This article helps you troubleshoot three main issues around referral detection:

A. ReferralCandy is not detecting your test referred purchases

1. Referral detection can take up to 12 hours

Referral detection is not immediate. The system needs time to ensure accuracy of referral detection. In some cases it can take up to 12 hours. If you recently setup or tested your referral program you might have to wait 12 hours before you see the referral appear in your ReferralCandy dashboard.

2. Check if your store's integration with ReferralCandy is working correctly

There are two parts to Email Integration. The first part is forwarding invoice emails to ReferralCandy and the second part is inserting the javascript tracking code.

For email forwarding, check that the referred friends purchase appears on your account's Purchases & Referrals page. For the tracking code, check that the last detected time is later than the time that the friend's purchase was made at the 'Integration' section of your account's Referral Program Overview page.

Learn more about troubleshooting integration.

3. Check that your referral test was carried out correctly

4. Your referral test may have been blocked by our fraud detection measures

As long as you follow steps in testing the referral process you should be able to test successfully. To troubleshoot again ensure that:

  • The referred friend's name is not the same as the advocate's name.

  • The referred friend is not already an existing customer in your ReferralCandy account (check your account's Purchases & Referrals page to see if the referred friend had made a previous purchase).

  • You cleared cookies before conducting the referral test and you used different computers and a different network to make the referred purchase.

5. Check that the referred purchase meets the criteria for a reward

The referred purchase should be:

6. Check if the referral reward is valid

  • The referral reward may have expired, if you set an expiry date.

  • Your single use coupons may have run out. Just add more coupons.

7. Your campaign may have stopped

Make sure that your campaign isn't stopped. If there are issues preventing your campaign from being activated, please resolve them first before carrying out the referral process test.

8. Still having trouble? Contact our support team

Contact us through the contact form in your dashboard with the following information:

  • Advocate's email address

  • Advocate's name

  • Referred friend's email address

  • Referred friend's name

  • Referred friend's purchase time

  • Referred friend's purchase amount

  • Did you follow the instructions for testing the referral process

  • Was the referred friend a new customer

  • Did you carry out the test on different computers

  • Did you carry out the test on different networks


B. An advocate in your referral program claims that she did not get a reward for a referral that she made

1. Check if the referred friend is already an existing customer at your store


2. Check if the referred friend met the minimum criteria set for a referral reward

The referred purchase should be:

3. The referral may have been blocked by our fraud detection measures

This means that the referred friend made the purchase using the same name as the advocate, used the same computer to make the purchase as the advocate, and similar cases.

4. Referred friend may not have clicked through from the advocate's referral link

5. Referrals are not being detected.

Please see first Section A to troubleshoot why your referrals are not being detected.


Resolving an advocate's reward claim

If you are satisfied that the advocate has made a legitimate referral, you can ensure she gets her referral reward by following these steps.


Report a problem

If you would like ReferralCandy to investigate further into your referral detection issue, please contact us with the following:

  • Advocate's email address

  • Advocate's name

  • Referred friend's email address

  • Referred friend's name

  • Referred friend's purchase time

  • Referred friend's purchase amount

  • Was the referred friend a new customer


C. Orders placed by my employees are detected as referrals, how can I fix this?

This is probably caused when your employees view an advocates referral link before placing an order. ReferralCandy may consider this a referral.

To prevent this from happening, ensure that your employees view all referral links in a different browser from the browser used to place an order on behalf of the customer.

You can also contact us with the IP address of your office or call centre. We can ban that IP address from making referrals for your referral campaign. However this will not allow you to test the referral process from your office or call centre in the future.


To remove a referral that has been detected accidentally:

This is possible while the purchase is within the review period.

2. Contact us to remove the referral

If the referred purchase has passed the review period you can contact us with the following information.

Note: We will not be able to recall any rewards that have already been issued.


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