Complaints Employee put himself as my referral and is taking 15% of my channel earnings

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Gabo

New User
Jan 18, 2018
5
3
Edit/Update: This issue has been solved. I want to thank the Freedom team, I appreciate the help and the time of everyone who got involved.

I am partnered with the Freedom Network with a channel that has grew to 100,000+ subs in a few months. There is a Spanish support employee that put himself as my referral and is taking 15% of my channel earnings without my authorization and this is not inside the contract that I signed.

I opened a ticket in English and contacted an employee through Discord to redirect the ticket to the English support team for an unbiased solution to this issue, unfortunately for some reason my ticket was redirected again to the Spanish support team and they keep refusing to remove that referral, even when I provide proofs that this Spanish support employee did not referred me, as my channel joined Freedom in Sep 4, 2017 and about 1 month later (Oct 2 2017), this referral appeared in my dashboard without my authorization.

I want that referral removed because someone that I don't know, never talked to, did not referred me and did not contribute in the creation or the expenses of my channel, is taking 15% of my channel revenue.

I love the Freedom network and it's benefits played a big role in the growth of my channel, I'm about to create a new channel and I want to stay with the Freedom Family, but if this doesn't get solved, I will have to go in a time to another network.

My channel page shows the join date:
freedom join date censored.png

Email that I got when this happened:
recruiter email censored.png
Date:
recruiter email date opened.png

This issue is taking more than 9 days to be solved since I opened the ticket, I tried to solve it privately, unfortunately the Spanish support team keep refusing to remove that referral or reach an agreement with me. 2 days ago I contacted someone from the support in the Freedom Discord server to redirect the ticket for the second time to "Support Escalations" of the English support team and he did so, unfortunately yesterday, my ticket was redirected yet again by someone to the Spanish support team.


Keep in mind Youtube's Best practices for MCNs, the third point

upload_2018-1-18_12-4-9.png

This person did not refer me, I gave no authorization to do this and this is not in the contract that I signed. Now tell me, was this action "honest and transparent"?
 
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LW

Community Manager
Administrator
Moderator
Freedom! Member
Apr 2, 2016
3,045
1,251
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Vienna, Austria
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lw_001
is taking 15% of my channel revenue.
Not quite. You don't lose anything from the referral, you still earn the same amounts of money, just the share is different within Freedom!. Let me visualize it:
upload_2018-1-18_19-19-46.png

I hope this explains it a bit better. The referrer money is taken from Freedom!'s cut.

Does this mean you shouldn't worry about some guy just assigning himself as your referrer and hijacking every ticket?

No. Unless there's a huge misconception here this is unacceptable, especially with them hijacking tickets instead of escalating them.

Regarding Jord talking to Support Members about this he still hasn't received a reply from them, just wait for that and someone will hopefully escalate it properly. I hope this cleared up some things better.
 

Gabo

New User
Jan 18, 2018
5
3
Hi, LW001, thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. I know how the referral system works and how the cuts work. I said "my channel revenue" because in the end the 100% of the money is generated through my channel and my work. So just to clarify, it doesn't matter from which cut the referral money is taken, it is money generated through my work. And 15%, now that my channel has grown, is a lot.

And if some day I ask for a well deserved revenue share increase, my ticket will be redirected by default to the Spanish Support Team, and I am sure that they won't give me the revenue share increase because it means that this employee will get less money.

The 15% referral cut of December surpasses the minimum wage of this person's country (Spain). And what is this person doing for my channel? I don't even know him or talked to him.

But the most important thing is that this person did not refer me, I gave no authorization to do this and this is not in the contract that I signed.
 

F! Jenny

Administrator
Administrator
Moderator
Staff Member
Community Team!
Verified Freedom! Partner
Freedom! Member
Apr 25, 2017
14
4
Hello Gabo,

I sent you a personal message on your Discord to update you with your concern. May I refer you to your Discord please. Thank you.
 

Gabo

New User
Jan 18, 2018
5
3
This is taking way longer than expected, I got a new message from a Spanish employee telling me that this person has a family and a job. I want to be clear on this, my intention is not to harm this employee or his job, that's why I censored his name in the pictures. As I explained in an older post, this referral situation may harm me whenever I ask for a well deserved revenue share increase.

I understand the responsibilities of signing a contract, but this action was not in the contract, it has been made without my authorization and he did not refer me. I've also read Youtube's Best practices for MCNs and this action was not honest and transparent.

I'm sure that Freedom is an excellent network, that's why I signed a contract with this company, and I'm sure that Freedom will be able to solve this, probably the reason why this is taking a long time is because it is a bit complicated issue, that's why I offer 2 solutions:

1- We stay with what was established in the contract and my revenue share stays the same, but this person has to be removed as referral and my referral field has to be empty.

2- We renew our contract to the regular no lock-in 95% revenue share contract and I will allow this person to stay as my referral in the Freedom network.

If you think that 95% revenue share is too much, keep in mind that I've seen "VIP partners" in the Spanish Discord server that have way less views than me and they most likely have 90% or more revenue share, and I am not trying to underestimate these VIP partners, I want you to understand that 95% is a reasonable and fair request. I can show you my channel growth statistics and the future goals that I have as a creator in private message.

I have received invitations from other networks to join with a no lock-in contract 95% revenue share, but they don't share the philosophy of the Freedom Network. Unfortunately, if we don't reach an agreement soon, I will have to consider those invitations.[DOUBLEPOST=1516681372][/DOUBLEPOST]I got this e-mail today:
updated_referral_none.PNG

I thought the problem was finally solved until I saw this in my Freedom dashboard:
freedom_esp_referral.PNG

This new referral just makes my situation worse as now will be harder to increase my revenue share as it is most likely that "FreedomEsp" means the whole Spanish Support Team. How curious that the e-mail and my dashboard don't share the same referral information.

It's unfortunate that the Freedom Network may lose some partners looking for a long-term partnership because of some employees that apparently just want to make a quick buck out of channels that do not belong to them.
 
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M_P_1

MCN Freedom! Global Head of Creator Services
Aug 31, 2016
37
31
Manila, Philippines
Hello Gabo,

I would love to discuss this with you over a call if you are up for it. I had the referral changed from the original to the default for channels partnered with F! Espanol. Rest assured that is a systemic display and as the actual network there is no referral fee paid. Please email me the best way to get a hold of you to discuss. My email is [email protected].

Cheers,
Mike
 
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