Referrer hijacking

[#1]

We have referred one customer, and didn't find it a very smooth experience. This was because the referrer cookie had been hijacked by a rogue banner ad, such that the sign-up wizard would not let us enter our details or even take notice that we were using a specific referrer URL, instead trying to use some company we'd never heard of - who no doubt are raking it in at the expense of people not as observant as us. I raised this with Plusnet support, but they really didn't seem too bothered while they still got the sign-ups. The solution was to blast all the cookies, but that's not really a very user-friendly way to get round the problem. We got there in the end, a couple of hours several tries later, by which time the 50p off a month (now reduced) seemed a pittance for our time wasted.
Of course this may well have been fixed by now, it was several months back.

[#2]

I agree with the referral values. I have always ended up doing the work for my referrals - setting things up etc., therefore probably saving the company time on support queries.  I would like to see values a little higher, and of course values only apply on broadband (one of my referrals uses the dialup light package).

[#3]

I'm agreeing also - I have many referral customers over many years... however in almost all cases I manually go through the application process on the website (we supply computer systems, and often do the Force9/PlusNet setup as part of this). I actually have produced a paper form which we get customers to fill out - it's much more simple for the end user!

[#4]

I did that too before I came to work here (I was a referrer also - albeit on a much smaller scale to Mark!).
The friends, family (and randomers from my local!) whom I referred - I went to their homes, went through the signup process with them, explained the products and then popped back a week later to install their kit.
Unfortunately, if the customer has picked up a cookie from elsewhere (a banner ad, affiliate website etc..) then the signup process won't ask for a username.  I do wonder if there is a way of making that more intuitive though?  Hmmm....

[#5]

Quote from: Liam

I do wonder if there is a way of making that more intuitive though?  Hmmm....

I too lost a referrer who was a colleague from work. He wanted to leave Tiscali and I suggested PlusNet. He then did some investigation on his own before deciding to register with PlusNet, and had obviously clicked on a banner at some point during his investigation. I ended up with nothing.
You could always provide the referrer field to be completed and pre-populate it in cases where you believe that there is a referrer already. This would allow people to see and confirm the referrer, or change it if it is incorrect.

David

[#6]

Hi there,
We've raised this internally to see what changes can be made to make things easier for you guys, and this is the main purpose of Mark's role these days.
In terms of referrals being 'hijacked' the CSC can change the referral token within 30 days of the account being activated, although they will require tickets from the referrer and the referral in order to do this.

[#7]

Quote from: madjbright

You could always provide the referrer field to be completed and pre-populate it in cases where you believe that there is a referrer already. This would allow people to see and confirm the referrer, or change it if it is incorrect.

That sounds like a fairly reasonable idea to me.  We're making sure this is addressed.

[#8]

Quote from: zigzak

I actually have produced a paper form which we get customers to fill out - it's much more simple for the end user!

That's interesting. Would you be willing to share that with us? What details do you ask for? Is it the fact that it's paper that makes it easier or is it presented in a clearer way?