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I received this email this morning:
March 10, 2006
Following the concerns expressed by some of our Fortune Affiliates and the subsequent investigation of our systems by the Association of Professional Casino Webmasters (APCW), we would like to respond as follows:
We welcome the debate and the professional manner in which APCW conducted their audit, as well as the opportunity to work through the issues raised with APCW and our much valued Affiliates.
On February 3rd 2006 we received the final results of the audit and have spent the last few weeks analyzing the results. The APCW audit has identified a cross-branding anomaly that we have confirmed and are addressing. The programming adaptation will identify all players not credited to Affiliates, and in every case the Affiliate will be advised of the players and the commission impact, which will be settled in full as soon as the exercise is complete. Please see below for a clarification of points related to the various software involved:
Download Helper:
- The current download helper (Fortune Buddy as referred to by APCW) is not a Fortune Lounge or Fortune Affiliates application, but a Microgaming product.
- There is a new download helper that has been developed by Fortune Lounge which is currently being installed to solve the reporting on downloads as well as make the user experience that much better and easier.
- We have stated on numerous occasions, on forums and in mails to our Affiliates, that the stats for downloads are not accurate.
Session Tracking:
- One of our major concerns is that throughout the audit MS tags are mentioned, which belong to Slickstreet Marketing and not Fortune Affiliates, and, therefore, would not show in the Fortune Affiliates system.
- In the audit, there appears to be little mention of Fortune Affiliates’ tags, which are identified by AD_ or ehr_.
- Fortune Affiliates and Slickstreet Marketing are two separate companies, both promoting Fortune Lounge independently. Fortune Affiliates do not use Slickstreet tags, but has its own tagging system. These are in no way shared with Slickstreet Marketing. The only way anyone would have a Slickstreet tag is if he or she came through one of Slickstreet’s publisher sites.
- To explain in a little more detail how our session tracking works – we serve both Download Helper and direct CGI downloads, the use of which is dependent on the operating system of the user. The reason for this is active x controls.
- The main difference between Download Helper and CGI downloads is that when using Download Helper, the tag is written to the registry on initiation of the download. Whether the download is completed or cancelled the tag will remain in the registry. However, with CGI, the tag is only written to the registry when the download is complete and the casino software installed. This means if the download is cancelled or fails with CGI before completion, the tag will not be written into the registry.
- Even if the cache is cleaned, once a tag is in the registry, it will remain there.
- It is important to note that an account will be allocated and tracked to an Affiliate when the software is both downloaded and installed, and not by merely visiting a page.
Locked and Fraudulent Accounts:
- Fortune Affiliates are not responsible for casinos locking accounts, as both fraud and locked accounts are handled by the casinos.
- Accounts may be locked for a number of reasons. The case mentioned in the APCW posts about a player simply not converting, is never reason enough for the casino to lock the account. This would be short-sighted and in nobody’s best interest, as it will prevent the player from converting at a later stage.
- Once an account is locked by the casinos, those players are never contacted again. If the reason for an account being locked has been resolved and the casino unlocks the account, the player is automatically added to the Affiliate’s account.
Chargebacks:
- Fortune Affiliates is aware that there has been an increase in the number of chargebacks recently and is making every effort to avoid these. Chargebacks are detrimental to both our and our Affiliates’ earnings.
We thank the APCW for their valuable input and for concluding in their audit that it ‘holds Fortune Affiliates (and in particular [manager] David Sack) in the highest regard’. We would like to reiterate that at Fortune Affiliates, we pride ourselves on being transparent and trustworthy, and will endeavor to ensure in every way that our Affiliates are pleased with our service. We, therefore, would like to keep the communication channels open and urge our Affiliates that if they experience any problems, to let us know, so we can resolve it quickly, effectively and to their satisfaction.
The APCW audit has identified a cross-branding anomaly that we have confirmed and are addressing. The programming adaptation will identify all players not credited to Affiliates, and in every case the Affiliate will be advised of the players and the commission impact, which will be settled in full as soon as the exercise is complete.
Works for me.
I have to say that is a professional response to a professional audit and once the anomolies are concluded then fair play. It sounds like the main issue with tracking is a Microgaming error. That said, laying all blame aside, it shouldn’t have to wait for an in-depth audit by affiliates to point out the problem. But one can see why FA would trust MG to have tested their product fully.
Don’t ReferBack use the same MG “Buddy” software?
That is my concern and has been since I heard of the audit results.
Perhaps APCW will check on this, or maybe Referback will be proactive here?
I, personally, did not like their response about:
slickstreet vs FA
Seems a little too fishy to me. How did the APCW ‘players’ end up with slickstreet tags?? If slickstreet’s tracking is so poor, then why are they still using them.
There have been so many issues relating to this marketing group, I just don’t understand why they are not shitcanned.
I thought FA’s response was adequate. Thank you, APCW for your investigation into this. I do hope Referback will follow suite on this issue (buddy thing) and address the errors BEFORE Integrity has to audit, it would save a lot of time.
I appreciate Fortune’s enthusiasm about fixing these issues, and their commitment to make restitution.
HOWEVER, there are some statements which they made that the APCW takes serious issue with. These have been emailed to David and we await a quick reply so that we can post these as they get resolved.
Oops, double post
edited to remove one of them :1Dopey:A big Kudos for you, Integrity:
Thank you very much for all the hard work you have put into this industry. The testing and reporting were done professionally, and you did an outstanding job.
Fortune Affiliates have taken the time to compose a comprehensive response, and, as far as I can see, they addressed the issue quite well.
I have faith that all the kinks will be ironed out.
It’s heartwarming to see such a fantastic example of cooperation within the industry.
:clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
