Earlier today, at NY Affiliate Voice, I wrote about the Crayola Store terminating Affiliates in New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. In that post, titled No More Crayons, I mentioned that the reason for termination was the “recent Internet sales tax laws” that were passed in NY, NC and RI. I understand their reason but am a bit surprised by the terminations since the laws passed in 2008 (NY) and 2009 (NC and RI). Probably safe to assume that it has something to do with approaching the $10,000 threshold in sales from NY Affiliates to NY residents.
I am however, happy that they did give Affiliates advance notification. They have given Affiliates seven (7) days notice that they will be removed. Not only does this give Affiliates time to replace links, it shows Affiliates respect. Crayola’s handling of the situation is a vast improvement over other companies who had only given a few hours notice.
Since they handled it in a professional manner and have given adequate notice, they still have my respect. And although I now have to replace a few crayon links, I am not upset and have already identified replacement merchants.
In time, if Crayola decides to open their doors to NY, NC and RI Affiliates, many of us will examine their new offer. Why? Because they handled it properly, they handled it in a professional manner and showed respect for the Affiliate-merchant relationship. To be clear, I am not happy about the termination, but I do respect their right to make decisions that they feel are best for them. I also respect Crayola for handling this properly.
A little respect goes a long way.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Well I gotta admit you surprised me. I was also dropped and was a bit upset . Timing is horrible cause I am right in middle of moving. Moving to north Carolina so either way I am out. But there are so many other merchants.I swapped links to those other merchants you told me about, saved me tons of time! Plus I had sales already!
But your right, this one wasn’t as bad. Those 7 days makes such a huge difference.
Nice post!
Yes, it does sound like they are approaching the $10k threshold in NY state. Strange they would terminate RI and NC affiliates as well. I highly doubt they getting close to their RI and NC thresholds…
What else (apart from giving affiliates an advance notice) do you believe merchants could improve when announcing such decisions (not to say that this is the right way to deal with such tax laws, but still)?