The company alleges ASG owes them $24,000 in unpaid affiliate commissions.
The civil suit was filed Oct. 13 at Maricopa County Court in Phoenix, Ariz.
Untangled Web also alleges that not only has ASG missed several months of affiliate payments, but that it also has committed fraud by manipulating its affiliate stats area to show that Untangled Web has been paid. The suit asks for all owed payments, rebills, court costs and attorneys fees.
Untangled Web’s attorney Chad Belville told XBIZ that his client is owed commissions as far back as October 2005.
“Given the fact that Amateur Straight Guys has missed payments before, we decided to put an end to this and take them to court,” Belville told XBIZ. “They said they would catch up with the payments and never did. When my clients pursued it further, they stopped returning calls and emails. The payments we have received have never been for the full amount owed.”
According to multiple posts on gay webmaster message board GayMainStreet.com, many Amateur Straight Guys’ affiliates claim they have not been paid commissions, and further allege the company failed to pay for months at a time and has not responded to phone calls or emails.
Digital Ventures lawyer Charles McTheny assured Amateur Straight Guys’ affiliates that they will be paid — after the company settles IRS issues.
“The Amateur Straight Guys affiliate program was shut down last week,” McTheny told XBIZ. “The intent is to pay off every affiliate that was owed money. Digital Ventures has IRS issues and the government gets paid first, which has slowed payments to affiliates. It’s a cash crunch. The company is not filing for bankruptcy, it is just ending its non- profitable affiliate program. There is no denial the payments were not made and our intention is to pay everything back in full.”