Pinky Paradise Affiliate Conflict

08/13/2012 Update Pinky Paradise has finally paid me for a portion of the sales I generated through my blog, but they are threatening to take legal actions over my blog post!

A month or two ago Pinky Paradise emailed me and asked me to join their new affiliate program. They even gave me a unique coupon code to share. Since I have used their products before, I agreed and even posted a post about Pinky Paradise and shared the coupon for my readers. I thought it was a little strange that they never asked for payment method. (How do they expect to pay their affiliates if they don't ask?) I volunteered my choice of payment and Paypal email.

Pinky Paradise Affiliate Conflict
They never really replied to my emails and avoided my many questions asked. I already thought it was a little shady, but they convinced me that their program was very similar to the Sigma affiliate program (which is not true). After asking for a while, "Jason" from Pinky Paradise said payments will be made at the end of the month. When I emailed them again after the date has passed and asked about my overdue payment, I was notified that my account will be terminated because it is against their policy to share the affiliate link or coupon code on another website such as a coupon sharing or other social media websites. Yes, this is regardless of who shares it. If a reader wants to share a code or link with others, the affiliate's account can still be terminated - but perhaps not until the affiliate asks to be paid. No account needs to be terminated until it is time to pay up.

Pinky Paradise was probably hoping affiliates would give them free advertising and promotions. When it came time to pay, they didn't want to part with their money. I think they were hoping that most people would not make their minimum payout threshold, so they would never have to pay anyone anything. I am upset that I already sent them so many referrals from my website. They are located somewhere in Asia, so it is not like I can bring them to court.

If you are advertising Pinky Paradise, I recommend you do your research or consider finding a better program to join. If they have to pay you, they might reluctantly do so.

If I didn't ask for payment yesterday, I would most likely still have an active affiliate account today. They only terminated my account after I asked for payment (one week after they were supposed to pay). Coincidence? I think not.

P.S. An alternative option for circle lens is HoneyColor.com.

13 comments:

  1. woah that IS really shady business.. thanks for letting us know!

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  2. I don't wear lens but I will order from honeycolor if I ever do!

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  3. Wow! That's so shady of them! I'm going to remove mine too!

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    1. I think it's a good idea. You can join affiliate programs that DO pay and also REWARD their affiliates instead of avoiding emails. (Sigma Beauty, Lime Crime, etc.)

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  4. wow.. i am definitely taking out their affiliate link now! thanks for the heads up!

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    1. Hey Donna,
      No problem. I am just reporting my problem. Thanks for reading!

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  5. If they're shady with their affiliates, I wonder how shady they are with their products. I have never purchased from them before, but after reading what you went through as an affiliate, I will avoid their products and their business altogether.

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    1. Joyce,
      I never had a problem with them before, but now I would be apprehensive to buy anything from them. (Especially since they hate me now!)

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  6. I am angry for you. This is horrible and absolutely ridiculous. Pinky Paradise knows that online word-of-mouth is a good marketing tool, as evidenced by their contacting you and other blogs to be affiliates. How can they expect to get away with this scam without bloggers' backlash?! It makes no sense. Grrrrr. Tell me whose shins I need to kick for you, girl. I may be short but I am feisty.

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    1. Haha you are too funny! Thank you for the great support. I think Pinky Paradise is really dooming their relations with bloggers and social media users. They could just try being a little friendlier and more reasonable and maybe we could have worked something out!

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  7. i heard they're pretty shady with their products too. i've heard a couple of complaints about them ignoring replacements for incorrect and damaged goods.

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  8. Really wished I read this before I bought contacts from them. I ordered contacts about 2 months ago and they haven't arrived yet. I even emailed them many times but they only replied once saying that they've lost my package. After that msg I've never heard from them again.. -_-

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    1. Sorry about that. How horrible! Try sending more aggressive emails to request replacement for what they lost. As I have said, there are probably better options out there.

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