Has Udemy been stealing anyone else's revenue?

Three times in the last six weeks I've checked my revenue report in the morning and seen that a new student has bought both my courses Part 1 and Part 2 as My Promotion and I received 97% of the income. In the same evening I look at the report and it will show that one of these sales has changed to Udemy Organic and has been reduced to 50%. I've sent a few emails to Udemy and got no real response but asking if I've screenshotted the evidence. There shouldn't be any need to be screenshotting but yesterday I requested a sales report CSV export in the morning and evening and the exact same thing happened. Two sales in the morning were my promotion and by the evening one had changed. Finally have the evidence but wonder how many times this has gone unoticed over the last two years. Anyone experienced this?

Comments

  • GregReverdiau
    GregReverdiau Posts: 791 rolemodel rank

    @AfricanBass
    Support is probably better equipped to help you with this issue but I have never heard of such a thing before. Was it the same exact student? Could a student have requested a refund and another student purchase the course after that?

  • VipinJoshi
    VipinJoshi Posts: 151 storyteller rank

    @AfricanBass
    @It happens with me and the student purchased five courses four comes in promotion one comes under organic.

    I got response that ask student for refund and tell him to enroll with your coupons.

    But I can't ask him to refund through direct messaging otherwise its a policy violation...😂😂. I don't know which feature I use to ask him for refund. I can't do that with educational announcement neither promotional..neither q and a section.

    Hence, the query remain query after so long delayed replies from Instructor support team.

  • LawrenceMMiller
    LawrenceMMiller Posts: 2,286 rolemodel rank

    "Has Udemy been stealing anyone else's revenue?"

    No. They only steal yours. Everyday they watch your purchases and say "Aha! Here's one we can steel." Only for you, with almost one hundred million students and fifty thousand instructors, they spend their time steeling your revenue. Yes, that's right. I am sure its true.

  • AfricanBass
    AfricanBass Posts: 12 traveler rank

    Been waiting two months for Support to properly answer me. Always the exact same student. They buy two of my courses as My Promotion and then when I check back later that day one of the purchases is My Promotion and the other is Udemy Organic. The student would have to have bought as my promotion requested a refund and then bought again as Udemy Organic but even in the that case the Cookies are meant to last for long enough that it remains my promotion. Two years I sent a email link to a fan who wanted to buy then they bought the same day and it showed as affiliate. I asked him and he said he definitely bought with my link.

  • AfricanBass
    AfricanBass Posts: 12 traveler rank

    Exactly. Sometimes I see someone has bought both of my courses at the same time and one is My Promotion and one is Organic but I know for certain that the second course always comes as an upsell so should be the same coupon. It wouldn't surprise me if these were all My Promotion but by the time I've checked it, one has changed to Organic.

  • Gokul
    Gokul Posts: 186 specialist rank

    RIght on the spot Bullseye.:smileyvery-happy:

  • LawrenceMMiller
    LawrenceMMiller Posts: 2,286 rolemodel rank

    OK, @AfricanBass
    I'll be a leadership coach.

    You are making an accusation that is absurd. Udemy is NOT STEALING your revenue! No company succeeds by stealing the revenue of their partners. You may not understand what is happening, there may even be a technical glitch. But, my "leadership coaching" advise is don't ever accuse someone of stealing unless you have absolutely clear evidence of that. Udemy is your partner. You want them to do marketing for you. Accusing them of stealing is not the way to develop that partnership.

    My coaching to you is to focus on things that have a more value-adding payoff, like improving your courses, creating more courses, doing your own marketing, writing a blog. Sitting around worry that the revenue has changed for some particular student is a total waste of time. That is like obsessing over the fact that one student gave you a bad review. Forget it. Move on.

    My previous comment was obviously sarcastic.

  • Thanks for the enlightening leadership advice. Please remind me to buy all of your courses.

    As previously stated I've got absolute proof. I have two CSV exported revenue reports from different times on the same day emailed to me by Udemy which different revenue amounts for the same student and this isn't a one off. I've witnessed this three times in two months but finally have the proof. Maybe your leadership could guide me as to what I should do with this evidence. Have been waiting for an answer from support since April 3rd and emailed a few times for updates.

  • Now today on June 1st the performance page shows three enrollments but the revenue report shows only two sales. I do not have any free courses or free coupons so how is this possible?

  • AKerdisei
    AKerdisei Posts: 28 traveler rank

    Are you feeling ok LawrenceMMiller?

    You seem to be sick because that kind of answer seems to come from someone who really needs to go see a doctor.

    Please, go on ask someone to take you to a psychiatrist.

    If you can not help the fellow instructor do not mock him, sometimes it is better to be quiet when we do not like some one else's questions, post or comments.

    Why? Why would you mock him? If you are having a bad day just stop and take a walk.

  • Abbie
    Abbie Posts: 3,191 traveler rank

    Hi everyone, please be respectful and polite when communicating with others in the community. Personal attacks are against our guidelines, which is why we've turned off comments here.

    As some have pointed out, instructorsupport@udemy.com is the right channel to report this behavior. It is unexpected that a sale should be “reattributed” after it initially appears. We don’t have widespread reports of this happening but we’d investigate any report of it as a bug if sent over to support.

    Coupons and referral links are course-specific. If a student buys one of your courses via your coupon but others via Udemy browse or recommendation, it’s not expected that the other sales will be attributed to the instructor. I'll be happy to pass that as a suggestion to the team.