My $273.60 affiliate commissions are stuck in limbo until June. 💸
Here's the wild story. Last December, I was eyeballing my bank account, ready for $614.40 in affiliate commissions to hit. You know, for those last-minute Christmas gifts. Instead? $340.80. Almost $300 just... gone. No warning. No email. Nothing. So, I dug into the invoice and saw two deductions. The wild Boar in me was fuming. I reached out to the company and thus began the most bat-spit crazy back-and-forth of my life. Turns out, their "automated system" flagged two commissions from over a YEAR earlier. Said I violated terms. They clawed them back. I KNEW I hadn't done anything wrong. So I went full Batman detective mode. Dug up old chat logs, took screenshots, even had the customer contact them. FINALLY, they sorted it and told me... "We've decided to reinstate your commissions." Code for: "Oops. We flucked up." Sigh of relief? NAH. Couldn't be that easy. Instead of just sending me the money they took, they put it back into their automated payout system. Which meant I had to wait ANOTHER two months for it to clear their 30-day refund period. Ugh. 🤦♂️ --- 5/ Then, last month, time to get paid again. Except... nothing. Crickets. More back-and-forth like we're playing hot potatos. More "let me check with the tech team." Finally, they found the problem: a bug in their system. Their estimate for a fix? JUNE. 🗓️ See, here's what nobody tells us about affiliate marketing when you're dreaming of freedom: We don't control ANYTHING. They can change rates, claw back commissions, or have "bugs" that take 90 days to fix. We just sit there and take it. Because we don't own the product, the customer, or the payment system. I'm not saying it doesn't work – I've made $2,450.12 from this program alone, and close to $50k in total affiliate sales since 2016. But, today I calculated how much PiggyBANKING income I've made from licensing other people's IP. You'll be blown away by the number. $2,564.70 Nope, not missing any zeros in that. Sorry if I'm not that impressive.