I didn't say the site looked like it was thrown together, but rather the TOS and privacy statement.
You still haven't answered the question of how you plan to generate revenue to keep the site open. If you have no fees except for 1.25 for items over 50.00 where is the money coming from to keep the site going?
How many people do you think are going to list 50.00 items? I would list the item at 49.99 or under to avoid the insertion fee as I'm sure anyone with half a brain would since they would not be listing their best items right out of the gate.
You wanted opinions, you got them, but it seems more and more that you are only here to promote your site.
posted on May 31, 2001 06:28:31 PM new
I find it a bit ironic that there would be so much concern about FVF's....
A few month's ago, the general consensus here was that AW should survive on listing fees alone and that FVF's were abhorent.
Has this changed in the interim?
Whether auction site or listing site, it boils down to a bunch of computers in rooms with people milling around to make them go, along with the necessary staff to run the business end of things...
From what I've seen over the last 3 years following online auctions, this is a pretty mild promotion to attract visitors and sellers....at least compared to the companies often talked about on AW...
posted on May 31, 2001 07:04:46 PM new
I saw it in e-mail....a great feature here on AW...
I haven't sold for a while on eBay and was a little surprised to see how much fees have increased there...
So much for the good ole days...*G*
I think the mod squad was right to request an edit...that was pushing it a bit.....but it was kinda nice to see the fees side-by-side, so to speak...
I hope Danny will return and answer some of the questions I asked and address some more of our concerns....that will tell us a lot about their commitment to their idea...
I hope I haven't intruded over here...I normally don't post in this forum but was surfing and saw an interesting subject...
posted on May 31, 2001 07:47:42 PM new
dman, I was one of the people who said I wouldn't pay $2.00 for listing on a site where there is no traffic.
I list on ebay and have for three years and really have no problems paying what they ask.
However, I don't believe in keeping all my eggs in one basket and am looking for alternative sites.
You are very welcome to try it out and let us know how your sales are in let's say a month?
jsonline, nice of you to drop that fee, but if your company wants $2 and they felt that was fair, well then to drop it based on one or two opinions is not really feasible is it?
When will it go back up? You know fees are inevitable on every site. I'd rather pay in the beginning than be lulled into peacefulness and have the other shoe dropped on me midstream.
posted on June 1, 2001 02:19:07 AM new
In regards to billing, this is a mistake that was made when we started, it will be fixed soon, probably tomorrow. We do not ask for your credit information at all at any time. Our billing is managed 100% through paypal.
As for the feedback, how much space do you think is good? We set it at 50 to prevent people from writing books about the person they are giving feedback on, I noticed in time with other auction sites when people are happy with the deal they keep it short and sweet, when they are mad they can take up a whole page!
This is for sure something we can change if the users would like us to. How much space do you feel the average person should need?
Sellers linking to their sites, we do not mind at all, although they must really be selling the item on our site, they cannot list it and suggest people buy it from their site instead of from the auction.
Once the buyer leaves our site they are no longer protected by our rules and regulations, also if the seller is to post banners, links, and all out promote their site with no intent to sell an item, the auction block will be removed and the sellers account closed.
I will post an auction with a reserve and I will have someone else from JS bid on the item so you may see how the reserve works. If your opening price or reserve price is $50.00 or over, yes, the insertion fee will apply.
No at this time we have not looked into the automated part. We might as the site gets bigger. A user has showed concern on getting emails every time you post an item to sell on the site, I can see where this can get annoying, but on the other hand it is kind of a security feature so you know if someone is selling on your account. What does everyone think about this? JS Auctions
posted on June 1, 2001 02:35:28 AM new
How we will make money? The bulk of the money our company makes is off of the advertising you see on the auction site, and the rest of our sites. This keeps us in play and it will keep the auction alive.
As for dropping the fees, this was done as a point, to show that yes we do care what you all think and we will work hard to make sure we keep happy and loyal users.
People that list items for 49.99 just to stay under the $50.00 so they don't have to pay a fee, more power to them, it is a good way around the fee!
We are not here to take your money and the fees are there to help us out in providing you with a service you may need, we do not take $1.25 from everyone and put it in our own pockets, this money goes into the auction and keeping it afloat.
Fees may one day change, it is part of business, costs get higher and the difference needs to be made up, I don't know how to be anymore straight forward and honest about it, but as I have said ... we will always work to make sure our fees are lower then that of the fees on other sites.
If you are asking will you see a fee jump in the next week or two? Not at all. The fees are set and will stand where they are for a while, we have no need to raise them as our costs are the same today as they were last week. It may be a year or more before you ever see the fees move up in price, and the move would be so small you might not even see it!
As for my first post, I am not trying to hide anything, it was telling everyone about the service and asking you all to give us a try, if that is not promotional in nature I don't know what is! The rest of this post has not been an attempt to promote the site or service, it has been to help people understand us and show we do hear you.
We are not big, we are not deaf, we are not blind. We care about the users and always will ... I am not trying to make us sound great, I am pointing out the facts. I am not pushing this site or service on anyone, if you do not use you are not going to hurt our feelings, we understand this service is not and will not be for everyone.
For those that are trying it and would like to try it, thank you for giving us a chance and the same to everyone who does not want to try it ... thank you for taking time and reading all these posts because that in itself is giving us a chance.
posted on June 1, 2001 06:07:45 AM newWe are not big, we are not deaf, we are not blind. We care about the users and always will
Where have we heard this before? ebay, Golds, and another unmentionable site. I'm not saying each didn't care in some way, but a site can care only so much before financial greed kicks in. Rules change too often.
It may be a year or more before you ever see the fees move up in price, and the move would be so small you might not even see it
When a fee is set at 0, it would be kind of hard not to see it, don't you agree?
People that list items for 49.99 just to stay under the $50.00 so they don't have to pay a fee, more power to them, it is a good way around the fee!
This practice has been in force for years! Why pay 50 cents for a $10.00 opening bid when you can pay .25 for a $9.99 one? Same philosophy applies with $49.99 vs $50. Nothing about circumventing your fee, it's just become a normal way of doing business.
I'm sure if you say you've been researching auctions, you'll see almost every starting bid with a .99 at the end. $9.99, $24.99, $49.99 - all breaking points with ebay's fees. The only sellers that don't know about this are the ones that are brand spanking new. Those are the ones who are going to pay through the nose.
As I said before, good luck with your site. I'll take a wait and see attitude before jumping into yet another dot.com with high aspirations.
ubb editing
[ edited by mtnmama on Jun 1, 2001 06:09 AM ]
[ edited by mtnmama on Jun 1, 2001 06:11 AM ]
posted on June 1, 2001 10:21:51 AM new
I hope all the information you are posting here will end up in the TOS.
Right now, the TOS doesn't touch on any of what you have been posting here.
What can be listed? What is prohibited?
How will you deal with a fraudulent seller?
What jurisdiction will handle disputes?
What about feedback? Will you remove feedback under certain circumstances?
posted on June 1, 2001 01:07:30 PM new
Hello everyone, I have come down with what I think may be a bad flu so my response may be slower as I am working from home right now.
toollady, the TOS is being fixed to what we can hope is not only your liking but the liking of all users who do not like the simple and to the point approach. I can more then likely say when it is done being re written, most will no longer attempt to read it because it will be to long.
What can be listed? What is prohibited?
This one is common sense, if it fits in a category and is not a burden to any local, state, or country laws, post it!
How will you deal with a fraudulent seller?
Upon sufficient proof that a seller is fraudulent their account will be removed, any auction site ( even eBay ) pretty much has their hands tied and that is about all that can be done. This is one reason we suggest paypal or an escrow service, as with any site we supply a service and we have nothing to do with the actual exchange.
What jurisdiction will handle disputes?
Can you give a bit more detail on the type of disputes you are talking about?
What about feedback? Will you remove feedback under certain circumstances?
We much like many other sites cannot remove feedback, use this feature wisely and do not put what you do not mean.
For those that wanted to see how the reserve bar works, we have listed a fake auction in the business section of the site, you may view it there.
posted on June 1, 2001 01:53:47 PM new
I'd like to suggest that you respond to customer emails in a expedient manner, similiar to what you do on this board. I listed 2 items on your site (bringing the site auction total up to 6!) and sent off a friendly email with several suggestions or improvements. I still have not received a response to it.
Aaron
posted on June 1, 2001 02:21:02 PM new
Hello! You have an excellent point about how many characters to allow for the posting of feedback. However, here's something to keep in mind. I've posted a few negatives and have kept them short, factual, non-emotional and even eBay's 85 characters isn't quite enough. For instance, this would be a typical comment I'd make:
"Auction ended xx/xx; bidder promised pmnt by xx/xx' 4 wks & no pay"
Now I don't feel that that's writing a book about the non-paying bidder, but as you can see wouldn't fit into 60 character spaces.
Additionally, I've posted quite a few great feedbacks that have nearly filled up 85 characters. If a buyer responds quickly, pays quickly, etc., people need to know that. If a seller delivers promptly & merchandise is as advertised, people need to know that as well--and quite often can take up more than 60 characters.
Also, I'm really curious about this point. Auction sites say they can't remove feedback--even if both parties agree to that removal. Could you please point me to the law that controls this?
Pretty much like all the other auction sites have, ya know if an action needs to be brought against the site?
As far as feedback goes, you mean to say if someone uses racial epitaphs, makes sexual remarks,uses profanity or posts someone's real life info in a feedback comment, you won't remove it?
posted on June 1, 2001 03:13:45 PM new
Aaron, if you send a question to the support department then I am sure you will get a response FAST! Right now they cannot respond to everyone who sends in ideas, comments, and concerns ... that is what I am here for.
I hope that does not sound bad or anything but try to look at it from our point of view, if we were to sit here and respond to suggestions all day then we would not have time to focus on keeping the site running so your auctions stay online. Although rest assured all suggestions are heard and may very well be acted on.
Any update to suggestions made here or by email will be posted here. I hope this is not a problem.
The feedback characters will be set to 100. Does this sound good?
There is no law on removing the feedback, it is just difficult beings it is all stored deep in a database. If someone is to use profanity, racial slurs, or anything of the nature ... that persons account will be removed and efforts to remove the post will then go into effect and be done as soon as possible.
If we removed feedback our email would get swamped on a daily basis to remove something that someone didn't like and then we would have to contact the posting party to hear both sides, this can take some time if both parties do not respond in a timely manner and it takes our attention away from the site itself.
Toollady, what are you specifically asking with your question? Are you asking who is legally liable for items posted on the site?
If this is what you are asking, we are not legally liable for anything posted on our auction. If the item posted is illegal (such as drugs or guns) we are responsible to remove such an auction after being notified of it. We cannot see every auction that is listed at all times and it takes the help of the community to update us on items that are listed that should not be.
If this did not answer your question, let me know. JS Auctions
posted on June 1, 2001 03:43:45 PM new
Fees page has been updated to reflect paypal on file instead of a credit card on file. TOS page will be re posted within the day.
Thanks Danny for getting back to us on our questions and concerns....
If that flu is like what swept through some of my customers' businesses recently, you'll be leaking from all orifices for about 3 days...*G* One of my good buddies lost 15 lbs in two weeks...
Get well soon!
Thanks for clarifying billing and amending the feedback character limit...I think 150 will be fine.
I hope your company will resist the pressure to make the site complex with tons of rules and hoops to jump through....IMO, that's one of the biggest complaints about eBay along with the fee structure...
Any ideas yet where the thrust of your advertising will be?....that would tell us which types of items would be more likely to be viewed.
posted on June 1, 2001 05:54:27 PM new
My question was, and I'll break it down in the simplest form because it is quite obvious from your posts I am irritating you, if someone decided to bring suit against your auction site for whatever reason, where would they file the suit?
Would it be in their home state, your home state, or mars?
And, as a second question, if the first didn't irk you too much, what do you plan to do about unexpected down time, as in what happens if there is a system failure and the site goes offline for any extended amount of time? Let's say down for more than 30 minutes?
posted on June 1, 2001 07:56:33 PM new
OK, you're site has a grand total of FIVE (thats 5 - not 50, not 500, certainly not 5000) auctions running as of 10 minutes ago and you cannot find the time to reply to customer suggestions? What in the world will you do if you recieve a massive influx of new users like other online auctions have?
You do not inspire any confidence to me that your site is going to survive.
Maybe you'd prefer that I lighten your work load and cancel my 2 (that's 2, not 20 or 200) auctions that I have running on your site.
I had to be a sarcastic b*****d, but, c'mon, you can't be serious....
Aaron
posted on June 1, 2001 09:06:50 PM new
Thank you for your reply! Actually, I had to step out for a couple of hours, but personally I think 100 characters in feedback posting would be just about enough to say anything you could think of to say. Of course, as I said, when it comes to negs I try to only state the facts but when someone performs above and beyond the call of duty I try to lavish them all the praise they deserve.
And thank you for clarifying about the feedback. I do believe the big site states that they can't remove feedback because of legalities (and in fact I saw one post from a pink that told people if they wanted to see this changed they needed to be contacting their congressmen and representatives). I think they're afraid of getting sued if they remove one person's feedback and not another's for the same reason (though anyone who's paid attention to anything knows this happens quite frequently).
Anyway, that's about enough from me for now, just wanted to say thank you and I hope you're feeling better soon.
posted on June 1, 2001 09:34:27 PM new
Thank you everyone for your concern on me being sick and getting better. Thanks pat for letting me know about the leakage, I so do not look forward to it!
Toollady, this is what I kind of thought you were asking, please note that you are in no way at all even close to bugging me, I am just very sick right now and cannot focus straight on the monitor.
In the case that someone came upon a reason to sue us, the suit would have to be filled in our country/state/county of business.
As for down time, we are working on getting the auction setup on 3 of our servers so if 1 goes down it will switch over to the next right away, our servers use to be based in California but I am sure everyone knows about our power problem they tell us we are having here (which I don't think we are really having but it works for them to get more money from us) so we have relocated hosting to out of state for now to avoid being hit by rolling blackouts.
Pat, our main focus for advertising will be search engines and free email services, this way we are open to a wide range of people.
Aaron, this may seem odd to you right now but in a few months when the auction is bigger and has more users and everything is running smooth, emails with suggestions and whatever can be responded to more. Right now all hands on deck are working around the clock to make sure we have no errors, bugs, and to fix things that the user community does not like.
I hope you can understand that and hang in there with us but as I said, we are not forcing this service on to anyone, if you feel you must remove your items, we understand.
Wallypog, as far as it being illegal to do, I think not. It is hard, time consuming, and yes if it is done some people may feel the right to freedom of speech is being taken from them, by not removing the posts sites do avoid any law suits that may be waiting to happen.
posted on June 2, 2001 04:22:54 AM new
So depressing...
Why? Why another eBay-lite?
It is a very nice-looking site. And Donny is obviously young & enthusiastic & energetic & kind to puppies & probably a hunk to boot (I already HATE him! LOL!)...
But still the "?" ... WHY?
All the Aspertane-Auction-Sites out there seem to me to be DUDS!
I cannot understand how ANY new site can survive! Why waste the time & energy that would be better spent on developing lead-to-gold conversion kits, etc?
Is this a tax write-off or what?
So depressing...
OTOH...Say Donny, what about a category for MONKEY-PORN????
posted on June 2, 2001 10:12:58 AM new
Maybe, just maybe it's because there are people who would rather try to improve things in a way that they can instead of just being counted among the complainers.
Yes, building an auction site is very time-consuming. It takes tons and tons of planning. The more planning the better! But there are too many of us who're sick and tired of being bullied around the the 'big guy'. The big guy knows they can tell us whatever to do whenever they want and we have to do it. I for one don't like that kind of treatment.
Many, many of these small sites are going to end up falling flat on their faces and go to the morgue before this is all over. But there will be at least one--and maybe two or three that will survive. There will be a visionary spring up amongst us who'll have it together enough, despite all the odds, to create a site that will make the auction community take notice. It may not be today or even a month from now, but it will happen.
It is better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all.
posted on June 2, 2001 02:36:33 PM new
I do not even have anything to say on that, but if you want monkey porn ... I am sure you can find a site to fit your needs is this big online world. Enjoy your private time
posted on June 3, 2001 07:50:50 AM new
One issue concerns me -- many of us (my self included) will not register if we are forced to register with PayPal -- once registered, we then get caught in accepting PayPal payments from them in sales on other auction sites -- and with enough credit cards and a private credit card server, I do not choose to use PayPal (not to mention the rest of the horror stories about them elsewhere with other sellers) -- so that prevents me from registering with your site? What a shame! You will lose sellers if this is the only option.
You make a good point....people's like or dislike for PP will drive their choices here.
From JSA's standpoint, how many sellers out there right now use PP vs. those who don't...?
On ebay, I sure see a lot of PP accepted and PP verified addys in the auction listings...
Personally, I'm PP verified but haven't had a need to use their service (quit selling shortly after I got verified). IIUYC, I have to accept payments from anybody, even if I don't want them, yes?
I thought Damon said the payments could remain uncollected or be refused....I'll have to search back in the PP forum to clarify.
Also, a question which came to mind...can a seller have multiple PP accounts, similar to having multiple CC's in the RW? Better research that one too...
Would it be better if JSA used their merchant account and accepted CC's directly? I imagine they have one for the other businesses...
Given the simplicity of their current fee structure, I think their risk for chargebacks would be minimal and the service charges applicable could be rolled into the fee structure.
Hopefully Danny will bring this to the attention of the PTB's and provide us with some insight...
posted on June 3, 2001 02:43:33 PM new
We only allow 1 PP email account on file with us per mailing address. Check & Money order is an option of payment also.
Because our users pay us through PP does not mean they have to run their sales through it.
Right now the PP structure will not change, although it may down the road. We did it this way so people will feel secure signing up with us, people do not like to give out their credit card numbers to small companies, PP is backed by a very large bank and has built a trust with people.
I hope everyone can understand this is all a security and saftey stand point.
