Upset over new Auctiva Fees? Coming Soon – Vendio Special Offer
As many of you may have heard, Ina Steiner at Auctionbytes broke the news that Auctiva will soon be charging for their services.
To toot our own horns for a bit, in comparison, Vendio has spent the last year lowering prices and launching an eCommerce Platform that includes a robust, full-featured online store as well as item, order, customer management – all for free.
We were also very surprised that merchants were not being given more time to make a decision (and almost are forced to stay or scramble). Sometimes you just feel that merchants just can’t catch a break.
So – we just wanted to let you know to stay-tuned for a special offer coming to all of you who are impacted by the Auctiva announcement.
We’ll do our best for you, we promise!!
May 29th, 2009 at 6:15 am
I look forward to learning more about Vendio’s offer. Auctiva’s recent pricing structure notification definitely has me scrambling!
May 29th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
All of my auctions end this weekend and I need to re list quick, if I join up now can I benefit from the offer when it comes?
May 29th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Please hurry. I sell in spurts on eBay as time permits. It’s just a way to pay for a few little perks since I cannot work outside the home and still take care of elderly parents. All the fees are so discouraging! I just can’t be everyone’s bailout anymore.
May 30th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Yes, I agree. We need a free option for item management. Auctiva is great but I dont want to pay for it.
Anyone have any ideas for other alternatives to Auctiva?
May 30th, 2009 at 3:46 am
Unfortunately you charge a final value fee. You dont provide the platform to host the auction and therefore have no right to take a cut. InkFrog charges a flat rate, no strings. Until you do the same, I will not consider your service, just like I am leaving Auctiva.
May 30th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Can’t wait to hear more about Vendio’s services & special offer!
May 31st, 2009 at 4:25 am
Hi All..
Hoping to get the offer in your hands tomorrow (ish).
IDF – Understood. Our plans are extraordinary for some folks, and other we work with. We’re not unapproachable, we are here, have been here and will be here for merchants. We do feel that sometimes the small/medium merchants cannot catch a break..and we are hoping to give you one that I think you will think is more than fair.
Matthew – I can’t make any promises, because I don’t know if I could roll you over to special plan for auctiva sellers once you sign up. Let me get back to you after I talk to the team tomorrow.
We have some really GREAT features – that you are probably don’t know about – and I can’t WAIT to get them in your hands! ‘
Vendio_Crystal
May 31st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I don’t sell on eBay or Amazon. Currently I’m on Bonanzle but just feel as if I really could be doing my own thing out here with my own store. Is Vendio still a place for me, even if not selling on eBay or Amazon? Or do I have to sell on eBay and/or Amazon to also have a store here? Sorry, I’m confused
thanks!
May 31st, 2009 at 10:18 pm
We’re looking forward to hearing about your features…
But IDF’s right… for the majority of the folks who are looking to transition off of Auctiva… the FVF would be a deal breaker.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:20 am
I have to agree with IDF. If you are charging a monthly rate for your services I cannot see any reason to charge a final value fee. I know that’s not what you’re calling it, but in practice that’s what it is. What I find amusing is about 3-4 inches above where you state what your final value fee will be, you state that you do not charge a final value fee. Ever hear the quote “A rose by any other name still smells the same”? While that may be a slight misquote, to me a percentage of the sale price is a final value fee, no matter what you call it. As a very small seller on eBay, I certainly cannot afford your monthly fee as well as your final value fee. If you need more money, charge more money. Or perhaps you just want the larger sellers, like most other companies.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:51 am
Can’t wait to hear what you have to win us over!
=^.^=
June 1st, 2009 at 3:47 am
Hello, What is coming out?
I am signed up with Vendio and have started to set up the store. It is actually not very intuitive to do, and things like linking to category and item pages have been totally illusive to me thus far. I wish I could influence a redesign of the interface. I think if you know how to create your own template, or if you can pay someone to do this for you, this may be the only or best route.
It looks like it could work and the organizing premise of this approach for Vendio is great but I just wonder how long it is going to take to have a complete product ready to use?
Please let us know what is missing and what is coming. Thanks!
Christo
June 1st, 2009 at 8:51 am
Crystal, does Vendio have an importer tool to move active listings from Auctiva over here? Thank you, Mike
June 1st, 2009 at 10:34 am
And what about your current Vendio users?? Can we also take advantage of this offer? I think it’s extremely unfair to lure new customers in with an offer like this and ignore your loyal customers who have been paying faithfully all these years.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Many questions! How wonderful! We love questions!
Janine
Yes, absolutely. The Vendio store is a full feature Ecommerce store with complete item management and branded shopping cart/check out flow. You do not need to sell on eBay OR Amazon to use the Store. And it’s free, so hop on board and start your own thing!!
Hi Broad Creek Books and Jessica,
The section with no final value fees applies to the Vendio Store. The Vendio Store is complete free of fees of ANY kind, including final value fees. The Success Fee applies to marketplace sales. This sliding scale enables us to provide affordable pricing for smaller sellers while enabling advanced features for larger sellers more likely to take advantage of more robust functionality as well as scale with their higher usage of all Vendio features. Having a single fee would likely require a choice between offering a really simple service like some others do or having a system the majority couldn’t afford. (Note – we are also giving an 18 month window for Auctiva customers who switch with NO success fees!)
Hi Beck,
There’s an Auctionbytes article on what we are doing to win you over, and we’ll have the “official word” out shortly. So sneak peak it here –>http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m06/i01/s01
Hi Christo,
We’ve actually just made category addition a bit easier. In the past, you needed to add your store categories from Store Designer, and now you can do this from Store Manager (under Items). However, if you need a hand, please drop me a line at crystal@corp.vendio.com – I’ve spent a lot of time playing in our store, so I’d be more than happy to help you on anything that you find confusing. Also, please never hesitate to contact customer support if you have a question. They are just world class (we get tons of compliments all the time) and would relish the opportunity to help you out with any questions at all. Just click the “Help” link on any page.
Hi Mike
Yes, right now we can import your eBay listings and associated images (and store categories if you’d like to use them for your store). We’re working on some additional import mechanisms as well, such as importing from a spreadsheet and some others.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Hi Crystal
I just signed up and got a user name. How do I get the offer for former Auctiva users? Thanks for your fast responses as I’m sure you’re getting lots of questions.
Mike
June 1st, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Mike,
The offer is not on the site yet..so you’ll need to email me your Vendio user ID and your Auctiva user ID and I will manually move your account over when it’s available.
Drop me a line at crystal@corp.vendio.com
June 1st, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Crystal,
Any response to my question?
Thanks
June 1st, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Hi Karen,
This particular limited time offer is currently only available to existing Auctiva users seeking an alternative solution like the Vendio Platform.
While we understand your concern, this unique time indicated a similarly unique offer would be warranted.
The success of this offer will help us guide other offer decisions in the future for both new and existing customers moving to the new Vendio Platform
June 1st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Hi Karen again,
The first time a user posts, we have to approve it. We get 20 spams for every “real” post, so apologies for any delay!!
June 1st, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Is there someway to view a sample of your eBay listing templates?
I spent some time reviewing your site today and was unable to find anything.
June 1st, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Crystal,
We are another Auctiva Refugee seeking safety.
We have been there for 9 months so we have MANY listings and pictures.
When I heard of the site charges from AuctionBytes I signed up here.
I can not find how to delete or close my trial accounts here in order to re-sign up under the new Auctiva pricing plan.
Can you help me out with this somehow?
Do I need to close my trial account I signed up for a few days ago?
Can you convert my trial Vendio account into a Auctiva Refugee Account?
Thanks,
TNT Harley Davidson
June 1st, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Well June 1st over. I’ve got literally dozens of listings that I need to make. I WAS planning on doing them today (technically yesterday since after midnight) on Auctiva but then I got blind-sided with all of these fees that they want to charge. While you also have FVF, you also can cross-list not only to ebay but amazon and others AND keep the inventory in-sync among them all. THAT I am willing to pay a little extra for. I don’t mind the $10 fee but I appreciate 6 months free since I’m a small seller and have been used to free listing services. That helps me transition to paying fees.
SO … come on and open the door … the line is getting long, waiting to get in!
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:34 am
Broad Creek,
We don’t have this outside the application as yet. Believe it or not, its actually a big tool to build and bring outside. Its on the list, but there is so many other cool things to do. That said..Drop me at email at crystal@corp.vendio.com and I’ll figure out a way for you to view them!
TNT Harley
Yes, I can. Drop me an email at crystal@corp.vendio.com. I’m not sure of the process just yet, but don’t close your trial, go ahead and use it. We’ll just have to figure something out for you.
Harris Country Store
Its great to hear the line is long. The offer is laid out in the auctionbytes article..
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m06/i01/s01
And we’ll have some more info out today!!
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:46 am
Crystal,
I’ve been up all night on the Auctiva communnity blogs and there seems to be a clear exodus. Vendio is definately one of top vendors being discussed by the masses. I won’t insult this blog by mentioning the few others as it’s irrelevant here.
Needless to say (but I will) I hope you are going to be prepared for all of us.
I hope it’s ok to sign-up for a regular trial this afternoon if you don’t have the Auctiva offer live yet and have you change it for me later. I just don’t want to wait another day. I have dozens of new listings to create and I guess now I have hundreds of old listings to re-create! I need to get busy!
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 am
crystal, I was using Auctiva and sign for a trial with you, hope you can include me when you have the Auctiva offer, also it is very difficult to change the way you look for features when you use a new system, yesterday I hard try to make my first listing with vendio and today I notice that pictures are not showing up in ebay!! please help.. I need to list a lot of new item and does not have plenty of time!!
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:41 am
I am a small seller currently using Auctiva. I was not opposed to paying fees for their services, but the proposed rates are fanciful at best; more disturbing to me was the dismissive attitude towards the competition shown by their CEO. All of the alternatives I have looked at, including Vendio, have in my opinion been respectful and professional and I thank them for that.
I’m likely to make the jump to Vendio from Auctiva once the offer page is posted. I would like to be able to look at some of the stores that are Vendio based; is there a “mall” or similar link that promotes the on-line stores which are Vendio based?
I would also hope that if it does not already exist that a tool is being developed that will allow me to import my listings from Auctiva; please tell me it is true!
Thank you,
Rob
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
“Success Fee” ROFL Success for who? Ebay and Vendio. I tried Vendio years ago, and left because of the fees. They did have nice features, but in the long run, once Auctiva added inventory and automation features to their services, why would I pay Vendio for the same thing I was getting for free. Don’t get me wrong, I closed my Auctiva account yesterday because of the fees. I agree with many that a flat fee of 10 to 15 dollars a month would be reasonable for me to pay for these services and not a penny more. Listen to the wording closely and always read the fine print.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
So… Where’s the Auctiva offer? I really want to get started! I’ve got my web designer waiting in the wings to import my custom auction template & create my new Vendio Store.
Another question that has many Auctiva users a bit leary is this: Will your Free online store offer always be free? Or, are you planning to start charging fees for your online stores in the future? Auctiva has us all scrambling, & I know I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to relive this scenerio.
I look forward to your response.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Hi Everyone!
Thanks for your patience. We’ll have a press release out shortly with all the details.
As Ina Steiner reported in Auctionbtyes, we are offering the Vendio Platform for free for the rest of 2009 and only $10 for 2010.
Crystal is traveling right now so I am going to try & answer some of your questions.
@macondo store – can you please email feedback@corp.vendio.com with your eBay & Vendio username?
@Rob – We are in the middle of creating a directory for all of our Vendio stores. Here are some examples:
http://www.vendio.com/stores/filthymagic
http://www.vendio.com/stores/parkhillpantry
http://www.vendio.com/stores/bugbandrepellent
We can currently import over all active listings from eBay. We’ll also be launching a new import tool within a few weeks.
@Juan – I agree that everyone should read the fine print. Our offer details will be pretty explicit.
@GottaHaveThat – We have no plans to charge for our online stores. They are designed, created & marketed to be 100% free.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:04 pm
checked the website examples. I assume we will be able to customize with our own html, etc?
Looking forward to start moving stuff over!
Beck
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
@Beck – Yes, our stores are highly customizable.
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Helen,
I signed up for Vendio and am planning on leaving Auctiva. I spoke with Crystal and she said once the offer is live she could manually put my account on the plan for former Auctiva users. In trying to import my ebay listings, your tool is telling me I don’t have an image hosting platform other than the Vendio store. Will that change once the offer goes live? I really need to get everything transferred and deleted from Auctiva before I am charged a large amount of money. I hope you’re not getting too overwhelmed with questions but Auctiva really isn’t giving us a lot of time to decide what to do and get everything moved out. Thank you for all your help though.
Mike
Tropical Enterprising
June 5th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
@Mike – Sent you an email
June 8th, 2009 at 3:48 am
I would like to take advantage of the auctiva refugee program, but am about to leave on a 2 week work assignment. My ebay store is currently on “vacation”. Will the offer still be available in 2-3 weeks? I don’t really want to have to try to shift right now when I only have very limited time to monitor the process, not to mention not knowing if my store being on vacation complicates matters.
Thank you for any insight,
Rob
June 30th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
@Rob – lucky for you, we’ve extended the offer for another two weeks (until 7/15)