At 5% commission, B&N affiliates
must sell $2,000.00
worth of merchandise before they receive a dime. Anyone who
decides to quit selling for B&N before reaching the
threshhold amount, is PAID
NOTHING!
Attention
Amazon, Borders, Powells, etc. affiliates -- Put this
button on your site
near your affiliate link. (Please link the button to this site.)
.
.
Barnes
& Noble's affiliate agreement says that no commissions will
be paid until you've accrued $100.00 or more in earnings.
It also says that either party (you or
Barnes & Noble) can terminate the affiliate relationship at any
time by giving notice.
If you give notice, Barnes and Noble will refuse
to pay you any of your commission if you've earnedless
than $100.00.
Suppose you earned $99.00
in commissions
and then Barnes & Noble decided to give notice. Could they use
termination as an excuse not to pay you?
The commission is not theirs to give or
withhold at theirpleasure. It'syour money, held
in trust by them.
The affiliate contract is silent on the issue of how
payment is to be handled upon termination. It certainly
does
not say that earnings will be forfeited if the agreement is
terminated prior to earning at least $100.00.
The $100.00 threshhold clearly applies to active
accounts. When an affiliate account is terminated (by either
party), the money held in trust must be released.
"I apologize for any miscommunication but according to our
Operating Agreement, which you signed at the time you joined our
Affiliate Program, you do not receive a commission check until your
commission has reached $100. At the time you terminated your
membership in our Affiliate Program, you had only earned $10.04
in commission. As such, we will not
be forwarding you a commission check.
If you have any questions regarding the terms of our Operating
Agreement, please refer to [affiliate agreement]
First of all, you may keep the $10.04. I wouldn't
trade this website for ten bucks.
I took your excellent advice and consulted the affiliate
agreement. Paragraph 13 says, "You are
only eligible to earn referral fees on sales occurring during the term [of
the agreement] , and referral fees
earned through the date of termination will remain payable only if
the related bn.com Product orders are not cancelled or returned.
I "earned"
my referral fees during the term of the agreement -- that is, before it
was terminated. If I "earned"
the fees, thenby
definition they are MINE. Your own contract flatly
states that my "earned"
fees remain payable as
long as the merchandise is not returned.
The fact that you only cut checks quarterly when
commissions exceed $100.00 is merely a bookkeeping
detail that is for the convenience of B&N. It is
not an excuse to pocket your affiliates' earnings.
Thank you again for acknowledging the terms of the
affiliate agreement and for referring me to it. I have abided by it 100%. WHY
WON'T YOU?
Still don't get it? Think B&N acted appropriately?
Then you're reading the wrong section. This
is the advancedversion
Click here for...
HERE ENDETH THE WEBSITE PROPER. What follow is... "B&N
Affiliate Program for Dummies"
-or-
"Honesty for the
Conceptually Challenged"
provided in simple Q&A format and using really short words.
Q: Why
should I care that you didn't get paid? A: You shouldn't. Pay it no mind.
Q: Then
why did you make this website? A: To inform people about Barnes&Noble's policy of
confiscating the earnings of its small-change affiliates. Some people will
regard B&N's policy as unfair, unjust, and deceitful. Based on this
knowledge, they may choose to take their business elsewhere. This website exists
to expose the truth to those who are receptive to its message.
Q: Didn't
you know when you signed up with B&N that they only cut checks when your
earnings reach $100? A: Yes, I did. But B&N's contract says that either
the company or the affiliate can terminate by giving notice. And this is
important for these reasons:
1. A commission is "earned"
(their word) whenever a sale is completed and the merchandise is not returned.
If the money is "earned," then it belongs
to the affiliate. The fact that B&N is holding the money is
irrelevant (sorry about the 4-syllable word).
2. Let's say you're an affiliate, and your "earnings"
are currently $99.00. Can B&N terminate you
and keep your money, based on the fact that they owe you less than $100?
Of course not. Common sense.
3. Consider this: Why do they even have a
"termination" process? As an affiliate,
you can always remove their links from your site. If they owe you $100+, the
final check will come automatically. If they owe you less than $100, you'll
still be on their affiliate list, but you won't be getting any check. The
whole point of the termination process is to officially conclude the
relationship and SETTLE UP.
Q: I'm
still not convinced.
A: I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you. Let me use a
real-life example everyone can understand...
Suppose I hire your 12 year old son to cut my
grass for $20 a week. He's not my employee, he's a little independent
businessman with his own mower, etc. Our deal is that he will cut my grass
every week (weather permitting) and I will pay him whenever the balance due
reaches $100.
Now suppose, for whatever reason, he decides to
quit after cutting my grass twice. Maybe he's too lazy to work. Maybe he came
down with leukemia and can't work. Maybe there's a family emergency. It doesn't
matter.
So he comes by the house and says, "I
won't be able to cut your grass anymore, but I'd like to get the $40 you owe
me."
And I say, "Sorry kid,
you're screwed. I only cut checks for $100 or more."
What do you suppose the judge would say to that
if he took me to small claims?
If you still don't see it, you're probably not conceptually
challenged.
Most likely you're ethically challenged.
Can't help you with that.
But I will remember to lock my doors.
Barnes
& Noble affiliate agreement 
The
Smoking Gun: "We're Not
Going to Pay You" 
