This is breach of contract, in real life it is criminal.
Actually, it wouldn’t be criminal, but it would be a cause for action in a civil suit.
Needless to say, non of us are going to file civil suits over this. We will just go away, and promote other programs. This thread appears to be an effort to prevent that, but the responses so far from VIP are not very encouraging, IMO.
The bottom line for me is that it is unethical. You can twist it, and turn all you want, but it is a change that puts the affiliates at risk for their future income.
We all do what we do, with the idea that we are creating something that will feed us for life. We have no benefits, no 401k’s, etc..
We are mere sub contractors trying to build customer bases that will pay us as long it is paying you. Some acounts are small, some are bigger. Many of top earners change from year to year as well. I had places this year that were crap for 5 full years, and this year they finally came to fruition. That happens quite a bit actually.
If YOU go to the bank on one of our customers, then so should we. If you want to change the rules from this day forward, and not change the past agreement on the players already in the system, then just say so, and if affiliates don’t like it, they can remove your links.
In other words, don’t try to gloss the change over. Just lay it our there.
For example:
Starting January 1 this is the new deal. Past customers are yours for life as agreed. After that, the new rule applies. You can’t just say we won’t enforce it. As mentioned earlier, if you aren’t going to enforce it, then it should be no big deal to remove it.
Pretty simple, IMO.
If you think doing that will cost you too much new business, and exposure to implement this new clause, then perhaps you guys should re-think this rule.
For me it’s just a simple Value for Value relationship. If we send you someone that wagers with you for the next 10 years, then we would like to know that our smaller cut is safe and secure. You can change the future rules if you like, but don’t change the status of the exisiting agreement on present customers. JMO.
Just be sure that you are willing to take the hit if a ton of affilates drop you.
I’m not a big affilate of yours either, but I will respectfully drop VIP if this new rule applies to us.
Again, it seems to me you might want to re-think this.
I doubt it will just fade away. JMO.