this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Always wondered why YTers were complaining about lack of commissions and this explains most of it

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 days ago (11 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day 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.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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.

[–] notnotmike 41 points 2 days ago (5 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

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

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

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I used honey for a few years. in that time i think it found me a working code like twice.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I knew Honey was sketchy, but I just assumed it made it's money from just data harvesting everything

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 2 days ago (20 children)

In the entire time I used Honey, I never once got a valid coupon code for literally anything. Pretty sure they scraped a ton of my browsing data though.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Was it not obvious that the extension was doing that and scraping your browser data?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago

Scraping data yes Scraping affiliate links? No

[–] [email protected] 195 points 3 days ago (11 children)

Rent-seeking middlemen. This is the pinnacle of capitalism. Taking revenue while providing nothing is maximum efficiency. You can tell because it raises prices invisibly for everyone.

This is just a baby version of how credit card companies have placed a 1%-5% sales tax on the global economy. You might say "at least the CC companies provide a service", but that tax get's added no matter if your using a CC or not.

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[–] [email protected] 90 points 2 days ago (4 children)

You mean a free extension that claims to give me discounts seemingly out of the goodness of their hearts that also has access to every website I go to in the browser where it is installed is not exactly on the level? I'm shocked.....well...not that shocked.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Here's to hoping you're right, and that those lawsuits succeed

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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?

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (12 children)

Lmao, I never trusted a browser extension.

Like, immediately "Too Good To Be True" red flags were raised.

If I want coupon codes, I could just google "Coupon Codes for [shopping platform]"

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I just bought some local honey. Don't know what this shit is, hopefully I never will.

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 3 days ago (8 children)

So the TL:DW version seems to be that honey changes or adds an affiliate link to get a commission on the sale. Similar programs like Capital One Shopping probably do the same thing.

Honestly, I don’t give a shit. I hate affiliate links no matter who gets them. They are the real scam.

Sounds link the real solution is to use it to identify potential coupon codes. Then clear cookies, resign in, and enter the code yourself. But it’s not like that yields a cheaper price, so I’m not even sure I care.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 2 days ago (3 children)

That's just one issue, there's also the fact that they partner with stores to give worse coupons than are actually available, by letting them get affiliate money when doing so. And then advertising that they ALWAYS give you the best codes, while getting paid by stores not to do so....

Theres also another video coming up with stores that have been screwed over by Honey getting hold of codes that are supposed to be hidden/limited. (though that's honestly on the store, make your limited coupons actually limited to avoid this..) But he only teased this, there might be something wkse/more.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (13 children)

Do people not immediately google "How does X make money" or is that just me?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I just assumed it was a scam the moment I saw it. Just thought it was farming data for profit out in the open because everyone else dose that. They went above and beyond and made corpo malware.

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