appears to nolonger be the case. Referrals are instead now going to a 'landing page' which shows my product (minus product details) and 65 products from other sellers. Ie creating a situation where I now have 1 in 66 chance to make a sale and gain a referral.
I did not spend years creating content and forwarding HUGE volumes of traffic to Zazzle for this to be the case.
I believe that this redirect is a violation of the terms of our affiliate program agreement. The agreement states that affiliates will be paid a commission on all sales generated through their referrals. However, the redirect is effectively preventing me from earning commissions on sales of my own products.
In addition to being a violation of our agreement, I believe that the redirect is also deceptive. Customers are not aware that they are being taken to a page that does not contain the ability to purchase the product (without following another link) that they are looking for and they are instead swamped once more with 'choice'. This could lead to customers becoming frustrated and abandoning their purchase altogether.
I am requesting that you immediately remove the redirect and allow my referrals to go to the product pages that I send them to. I am also requesting that you compensate me for any lost commissions that I have incurred as a result of the redirect.
If you are able to reasonably confirm and demonstrate however your redirect is legal, not deceptive, not intended to create a loss of referral income I will reconsider my complaint.
If however the 'radio silence' myself and other creators have met with so far re this issue continues, I will have no option but to forward my complaint to:
- California Attorney General's Office: https://oag.ca.gov/
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC): https://www.bbb.org/us/dc/washington/profile/government-offices/federal-trade-commission-washington-dc-1126-97001826
- Better Business Bureau (BBB): https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint
I urge you to take my complaint seriously and take immediate action to address this issue.
Note: Recently a Zazzle Team Member confirmed members like myself who raise concerns 'frequently' may be removed from the community. Concerns are raised 'frequently' when they are serious and yet not addressed. I hope that will not be the case here, as censorship is not the answer. That will merely escalate the issue. This complaint takes the form of an open letter for FULL transparency and because it affects many other affiliates not just myself.
Sincerely,
LeahG
Affiliate 238065638413579200
Evidence:
Redirects from Pinterest/X/Facebook
I answered where you originally replied to my post, @CreativeLeahG. Just to reiterate, it was only my bookmarklets that were affected and not Zazzle's own sharing tools.
Hopefully that clears it up 🙂
Update re landing page issue and P2 program and 'linkovers'. I ( as many know) have been taking steps to remove all my P2 links to Zazzle and as such reduce the traffic I was sending to Zazzle (for which I saw no benefit since the landing page change).
By deleting over 100,000 pins, it's evident that the bulk of the traffic came from Pinterest.
I hope Zazzle realizes how counterproductive their recent actions have been, given the significant drop in daily customer visits to their platform.
I did ask in my formal complaint that Zazzle 'confirm' that their action was not contravening the terms of the program (which states referrals for P2 direct to the sellers own store page) if that was the case. To date there has been no such confirmation.
I'm nolonger in the P2 program, and in all honestly I am unlikely to do any further affiliating via P1 in light of this. While I regret the impact this may have on other sellers, the lack of support and understanding from some designers to their fellow affiliates has been disheartening. However as those individuals devalued our efforts, they are in no position to complain. I hope Zazzle will take the feedback of its affiliates seriously and reconsider their recent changes even though I am nolonger one of them.
I still support Zazzle creators and will continue to do so via my site.
