WebRX Controversy: The Whole Episode unfolds while Affiliates continue to suffer and lose out in this rivalry.
Was it the Hurricane or something else? Since none of the two have bothered to contact Affiliates, let me try and throw some light to the ongoing silent ordeal.
What is WebRx? A group of people running a pharmacy operation? Well, here it is. The domain www.webrxpartners.com was running a pharmacy affiliate program under the joint leadership of Icon Group (Robert Smoley) and Coral Pharmaceuticals (Carleta Carolina). Icon Group operates from Florida, USA, while Coral Pharmaceuticals operates from an offshore location.
The technical aspect of this operation was being handled by the Icon Group whereas Coral Group was handling the fulfillment. The domain name and the affiliate program control rested with the Icon Group who shut down the program abruptly without giving due notice to either Coral Pharmaceuticals or the Affiliates.
Why did they do this? Robert Smoley worked with Vincent Chabbra (Previous owner of USAPrescription) and Vincent seems to be back in business. Are they trying to get even with Coral Pharmaceuticals? Who knows but ultimately poor affiliates suffer in this war.
How is Coral Pharmaceuticals placed? Reports say that they have lost access to most of the affiliate's data that include the affiliate's sales and their payment information etc. Coral's management has shown a serious interest in making payments to the affiliates and certainly wants to retain its loyal affiliates. But how will they be able to do this?
When did Affiliates last hear from WebRX/Elle? Affiliates heard from Elle on 26th October. Beginning Week 38, affiliates started seeing too many pending orders and the trend continued till Week 43. Therefore, affiliates were never paid in the first place against so many pending orders that accumulated in these 6 weeks. The last payments that went out were for the Week 41 which did not include the pending orders that accumulated in the last few weeks. So we can imagine how many orders they have to pay for and the amount of huge commissions they owe to the affiliates. Since it's not the DEA, these affiliate commissions must be secure in their bank accounts. Should affiliates contact the banks? Ask your bank to reveal the senders details and address and locate them.
On 3rd November, Ashley from Coral Pharmaceuticals informed all affiliates that they were badly hit by hurricane Wilma. And on 5th November Elle sent out an email to all affiliates that they would be back within 5 days as they were restructuring the whole affiliate program. And after that, nothing was heard ether from Ashley (Coral Pharmaceuticals) or Elle (Icon Group). Why such a long silence?
Who is Elle? Elle is a 25 year old woman who was managing the affiliate program for WebRX. She was reporting to Carleta Carolina. (Coral). If WebRX has been taken over by Icon Group, she will have to follow instructions and stay with the Icon group. After all, she has to be doing her job. Not matter how.
Was this preplanned? As the pending orders kept on mounting, the affiliates don't even know if those orders that kept showing as pending were ever processed. As per Elle's email the backend was functional till 3rd November i.E. Orders were being taken and processed till mid week 44. Did these guys plan to swallow a big fat chunk accumulated during those weeks? As the sales were shown pending so the affiliates didn't ask for the commissions while the profits continue to rise in their bank accounts and customers were charged till 3rd November. And all of a sudden, they close the program and run away with the commissions!
What is pending as commissions? Pending Orders from Week 38,39 40,41 and all fresh orders for week 43 and 5 days of week 44.
Future Possibilities:
1) Icon Group will relaunch the Pharmacy affiliate program with a new domain and a clean fresh image. And they would easily be able to contact all the affiliates as they have the database with them. However, let's not forget that they have been a major party to this. Maybe they want Coral to suffer but why should the poor affiliates get caught in their mutual rivalry? After all WebRX was a joint effort so both groups have to take due responsibility for non-payments and the losses suffered by the affiliates. It would be better not to sign up with either of them since both these parties have not been responsible enough to keep the affiliates updated and make due payments.
2) Coral Pharmaceuticals might launch a parallel program and somehow contact Super Affiliates. According to some Super Affiliates, Coral has expressed their honest intentions of making all the pending payments to the affiliates. If they had clean intentions, they why have they been silent since 3rd November? Are they still busy trying to figure out what went wrong? And giving their best shot to address issues on hand. Why don't they start a thread on their intentions and contact as many affiliates as they can? Do they understand that lack of communication may lead to many assumptions? Some of the Super Affiliates have reported that they have worked with Carleta Carolina and she is a woman of words and would certainly live up to her promise of making entire affiliate payments, even if she had to start from scratch. People do not understand that Truth is the best policy and Coral is also in the same thick soup if they don't respond timely to affiliates. Everyone has bills to pay and a life to lead so these guys need to wake up and understand the need of the hour. Are they under this impression that affiliates are desperados who would signup anyways and forget the past if they relaunch? I guess all affiliates would need to be extremely vigilant before signing up with any new pharmacy. The background check is a must before adding any pharmacy links. A phone call to any new RX Merchant is of utmost important. Any new affiliate system built on the same lines of WebRX will be easily identifiable and all affiliates should refrain from signing up with any such new site/affiliate program.
For Icon and Coral: Clear all outstanding commissions and then get affiliates to work for either of you. Guys don't forget: the money owed to affiliates is not worth as much as residuals. This is what happenes when the wrong people get into the right industry. Wakeup!!
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