CityDeals, a daily deal Groupon type company located in Salt Lake City Utah suddenly and abruptly closed its doors on Wednesday leaving customers and merchants in the dark.
Customers were briefly being redirected to the DealsThatMatter.com website but customers were not able to access their accounts or to print certificates from their CityDeals.com accounts. A check of number 800-970-8824 is currently a non-working number.
Some local merchants are still honoring the certificates, other merchants who were never paid are not sure they can afford the loss of giving away services or products. Customers are advised to call-ahead.
Owners of Deals That Matter have said they have no affiliation with City Deals however they were apparently in-talks at one point about acquiring CityDeals.com but withdrew from the deal for an undisclosed reason.
A few reviews sited on Google from early August and none are positive. One says it all from the merchants perspective: “Still waiting to get paid for this company on product they sold for me over two months ago. Fortunately, we only ran our ad for two months. When we sign a contract, we expect each party to hold up it’s end.”
Is this possibly an area that the state legislatures needs to look at a bit closer, maybe requiring daily deal sites to maintain a bond or guaranty? I am all for free enterprise but the fast cash in this business model leaves little room for insuring the public trust. Without it, the entire daily deal industry could suffer greatly and or even disappear.
+Nick J. West
Fold3 (formerly footnote) is migrating from Linkshare to CJ. The big news is that the commission for early adopters is 40%. Get your links active now to take advantage of this offer. Click here to apply for the program.
The PMA (Performance Marketing Association) has recently received word and has verified that an advertising tax will be proposed in the very near future in Virginia. If this misguided proposal for a tax passes, the PMA predicts that over 100 advertisers will terminate their affiliate programs with any current publishers residing or operating in Virginia. Please take a few moments right now to register your support on the PMA website by clicking here. Even if you aren’t a Virginia resident you should be outraged at the ineptness in congress over these types of taxes and register your complaint with your state senator and representatives.
vTarget.com has shuttered its doors and is discontinuing its affiliate offerings under the vTarget domain. As of press time, it’s anticipated that the program may continue some of its program offerings under its LaunchItMedia property.
Today’s rash of 22 or more advertiser deactivations on Commission Junction seems unprecedented.
What does it all mean? Is this a sign of the economy getting worse? or is it a sign that CJ is tightening its own policies?
Whatever it is, as a publisher it is disconcerting to manage so many deactivations at once, and it may further devalue your own real estate by a publishers inability or failure to act swiftly to replace or remove deactivated advertisers.
I sometimes wonder what a company is thinking by ending an affiliate program, especially when done in haste with little or even no advance notice. Seriously folks, it’s not as if turning off their banners is a simple flick of the switch, in many cases serious time is spent integrating the advertisers ad into the publishers content. Oh, and FileMaker, Inc.’s Affiliate Program will be ending on May 29th, 2009.
This notice just in; After much consideration, Department56 has been sold to a new company and has decided to pause all affiliate marketing activity until further notice.
The affiliate program was a necessity for Department 56. In our opinion, when Department 56 turned their back on their legacy retailers, by opening their own stores and expanding their online sales ability they really had no other choice than to market their highly collectible products using an affiliate program.
Hopefully the new owners of Department 56 revert to the tried and true methods of selling their collectibles, by investing heavily in their own retailers success.
It’s unofficial, and only speculation but the Gevalia Coffee affiliate program was suspended with Commission Junction today. Not sure if it’s permanent but I have never seen this affiliate program go offline. We wish the company the best and only hope that this is a temporary condition.
