ComplaintsforCommission Junction, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  10/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Commission Junction gave me an affiliate link to use to sell my product. I emailed the two CJ associates that had given me the link I should use to have them verify that it was working and all looked good. They assured me that the link I was using was the correct one and it was working. When I did not receive any payments, I inquired, and they said that the link wasn’t working and that it was going directly to the original product’s website. I had only shared that particular link with my audience, and I know for a fact that I made over 100 sales, and they said none of them tracked. This is hard to believe because the “incorrect” link URL has “cjevent” within it. They will not compensate me for the error they made and that caused me to lose a lot of commissions.

• Initial Complaint

  08/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was an affiliate for CJ and with no warning they closed my account and did not pay me the $270 they owe me. They did not reply to my question as to what the infraction was.

  Business response

  08/18/2023

  J*** ********,
  
  Commission Junction LLC (“CJ”), maintains its stance that your publisher account was rightfully terminated for breaching the CJ Publisher Services Agreement (“PSA”), which you agreed to when you created your free CJ publisher account on March 22, 2022.  Your account was deactivated as a result of breaching of Section 1(d)(iii) of the PSA, and you were notified of such deactivation on July 17, 2023.
  
  Per Section 1(d)(ii), you agreed to use promotional methods that “do not mislead the Visitor.” Also, “any suspected fraudulent or illegal content or activity by You or Your promotional methods is grounds for immediate termination” of the PSA or a publisher’s account.
  
  CJ’s Network Quality team determined that you were using a VPN to block your registered website due to a malware flag, resulting in limited transparency to your promotional activities, which is needed to ensure the validity of traffic and transactions.
  
  Ultimately, your breach of the PSA resulted in your account being terminated, and the related commissions have been reversed and returned to your advertiser.  Per Section 6(c), “breach of any Section of [the PSA] is cause for immediate termination from an Advertiser's Program and/or termination of [the PSA], and may result in Chargeback of one or more Payouts.” Further, per Section 3(b), “an Advertiser may apply, or CJ may apply, a debit to Your Account in an amount equal to a Payout previously credited to Your Account in circumstances of : . . . (v) Publisher failure to comply with Advertiser's Program terms or other agreement with Advertiser ("Charge-back").”  In sum, CJ’s Network Quality team had sufficient evidence to determine that you violated the PSA, and your account was rightfully deactivated and your commissions were rightly withheld and returned to the advertiser.
  
  You are directed to refrain from posting any false, disparaging and/or defamatory allegations regarding CJ, as CJ has acted within its rights under the PSA.  CJ reserves all its rights in this matter.  Nothing herein is intended to waive CJ’s rights, all of which are expressly reserved.

• Initial Complaint

  06/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On June 14th, 2023, I received an email from CJ Affiliate saying that my Publisher account (I promote other companies' products for commissions) has been removed and all transactions charged back because I direct linked from Google to Namecheap. However, I believe this accusation and their refusal to pay me what they owe me (around $350) is completely unfair for many reasons, indicated below: (1) I never did what CJ Affiliate is accusing me of - running direct linked ads to Namecheap from Google Ads. I do have a website and organic SEC traffic, so maybe the traffic comes from GOOGLE, but it's not direct linking - it's because organically finding my website and buying the product... I would like to see direct proof of my "direct linked" ads because I have a strong feeling they are making this up without proof. (2) I haven't used Google Ads to promote anything for over 4+ years. EVEN IF I DID break the rules, why wait until it's time to payout before closing my account? Why not block my account immediately after I "break the rules" so it's fair to the advertiser and not wait until they manually request payout? The only reason why they even looked into my payment was because after 6 years, I finally looked into the pending payouts I was owed and contacted them to get the money. What if I never contacted them? I could have racked up $1,000's of dollars of commissions and then only later found out that I was blocked and commissions not received? (3) I promoted many other products on CJ Affiliate and refusing to pay me EVERYTHING they owe me is completely unfair. If you are going to block me for breaking Namecheap terms, then only don't pay me the Namecheap portion of what you owe me (ASSUMING I even broke your rules). Given all this, I request that CJ Affiliate give me what they owe me. I did contact their support after receiving the email, but was told that the decision is final. I would like to hear from CJ Affiliate about this and get proof of their accusations.

  Business response

  09/18/2023

  CJ has reviewed your message, and we are reopening the investigation into your account deactivation.  CJ's Network Quality team will contact you within 48 hours to provide a summary and an update on your account status.  Thanks. 

  Customer response

  09/19/2023

  
  
  Complaint: 20200061
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I did see that the request has been sent, however now I haven't heard back from the business for over a week.
  
  Regards,
  
  I*** ********
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  11/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Our company has been working with Commission Junction for a few years and have deposited around $1.5 million dollars into the platform, but this year we decided to transition to another platform due to cost. Since leaving on August 7th 2022, regular and transparent communication from CJ Affiliates has been at most, minimal, and at its worst, non-existent. Even though we left the program, we still received charges to our leftover budget, which the CJ team promised to be returned to us after 60 days of confirming our receipt, 71 days have passed. We have been promised updates regarding the reasoning behind this unauthorized charge and a final receipt of all our fees from CJ representatives, time and again, but every time these promises go unfulfilled. Since leaving, we have sent multiple emails across several threads, with 3 specific emails requesting immediate updates for senior management. All 3 of those messages have been wholly ignored by the CJ team as early as 9/19/22 and as recent as 10/31/22. As of now, 11/2/2022, we believe Commission Junction has not tried to resolve this issue, as they have yet to deliver on their promises to provide information that we have requested or info they have promised. We hope the BBB can help facilitate regular, transparent communications between our two companies to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

  Business response

  11/10/2022

   

  I have discussed this issue with our accounts payable team.  It is my understanding that the accounts payable team has requested that you provide specific documents that are necessary to process the refund.  Once you have provided those documents, the refund should be processed within 2-3 weeks.

   

  If you have any questions regarding these documents or the process, please reach out directly to your CJ contact for more information. 

   

  My best,

• Initial Complaint

  08/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have a publisher account in commission junction and I was successfully making money from promoting their advertisers. The problem is they deactivated my account without any clear explanation even though I am in full compliance. I attached a screenshot where they mentioned that I have a written approval from an advertiser I am promoting.

  Business response

  09/06/2022

   

  CJ's Network Quality ("NQ") team has reviewed the issues with your account, and it has determined that there are transparency issues with the traffic that is coming from your publisher websites.  Failure to provide sufficient transparency as to the source of any traffic or resulting transactions are a violation of the Publisher Service Agreement and your obligation to CJ and advertisers, and such violations are grounds for termination of your publisher account.  NQ has already sent you subsequent messages detailing the issues.  Please review these messages and communicate directly with the NQ representative for further questions.

   

  My best,

  Customer response

  09/08/2022

  
  
  Hello, 
  
  They did not ask me about the source of my traffic, and I believe they are fully aware that my traffic source is Google. They are even aware that I asked the advertisers that I have partnered with if I could bid on their Brand Terms + keyword in which they have approved me to do so.  As for the subsequent email they mentioned about a detailed reason. They haven't given me any full detail, and I did try to connect with them through email for many times, but unfortunately haven't heard from them. 
  
  
  This is the only thing I have received when they deactivated my account:
  
  "Upon further review of your publisher application to join the CJ platform, CJ has denied your membership as a CJ publisher. CJ only accepts applicants into membership that submit accurate information and utilize business models that meet criteria established by CJ. CJ reserves the right to reject any potential publisher that does not meet the standards specified in the CJ Publisher Service Agreement and generally established by CJ."
  
  I think the deactivation of my account without notifying me to fix or meet their standards is inconsiderate. They mentioned that they denied my application when in fact they approved my application during the sign-up process in which I did end up spending thousands of dollars to buy traffic from Google. They should've done that during the sign-up process and not let publishers like me spending with an expectation to get a Return on Investment.
  
  Regards,
  
  R****** *** *****
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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