AfterShip Referral&Affiliate

Too early to say

This app used to be simple and did what it needed to do even at the free version, but as I was trying to add more affiliates after a change was made in the app I can't use it anymore. I can't add any new affiliates because there's literally no way to generate a code for them. The button to generate a code is gone and the only option there is to send an invite email, but when the email is sent there's nothing that happens and there's no button in the email for the affiliate to join or generate a code. I've wasted a lot of time trying to fix this and contact support. The support is also very slow to non-existent. I've had the app for over half a year and the contact support button has never done anything. I've tried to reach out through email on the Shopify side of things and also by emailing them. I didn't get a response. I've ultimately lost sales so I'll be using a different app.

I don't write a lot of reviews, but when I do, I like to be sure of what I'm saying and be detailed. After several experiences with the support chat for this app, I am now confident I can give accurate info and I think I may be able to save some people headaches...either by steering away from this app, or understanding that you won't be supported. I gave it 2 stars because it's free and it has some basic functions. It was the supposed simplicity that drew me to it. That said, it has issues. Like another reviewer said a few days ago, suddenly the function buttons on the app disappeared. I went on a chat when this happened to me and during the chat the buttons reappeared, but the chat person didn't say she had fixed anything, she basically indicated I didn't know how to use it. That wasn't the case...I had used it successfully before. So, let's talk about their support. It is awful. I see some people say support doesn't respond...i have not had thst issue, they have responded to me fairly quickly (I always go on the chat at night here in the US), but they might as well not have answered...it would have been less frustrating. So, why do so many people here say it's great? Well, maybe they had very basic questions. If you go on the chat you are talking with a call center outside the US. They don't really understand your questions. It is apparent that language is an issue. It's like talking to a bot (in fact, it may be a bot...a pretty good bot if it is, but a poor excuse for a person). They will key on the general area of your query and then send you a link to their tutorials, which are just the basic tutorials to tell you how to navigate the app. These are good because parts of the nav are not obvious, but if something isn't working the way it is supposed to, the tutorials are useless and so is the support. I've had 3 chat session so far. They ate up an inordinate amount of time and I left the first 2 so frustrated I had to walk away with no resolution. They keep sending you links to tutorials, which don't really solve the issues you are asking about...that's it. It's obvious that the people on chat know nothing about the app... just call center people with a script. If you look at the responses to some of the reviews here, you will see that they have canned responses to the negative reviews. When I twice asked on chat about a features that the app doesn't have, I got the same canned response..."we're sorry, but we will be adding new features soon." I truly doubt that. There are some functions thst i think are pretty essential and basic that the app doesn't have. For example, if you run an affiliate campaign, you can run it for only 1 product, or for one collection, or for all products. So, if you want to exclude one or two products because of low margin, or whatever, you can't. I've had the app for several weeks now and only 5 people have shared a referral link with friends...no sales so far. I don't know if that is because users are having issues or not. Some reviewers say the discount doesn't appear until the end of checkout, so that could drive people off. I am about to try the affiliate program with a couple rescue organizations, but I'm seriously thinking about switching to another app first. I don't have any confidence that this app will continue to function properly (as it did not yesterday) and I know for sure that the only help I will get is what is in the tutorials, which won't solve any existing issues. I hope this review is helpful.

This app is full of hidden fees and sneaky temporary upsells. You've got to contact customer service for every little thing, and they are planning to roll out a cost starting in February, so it will no longer be "free." Talk about bait and switch!

So, there is no affiliate portal to pay affiliates directly. There is an offer to remove the aftership branding and also increase the amount of referral links for free by contacting support. This should be an automatic feature, rather than wasting time contacting support. Now comes the worst part. The widget for referral links is not removable by the customer so its always floating on the screen where ever they are. Extremely annoying and invasive especially on small mobile screens as its always covering some text or images.

One positive star for the customer support team. In my short experience was very helpful and responded immediately.