How do you Tell When a Merchant is Doing you Wrong?

How soon are you able to form a judgment? What are the signs?

[Webwork]

How can you tell when a merchant is doing you wrong?

Is there a science to this?

I'm not talking about crappy merchant landing pages, crappy merchant shopping carts, etc.

I'm talking about merchants that are flat out not giving credit where credit is due.

How can you tell and how soon are you able?

How do you know when you're got a bad one in bed with you?

Just word of mouth? "Test buys"?

[eljefe3]

You definitely want to make test purchases, as well as have some sort of tracking in place so you can track any transaction from the landing page to the purchase page.

[Webwork]

It might be equally easy, if not easier, to ask "How to tell when a merchant is doing you right?".

It's somewhat of a view into the myst as best I'm able to tell. I guess, going forward, what I'll look for are:

1. Association with a quality network.
2. Longevity of the program.
3. Postive feedback in forums that doesn't look like hired help pumps.
4. A site that looks like one I might buy from.
5. Signs of merchant efforts to track web-to-phone purchase orders ("coupon" code, tracking number, dedicated affiliate number)
6. Dedicated affiliate manager.
7. Other signs of integrity and that a merchant "gets it": A no BS website. An effective cart. A product that is substance over hype. Etc.

Thanks.