Top 10 reasons why I no longer wish to work with Clickbank
This is beyond a joke. Really is.
Im so sick and tired of Clickbank's BS, Ive put together a list of my top 10 reasons why I no longer wish to use their services.
1. Refund requests/serial refunders
This should be self explanatory. As a vendor, I feel COMPLETELY POWERLESS to stop this. Infact, when it comes to Clickbank and refunds, the process seems too easy. I dont know how many times Ive received a refund request with no explanation from the customer as to WHY they want their money back. There's no dispute process, and no way to deny the request. It just gets honoured, period. You cant tell me that more and more people arent becoming aware of this and simply abusing this privilege.
I tried escalating a refund request to Clickbank support just recently, and they basically told me that while it was frustrating, that there wasnt anything that could be done. Even though it was OBVIOUS that the person purchased with intent to refund.
Absolute BS.
2. Product approval BS
It's absolutely frustrating having to jump through so many hoops to satisfy Clickbank staff in order to have a product approved. Not only does this take time, but there's usually days worth of waiting between the email ping pong that typically goes on. I understand that Clickbank are probably extremely busy trying to service everyones needs, but from a vendors point of view, these delays are just annoying.
Whats more frustrating is that I could easily search through the marketplace and find a dozen or so Clickbank sites that dont appear to conform to the same rules that seem to be imposed upon on me or my newly created product/website during the approval process. If there are standards, set them across the board and enforce them appropriately. At the moment, theres far too many inconcistencies which gives the impression that Clickbank is being run by amatuers.
3. Pricing dictatorship
What gives Alex, or Karen, or Steve, or any other member of Clickbank staff the right to tell me what price I should sell my product at?
SERIOUSLY?
Let me tell you theres nothing more insulting than being told after having just invested $3,000 and 4 months of my time towards developing a product that I can only sell it for $48 rather than $97 because they "dont feel its priced right".
F*cking says who????
If my pricing is out, then thats for ME to find out through marketing, research and customer feedback.
Its extremely annoying investing time towards developing a product, with intent to sell it at $97, only to be told by someone who knows nothing about me, the way I operate my business or the quality of my products that "...maybe after 8 weeks of good sales and low refunds, we might consider it at $97"
4. Account pricing limitations
Okay, so I already have an account created, a product listed, and making sales at $97. I'm making an effort to build a list, interact with that list and perform regular surveys. To further help my customers and develop additional products, I decide to put a comprehensive video training course together. At this stage I already KNOW what they want, and how much theyre willing to pay - which is $197.
So I log into my account, and try to raise the pricing limitation from Clickbanks default $100 to $200 to accommodate my new product which at this point is still under development.
This is where it gets sticky.
Im asked at this point, for a pitch page, and a thank you page. This means obviously that I must invest the time towards putting these pages together, and ensuring everything is in place to satisfy Clickbank before submitting my request for approval.
But whats to say that theyre going to say YES???? I could literally spend days putting this stuff together only to have them tell me "...sorry, we think your product is only worth $127" (SEE POINT 3)
Im not going to waste my time, developing pages and content only to have some big wig at Clickbank deny me. My time isnt worth $0.
5. Clickbank being abused as a discount voucher system
There's nothing more annoying than conversing with someone via email back and forth for an hour or so, answering their questions, assisting them as best you can, then offering them a 50% discount because they request it - then when you see their order come through - they have the NERVE to take further advantage of your genorisity by purchasing under their own affiliate ID. So instead of paying $97 for a product, they pay $21.
This flat out blows.
6. Powerless as a vendor
As a vendor and product creator, I have to say, with all these shinannigans going on with Clickbank, I feel almost powerless in a sense. This shouldnt be the case. I cant dispute refunds, Im fighting with Clickbank staff for approvals, and pricing limitations, and refunds seem to be increasing.
I may as well just put the download link on my home page with the words CLICK HERE FOR FREE.
7. Affiliates blasting useless sites all over the web
Sure having affiliates should be considered a bonus, but when I browse the web and find absolute garbage filled crappy sites that dont provide any value at all to the user except flashy banner ads, adsense and CLICK HERE CLICK HERE rubbish, used in conjunction with spun $1 articles from Indonesia, it makes me shake my head.
Why cant I as a vendor have some kind of idea of WHO is promoting my product and HOW.
8. Payment thresholds
I dont know about others, but if youve ever been in the position of needing cash to simply "get by" or "make ends meet" and you have several Clickbank accounts that are just under the payment threshold, this can be a little frustrating. Especially when you've got $2,000 sitting in funds you cant access. I know this might be a bit trivial but I cant help but think Clickbank is simply cashing in on interest.
The other issue is account termination. Twice now, Ive wanted to close an account and set the threshold so that all of my money would be released. Or so I thought. Clickbank always retains some money to cover refunds, and chargebacks, so if you have $532 in your account, and you decide to close it, consider yourself lucky if you get $480 back. You can pretty much kiss the other $50 goodbye.
9. Marketplace of garbage products
By no means am I applying this to EVERYONE within the marketplace. But lets face it, theres a LOT of garbage in there, and quite frankly, as Rich Struck said in another thread, Im not sure I want to be associated with it. Seems like Clickbank was willing to sell anything at one point to make a dollar and now that the FTC has stepped in - its us that feels the boot in the bum.
10. I couldnt think of another one, I'll leave this up to someone else. Im sure there's more....
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