Professionalism and accountability isn’t too much to ask for?

I wanted to officially announce that effective July 23, 2007 Handheld Marketing Group, LLC dba Mobility Today is no longer affiliated with Expansys/MobilePlanet. Many of you already know that Mobile Planet was a longtime partner of our community for almost 6 years. When the relationship first started we were the first co-brand they ever created which was a huge risk for both parties. I made some fantastic relationships with the crew and we both had each others back. Unfortunately as the internet evolves competitors buy competitors in which Expansys bought Mobile Planet their biggest competitor. Luckily during the takeover Expansys decided not to make huge changes for at least 6 months which kept our site reporting correctly and commission checks being paid on time.

As time went on I saw friends lose jobs and were being told they need to look for a new job outside of Expansys. I also witnessed friends being told they were safe and their jobs were not at risk. Unfortunate for my friends this was just not the situation in which they arrived into work being told they were being let go. This type of business model just doesn’t work especially when you don’t communicate to your partners how the changes would affect your store.

I was very patient to the point I would wait 3-4 months before I would ask, “Can I see my revenue report?” .. Why should I have to ask? No offense but when you have a contract in place that states you will receive a revenue report no later than 60 days it makes you worried. I did receive my revenue reports and this is when the problems started..

During the transition I was told that my site would be transitioned over to the Expansys domain as the entire Mobile Planet IT Department was let go. This really made me uneasy since the way they track revenue is a cookie session. Previously, MobilePlanet never tracked my sales this way as the partner would never see a sale if the end user does not accept cookies..

Month after month I saw my sales go lower and lower (as much as 75% lower!). Each report I questioned cautiously since I knew the numbers were very low. Expansys would respond and tell me month after month they are tracking my sales properly. So this is when I took matters in my own hands. I ordered some products with another co-workers credit card to see if I would receive credit for it? Guess what? Those orders never showed up on my revenue report.

At this time I raised my issues to Expansys CEO, Roger Butterworth who informed me their IT department would look into the issue and get back to me. When I heard back from Roger he informed me that their could have possibly been an accounting miss. This didn’t sit too well for me since I was complaining about my revenue not being tracked properly for over 10 months! Roger offered to pay me back by giving us a double commission for 2 consecutive months. Thats was nice but quite honestly their was something broken in their tracking system.

This issues persisted and revenue reports again were being delays 60-90 days. The next few weeks I thought I would check my hardware store and what do you know? My store link was changed!!! Without them EVER telling me!!! So when someone from our community clicked on our link from our front page it would default and send you directly to www.expansys.com!!! So basically we were just sending customers to Expansys directly and not capturing ANY commission..

As time went on I continued to see things break and revenue reports continually being delayed. Why would they do this? I really don’t want to answer this question but I am sure you can figure it out. I personally know we have missed a considerable amount of commission so it was time to break the longterm relationship.

I appreciate all of you who did purchase from my site to help offset the costs associated with running the site. In the next few weeks I will be launching a new store that represents Mobility Today the way I would like it. We also will have a personalized 800 number that answers your call with the Mobility Today name! So if you are thinking of purchasing something I would ask you not to continue buying from Expansys but to hold off for a week and purchase from our new storefront.. We would greatly appreciate your support as we launch our new face to the customer.

You Should Also Check Out This Post: