Aweber Affiliate Program is a SCAM Don't Send them Traffic!

This is a bit of a rant post but I am pretty pissed off, I was owed over $1,000 from Aweber in affiliate commissions which they refuse to pay since I did not cash the checks they sent in the first year. I was overseas not able to receive the checks, they never notified me my checks that were not being cashed were being lost FOREVER with no possible way to reclaim the money.

They ONLY send payments by check which for an online company is an obvious scam to get out of paying affiliate commissions, or at least those affiliate commissions ever being received and claimed. If you want to promote an ESP go with Getresponse.

Below is the chat I had with one of their support staff explaining their ‘policy’.

Chat Content:

Stephen C: [4:51:52 PM] Welcome to our real-time support chat. My name is Stephen, how can I help you today?

Vinay: [4:51:52 PM] Affiliate checks getting lost

Stephen C: [4:51:58 PM] Hello Vinay, what can I do for you?

Vinay: [4:52:02 PM] hello

[4:52:13 PM] my affiliate checks have been going to an old address

[4:52:29 PM] i need all the checks that have not been sent to be consolidated and sent again

[4:52:32 PM] ideally paid to paypal…

[4:52:47 PM] all the checks that have not been cashed*

Stephen C: [4:52:59 PM] We do not pay out via paypal and for tax purposes the check will not be consolidated. We can certainly resend them to you. Is the address updated on file now?

Vinay: [4:53:27 PM] nope I will do it 1 second

Stephen C: [4:54:21 PM] Ok.

Vinay: [4:54:24 PM] ok updated

Stephen C: [4:56:04 PM] Ok I will now put the recut requests into the affiliate department. Once they are ready we will send them out to the address on file.

Vinay: [4:56:23 PM] ok cool so all checks that have not been cashed yea?

[4:56:44 PM] you know my ID>

Stephen C: [4:57:16 PM] Anything within the last calendar year. Yes you provided your ID initially I have XXXXXX.

Vinay: [4:57:29 PM] ok thanks

[4:57:33 PM] what about ones before that?

Stephen C: [4:58:29 PM] We can only recut checks that are less than a year old. After a year they completely expire and are no longer eligible for a recut.

Vinay: [4:58:41 PM] so how do I get that money?

Stephen C: [5:00:14 PM] There is no way to get it beyond that point. The 1 year rule ensures that our taxes are inline each year.

Vinay: [5:00:45 PM] how can your taxes be inline if the check was never cashed?

Stephen C: [5:02:03 PM] Because if we write a check out in 2013 for an affiliate amount that was on file in 2012 it does not line up properly. A check expires after 1 year. Even if the check is never cashed, there will be a check written that doesn’t have any record backing it up.

Vinay: [5:02:33 PM] so you sell a digital product

[5:02:39 PM] but you pay with physical checks

[5:02:40 PM] that expire

[5:02:44 PM] sounds like quite the racket

Stephen C: [5:03:03 PM] I will forward that to the affiliate department as a suggestion to provide virtual pay outs.

Vinay: [5:03:13 PM] and pay the money you owe me…

[5:03:24 PM] for sending you customers and revenue

[5:03:28 PM] which i was never compensated for

Stephen C: [5:03:52 PM] We sent the checks to the address on file. It is important to update your information to be the current address.

Vinay: [5:04:19 PM] i was abroad for 1.5 years and had no way to access the checks

Stephen C: [5:04:48 PM] I am sorry for that. We were never notified of that and sent the checks to where they were supposed to go according to your account.

Vinay: [5:06:23 PM] I was never notified my checks were expiring and I was losing that money forever…

[5:06:28 PM] I assumed you would pay me

Stephen C: [5:08:04 PM] We attempted to. There is no way for us to know your address is no longer good. If the check never gets returned to us by the post office we will never know until we hear from you. Regardless of what happened, at this point I can put in the recut request for your account including any checks within the last year.

[5:13:02 PM] It has been several minutes since I last received a reply so unfortunately I will need to end this session. If you have any further questions or requests please feel free to contact us! Our Support is Available on 8AM-8PM ET Mon-Fri which includes our Phones Support Toll Free Phone: +1 877-AWeber-1 (877-293-2371) International Phone: +1 215-825-2196. We also have Email and Livechat Support 9AM-5PM ET Sat-Sun.

One more post that complements this topic is Forty-four Social Media Apps Used only by the Top Influencers, especially around business.