I am sorry if you clicked a product link on a ToolGuyd post only to land on this page instead of a Lowes.com destination.
Unfortunately, all of our Lowe’s links are broken – again. Here’s why.
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At the very end of March, Lowe’s sent out a surprise notice that they were switching from one affiliate network to another. This did not provide sufficient time for me to change over every Lowes.com-related link to tools, supplies, and other products in more than 12 years of ToolGuyd posts.
Basically, they flipped a switch, and every existing ToolGuyd.com link to Lowes.com was instantly broken. Changing things over on our end will be a tedious and time-consuming process.
For more than a week, clicking one of those now-defunct Lowes.com affiliate links led to an ugly and automatic “offer not found” page. So, I figured that an explanation page would be a slightly better alternative. I’m sorry, but this is the best I can do right now.
I say again because something similar happened a few years ago.
Lowe’s did send over an automatic invitation to their new affiliate program, but I found the terms to be highly disagreeable. I countered and explained why the terms were unfavorable. That was 9 days ago, just before their switchover broke all of our outgoing Lowes.com product links.
I assumed that Lowe’s would respond shortly and I could then begin the process of updating all of our affected links, but I never heard back after the initial reply.
Right now, I cannot even accept their unfavorable terms. Our status was “invited” with “waiting for counter approval” or similar to that effect, and it’s now said to be “application pending.”
In other words, their actions broke all of our Lowe’s-related links, and I also lost any option to remedy this until Lowe’s takes action on their end.
For what it’s worth, I understand that these things happen. Lowe’s = big retailer, ToolGuyd = small business. For the sake of an improved user experience, I wanted to accept the unfavorable program terms today, but I found that this was no longer an option. It’s been more than a week since I received a “we’ll talk about it” email – was total cancellation their response?
I could change all the links to direct unaffiliated links and then back to new Lowes.com affiliate links if this all gets sorted out, but I’d prefer to just change the links over just once.
If anyone from Lowe’s Corporate is reading this – I’m eager to hear from you! And, while I have you – more press/media communications, please! There are rumors that you’re revamping different tool sections and bringing in new brands, but so far I haven’t heard a peep from you directly. More details would be appreciated – after you fix things on your end so I can start updating out links.
In the meantime, until things get worked out:
If you need to find the product at Lowe’s website, you’ll have to search for it manually. There’s no easy way to fix all of our links or redirect them individually, even temporarily. Or, consider alternate recommendations:
Tool Guide: The Best Places to Buy Tools
Shop HOME DEPOT’s Latest Tool Deals Here
Note: The comments section is closed. The last time something like this happened, everyone dogpiled on top of Lowe’s, and that didn’t help things. The “shop Home Depot” link probably won’t lead to warm and fuzzy feelings either, but it seemed to help last time in expediting the resolution process.
