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  1. #1

    Webhostingpad's affiliate system is just a scam

    Last year,I registered a webhostingpad affiliate account.for I think its cheap price should have market in some Chinese user.Eventhough I heard many people said that most affiliate are just scam,but I think I don't want them to pay me all the commissions i get,just pay me half or less,it is enough to me.
    So when I got my first client in my account,I feel so happy and superise,I just post my affiliate in some forum.but I checked their rules that I should have 100$ in my account then I can get the payment.
    Ok,I paid more effort to promote the webhosting,and made a webpage to describe webhostingpad's advantages.then I got 3 clients after my hard work.
    Then I think I should get the payment,but in their affiliate,when the commissions after appoved reach the payment,all the records are gone,just clear,no reason no more links.
    I opened tickets to them to check it.First a person is just a little kind,but he just go around in circles,asked me to give more records about my client.It is so strange that they can't search my clients' record in their system,but ask me to give the details of my clients.luckily I did some screencopy of my affiliate records.when I sent them the screencopies,they just changed another man to answer me.his attitude is so crude,just said that my commissions didn't fit their rules,but when I asked him what's the exact point he can't answer me,just use some words to change the subject.And if he want,I can give more evidence to prove that I get my clients clearly without any disobey to their rules.
    after a long time tickets with them,I feel I just get in a scam,why all the commissions reach the payments then been wiped out?why didn't point out what rule I didn't fit?
    the reason is so simple,their affiliate system is just a scam,they don't want to pay any commissions.

  2. #2
    From google,found another person's blog about webhostingpad affiliate.
    WebHostingPad Affiliate Program - WebHostingPad Scam

    Today, I'm posting about a completely different company than Network Solutions. WebHostingPad is another company we have helped spread the word about and we have been part of their affiliate program for many months now. The purpose of this blog post is to warn others of questionable business practices by this web hosting company.

    I was notified by my accountant that our company had received a check for $700 when our stats showed we were due over $2000 for the month of April. So I logged into our WebHostingPad affiliate program account and noticed that they had approved only 5 sales from a month where we were to have nearly 20. They had reversed about 2/3 of the sales for undisclosed reasons.

    I printed an accounting of our current month sales in June and then checked it the next couple days. I noticed a couple of sales disappear. I then looked at my list and did a whois check on the DNS info - the 2 sales that disappeared were still hosted on WebHostingPad. This is kind of odd because if the sale had been fraud or cancelled - they wouldn't allow it to be an active website.

    So I emailed the affiliate manager - Ben Park. Got no reply to my inquiry.

    I then noticed they approved only 5 sales for the month of May as well when we had approx 20 sales for that month too. Again, I emailed Ben Park - webhostingpad affiliate program manager - no reply.

    This happened to me one time before where I caught a web host reversing transactions back in 2004. We settled the matter and life went on. This company hasn't even bothered to email me back. I've also tried to call Ben Park. He didn't return my call of course. I've sent about 6 or 7 emails asking for some type of explaination and never got a return. I also copied another person in the affiliate department who had originally contacted me to get us to spread the word about webhostingpad.com and they didn't return my emails either. I also sent an email to the owner of webhostingpad web hosting - no reply. Surprised? Not really. When someone knows they are caught in a lie or fraud like this - they usually avoid the issue.

    FUNNY THING!!! After I emailed Ben Park about this- I haven't seen more sales get reversed...a sure sign something is fishy.

    Don't be a victim of the WebHostingPad Scam. WebHostingPad Affiliate Program is not legit. The web hosting industry is too small for someone like this to get away with it. The word will spread and it is...I recently looked up some info on webhostingpad scams and saw another story similar to mine on a webmaster forum. I'd still like WebHostingPad to correct this issue, but until then - I'll be spreading the word that WebHostingPad sucks and they are running a scam. If you can't trust them to pay their bills...I wouldn't trust them to host my website.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    929
    Yikes, thank you for warning the community. Atleast we know now.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Chennai , India
    Posts
    4,632
    Their website seems to be down

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    1,695
    Honestly you shouldn't have to put up with this poor service. It is very stupid that they are asking you for evidence of the sales when their affiliate system should handle this. My guess is that their system does show your sales but they don't want to pay you. Find a more reputable affiliate program such as HostGator and you will not have any problems like this again.

    Good luck!
    Jack
    Zomex ~ Templates & services for web hosting resellers since 2009!
    #1 Web Hosting Templates for WHMCS Templates | WordPress | HTML | Blesta | Clientexec
    █ Professional WHMCS Services | Installation | Configuration | Integration | Upgrades

  6. #6
    *tut tut*

    Quote Originally Posted by sequencehosting View Post
    Find a more reputable affiliate program such as HostGator and you will not have any problems like this again.
    I agree with this.
    HostXNow - Shared Web Hosting | Semi Dedicated Hosting | Enterprise Reseller Hosting | VPS Hosting

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Hmm... perhaps it is too hard to pay $75 per sale when you're selling hosting for as low as $24 per year, and the highest you command is $42 per year.

    I mean, it's likely enough that it'll take them a decade to recoup the money, assuming that the customer stays with them that long, and that the industry will be the same 10 years from now.

    That being said, I would find it particularly stupid for a company engaging in affiliate fraud to allow affiliates to see all their sales and then just cancel 3/4 of the commissions for no reason at all. It would just be better to never let them see more than 1/4th of their commissions in the first place. It could be easily done too, and the affiliate would have nothing to complain about (except from time to time when they know that somebody bought using their affiliate link and doesn't show up in the reports).
    Last edited by ldcdc; 03-18-2010 at 01:24 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Colombia, South America
    Posts
    527

    Enroll in Commission Junction and LinkShare

    Sad that you have had this bad experience. I strongly suggest that you enroll with Commission Junction and LinkShare. Then, become an affiliate of HostGator, for one example, via Commission Junction. You will then receive any commission $ that you have earned. GL

  9. #9
    Thank you all above.
    To ldcdc,some clients are known by me,so it can't clear the record,but your idea is a method to those who don't want to pay the comissions.
    At my point,I don't hope can get all the 75$ per client,but as a reliable company,you should make affiliate a little valuable.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    New York
    Posts
    311
    Yeah, go with affiliate systems that have a clearly good reputation.. some people on the Internet are just out to get ya.. (well, more specifically, your money).

    I think you learned a pretty valuable lesson through this at any rate.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    318
    Quote Originally Posted by ldcdc View Post
    Hmm... perhaps it is too hard to pay $75 per sale when you're selling hosting for as low as $24 per year, and the highest you command is $42 per year.

    I mean, it's likely enough that it'll take them a decade to recoup the money, assuming that the customer stays with them that long, and that the industry will be the same 10 years from now.

    That being said, I would find it particularly stupid for a company engaging in affiliate fraud to allow affiliates to see all their sales and then just cancel 3/4 of the commissions for no reason at all. It would just be better to never let them see more than 1/4th of their commissions in the first place. It could be easily done too, and the affiliate would have nothing to complain about (except from time to time when they know that somebody bought using their affiliate link and doesn't show up in the reports).

    You are right. We hosts like that one only states they will pay them but in real they do not have funds available to pay what you you have earned.

  12. #12
    Hi

    I do agree with the OP's point - Webhostingpad is a real scam web hosting!
    And they can cheat CJ.com - You could find they've even joined CJ.com's advertiser..

    Stay further away with Webhostingpad and I've posted many topics about "Webhostingpad Scam" on my website -
    Webhostinggeeks dares to advertise Webhostingpad on their homepage, it real made me disappointment!!!

  13. #13
    As the affiliate manger at WHP, I process payments and people get paid! That is why webhostinggeeks, webhostingchoice, and webhostingsearch have us prominently listed! No affiliate program is perfect and with so much fraud on the internet, safeguards are in place to assure we receive quality orders. If only affiliates could see the amount of fraud that we deal with!

    When an affiliate inquires about a sale that supposedly did not track, we ask for the domain for the sale when we do not have any other information other than an affiliate stating that they made a sale. Once a referred sale is made, the domain is given to the affiliate and can be viewed in their affiliate control panel. When something is amiss, we even check IP logs to see if the person who the affiliate says they signed up visited their site. Affiliate inquiries are researched but without more information than "Where is my sale?" there is not much to go on.

    When an affiliate decides to join a program, it is essential that they read the agreement or terms of service that the company employs. Our terms are fair and again it is important to have safeguards in place or we would not be able to pay the high CPA's that keep us competitive.

  14. #14
    It's best to promote a company through an Affiliate network like CJ etc. They help you get your money.

  15. #15
    With my presonal experience, I agree with the OP's point!

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    258
    Quote Originally Posted by webhostingpad View Post
    As the affiliate manger at WHP, I process payments and people get paid!
    Not me. I'm owed almost 10k. The payments were never sent.
    When are you going to send the payments Ben?


    Andrew

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    17
    Web Hosting Pad, please respond to this thread. We're all interested to know what excuses you have, if any?

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    4,533
    Ouch sorry to hear. There have been a lot of scary reviews of them and http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-...ws-il-88274902 does not show anything nice either.
    Good luck with your next affiliate :/

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    258
    Quote Originally Posted by Gavin84 View Post
    Web Hosting Pad, please respond to this thread. We're all interested to know what excuses you have, if any?
    Don't hold your breath. They gave excuses for a couple of weeks then stopped communicating.

  20. #20
    I too have had a lot of trouble with the WebHostingPad affiliate program, I have not been very impressed with them in the past but recently they got a new affiliate manager. The new manager seems to respond a lot more quickly than the old one; however, I still think they have a lot of work to do.

  21. #21
    Hi,

    I also agree that you better join an affiliate network like Commission Junction. The commission rates at CJ are higher than those inhouse affiliate program of Web Hosting Companies.

  22. #22
    I'm the original poster of the blog that was re-posted here by powerwin.

    I own a number of hosting related sites and am owed approx 5000 by WebHostingPad. We started doing a bunch of volume in March 2009 and then in June stopped promoting them due to the high reversal rate. Our conversion rate after the reversals was .5% which is about 1/8th of hosts in that same position we gave them.

    From May until mid-June - we found that sales were disappearing, but I was doing daily sales reports and found that these were reversed almost as soon as they came in...but the domain was still active on the WHP servers - most still are. A clear sign we were getting screwed. This has happened over the years with a few hosts and we spot them quickly.
    I reported this to the BBB and after that I never heard from WHP again. BBB emailed and said - they don't handle complaints like this, but at that time they had an A rating...glad to see they updated to F!!! At the time when I submitted - they were a BBB member...they are no longer. Wonder why?

    I was contacted by a new affiliate manager recently and was told they want to repair old relationships... a bunch of lip service. After I laid out all the details of my experience and asked for the money I'm due - I haven't heard back. I told them I'd consider promoting their company if they made good on the affiliate agreement (which states an affiliate is entitled to all information about the sale, domain, reversal reason). Nothing has come of this.

    The owner of WHP is no stranger of how web hosting directories works as they have/do own a few. Problem is - this industry is too small for scammers like this. What goes around comes around.

    And in response to the "Affiliate Manager" from WHP who sends the checks...of course you want to mention those directories...they're the ones you pay and you turn around and screw the mid-size/smaller directories!

    Also, they just started greenvillehost.com not too long ago so stay away from that as well.

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by forumplace View Post
    Hi,

    I also agree that you better join an affiliate network like Commission Junction. The commission rates at CJ are higher than those inhouse affiliate program of Web Hosting Companies.

    I would have to disagree.. I really dislike CJ. A host that I deal with has a CJ affiliate program as well as an in house affiliate program. They ran a test and estimated that affiliates who chose the CJ route lost about 15% more sales than those who did the in-house program.

    NOW.. If you have a dishonest host you would be better off going with CJ.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    258
    What's the name of the new affiliate manager?

    Thanks,
    Andrew

  25. #25
    I think I read about WebHostingPad's bad affiliate program quite awhile ago, and I'm surprised this just surfaced here. From what I understand, they owe a lot of people a lot of money and it's best to just stay clear.
    Travis Newton - NodeSpace Hosting
    cPanel | VPS | Bare Metal | Proxmox

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