This is a very personal review for me, as I’ve actually used AffiliateFix. I just have to point out how terrible their head of customer service is (TJ Tutor). It’s so horrible, that 2 years later, I’m writing this review.
To be clear, my criticism is only against TJ Tutor — NOT the whole customer service. I’ve had several follow-up emails with Azgold, who was MUCH nicer and actually trying to understand my concern and my point of view. Unfortunately, I don’t believe she’s with Affiliatefix anymore, but hopefully, they have at least one alternative person to handle customer support, because I would avoid TJ Tutor like hell!
Table of Contents
AffiliateFix Review: My story regarding their head of customer service
My main customer support request was to simply change my name. About two posts later, TJ Tutor escalated the discussion to claim that I’m causing a massive disruption, that I hardly interact with the forum but at the same time create so much fuss.
My problem here was just how dramatically and aggressively the language suddenly turned. I cannot believe it. Just lobs several accusations my way when I asked whether it was really all that hard to just do a name change. Like dude, there are diplomatic ways of handling the situation!
And then when I asked my account and associated threads to be deleted (I thought by having my threads deleted, my name would be deleted from the forum), TJ Tutor decided to delete my account but NOT my threads, so that I couldn’t make any more comments on AffiliateFix. GEEEZ. Talk about TERRIBLE customer service. Not going to even ask whether I’d be OK with only my account deleted instead of threads? TERRIBLE. UGH.
I did follow up emails with Azgold instead, who was WAY nicer and she actually asked me questions, trying to understand my motivation, why did I care so much about the name change? I have followed up with her a few more times in the past couple of years. She assured me she would talk to TJ Tutor about getting the name change, but I’ve not seen any action. I checked again recently. It’s still there. So I’m writing this review.
AffiliateFix Review: Other people’s story about their head of customer service
I am not the only one with such a horrible experience with TJ Tutor.
In one Trustpilot review, the user called TJ Tutor an a***ole, “one of the most idiot person upon this earth”, “I can send you the email screenshot what how he talked with me”. TJ Tutor responds claiming he was committing fraud, “decided to get very immature and hurtful”
As always, there are two sides to the story. On the one hand, I will agree with TJ Tutor that the user probably did commit fraud. BUT — I will agree with the user that he DOES have a valid complaint regarding the TJ Tutor handled the situation. His behavior was highly escalatory, and blown way out of proportion in relation to the user’s behavior up till that point.
Summary of several key points about this customer service interaction:
- Highly escalatory and aggressive language by TJ Tutor, fanning the flames. While I agree the user was likely a fraud and being annoying in his forum thread, TJ’s response here was way out of proportion in response to the user’s language.
- TJ Tutor PUBLICLY published a PRIVATE email exchange (seriously dude, what?)
You can go judge the interaction if you’d like to see it: click here.
More snippets
Here are just the snippets that I just found amazing:
PUBLICLY PUBLISHED A PRIVATE EMAIL EXCHANGE. And highly escalatory language!
Look at this email sent to us from this member Chirag Mota. It is easy to understand now why he is calling MaxBounty a scam. He takes no responsibility, shows no gratitude to the members that have posted here, and blames everyone but himself for his issues. He needs to get a job herding goats because he’ll never make it in this industry.
HIGHLY escalatory language. There are SIX — SIX accusations in this one snippet. Actually, I was surprised even myself when I started counting. WOW, SIX is a LOT of counter-criticism to say! Was it not enough to simply say: “sorry, we can’t do anything about this…please discuss with MaxBounty?”. But no, SIX complaints. GEEZ.
You have done nothing but complain about everyone and everything. You are responsible for losing you Maxbounty account. The only thing you have done in the forum is complain about them. You have not participated in any other area of the forum. It is not our job to fix your relationship with Maxbounty!
You have not done anything to develop a relationship with the members. You have not done anything to contribute to the community. You have done nothing but complain. Take your complaint to MaxBounty!
The user ended up spamming the inboxes of AffiliateFix (interestingly, he did not spam MaxBounty), but I understand how he could do that. TJ Tutor has some of the most hurtful customer service I’ve ever seen.
Avoid TJ Tutor at all costs. Try to interact with the people around him, such as Azgold, who I LOVED to talk to at least. Unfortunately, I don’t believe Azgold is active with AffiliateFix anymore. Hopefully, they have at least one other support person there so that you can avoid TJ Tutor!
AffiliateFix Review: Is it a good place to begin affiliate marketing?
Leaving TJ Tutor’s horrific customer service aside, is it a good place to learn how to do affiliate marketing?
About the only good thing I can say is that you would find other affiliate marketers, yes. You can discuss your problems with them.
But my ultimate answer is that it is by far not the best place.
What beginner affiliate marketers ultimately need is guidance, and there are way better guides written in afflift.com and stmforum.com, both forums that I’ve had memberships in the past. I could be missing it, but for example, is there a detailed tutorial back button tutorial on AffiliateFix? Not that I can see, but they have these tutorials on Afflift and STM Forum.
STM Forum has some GOLD content from 2014.
AffiliateFix Alternatives
There are two places I recommend. For beginners, I highly recommend Afflift. For people making a steady living with paid traffic, I recommend STMForum (stmforum.com).
Afflift Review
Founded by a former affiliate manager at PeerFly. As befits a former affiliate manager, he’s had a lot of practice interacting with affiliates nicely. I’ve interacted with him personally many times. REALLY nice guy!
He’s also targeting beginners with Afflift, and as a former affiliate manager, he really understands your struggle.
It’s also a lot cheaper than STM Forum at $20/month. The time and money you save from just $20 make this a no-brainer investment. I would say it saves you at least a week of learning curve.
There are a ton of detailed step-by-step guides on Afflift, something you won’t find anywhere on Affiliatefix.
STM Forum Review
The OG Affiliate Marketing Forum. Unfortunately, it’s a little dead nowadays. Not a whole lot of people visit it. But the moderators are experienced and very successful affiliate marketers.
I think STM Forum is no longer that active due to its high membership price of $100/month (last I checked anyway).
I don’t know but I’ve never seen a thread or post by TJ Tutor discussing his previous successes in affiliate marketing.
AffiliateFix Review: Is it worth it?
No. If you’re going to use any forum to learn affiliate marketing, you should use Afflift (afflift.com). That forum is tailored towards beginners. See the “Afflift Review” section for further explanation.
TJ Tutor, I am going to work extremely hard to make sure this stays ranked #1 for “AffiliateFix Review”. Look man, I can totally understand that you come across a***oles and jerks and even frauds. But to behave in such an escalatory a***ole manner isn’t the way to respond.
AffiliateFix company, do you want to fix this review? Feel free to get an AffiliateFix representative (anybody NOT TJ Tutor) to reach out to me at hello /at\ tipsforefficiency [dot] com if you’d like to rectify the mistake, and I would edit the customer service section substantially (after leaving the review up for at least 1 year, since my name was left up on that forum for 2 years). ALL I’m asking for is an account name change, from XXX to something like “Guest347”. I would even be willing to tip $20 since I understand this is a nuisance to fix. Don’t have to delete any threads.