Bitskins upgraded their platform and I lost over 22000 affiliates

[SimpleMachin34]

Hello,

Bitskins.com that is a very known CSGO skins marketplace just updated their platform this month.
They increased the affiliate revenue on this version, but when they migrated the existent accounts they can't migrate the affiliates.

I had over 22.000 affiliates, that gave me over $30.000 since 2016... and on last months I was getting around $400 from it (monthly).
With the new affiliate revenue I would get 4x this amount.

They state they simply can't migrate the old affiliate information. Is there anything else I can do to fight for it?

Thanks

[1714765426]

1714765426

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Is there anything else I can do to fight for it?

It would be necessary to see the rules or ToS that you accepted at the time, but I've looked at the web and it asks me to register for that, which I'm not going to do just for that, besides that they will be the new ToS I imagine, not the ones you accepted at the time.

It sounds like it's not the first time I've read something similar on the forum and it seems to me that there's little you can do.

It's a shame, I can imagine how you must feel, because it's a lot of money you could be receiving now, and passively.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I doubt if there's much they can do, as they clearly have some statements they say in the terms. From a legal perspective, you might not be able to win this case.

General Terms:
a) The Affiliate Program is subject to these Terms and Conditions and any additional terms provided by the BitSkins.
b) BitSkins reserves the right to modify or terminate the Affiliate Program at any time, with or without notice.
c) BitSkins reserves the right to investigate and disqualify any participant engaging in fraudulent or abusive behavior.
d) Any rewards earned through the Affiliate Program may be subject to taxes or other applicable fees as required by law and all related obligations and legal consequences are solely the responsibility of the User.

[mk4]

Have you tried contacting them and asking them about it? Other than bringing things to court (which I assume you might not want), asking them is pretty much your only realistic option here.

Also if you don't mind me asking — how the heck did you get that much referrals??? That's some sick passive income.

[SimpleMachin34]

Thanks guys!

This is their answer:

Unfortunately it’s not possible to get back old affiliates, The affiliate program has been reset for all users in other words the terms are same for all users and we can’t make any exceptions.

Feel free to share your new link if you wish to do so.

Kind regards,
The BitSkins Team

I got over 22.000 affiliates because I was owner of a popular csgo "twin" site in the beginning of it (back if 2015) and it was promoted through my site/referral.

I contacted them in discord aswell, I still got nothing. I tried to get a compensation or an explanations about why was it discontinued, and I was denied again.

When they announced bitskins 2.0 they didnt even stated that the old affiliates wouldn't be migrated (they omitted it): https://blog.bitskins.com/bitskins-2-0-is-finally-here/

It is very strange because they say this on Discord:
"More than half of affi users were broken, didn't give any cut to person who invited them." (https://i.imgur.com/5J7Arq6.png)

I asked to review my past incomes, they found nothing wrong.
Also I tried to explain I'm probably the user with most affiliates and they told me this:
"You weren’t even top 100 on bitskins " (https://i.imgur.com/U6PdLGR.png)
I don't believe it. It were needed over 2.200.000 users registered under 100 other affiliate accounts... I don't believe it. And on Discord there is no one complaining about it but me...

[DaveF]

Their house, their rules.
It sucks but there have been a lot of places over the years that have done things like this. From the biggest players (Amazon) to stores with 3 users.

You really have 2 options.
1) Deal with it and see how much you can rebuild. Which as I said sucks but it is the safer option.
2) Really try to fight it, internally with them and by posting about it all over the net. In which case I'm sure somewhere buried in the T&C it gives them the right to perma ban you.

Sorry could not give you better advice, but I have seen this before with a lot of people & businesses I deal with and the affiliate looses 99% of the time.

-Dave

[examplens]

You really have 2 options.
1) Deal with it and see how much you can rebuild. Which as I said sucks but it is the safer option.
2) Really try to fight it, internally with them and by posting about it all over the net. In which case I'm sure somewhere buried in the T&C it gives them the right to perma ban you.

I don't think he has much room to fight them here. As you said, their house, their rules and building from scratch is the only choice.
The only thing that comes to mind as a counter answer is that this time they are promoting some of the competing services more, and leaving Bitskins on the sidelines. From their side, I wouldn't really ignore the wishes of someone who brought 22k new users to the platform.
Maybe the departure of a loyal promoter will force them to try to find a satisfactory solution.

[PX-Z]

It's part of their strategy, the same to marketplace or even casinos  who are changing their domain yet they don't include their affiliate data, for obvious answer — to save pennys. It is indeed frustrating and unfair to those existing affiliates but you need to move on and re-strategies on how you can get those users/affiliates again — its their platform.

[robelneo]

I got over 22.000 affiliates because I was owner of a popular csgo "twin" site in the beginning of it (back if 2015) and it was promoted through my site/referral.

I contacted them in discord aswell, I still got nothing. I tried to get a compensation or an explanations about why was it discontinued, and I was denied again.

It's already futile debating or presenting your opinion because it is already stated by
 

General Terms:
a) The Affiliate Program is subject to these Terms and Conditions and any additional terms provided by the BitSkins.
b) BitSkins reserves the right to modify or terminate the Affiliate Program at any time, with or without notice.

If they grant you compensation or rewards then those affiliates who have more referrals than yours, like what they stated, will also file compensation or rewards, but it is what it is when it comes to affiliates. They control the terms just be thankful that it gave you $30k already.

Since you have your website and you are good at recruiting you can accumulate more referrals the key to affiliate marketing is diversification so the money keeps coming in.

[crwth]

It's sad to see that much of a decrease in the amount that you should be having and currently having, I think anyone would be frustrated with this. Sadly, you cannot do something about it when their decision is final.

Since you replied that you tried contacting them but to no avail, I hope that you find the time to rebuild those affiliates and maybe even suggest to them some scheme to rebuild the broken affiliates. Maybe if the current accounts have a way to know that it came from the referral of your site and not just a random registrant, it can be fixed or something.

[noorman0]

So you only lose your position as the top affiliate, not even the income, right?
If they keep you and other top referrers may not be in their favor while referral rewards are increased 4 times. They really want to reset the program, you likely have no chance to recover your position.

[coin-investor]

It looks unfair, resetting to zero their affiliate program, but these are their terms, and their terms are no different from the other platforms.
You mentioned that you've already earned $30k from their affiliate programs this is already a big achievement for you but you have the skill and the method to generate referrals I'm sure you can do it again, and I'm sure you have other projects and platforms too, so its better to move on now.

[LTU_btc]

Oh, I'm very sorry to read what happened, but I'm afraid that not much can be done. From their ToS, they had right to make changes to affiliate program, so, they have done nothing against their own rules. Unfortunately, some business act in shady way and don't respect their customers.
What you can do now? You can start building everything from scratch, but there is not guarantee that nothing similar won't happen again in future. Or you can spreading word about what happened to you on forums and social media that other people would know how this service is acting.

[tabas]

This is painful, I know and understand the effort that you've exerted into working with that much affiliates on their platform. But sad to say if they so, there's nothing you and us can do with that but only them. If I were them, I'll give some recognition to you for having that much based on the work that you've put into making that lot of affiliates. I think that this is the first time to see someone who's in affiliate marketing that has got this number of affiliates but @OP, sorry about that but it is what it is and they're the own boss of their own program and company. Maybe the only thing that you can do is to keep on sharing this story of yours in different affiliate communities to make the situation of yours known and get the attention of everyone.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Back on 2016 there weren't any statement about affiliate program on their ToS[1]. I expect current ToS you quoted added about when they reset their affiliate system. Changing ToS without notice isn't allowed on certain country[2]. But, i except the chance OP to win on court remain low.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20160426122033/https://bitskins.com/tos
[2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2007/07/court-says-no-to-changing-terms-of-service-without-notification/

The same archived version of ToS says something about amendment of agreements, which might give them a counterargument

Amendments

BitSkins may amend this Agreement or any section of this Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time. Each such amendment
(i) will be communicated to you at least 30 days before its coming into force;
(ii) set out the new section only, or an amended section along with the section as it read formerly;
(iii) set out the date the amendment comes into force; and
(iv) if the amendment entails an increase in your obligations or a reduction in BitSkins’ obligations, give you the right to refuse any amendment and terminate this Agreement without cost, penalty or cancellation indemnity by sending BitSkins a notice to that effect no later than 30 days after the amendment comes into force. In order to send such a notice, click on the “I Do Not Agree” when the amendment is communicated to you. Refusing an amendment entails the termination of this Agreement, the automatic deactivation of your account and denial of access to the Service.

The question is if OP or all the users have been receiving notifications 30 days before the said amendments are done like I have seen with other big services. If they did and OP just clicked on "Agree" then that's unfortunate for him. He may just have to let it go.

[KingsDen]

I was actually going to ask about the statements on the ToS until I saw this.

General Terms:
a) The Affiliate Program is subject to these Terms and Conditions and any additional terms provided by the BitSkins.
b) BitSkins reserves the right to modify or terminate the Affiliate Program at any time, with or without notice.
c) BitSkins reserves the right to investigate and disqualify any participant engaging in fraudulent or abusive behavior.
d) Any rewards earned through the Affiliate Program may be subject to taxes or other applicable fees as required by law and all related obligations and legal consequences are solely the responsibility of the User.

It is not surprising that at this point, the company want to lay off the benefit that is being sent to their affiliate marketers. I do not see any other thing that happened but they systematically migrated in order to achieve this. They must have benefited from the number of referrals you have given them over the years and they feel that they have paid enough for your efforts and decide to start a new system. I don't think you have anything much to do. It is either you forget about the company and move on or you start a new referral business in the new site, in few years time they'll also do same.