• Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    If you’re wondering how a browser extension got so much money to pay all these YouTubers for sponsorship, well, they’re not. They are literally stealing the money they paid the YouTubers right back from them by replacing their affiliate code with their own.

    For people looking for replacements, Edge’s integratedauto coupon code works well enough. RetailMeNot does the same job and has also been around for a long time.

  • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com
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    4 days ago

    as a consumer why should I care if I still get a discount ?

    isn’t this influencer back office bullshit and not my problem ?

    • Katzastrophe@feddit.org
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      4 days ago

      The coupons honey applies may not always be the best deal around. Honey works with online shops to only serve you the coupons that specific online shop wants you to see, causing you to be ripped off on occasion.

      Simply put, there might be a 20% off coupon that can be applied to your cart, but because Honey is getting paid by the online shop, they are only going to show you at best the 5% off coupon. This makes Honey redundant, because neither Honey nor the online shop tell you when they are working together, which is why you can never trust honey to actually give you the best deal.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      it is your problem because they’re stealing your money too.

      famous person code gives you 30% off a product. honey tells you it’s 10% and keeps your 20% for its pockets.

      at least that’s how I understood it.

      • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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        4 days ago

        Yep and a great question that allows more people to learn. Please stop downvoting real questions

        • dustyData@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          People are downvoting the tone, not the question. Calling it bullshit when it is seriously stealing money from other human beings and calling it “not my problem” under the assumption that it doesn’t matter if it affects others, displays absolute lack of empathy. Devaluing the question and making it a bad faith comment.

  • dan@upvote.au
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    4 days ago

    It’s not just Honey swapping the affiliate codes. Practically all the major coupon sites do it too. That’s why they require you to click on a coupon code to reveal it. When you click, they usually reveal the coupon code in a new tab, and helpfully redirect the current tab to the store, using their affiliate link.

    It’s more obvious when websites do it though, since they can’t auto-close the tab like Honey does. They also don’t automatically pop up at checkout like Honey does.

    I imagine some of the other coupon extensions do the exact same thing as Honey though.

  • arc@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    I wonder what websites think of this toolbar stealing affiliate links from people doing all the work of promoting their prices. I wonder if Honey goes even further and turns vanilla purchases into affiliate purchases, actively stealing actual money from the site. If I were NewEgg or whoever else Honey has created affiliate links with, I think I’d be banning their affiliate account right now, or throwing in some captchas so their link theft doesn’t work any more.

    • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      If Honey finds a 30% code, supplants its own 20% code and tells you it’s a 10% code, both Honey and the store save money.

      • arc@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        This only works if the store is in cahoots with Honey and only if they have coupons floating around that people otherwise avail of and only if they want to seriously piss off the people driving actual traffic to their store by letting Honey steal their commission.

        The reality is Honey is scamming everyone. Customers by hiding codes, affiliates by stealing their commission and stores by parasitically skimming affiliate payments for no work. It may be Honey has a shakedown “pay us to make coupons go away” but the reality is stores could simply not issue heavy discount coupons if they’re worried about that being an issue. Honey is required by nobody and given their parasitic & thieving nature I think they’re going to be on the end of some lawsuits.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Technically isn’t telling anybody anything “stealing”? You’re transmitting a copy of the information and whoever created it gets nothing.

  • Elrecoal19@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Can someone ELI5? Does this mean they used refferal codes from people that had these “bring a friend” referal codes?

    • teije9@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      some companies, instead of paying youtubers a lot of money to promote the product, tell them ‘we will give you some percentage of every sale we make that was advertised by you’ They do this by giving the youtuber an affiliate link. its basically the link to the product, except for that when you open it you get a cookie that says ‘[youtuber] brought me here’ What honey did, was replace those cookies with theirs, meaning they get the cut from the sale, instead of the youtuber.

      with for example, NordVPN, you get 35 dollars per sale with your affiliate link. if you watched a youtube video about NordVPN and then went into the description to buy it with the YouTubers affiliate link, honey would pop up and say ‘we have no coupons for you’ if you clicked on the close button of the popup honey would replace that cookie with theirs; if you would currently buy a NordVPN subscription, the money would go to honey, instead of to the youtuber that advertised it to you (who deserve the money)

    • cristo@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      No, it’s a little more complicated than that. How a video explained it was, say someone was trying to sell you a TV, you decide to buy that TV and the salesman gives you a card to let the cashier know who the salesman was to get the commission. When you’re at the checkout line, a different sales man comes up and offers to find you a coupon code to help save you money. In the process of looking, regardless of if a coupon code is found, the second salesman takes the original card the previous salesman gives you and switches it with his own unbeknownst to you or the original salesman. Then when you buy the product the second guy gets the commission.

  • weeeeum@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    If you dont know how a business makes money, chances are its some shady stuff

    Providing coupons on stuff for free, with zero ads? Thats pretty weird. Being Bought by PayPal for 4 BILLION dollars?!?!? There has to be some real sketchy shit.

    • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      While I agree with you, I think we should be careful about allowing the ignorant to be punished. It’s unreasonable for a non-tech-savvy person to be aware of all the ways a company can screw you. If they’re skeptical of everything, they can’t use anything

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Why am I entirely not surprised that LMG knew what the fuck was going on, and didnt say a fuckin thing about it.

    Made more public comments over legitimate criticism about his “just trust me, bro” warranty, than about honey being a out and out scam.

    • TooManyGames@sopuli.xyz
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      4 days ago

      They might not be able to say anything. Advertising contract might have a clause saying they can’t speak of the details of their deal, or speak negatively about the sponsor.

    • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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      4 days ago

      Wait. How is honey a scam? It’s purpose is to give people discounts they didn’t know about otherwise, and as far as I can tell, that’s exactly what it’s doing. Maybe it’s in a gray moral area, but a scam?

      • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        If you actually watched the video you’re currently commenting on you’d have an answer to your question.

        But since you didn’t watch it I’ll give you a hint. It steals affiliate links taking money out of the pockets of those who are getting you a discount. It then uses those stolen affiliate links to take money out of your pocket as well by short changing you discounts (By telling you it found you a 10% coupon that is actually a 30% coupon and is pocketing the difference)

      • Katzastrophe@feddit.org
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        4 days ago

        Honey is getting paid by shops to only serve you the coupons that Shop wants you to see, potentially keeping you from discovering a better deal on your own.

        • CaptnNMorgan@reddthat.com
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          3 days ago

          I have no idea how to find different discounts. If I’m getting a discount where I wouldn’t without the service, that isn’t a scam. Sure you can be more diligent and frugal if you know where to go, but I don’t, and I’m sure most people who use honey don’t either

          Edit: I would like to add, I mostly buy things on my phone, and as far as I know Honey isn’t on android, so I have never used it. I do, often, look for discounts on things I’m buying and almost never succeed. I really hope Honey comes to Android, so I can start saving money.

    • Christian@lemmy.ml
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      4 days ago

      Never watched the channel, but I would guess that being tech-themed makes it a worse look that they promoted it for so long before catching the issue, so they were worried it would cast doubt on all other endorsements and tank the value of advertising with them.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I think coming out and pointing out what honey did would probably be the least damaging thing they’ve done in the past few years.

        because holy fuck have they had some whoppers.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          4 days ago

          The “hard R” thing still permanently etched into my brain lol.

          Context

          Linus misunderstood that the phrase “hard R” referred to the N-word. He thought it was the R-word. He was saying “people used to use hard R all the time, like on Family Guy and stuff. I used to use it too!” His co-host caught the misunderstanding and it was sorted out quickly before he said anything else embarrassing lol.

          • redisdead@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            My favorite was the trust me bro shirt.

            You could see Luke having to physically restrain himself for calling his boss a fucking hard R word on live stream.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    4 days ago

    It’s kind of ridiculous how long it has taken for people to realise that this is happening… where did people think that their referrals had gone after they cratered?

    • dan@upvote.au
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      4 days ago

      People realised years ago but didn’t really care much. End users generally don’t care since it doesn’t directly impact them, and “influencers” will often take a sponsorship deal without thoroughly researching the product or service being advertised, and probably just figured that people were buying less stuff due to the economy or whatever.

      The tech-savvy people that realised what’s happening tend to either avoid afilliate links, or use a cash back service (TopCashback, Rakuten, etc) that requires you to use their affiliate link.

      It’s not just Honey doing this. Practically all the major coupon sites do it too.

  • NotNotMike@programming.dev
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    5 days ago

    I’m glad this information is coming to light because I think that it should be fixed, at least as far as the affiliate link piece goes, but I find myself irritated by the sensationalism of the poster.

    They’re really pushing to make this seem as evil as possible, and milking it for every drop it’s worth. Making this a two-part series and not exposing it immediately feels super shitty to me.

    Just post the full information you have, if this is really so bad, stop trying to farm clips.

    Also, not enough focus on the timeline. Honey’s business model has changed dramatically since it was released long ago, and I feel like the part two video is going to complain about the original Honey business model, which was literally just a coupon code aggregator, just based on the “cliffhanger” at the end

    • freddydunningkruger@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      The dude spent a year figuring this out, researching and getting all his ducks in a row. What did you do, whats your contribution? Oh, let’s see, you bravely complained in a comments section about the way he chose to release the info, accusing him of the crime of sensationalism for clicks.

      Gee, why would he want to get paid for his work?? HOW SELFISH! It’s not like there are companies out there trying to steal content creator revenue, right??

      The way you complain more about him than the company, makes me wonder, do you work for Paypal, or that new project, Pie? Just weird to see you trying to make him look bad for wanting to get paid for his work. Sounds like a Honey thing to do.

      • NotNotMike@programming.dev
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        4 days ago

        My guy take it down a notch, damn. I’m not calling for his head on a pike, I have legitimate and valid criticisms. I apologize if the tone came off more critical than I meant it but hot hell you came in spicy.

        But, to address your issue:

        Why does one wrong make a right? Why does him exposing the issue invalidate any criticisms or expectations of quality or integrity? To me it does not, hence why I criticize. And I even said I was glad the information is coming to light, and I’m grateful for him drawing attention to it, I just wish it could have been done a little more tactfully is all. I would like to have all the information right now, rather than waiting for a “part 2”.

        I also just don’t appreciate the stoking of anger, which has clearly worked. Ragebait is toxic and that’s what is being done with this story, from my perspective, so I don’t love it.

    • Imhotep@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      it should be fixed

      It’s not a mistake, but an incredibly unethical business model. Why minimize the issue?

      not exposing it immediately feels super shitty to me

      it doesn’t change anything to the facts though

      It’s serialization, as old as printed news. You can dislike that but it’s not like he’s the only one doing it

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      If you look at their history, they seem to be a younger YouTube channel. I think he’s breaking it up more so that he can actually put out one video a month and not lose subscribers. He seems to be slowly managing to make the videos longer each month.

      • NotNotMike@programming.dev
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        4 days ago

        I suspected it was a smaller channel, but didn’t look myself. I haven’t heard of them up until this point so this story could be a particularly big opportunity for them, so it makes sense why they are choosing the delivery method that they are