Amazon query! Items not shipped? Cancelled?

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   Randy Godwinposted 12 years ago

   In the last few months I have had several items order from Amazon in the $600+ and $700+ range which haven't ever been shipped or shown to be returned on my account info.  The items appear to be in stock and some I have sold before on previous occasions.
   
   Is there some other way to check the reason(s) for this?  I'm really beginning to wonder because lately I usually average about 50 sales per 1000 clicks, but this month, when my sales should be rising because of my particular seasonal hubs, I only have 3 sales out of almost 300 clicks in June.
   
   My traffic has increased about 30% to my best earning hubs with my Adsense earnings increasing right along with the views.  The Panda thing?  Not really, as March was my best month ever on Amazon and April and May pretty good also.
   
   Any suggestions as to what is different this month?  I really would like some way to tell when our affiliate code is displayed on our hubs.  Or is there some way to do this I am unaware of?

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      sofsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      OH Wow so impressive..   I need to read up some of your hubs to learn some tricks from you. I truly mean it

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         Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         There are no tricks, Sofs.  I do no back linking other than clicking the FB Twitter thingamajigs when I publish.  I write some repair articles in which my hubs are the most detailed and illustrated on the net.  Not all of my hubs are these type, though.  I am merely lucky enough to have this knowledge and experience to write about.  Nothing special! 

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            sofsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I did not mean tricks negatively, I meant there must be so much to learn from your hubs.. I am sure it is still worth a thing or two to read up your hubs.. and now I am  determined to do just that.. I need to make my first sale lol

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               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I understand, Sofs.  I didn't take offense at your post and am pleased you wish to peruse my hubs.  You have yet to make a sale?   That's hard to believe if true!  Or just not very many sales? 

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                  sofsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Nope , MY very first one .. now do you see .. LOL I am pathetic at that

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                     Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Wow!  I would think you would have accidentally sold something along the way!  I sold 20 Kindles a few months ago on one sale for a $180 commission and didn't have them advertised on any of my hubs!
                     
                     Why not ask HP if they have sold anything on your hubs? 

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                        sofsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        LOL  It is highly possible.. but that is real poor luck on my side

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   Aficionadaposted 12 years ago

   
   
   I'm not trying to be a pain here, honest - but... I thought that you, Randy, were the one who said in a different thread just a few days ago that the HP affiliate code was displayed when you had the most traffic.  That sure sounded like you knew how to tell which code was displayed when. 
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/76519?p … ost1655976
   
   I have read in the past of a way to check the code, and I think (...I...think!...) I have done so - but I don't know whether it's HP's code or mine that I'm seeing!  Figuring that out is my next project. 

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I was referencing the Adsense code, Afi!  You can right click on the google ads and check the frame info and it will either have your Adsense code or one of HP's.  But there is no way to tell how long the code is displayed unless you check each hub every few minutes.
      
      As far as I know, there is no way at all to check the Amazon code to see when a writer's code is displayed.  I suggested HP taking the first or last 24 minutes of each hour and letting the writer have the remaining or beginning 36 minutes.
      
      This would enable a writer to know they were getting the same share of the peak selling and ad clicking time as they should be.  At this time we have to trust that we are being treated fairly as far as getting a peak share of prime time.  I know I make very little during the night hours on ad clicks.

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         Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         
         
         Ohhh, I'm only a tiny bit red-faced here at the moment.
         
         Yep, I knew that (Amazon, not Adsense).  I was just checking to see if everyone else was paying attention too.  (Not!)
         
         Good point about letting us know when our ad time occurs.  But I wonder if it's actually practical or viable to do that? -- I'm thinking out loud here just a bit. -- With all the writers all around the world, surely the peak times are different for everyone.  With the numbers of Hubbers involved, I wonder if the staff can even determine which part of the hour or day belongs to whom.  I wonder if the split is somehow randomized; that might actually be the fairest method of all. 
         
         But, if the split is so fixed that they could tell us when our 60% occurs, wouldn't it be easy for the scammy crowd to game?  They game everything else, why not that too?

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            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Do you when most of your Adsense clicks occur?  I seldom get any after 12:00 midnight EST.  I would wager Amazon clicks and sales are much the same as American buyers would be the most likely to buy from my hubs.  If our 60% share falls mainly during the American late hours or early hours of the morning we are SOL!
            
            Do you see why I am concerned?  I would wager HP makes more from our writing on their 40% share than we do on our 60%.  I'm sure someone from staff will pop in at any moment and clear this right up for us! 

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               Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I know that you have thought this through more than I have.  As I said, I'm really just thinking out loud here.  But (thinking out loud), if HP has not been or is not being fair with us, how would anyone have made any money here at all so far?  Why would HP not have fizzled out way long before Panda?
               
               Looking forward to your thoughts on this.
               
               EDIT - Oops, PS:  SOL = ? (Do I want to know this?)

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                  Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm not accusing HP of anything, Afi.  Because of my previous experiences with writing sites I am already a bit suspicious of them all and see no reason for the difficulty of actually being able to check the stats.
                  
                  And how would anyone know if they were being treated fairly as long as they received some amount of money from the affiliates?  It's just a bit too much for me to completely trust writing sites anymore.  I see no reason for Hp to make the system so hard to check if everything is hunky dory, do you? 

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                     wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     From programming years and years ago, I would have used a random number generator to assign a number to each and every visitor; that number then being used to assign which code to use.
                     
                     In the short term the results won't be 60/40, but the longer it goes on the closer it would get.  It eliminates any possibility of cheating from either side.  It is easy to do.  It eliminates time of day problems.
                     
                     It also makes what you are wanting to do (verify that you are getting impressions in "your" time slot) impossible.
                     
                     Not suggesting that HP did this - my programming knowledge is far too rusty to even speculate.  Just saying that there are completely fair and easy methods that can be used but that can't be easily verified by you.

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                        Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Well, we can check to see if our code is on with the Adsense ads, but not with Amazon ads.  I also find things to be a bit too coincidental at times.  I still think it would not be impossible to allow the 60/40 hourly split and do away with any randomness.  My son is an IT and he said there should be no problem designing such a program.

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                           wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           No, there should be no problem.
                           
                           But, Randy, a time period does not necessarily give a 60/40 impression split and that is what is required.  If that were done then someone will decide that the first 1/2 hour is preferable because the time between 2 and 2:30 is the best period of the day.  Or some other imagined 1/2 hour period. 
                           
                           And they might even be right.  Rigid analysis could show that the time period between 8 and 8:30 AM is 80% visits from hubbers as they check their morning stats and look around.  Or that the period from 7 to 7:30 and 4 to 4:30 gets little traffic because everyone is on the road commuting.
                           
                           Better might be that, beginning with the first impression ever, the hubber gets 6, HP gets 4, hubber gets 6, HP 4 and so on.  This you could actually check as Enlightenedsoul points out below.

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                              Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              I honestly don't think there is such a small period of opportunity which would make a difference in a 24/36 minute hour split.  Even so, it could switch every day with a 36/24 split the next day.  I'll be glad to take my chances on who clicks when because there would at least be something definite in the program.
                              
                              Or, I would be happy to control the time shares and let HP trust me to give them their fair share.  I wonder how that would fly?

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                                 wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 You might be right, but the point is that no matter what method is used someone will claim fraud, theft, cheating and anything else they can come up.  Like Obamas birth certificate, they can't win.
                                 
                                 I kind of look at it as the price I pay no use their site to write on.  If they cheat me that's part of the price. 
                                 
                                 Any cheating can't be too bad, though - adsense traffic figures agree pretty closely with HP's, so I know I'm getting about my 60%. 
                                 
                                 I would very much doubt that anything like waiting to see what happens in a specific visit before assigning code would work, and it certainly wouldn't work when considering Amazon purchases (as opposed to Amazon clicks).  Sooner or later a disgruntled employee would let it out or it would be found some other way and HP would find itself in a heap of legal trouble they couldn't survive.

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                                    Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                    So you would be okay with getting most of your views in the middle of the night?  It just seems strange when my best performing hub, which has a record until recently of making a few bucks off Adsense and Amazon has increased its views dramatically and my earnings have plummeted on it.
                                    
                                    More page impressions than any other hub but less ad clicks and products sold than its closely related niche hubs are getting with less views and impressions.  Also, when I check it sometimes the HP code will be on for several hours at a time, with a short period for me in between during the peak search hours.
                                    
                                    This is a hub which I spend a great deal of time answering technical questions with over 120 comments, some very long and detailed.  Many, many links and a long viewing time duration, according to the stats, would seem to indicate something is terribly wrong with this picture.  The sudden Amazon sales drop and the Adsense drop certainly indicates something has happened.
                                    
                                    I'm sorry, but I've learned the hard way not to implicitly trust internet writing sites.
                                    
                                    
                                                                   
                                    
                                    ETA-By the way, internet writing sites get caught doing thing wrong all of the time and usually nothing at all happens to them.  Not counting the Panda slap, of course.

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   englightenedsoulposted 12 years ago

   Randy, I have faced this problem and I have even contacted Amazon regarding this.  And this is the reply I got from them:
   
   Thank you for contacting the Amazon Associates Program.
   
   I am sorry for any misunderstanding regarding the advertising fees for this order. I have checked this order and have verified that it was not tagged to your Associates account. Therefore, we are not able to provide advertising fees for this order.
   
   There are a number of reasons why this may have happened. Here are a few common scenarios that could have prevented the order from being tagged to your account:
   
   - If a customer realizes that they forgot to place their order through an Associate link, and clicks back through an Associate's website after they already placed an item in their shopping cart, then the item in the cart will not be tagged.
   
   - These items may have already been in the customer's shopping cart from a previous visit to Amazon.com. Items stay in the shopping cart for 90 days. If a customer tries to place an order for the same item and it was already in their shopping cart, our system is set up to not record the same item twice and will default to the first time the item was added to the cart.
   
   - If they update the quantity (i.e. from 1 to 2 items), only one item will be tagged to the Associate account.  This is to help ensure that we avoid duplicate orders and customer misunderstandings.
   
   - If they visit a different site after clicking on your link, the items could be tagged to a different Associate. Each item is tagged only if it's added to the cart during the 24-hour shopping session that begins when your link is clicked. That session ends early if the customer completes an order or clicks through another site.
   
   I hope this additional information helps. Thank you for participating in the Associates Program.
   
   I guess the last point is what applies to us.  Hope that helps. 
   
   Natasha

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the info, Natasha.  It does give some idea of what the problem may be, but I have sold several of the same items previously because several of my hubs deal in the item discussed in the sale.  The odds the sale was unrelated are very high  It hurts to lose over $100 in commissions and don't know why.
      
      Thanks again!
      
      Randy

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4. 87

   Marisa Wrightposted 12 years ago

   Amazon sucks!   Not only is there cookie short, they find all kinds of other ways NOT to pay Associates for sales.  I make a few sales here and there but I've given up expecting to do well with them.

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      Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My Amazon sales (until this month) have been quite good and seemed to be increasing.   But now I'm beginning to wonder whats going on.  Especially when views are much higher and the sales suddenly stop abruptly.  Something stinks!

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   Randy Godwinposted 12 years ago

   Wouldn't it be great if HP had someone from staff who would answer questions about how they handle the 60-40 split here?  It almost seems as if they are reluctant to even comment on this most important part of our partnership agreement.
   
   How about it staff?  I know you guys see these questions being asked and no one else seems to know exactly how the time share is divided up.  I would consider this being a proper concern on the writer's end, wouldn't you?  Or is this too much consideration to expect from our end? 

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   englightenedsoulposted 12 years ago

   Randy, our adsense and amazon Id rotates alternatively between visitors.  I just re-checked this on one of my hubs which gets no visitors and out of 10 times I got my adsense and amazon Id six times.  So, I think the revenue sharing is fair, but that's just me.  May be you should also try this on one of your hubs, keep refreshing the hub and view the source code.  I would like to know your results too.

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