How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant • Hacker News Board

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#61

Post by TomSwirly » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:35 AM UTC

damethos wrote: post #59

I understand the fact that the author took the matter in his own hands and claimed what he was owed but this article is just another proof that instead of doing our jobs and spending our time more productively, we always need to play the "lawyer" and the "detective" because some people/company always abuse their position of power. The author did manage to get his money, but at the same time pointed them a flaw (the a…

There are laws against this sort of thing.

In another country, like the one I now live in, this would be a job for law enforcement.

You'd just hand over your files to some branch of the government, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, you'd get some money, but also, the site would stop cheating people.

Except that this rarely happens here, because companies know that law enforcement cares about systematic scams.

They might try to cheat you once, to see if you're a sucker, but if you put up any fuss, they'll give you the money.

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#62

Post by colechristensen » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:40 AM UTC

rmason wrote: post #41

function_seven wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where do people get their info from to just go with a "time to contact the FTC"? If feels like the equivalent of people threatening they will contact the BBB. I'm well aware of how toothless and irrelevant BBB is these days. ("Yelp for old people"). Almost nobody visits BBB before making a decision, only after a bad experience. Given that, a business with a bad grade there probably doesn't feel much of a sting. But…

Actually I do visit the BBB if I am dealing with a new and unknown merchant before making a purchase. I also do searches with the business and add the words dispute, ripoff and problems. It's amazing what you learn. Now if you don't find anything that doesn't mean there won't be problems. But if you do it's like a flashing red light on the dashboard to back away.

If it’s a merchant, just use a credit card. Payment processors don’t like fraud, and it’s one phone call to report a disputed charge. Disputes come out of the merchants pocket and then their rates go up or they are dropped by the processor. You also benefit everyone else by finding and hurting the bad merchant.

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#63

Post by noodlesUK » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:41 AM UTC

TomSwirly wrote: post #61

damethos wrote: post #59

I understand the fact that the author took the matter in his own hands and claimed what he was owed but this article is just another proof that instead of doing our jobs and spending our time more productively, we always need to play the "lawyer" and the "detective" because some people/company always abuse their position of power. The author did manage to get his money, but at the same time pointed them a flaw (the a…

There are laws against this sort of thing. In another country, like the one I now live in, this would be a job for law enforcement. You'd just hand over your files to some branch of the government, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, you'd get some money, but also, the site would stop cheating people. Except that this rarely happens here, because companies know that law enforcement cares about systematic scam…

What country is this, if you don’t mind my asking?

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#64

Post by damethos » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:44 AM UTC

TomSwirly wrote: post #61

damethos wrote: post #59

I understand the fact that the author took the matter in his own hands and claimed what he was owed but this article is just another proof that instead of doing our jobs and spending our time more productively, we always need to play the "lawyer" and the "detective" because some people/company always abuse their position of power. The author did manage to get his money, but at the same time pointed them a flaw (the a…

There are laws against this sort of thing. In another country, like the one I now live in, this would be a job for law enforcement. You'd just hand over your files to some branch of the government, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, you'd get some money, but also, the site would stop cheating people. Except that this rarely happens here, because companies know that law enforcement cares about systematic scam…

Unfortunately the law does not work that well in all countries. It might take years even for a small dispute and they know that in most cases and they take advantage of it. The important thing here, as you mentioned, is for the company to be in check by the law or else they will just take advantage of every situation, but of course. The law is mostly slow and never helpful unless you spend a lot of money in lawyers.

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#65

Post by MertsA » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:44 AM UTC

dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #3

> To put it bluntly, we are not paying you for your conversions How did the CEO write this and not immediately ^H^H^H it? Could he really not think of a better phrasing than "your conversions"?

That genuinely sounds like he misunderstood the issue to be with prior untracked referrals rather than not paying out referrals properly attributed to him but "ineligible".

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#66

Post by m3at » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:45 AM UTC

> Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but I always find it to be the least stressful way of addressing disputes.

This make it very valuable to me. Resolving disputes can quickly become stressful, especially when as an engineer you rarely have to do so with customers.

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#67

Post by noodlesUK » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:46 AM UTC

The blog post he mentions Identity Theft, Credit Reports and You is a really good read that has surfaced on HN a couple times. If you haven’t read it, you should. The notion of simply being an organised professional being the most intimidating thing to bureaucracies is very true in my experience.

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#68

Post by markdown » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:51 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #45

> I had no evidence to prove any of my readers purchased something Well there goes your leverage. Is this common in the content game?

> Is this common in the content game?

I've never known an affiliate system to have independently verified stats. Whether you're an affiliate for a small business or Amazon, they control the stats and you just have to accept what they say they owe you.

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#69

Post by markdown » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:52 AM UTC

glenstein wrote: post #57

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #45

> I had no evidence to prove any of my readers purchased something Well there goes your leverage. Is this common in the content game?

As they mentioned further down in the article, they later got access to data on how affiliate references were performing and used that to extrapolate over the 120 cases that were missing data.

> they later got access to data on how affiliate references

That data also comes from the vendor, so it's only as correct as the vendor wants it to be. Affiliates are always at the mercy of their vendors.

Re: How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant

#70

Post by markdown » Sun, Dec 06, 2020, 9:54 AM UTC

fareesh wrote: post #34

Is there no intermediary third party service which will allow advertisers and websites to register their arrangement and track conversions? Sounds like an obvious product idea. What am I missing?

How many vendors want to give a third party all their sales data?