CJ: We get paid when they get paid
by Sapphire (September 26, 2005)
(e) Facilitating Payment of Payouts. Subject to other provisions in this Agreement, CJ shall credit Your Account with a Payout for each qualifying Transaction in accordance with the Advertiser’s Payout rate and Program terms for the relevant Transaction. On the 20th day of each calendar month, CJ will issue to You any positive balance in Your Account for Transactions reported for the previous month, provided Your Account balance exceeds the required “Minimum Account Balance.” CJ shall have no obligation to make payment of any Payouts for which CJ has not received payment from the relevant Advertiser of all monies due to CJ (including for all Payouts owed by such Advertiser to all of such Advertiser’s Publishers). If CJ elects, in its own discretion, not to make payment to You for amounts not received from an Advertiser, those amounts shall not be included in the Minimum Balance Amount. Your recourse for any earned Payouts not paid to You shall be to make a claim against the relevant Advertiser(s), and CJ disclaims any and all liability for such payment. You may elect to receive payment in any of the currencies that CJ supports (as may be amended by CJ). The conversion rate shall be determined in accordance with CJ’s operating standards using the rates prevailing upon the date that payment is made to You, or upon the basis of historical conversion rates if rates are unavailable. The number or amount of Transactions, credits for Payouts, and debits for Charge-backs, as calculated by CJ, shall be final and binding on You.
After six days without a response to my last email, I called CJ this morning to find out what the problem is. The woman I spoke to explained that I was not being paid because the merchants had insufficient funds with CJ, and referred me to the above paragraph, from http://www.cj.com/psa.jsp. Maybe I’m blind, but I have yet to find a link to this page from the account page or the home page. I tried to look through the FAQ, but the server kept timing out. Interestingly, the woman helping me also had some trouble with the server while we were talking.
She was unable to check on the specific merchants I’ve gotten commissions from and confirm whether they’re behind in payment. Apparently, that’s another department. I pointed out to her that while several of my locked sales are from a merchant no one I know has worked with, who may very well be delinquent, one of those commissions is from a merchant known to be highly reliable by several people I’ve spoken to. Were they also delinquent? Or was it something wrong with my account? Maybe they hadn’t gotten my tax info yet, or maybe my payments are being postponed because I’m new.
She was able to see that my tax info has not been processed (I faxed it over three weeks ago). But she also said that shouldn’t stall payments, because they normally give you a month or so once you reach the payout minimum before they require it. And while the conversation sort of drifted at that point, from what she said I got the impression that publishers who have just reached payout for the first time recently don’t generally see a postponement of payments.
Then again, I wonder if I’d get the same answers if I talked to the bookkeepers. I’m beginning to wonder if all of CJ’s departments are on the same page.
I asked her, “So we can earn $1,000 in commissions, but if you never get paid, we’ll never see a dime of it?” Her answer was yes, but she added that they did pursue delinquent merchants in court, after giving them a period of time in which to catch up (she’s not sure how long the period is - since I’m still waiting on payments I should have received in August, I guess it’s more than 60 days). I pointed out how frustrating it was when I have no way of guessing which merchants are prone to this sort of thing, nor of knowing whether CJ is doing everything they can to ensure they get paid. She agreed, and pointed out that, obviously, it hurts CJ as well not to get paid. And she did seem concerned that a merchant had apparently been delinquent since July (if she’d acted nonchalant about that, I’d be a lot more concerned than I am now).
She offered to send a note to the finance department telling them to (a) get on my merchants about paying up already and (b) to make sure my tax info has been received and my account is all fine.
I’m still thinking some of the problem may be simple data entry. If the system is crapping out on them just like it is on us, maybe they’re entering data - switching transactions from locked to current - and the system isn’t keeping the changes. Or maybe whoever logs whether the merchants have paid up or not isn’t getting their info entered.
The woman who helped me was very professional, and I think she gave me the best answers she has. Hopefully, the department she’s asked to follow up will be equally helpful.
Still trying to figure out how you find that Publisher Service Agreement on your own.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing
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