Of course most merchants are above board, and I’ve no doubt many lack the “jiggery pokery” to do anything with the tracking (I know this from the number of merchants who have no clue how to put it up in the first place - any network will tell you that!)

I think the frustration is born from the fact that tracking does go awry from time time, and when that happens, it is very, very rare that anyone (except affiliates) actually notices, and even rarer that affiliates are compensated for the loss of commission.

This should get rarer now - Networks used to have a warning mechanism to alert them when tracking went down (They were called screaming affiliates). Now these affiliates are getting their own warning devices - Screaming cashback site customers! So lost tracking should be spotted a lot sooner, and dealt with accordingly.

I can understand your concerns, but please rest assured that not all merchants are tarred with the same brush!

However, I also like to remedy these situations quickly, and I am lucky that I can easily check our system to see if a sale has been made and then ask the network to credit that affiliate with whatever they are owed. I certainly wouldn’t expect them to take the loss unless there was no way of verifying their claim to have made a sale, and if the network fails to act within a reasonable time then they feel the sharp edge of my tongue!!

I am aware that plenty of affiliates see merchants as money-grabbing monkeys out to make money in any way they can, but some of us are genuinely mystified at tracking problems (which can originate from the network, or sometimes the affiliate’s own site!) and do all we can to resolve them.

Like you, we’ve come across umpteen cases of merchants not tracking and, even when it’s reported to them with evidence, not doing anything about it. Worse thing is when the eventually tell us to stop using those links… but can’t be bothered to tell their hundreds if not thousands of other affiliates.

Affiliate marketing, don’t you just love it?!