Referral Candy & Affiliate
ReferralCandy: Grow with Referrals & Affiliates for Shopify
Rating
4.8
feedback
2,175
chart
#864
All reviews
Rating Breakdown
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Oct. 30, 2024
WARNING: Absolute SCAM! Do Not Trust This App! We installed this app on our international store as a trial, but when we tried to cancel over a year ago, the process was a nightmare. Not only did they make it incredibly difficult to even contact customer support (we had to reinstall the app just to reach them!), but they also continued to bill us for an entire year without our usage even after we requested cancellation and that was over a year ago. After expressing our frustration, they further retaliated by suspending our account to prevent us from posting any negative reviews. This is, without a doubt, the worst customer service experience and the most deceitful Shopify app we have ever dealt with. Stay away if you value your time and money!
Hello Mira, Thanks for the feedback, it provides an opportunity to clarify a few key points. Over a year ago, we provided cancellation instructions as requested, though recent activity logs show these went unread until recently, which led to continued billing. Support has remained available via multiple channels, and your account suspension was solely to prevent further charges, not to restrict reviews, which Shopify independently manages. Also want to thank you for this experience as it has allowed us to further improve our processes to help protect merchants from potential user neglect. Since you created a new account to leave this review, please ensure it’s canceled if not needed to avoid any similar situation. - Jaime
Sept. 10, 2024
I considered signing up for this platform but found the pricing structure to be potentially expensive for my needs. The app charges a flat fee of $59/month and an additional 3.5% commission per sale on the first three orders from each new client per affiliate. For example, if you have 5 affiliates in a month, and each makes 5 sales, you would pay a 3.5% commission on the first 3 new customers for each affiliate: Affiliate A: 3.5% x first 3 new customers Affiliate B: 3.5% x first 3 new customers Affiliate C: 3.5% x first 3 new customers Affiliate D: 3.5% x first 3 new customers Affiliate E: 3.5% x first 3 new customers The costs can add up quickly. I would be more comfortable paying a higher monthly fee, like $99/month, with no additional commission fees, which would allow for a more predictable budget. Other tools offer a flat fee with no commission, which may be a better fit for some merchants.
Thank you for your feedback Edwin. I understand your concerns about the pricing structure and how important it is to keep costs predictable. Our commission model is designed to scale with your affiliate success, helping to keep costs low when sales are slower. That said, I completely understand that this might not work for everyone. Would love the opportunity to discuss this further with you and find a solution that better fits your needs. I sent you an email to see if we could explore other pricing options. I hope to turn this around for you at the soonest.
July 30, 2024
Worst support, the app does not work and it's quite complex for users to even use. Never ever use this app. I would recommend other options like smile.io . You cant even imagine the horrible support candy has.
Hi Lydia, this is Dwight, I lead the support team at ReferralCandy. I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a frustrating experience with our app and support. That’s definitely not what we aim for. We’d love to make it right. Your concern about the discount code has been investigated and I sent you an email that clarifies everything. I am committed to getting this sorted for you so I hope to hear from you soon.
Feb. 24, 2023
This is the first time I write a review - Incredible bad customer support, UI not clear. Fo three days I was chatting with customer support without any clear guidance how to send me mails out. The only thing they could say was "Let me ask our engineers" I gave up. And for canceling my subscription I needed to contact support. I am since 2019 using Shopify apps never encountered such a bad experience. My colleague with even more experience has the same opinion. UPDATE: I will wait until you contact me or resolve the problem
Thank you for your feedback. We welcome and appreciate all opportunities to improve our product and service. We understand that the concern that you had started when your colleague missed to hit the SEND EMAIL option, and so, we offered to have the emails sent on our end. This was scheduled for action today - which we confirmed with our engineers. Our intention is to make sure this is resolved for you. We will be reaching out to you in the hopes of providing you a better experience.
Oct. 3, 2022
The only communication with customer service is by email, no phone number to call, and they take a few days in responding. The app doesn't even work like it is supposed to and keeps spamming my customer with invitations that don´t even work
Hi there. Our sincerest apologies if you had a hard time setting up the campaign. One of our success managers will be reaching out to you via chat and email to help you with your concerns. We're hoping to hear from you real soon. :) UPDATE: Hi there. Looks like you got in touch with one of our success managers via chat last Friday. We're wondering if the concern you raised was resolved or you need further assistance? We will be sending you another email today so we can fully assist you with any other concerns you many have, and hopefully schedule a call with you. Looking forward to hear form you again. :)
Sept. 21, 2022
We couldn't even get through the setup, which should have been the easiest thing to do. The email templates don't work like any WYSIWYG system I've EVER seen, and you're obligated to find an outside developer to do very simple tasks like fix the mandatory social icon links that are in the default template. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired, and since we couldn't get past step 1, I can't review the actual platform performance. With our poor experience, I would NOT recommend this to anyone. There are multiple other options out there, and we've been able to get an alternative all setup and running in less than 10% of the time spent fighting with the ReferralCandy platform.
Hi Abby, I'm sorry the set up experience wasn't to your expectations. I agree that our developer mode can be tricky, and your detailed review will help us make a better product. Although our support team did try to help, perhaps we could have jumped on a call (which we do regularly) to address your growing frustration over the setup process. I appreciate you leaving us a review and thanks as well for trying out ReferralCandy! - Jaime R.
Sept. 5, 2022
App wont complete the account set-up process upon installation - just gets stuck on the Referral Candy website.
Hi there. Apologies if you're having a hard time completing the signup process. We saw the message you sent our team earlier and one of our success managers is reaching out to you to help quickly get this sorted. Thank you! UPDATE: Hi again, we’ve been trying to reach you. We’ve figured out what happened and the fix is fairly simple to implement (instructions also sent via email). Just let us know as soon as you are ready and we’ll help get everything setup.
May 10, 2022
It says if we need help we ask help from their expert, but where the hXll is your expert? They never reply your message and only an automation robot to speak to you.
Hello Kun, We understand how frustrating it can be to not be able to speak to someone immediately about your concern. We responded as quickly as we could to all your chat inquiries, unfortunately, it took us over an hour to respond to that one message you left us outside our office hours. Thank you for your feedback, we will use this as an opportunity to improve the experience we provide our clients.
Oct. 12, 2021
Terrible app and even worse support. Discount codes do not work on the "new" shopify checkout, wasted 3 weeks waiting for a reply from support, coveniently in that time I was billed, only to be told they can help and ticket was closed.
Hi there, I apologize for this. Three weeks of back and forth conversations with our team is not a great experience. Regardless of how involved some of our processes are in order to provide you accurate responses, we could have done a better job. A refund is on it's way and I hope you can give us a chance to sort everything out. We've reached out to you and hope to hear back.
Sept. 12, 2021
Overcharged due to a customer having the order cancelled and then created again. Reached out to referral candy about this clearly being an identical customer and they responded back saying a refund couldn't be processed.
Hey there, thanks for bringing this up. What you described does seem problematic. Let me get with my team to see how we can get this sorted. Please standby, we will be reaching out soon! **UPDATE** Hi again, we completed our review of the concern you raised and found that a problem with how your store integrated with ReferralCandy caused the duplicates in question. We can help you correct this. I've sent you an email with more details and would love to get on call to get everything sorted. Meantime, a refund is on it's way. I apologize for the experience and hopefully you can give us another try. - Derek
Feb. 17, 2021
This is a predatory and unethical app. Referral Candy makes it virtually impossible to delete or downgrade the app. This should not be in the Shopify app store until Referral Candy changes their behavior.
Hey Patrick, your account manager Derek tried to reach out to you several times, but did not hear back. It looks like you tried to downgrade ReferralCandy, but this is not possible as we only have one pricing option. We're sorry to see you delete the app, but we hope you'll give us another try in the future. Thank you -- Jaime R.
Dec. 11, 2020
We have been using this app for awhile and there is one major item we believe it is missing... there NO way to "Approve" a referral. We have made a request to add an "Approve" option to other options: Delete, Void, and Ban, but we were told, an "Approve option is currently not in place within the dashboard, but this is something I can raise to our design team" ... without an "Approve" option, even after we review a referral it will continue to show "pending review" since there is no way to "Approve" a referral... this appears to be a major omission to us. If an "Approve" option is added we will revise our rating...
Hey Bob, thank you for your review, and for using us for over a year. We're sorry that this crucial feature is lacking. We're redesigning the way transactions are handled (suspicious or otherwise), and we're building a Fraud Centre to make it easier for retailers to manage. We hope you'll give us a chance in the future as well, thank you. --Darren F.
Dec. 11, 2020
Do not waste your time or money with this business. I've run multiple million $ Shopify stores over the last 10 years and I must say I have never come across customer service this bad, ever! It doesn't exist! I've sent multiple messages both direct on their control panel, via website and email. I've even responded to their standard email marketing messages asking for someone to contact me and I've received NOTHING. Not 1 email. Not 1 call. Nothing! Zero! I see other reviews here saying they received 'responsive and quick customer service' but I don't know how this is possible. If this is the case why did they not respond to me? After 30 days of waiting I'm now chucking the towel in. Let me assure you, that when it comes to choosing app developers to work on your Shopify store it is imperative that they offer good quality customer service. Especially with an area linked to referrals as it can involve a fair bit of connectivity across all marketing channels including discount codes/offers etc and if this isn't right from the beginning you are going to have a whole lot of unhappy customers which is NOT what you want from a referral app. If I was you, I'd look elsewhere and grab one of the other many referral apps that provide you with the support and ongoing cutsomer care you need and deserve. UPDATE: We have so far had 3 amendments to ReferralCandy's response to my review! The first saying they didn't receive any messages, then that they did and responded but the response must be in my spam and now that they don't know why the responses they didn't send didn't reach me. Well we know it's because you didn't respond. And when today you read my review, for the first time since signing up with your app I got an email from your support straight into my inbox! Strange that! I mean why do messages from you work now but didn't before? Like I said, you just couldn't be bothered to respond or help after I reached out to you for support. Perhaps if you had made the same effort to make 'several attempts to reach me' when I first contacted you we wouldn't be in this situation and discussing your atrocious customer service on a review platform of your services. This is ridiculous. And your stance on your response where you try and remove yourself from any blame whatsoever is disgraceful. All Shopify owners should take notice. Your messages to me today (after I left a review) were the first I have ever had from you in 30 days since I originally reached out and I find that (and your false lying claims) incompatible with a working relationship. Avoid.
Hi Greg, it’s unfortunate that the replies we sent to your 2 messages did not reach you. We work very hard to give our clients a great experience when engaging with our team. Earlier today, we made several attempts to reach you. It looks like you responded once but nothing after that. We’ll be on the look out in case you do send us another message.
Dec. 3, 2020
Not even 1 sale with this referral program, and I have been already charged $49 for nothing. I guess they do not care.
Hi Miniplum Team, We tried to get in touch with you guys as soon as our team saw this review. We'll be more than happy to get your referral campaign sorted. Looking forward to hearing from you.
May 23, 2018
Another developer posting lies and false information to get people to install their app. How this started, I emailed them inquiring about how they help stores with making sales, as in the app description they mention they brought a suppliment company from $0 in sales to $10,000 in sales, in one month. QUOTE "We singlehandedly helped a supplement company grow their sales from $0 - $10,000 every month (and that’s just one example!)" END QUOTE THIS IS A LIE! They explained that for their app to work, your store needs to be making sales every day, then Referral Candy works off those customers. Now this seemed weird considering they claim to have taken a store from $0 in sales to $10,000 just after installing their app. A BLANTENT LIE!! They even confirmed this with me by ceasing communication when asked about it how they did it if the store had no sales. AVOID THIS COMPANY!
NB: this review is from 2018, about a previous version of ReferralCandy I am terribly sorry for this misunderstanding. I assure you there is no intention to be misleading or untruthful about how strongly we believe our product can help retailers be successful. The line you quoted in the app description was from a case study we did a while back. In it, the client said that "For virtually no labor, I get so many sales – at least $10k this month.” I do see how it can be read differently. We have since made the appropriate changes to the case study and listing. Thank you for pointing it out! -- Jaime R.
Oct. 5, 2017
We are SO tired of Shopify apps that send emails to our customers without warning us or asking for permission. This is yet another one. And for that reason we won't be using it. Only one day after signing up to try this app, it's already sent 324 welcome emails to our customers, and never notified us once or asked for our permission before doing so. It's flat out unacceptable. Uninstall.
NB: this review is from 2017, about a previous version of ReferralCandy Thank you for the feedback. Sending emails to your customers with no warning or permission obtained is a bad experience. It is unacceptable and I apologize that our app enabled that to happen. To make sure this doesn't happen again, we have ensured that ReferralCandy provides ample notification before emails are sent out when the account is activated. - Jaime R.
Jan. 17, 2014
"Per Use" pricing is a not correct. If you look at their pricing, they charge a minimum monthly fee ($15, $45, $155, $885) if you do not have enough commission to cover that fee. Not only that but ReferralCandy takes a whopping maximum 7.5% commission on referral sales. This is not recommended for small businesses or businesses on a tight budget.
NB: This review is from 2014, about a previous pricing structure Thank you for the feedback. We’ve since come out with a pricing structure that we believe best aligns our interests with yours; where we succeed when you succeed. I realize it’s been a while, but you can check it out on this page: https://www.referralcandy.com/pricing and let us know what you think. - Jaime R.