Forkbeard

I won't be naming the program because (a) it's nearly defunct with no new content in years and (b) I got paid in full.

But you know the joy of little NATS programs where you promote them a bit, get a couple sales, but never push them over the payment minimum before moving on to something more useful?

All the way back in 2008 I started promoting this one site. Got a few sales and an active rebill or two, but even then the content was getting stale so I didn't keep promoting.

Fast forward to 2012 when I got a new sale from old links and the revenue finally popped above $100.

They sent me a check. It bounced.

I contacted them. They said the amount was too small to pay me by wire. It was Paxum or nothing -- and I didn't have Paxum at that time. They didn't seem too interested, frankly, in making good their bad check. I could have made a stink about it under my state law, but for a measly $100? Naw. I'm not as prosperous as I used to be, but my time still has value.

So we agreed that I'd apply for a Paxum account and that they'd pay me for the bounced check when I got one. Meanwhile, my new sale was rebilling at about $15 a month.

Well, I applied for Paxum and had the usual documentary problems -- no combination of available IDs and utility bills and such could be found that had addresses they would accept, since I live way out of town and do most of my business through a P.O. Box.

So I had to rejigger some of my utilities and banking to make Paxum happy. That took time. In fact, it took just under a year before I actually got a working Paxum account. (I had given up, set some documentary changes in motion, then dropped the ball about the need to go around the track six more times with Paxum; I didn't resume getting serious about it until KinkyDollars lost their ability to pay with PayPal late last summer.)

So, when I finally got Paxum earlier this fall, I immediately contacted this program and asked for my bad check reimbursement, along with most of a couple of hundred bucks that had been accruing (but not reaching their huge wire transfer limit) for the previous year. I wasn't sure they'd pay the old bad check after so long, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask, and the accrued rebills were a no-brainer.

Long story short, first they asked me to wait while they looked into it, then they ignored all my emails for two months, then they refused to pay me anything, saying I'd waited too long to ask. After some wrangle they finally agreed to pay me the old bad check but not the current rebills. I gave them the old WTF? on that, then finally after more wrangling they agreed to pay me more-or-less in full. And today -- 15 months and 14 emails later -- the money finally hit my Paxum account.

No way in hell collecting $300 was worth that much effort. But I've been burned so many times in this business, I get stubborn. SO stubborn...

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OneHungLo

Good for you...now out the cheap fucks.

Forkbeard

Naw. They paid me. The implicit leverage in these situations is calling 'em out in public if they don't do the right thing. If you get a rep for trashing them anyway, there goes the leverage in the next situation.

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sandman!

congrats on getting your $$$

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LouiseLloyd

Familiar story.

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PornDiscounts-V

I once was going through my stats remote and noticed a program I made $1600 in rebills on. A few new sales here and there, but mostly it was rebills from the larger sales in 2006/2007. So I hit them up and to my utter amazement they paid me. I guess I never put anything on file and they were sending me Emails to an address I signed up there with in 2004'ish but no longer used.

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Forkbeard

VVVV, that's how it should be. Any well-run program should have unpaid affiliate income in held in a reserve or otherwise reflected in the books as a liability, so what's the downside in paying out? After all, it was never their money, and they got to hold it and use it for years as a free loan.

Of course, in a contracting industry a lot of folks simply can't meet their obligations, and affiliates are about the easiest to stiff. Having a good reputation mattered a lot more to affiliate programs back when the money was flowing hard. These days, a lot of outfits just don't seem to care.

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crockett

I'm dealing with a similar situation but it's for $1,9k. Supposedly the check has been in the mail two times so far... Third time will be the strike out and I just take it to the boards.. Been trying to work with them going on three months now...

rowan

I had one program I'd been with for years put my payments on hold because I'd selected epass as the payout method, then, well, you know what happened to epass. I probably missed the program's email advising me to change to a new payment method. Ended up with an unpaid balance of something like $1500. Took me about 18 months to realise. Once I got into contact with them the amount was sent out promptly by wire. I don't think they even charged me a fee.

crockett

This is what happened to me.. I forgot to update from epass to check and rebills+sales added up to almost 2k over time and now trying to get them to pay me.. So far I've gotten the check is in the mail routine twice..

Forkbeard

I think what happens is that those old unpaid reserves get treated as a free piggie bank when things get lean for a program. So they don't have the money on hand when payment is requested, and they start making up all kinds of creative excuses why they shouldn't pay.

In related news I've got a big, active program that's been slow-walking my payments since June. Last three payments in a row haven't gone out until I inquired and got the "they actually got paid, our accountant just didn't enter the payments in NATs" excuse. Once I could believe, but three times? They must think I'm stupid.

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rowan

I had a check bounced due to the program changing banks. My own bank lost it - couldn't return it to the program - so I had my bank write up an official letter confirming that it did bounce and that they couldn't find it.

That was back in 2007, I forgot about it until this year...

Found the letter again and wrote to the program. New check was sent out a week or two later.

It's not all good, though. I've had one program reissue a check that I found behind some furniture, but then caution me that moving forward they would not reissue checks after 6 months. In other words, if you don't claim your funds within 6 months, we keep them.

ErectMedia

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rowan

Affiliate payments should really be held in trust, rather than being used as something like a fractional reserve system. Hey, 60% of our affiliates take a few months to reach minimum payment level, that means we can spend it in the meantime. We'll figure out how to pay them when the time comes!

Forkbeard

Agreed! But I think you've fingered pretty well how it's actually done at too many programs.

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SilentKnight

Tenacity is good. Sometimes its not about the amount...but the principle of getting what is rightfully yours.

Good job.

lagcam

Seems like a decent guy with integrity got paid what he was owed. Shouldn't have been such hard work though. The program is indeed fortunate to have not been outed.

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ls101

You must name the program so that we can have some awareness on what to promote and not to promote.

bdld

persistence pays off.

Ramster

Good luck! I've been chasing Smashbucks Mike Hawk for almost a year with no luck on nearly $1,000 owed to me

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Forkbeard

As explained further up in the the thread, withholding my public censure from all but the worst offenders (the ones who absolutely stiff me and refuse to pay) maximizes my leverage for getting paid in these situations. Is that a little bit selfish? Sure. But in this case, I can't believe it's a big problem, because this is one of those programs that hasn't posted any new content since 2011 or so judging by the dates of the hosted galleries. I think it's one of the many programs that's just coasting along on past glory and re-used content.

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