Volume Bonus Credit for Referrals Without Correlating Referred Sales

[YesItsRoy]

Volume Bonus page (https://www.zazzle.com/my/earnings/volumebonus) is showing an uptick in Referral sales dollars April 1 through April 30 without correlating Referrals in Referral History (https://www.zazzle.com/my/earnings/referralhistory).

I had $149.81 in verified Referral sales.  The VB page says I had $293.89 in Referral Sales.  That's a $144.08 difference.  How am I being credited with Referred sales without getting the associated Referrals??

I know we're not getting paid for Volume Bonus anymore, and VB itself isn't the reason I'm here.  I'm here because it would appear that we may not be getting our Referral Earnings.  I kind of thought I might be losing my mind or inputting into my workbook incorrectly, and then this happened:

A client I've been working with for many years made purchases today -- both sales are showing as Third Party.  Her last 10+ sales have been None sales, as she blocks cookies.  She clicks links I provided her for custom designs and makes her purchases.  It's possible she clicked someone else's link, but I'm skeptical because she has been consistent for years.

- If she clicked one of my links, it had my RF ID in it; if the cookie stuck, it should've been 15% to ME

- Both sales were Third Party to someone else; I won't know if that was Zazzle until I get the sales email

- Today's sales are 169-67266977-6690558 and 169-12686358-0821994

- Her prior 10 sales neither Third Party- or Self-Referred:

169-46659475-4508012

169-28668320-5932039

169-96555768-3846927

169-14026550-0685865

169-17471121-0767316

169-83073682-1105877

169-78490171-6776833

169-17028918-4948451

169-52175373-7193063

169-57643573-3547421

As Zazzle can see the Products purchases, my RF ID/Member Account is knowable to anyone looking into the issue, but if I need to ID myself via email to Support, happy to do so.

Let me know, if you need any more information.

[Cat]

Just curious. You said "- Both sales were Third Party to someone else; I won't know if that was Zazzle until I get the sales email" I have those "you made a sale" emails turned off because I get totally overwhelmed with stuff from Zazzle anyhow, but I'm now wondering how the email will let you know who the referrer is. Is that info included in the email? If it is, maybe I should turn them back on! 

[YesItsRoy]

The Tracking Cookie associated with the sale is in the email. Of course, now that I was stupid enough to say that, it may change. I find it invaluable in helping me know where my Third Party sales are coming form, so I hope not.

[Connie]

Zazzle now attaches the referral cookies right to the person's account instead of the browser, so even blocking or clearing cookies won't help if she happened to click another Zazzle link in the 45 days before she purchased your products. Zazzle said in the updated FAQ that they are trying not to have any "none" sales.

[Cat]

"Zazzle said in the updated FAQ that they are trying not to have any "none" sales." Wow! I must have missed that! Thanks for the info!

[YesItsRoy]

Okay, now that's ridiculous.  We have NO CHANCE at earning Referrals under these circumstances, if that's true.  Zazzle sends out thousands, if not millions, of emails daily -- all linked up with their RF ID.  How could this program even be considered an ethical business practice, when all the facts are taken altogether? 

Although, I just made two purchases tonight and did the usual -- cleared my Z cookies and then made my purchase.  I *know* I had a cookie set (my RF ID), and it registered as Self, but as a Clean Link. 🤔

[YesItsRoy]

Even she had another cookie set -- and that's a possibility, for sure -- why is my BV total going up? If it was "just another Third Party sale," I'd have chalked it up to exactly that.  But for it be Third Party AND my BV total to increase -- that's the strange part.  

The system is acting like it's my Referral, but someone else is getting the actual Referral.  It's not a lot of money, the $20 is more than the $2 I'd have earned under BV, and when BV stats are taken away, we won't even know how many of "our" Referrals are going to someone else, if that's what's happening.