MY CONCLUSION
Woothemes affiliate program is legitimate. But the policy is NOT in favor of affiliates.
Woothemes is one of the best Wordpress theme providers and received mostly positive reviews in the community. With about 328 theme providers listed on this site, Woothemes is now ranked on #2 in the Overall Best category. And many of their customers leave good comments about their themes and support on Woothemes’ review page too.
This article will touch on a different aspect of Woothemes. It is the experience I had with their affiliate program.
When it comes to treating the affiliates, it is to my dismay that Woothemes falls short.
What had happened?
On September 10, 2010, I login to my Woothemes’ account to check my affiliate sale. When I clicked on the August report, I found a sale reversal of $10.5.
See the screenshot below.
Immediately, I contacted Woothemes via their contact form and the following is what I wrote to them.
Hi,
I found out something about your affiliate program. I checked my affiliate report and found out that you reversed a sale in August (see the attached screenshot). Since there is no money back policy for your themes, why is it that you reversed the affiliate sale?
Please advise.
Regards,
Brian
Adii, the co-founder of Woothemes, replied within 12 hours with the following:
Brian,
The reversed sale was for a fraudulent transaction i.e. it was reversed by our payment processor.
Kind Regards
Adii
The WooThemes Team
It is perfectly normal to have fraudulent sale on internet but I decided to check my report in more details and found something not right.
I managed to track down that the reversed sale was locked in January 2010 and the commission had already been paid on Jun 02, 2010 (I input my payment info in May 2010 so this is my first commission payment).
It just didn’t make sense to reverse a sale which were paid out months ago! Obviously, I didn’t accept their explanation and wrote back to demand a better one.
Hi Adii,
This is not right. That transaction was locked in Jan 2010 and the commission was paid via Paypal on Jun 02, 2010
Paypal Transaction ID: 49487968K1215093J
So there is no reason that it is a fraudulent sale when you reversed it in August 2010.
Please give a valid explanation.
Thanks.
Regards,
Brian
btw, my account username is “xxxxx” (removed for privacy reason)
Adii replied with an explanation below:
Brian,
Chargebacks by Mastercard / VISA sometimes happen months after the actual purchase. That is the valid explanation; I realize it’s unfortunate, but this is a reality online with fraudulent purchases.
Kind Regards
Adii
Though they have the rights to do so but I don’t think it is good to treat their affiliates this way so I replied with the following:
Adii,
I have been earning affiliate income for many years and I understand about the chargebacks but this is the first time I encounter sale reversal after more than 6 months. I think all the other affiliate programs I joined absorb the loss if chargebacks happened after the commission had been paid out.
So can I come to the conclusion that with Woothemes affiliate program, all the sales I got few months ago were not 100% secure even after the commission has been paid out?
Regards,
Brian
And Adii replied…
Brian,
All sales are 100% secure unless they were fraudulent to start off with. 
I truly understand your frustration in this regard and unfortunately this is a byproduct of other companies’ policies (i.e. VISA / Mastercard).
Kind Regards
Adii
So I come to a conclusion that Woothemes will pass the chargeback to the affiliates no matter when the sale was made. I then replied to him.
Adii,
You have a point. But from the affiliates perspective, ALL the sales that we made in the past (no matter how long it was) may be reversed if they were fraudulent.
Thanks for the clarification. I think what I am experiencing is worth sharing with other affiliates.
Regards,
Brian
Are you one of Woothemes affiliates? If you are, we are eager to hear your experience.
What’s your thought on this? Kindly leave your comments below.
