You have probably noticed that i have the odd ad on my blog, and on any of my personal sites such as my adidas superstar forum.
I toyed with a few ideas, but settled on using AuctionAds as the content was more interesting than plain text that you get with adsense. It was also quite cool to have bargain adidas superstars linked in my ads on a site that is all ABOUT adidas superstars..
My first beef with AA was when they seemed to stop recording the clicks and page impression’s so that when i went in and did a report- it said 0 where it should of said how ever many thousand page impressions.
I contacted them about it, and they responded (quite rudely) and said that although THEIR system wasn’t recording it, eBays was or something, and that i would still be paid.
True to their word i did get something from the time it wasn’t recording, but its wasn’t very consistent and something didn’t seem right – this was the start of me losing faith.
I then did a yearly report, and cross referenced it with my paypal account, i was paid on the 1st of September and it was like $12 – not a lot but it helps. I then had not been paid since, and it was November.
I contacted them again, after reading their FAQ’s on their site, which had stated that advertisers would be paid on the 1st of every month. Hmm, so where has my money been going? I double checked my auction ads reports, and the money had not been going anywhere incorrectly, it had simply NOT been paid to me AT ALL! The staff member again quite rudely and bluntly said that i would be paid after had reached the $50 threshold. I questioned why i had been paid $12 on the 1st of September – he informed me of a policy change – and yet their own site still had not been updated to reflect these changes.
This was when i started to realise that these people were having problems, probably money problems.. So i got worried, but stuck with it until i had reached $50 so that i could get what i was owed.
Half way thru November, the $50 benchmark was reached and i again contacted them and asked when i would be paid. I had to ARGUE with the guy saying i HAD passed the $50 benchmark – and at one point even sent him a report from THEIR OWN WEBSITE proving that i had indeed passed the threshold.
Then he informed me, that not only did i have to pass$50, i also had to wait till the 1st of December. Even though when i had asked the chap who told me the policy had changed – he told me ALL I HAD TO DO was pass the $50. So what, your own staff don’t know what the score is? How am i supposed to know?
But AGAIN, i left it.. And waited till the 1st to get my $50, so i could pay my ebay bill and list some items i need to sell BADLY.
It is now the 4th of December – and guess what! I STILL HAVE NOT BEEN PAID!
I contacted them last night having a bit of a moan, and was told i would be paid within the hour – that was at least 12 hours ago.
I am trying to hold back going nuts to them, as they owe me MONEY. But as soon as i have what i have earn’t i will remove ALL auction ads off all my sites and look for something else.
If you are reading this and are thinking about using AuctionAds – DO NOT BOTHER! Yes the ads are cool, and the theory behind it is MINT – But you will spend all your life waiting to get paid, and there are better solutions out there.
ShoppingAds is their site too, so i would steer CLEAR away from them.
If auctionads are reading this, then as per my email – you need to start looking after your advertisers as sooner or later more and more people will blog about you and cause your company to shut down.
Sort it out AA!