intergalactic
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posted on March 13, 2002 09:47:55 AM new
I have a major problem with your new combining feature. Apparently when a customer "combines" his purchases the original listings for these items disappear from our "Closed" auction listings and only appear in the "Combined Purchase" listing. I use the "Closed Listings" section for relisting of repeatable auctions. The items that have been removed from the "Closed Listings" section are no longer available for relisting. MIKE
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BrianAW
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posted on March 13, 2002 09:55:26 AM new
Hi intergalactic,
You can uncombine the order and relist the auction(s) by going to the Post Sale page for the order and clicking on Non-Paying bidder. This will give you the option to split the order and relist. You can schedule the auctions, then cancel the auctions afterwards that you don't want to relist. You will have to at least schedule all the auctions in the order first. Afterwards you can unschedule the items you don't want relisted.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
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intergalactic
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posted on March 13, 2002 10:00:55 AM new
This answer is unacceptable. You now want me to unscramble every combined purchase to view what has been purchased. This will add an incredible amount of work for us. I also see no advantage to this combining since you obviously have no efficient way to let the combined S&H fees be different than the total of each individual S&H fee. AUCTIONWATCH is supposed to save me time not add time to the process. Mike
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BrianAW
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posted on March 13, 2002 10:08:26 AM new
Hi intergalactic,
We do have a way to configure S&H charges for combined purchases. You can edit this by going to My Account, Global Preferences. Here you will be able to choose what discount you provide for multiple purchases. You can either offer a percentage, or a dollar amount off each additional item within the order.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
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kahml
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posted on March 13, 2002 10:16:41 AM new
Wait a minute, I need to understand some things.
I thought only SELLERS had the ability to combine auctions into an order. Do BUYERS have the ability to combine items from the WBN? If so, where is that located?
The whole issue of combined S&H is a problem from the implementation side. Most of us phrase our ads like:
$X for the first item, $y for each additional item
Why did you have to turn this around so that WE have to offer a discount? Was the math too hard to do?
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BrianAW
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posted on March 13, 2002 10:24:24 AM new
Hi kahml,
Only sellers can combine purchases. How you phrase your ads is how you can set it up.
If you phrase your S&H like this:
3.00 for the first item, 1.00 for each additional item. In this case you would go to My Account, Global Preferences, and enter 2.00 off S&H for each additional item within the order.
Every shipping situation is different, that is why we let you customize the shipping.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
[ edited by BrianAW on Mar 13, 2002 10:26 AM ]
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intergalactic
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posted on March 13, 2002 10:47:52 AM new
Thanks for your answer on S&H, but it will not work when we have several different kinds of items with different S&H fees. The example you gave works fin but what if some of the items are $8.00 S&H for the first item and $2.00 S&H for each additional. Global preference won't work if the "discount" for extra items differs from item to item. Also please respond to the other part of my last mwssage- Why have you allowed closed items to be removed from their individual closed listing locations? Mike
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BrianAW
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posted on March 13, 2002 10:49:23 AM new
Hi kahml,
My previous post wasn't entirely correct. When buyers checkout they have the option of adding additional items to their shopping cart. For instance, a buyer checking out might also add something from the Storefront to their order. They can also do this if they have won multiple auctions. In this sense, they are combining items during the checkout process.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
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BrianAW
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posted on March 13, 2002 10:57:27 AM new
Hi intergalactic,
How you set this up would all depend on what types of items you offer, and what kind of S&H you charge. You may want to use the % instead of a dollar amount.
Closed items that are part of an order are still in the closed section. We don't "remove" the original auction, we place it within the order. I understand that this makes relisting the item harder, but we can't have the same item be listed in the closed section twice.
The process of relisting an auction within an order is something that we are currently discussing.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
[ edited by BrianAW on Mar 13, 2002 10:58 AM ]
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intergalactic
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posted on March 13, 2002 11:01:35 AM new
Then get rid of this "combined" listing. I'd much rather go into Post Sale two times to check off payment for the combined purchase than have my listings totally mixed up by this new feature. We list over 100 items each day of the week in templates and when the customer uses the cobining feature these listings are moved to another location and are no longer in their original template locations. Consider this an extremely serious NEGATIVE vote for this new feature. Mike
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blankfortj
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posted on March 13, 2002 11:46:17 AM new
How about a "Manual" mode of combined shipping? This could be set in global preferences.
That would allow the seller to adjust the shipping and handling on the PSM page after the fact or even before the customer checks out.
I really like the new combining option and I think it works really well. The only issue is the discounted shipping. While the credit system works great, it needs to print out the credit details on both the packing slip and the invoice.
John
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kahml
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posted on March 13, 2002 01:17:06 PM new
I want to know what settings I need to use to prevent a buyer from performing >any< kind of cominbation on my auctions.
If I want to combine them into one order, and ship the WBN fine, that's my prerogative as seller.
But I don't have a storefront - nor do I want one - and I don't want a winner to arbitrarily collate items into an order.
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BrianAW
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posted on March 13, 2002 01:32:34 PM new
Hi kahml,
In your case, buyers will only be able to combine items if they have won more than one auction.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
[ edited by BrianAW on Mar 13, 2002 01:32 PM ]
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bside
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posted on March 13, 2002 02:02:52 PM new
Brian said "In your case, buyers will only be able to combine items if they have won more than one auction."
This is true, but with the added criteria that *only items not marked shipped (or any other PSM step after shipped)* are combinable.
If you don't have a storefront, the only way someone would get anything combined automatically is if they won multiple auctions and visited the checkout for one of them before the others had been marked shipped (which certainly can happen.) If you'd like to disable even this from occuring, you can turn it off in your peferences. You'll be missing out on the opportunity to offer automatic shipping discounts on multiple items, storefront item upsell (which I realize some people don't use), and the benefit of automatically tracking those items together, but as you said, that's your prerogative.
In the thread above, someone else mentioned the option of "flat rate $ for each additional item" as a shipping discount method. I think that's very interesting, and will make sure the team gets that suggestion!
-Ben
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BrianAW
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posted on March 13, 2002 02:06:31 PM new
Hi All,
Everyone keep in mind that our new combine feature is optional. To disable you can go to My Account, Global Preferences, and uncheck the "Enable Shopping Cart" box. By doing this, if a buyer wins multiple items, they will receive multiple WBN's.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
[ edited by BrianAW on Mar 13, 2002 02:15 PM ]
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jaymark9
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posted on March 13, 2002 06:12:59 PM new
My note below was posted in another thread, but I think it pertains:
I have quite a few regular buyers and I must say to date I am not really able to get the combined function to work for me the way I would like. All I need is a button that would combine all items from the same buyer, and give me a page (a combined WBN if you will) that showed these items, with item # etc, automatically totaled the cost for the items, gave me a place to put in shipping, handling and other costs, and produced a final total which could then be emailed (ala the 1-click WNB).
The current system tries to do too much, and relies on the buyers always clicking on the WBN link. I'd rather have the ability to control this. Something simple:
Congratulatins (WINNER)
You have won the following items:
#NNNNNNNNNN - item ID - Final cost: $xxxxx
#NNNNNNNNNN - item ID - Final cost: $xxxxx
#NNNNNNNNNN - item ID - Final cost: $xxxxx
Shipping, handling, insurance: $_____
Total due $ _______
((plase here for note from seller, such as: You may pay via check, money order. Send payment to: __________))
Thank you.
Seller
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ChristopherCS
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posted on March 13, 2002 06:33:01 PM new
Hello jaymark9,
First of all, thank you for your feedback.
We are currently in the process of evaluating such a feature, and do hope to be able to come up with something that will address this need for more options to edit the shipping for combined orders.
Sorry we cannot give any ETA on when such a feature would be available, but rest assured it is a top priority at this time.
Christopher
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com's Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
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kahml
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posted on March 13, 2002 07:29:43 PM new
The updated WBN "process" is too convoluted for most of what I need. The fact that it has to support auctions and storefronts is making a mess of something that used to be simple.
jaymark9's suggestion is something that should be pressed forward immediately.
My winners are not willing to work with the form when they go to finish their end of the auction. This is especially true for the PayPal users - heck their address is already on file and verified; they aren't going to type it in for me again.
Keep it simple: what did I win, how much is it, who do I pay, where do I send it.
[ edited by kahml on Mar 13, 2002 07:38 PM ]
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ChristopherCS
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posted on March 13, 2002 07:40:40 PM new
Hi kahml,
jaymark9's suggestion is something that should be pressed forward immediately.
It was already in the works, thanks for the feedback.
Christopher
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com's Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
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pandorasbox
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posted on March 13, 2002 07:53:55 PM new
Regarding all of this and any future changes:
AW needs to beta any future changes with a group of large volume sellers. They represent the most variables as well as the most experience. Everytime you institute changes, you do so summarily and this only invites problems.
This needs to be a collaborative enterprise and to formulate, prioritize and institute changes unilateraly, without the input and advice( not to mention considerable expertise)of the very customers you are trying to serve is counter-productive.
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cta
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posted on March 13, 2002 08:11:18 PM new
I think pandorasbox has a very good suggestion with a beta test "before" changes take place. Seems like too many changes have taken place that AW thought would be a great idea, with far too many users absolutely hating the new set up. Is it possible for a beta test to be implemented before these changes take place?
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abqsales-07
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posted on March 13, 2002 09:04:23 PM new
Combining the two thoughts that have emerged in this thread. If a system such as Jaymark proposes comes about (and I hope it does), I really hope AW lets some experienced users test it and comment before it is released.
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nick26
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posted on March 13, 2002 09:24:04 PM new
This is my first time posting to a thread. I am a lurker and have learned so much from watching the various postings. Have been using AW for quite some time now. Have not been able to use the WBN features at all. As a Canadian seller (with 90% of buyers) from the U.S.) JAYMARK 9 suggestion would be great option for me and my bidders. Glad to hear it is in the works! Thanks AW.
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jaymark9
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posted on March 14, 2002 04:58:09 AM new
Thanks for trying to make this "combining" thing work - it's been the feature I've been wiating for. I'm going ot have to opt out of the current set up as it just isn't going to work for me.
Giving the SELLER more control is the only way to go. Allowing us to have as much control over available options as possible is great. I STILL wish we could lock a few more options - like "show 50" [or more] items per page instead of defaulting to 20 every time. Being able to select the default for searching under post sale, etc. Let people who don't want to mess with it keep the defaults, but allow some alternatives for those of us who could save a bunch of time with a few "tweaks".
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kahml
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posted on March 14, 2002 05:30:22 AM new
jaymark9 - this if off-topic, but in the midst of all of these changes, you got what you wanted.
There is a new, unannounced, option in Auction Manager's profile settings:
Post Sale Express listings per page (valid range 5-50)
30 seems to work for me...
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intergalactic
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posted on March 14, 2002 05:57:08 AM new
It's great to hear that we can "opt out" of this combining feature. We will probably opt-out, the problems seem to outweigh the advantages. We were working very closely with Amazon.com in their z-Shops (similar to stores or storefronts) a few years ago and with all of their resources they were never able to set up a shopping cart for their sellers despite being told numerous times that this was the most important feature that needed to be implemented. If a buyer purchases 20 items from us there (and some have) they have to complete 20 separate transactions and pay 20 S&H fees and have their credit card run 20 times. This is not an easy problem to solve. I've noticed another disadvantage to the combining feature. I see no way to see how many hits and how many bids I got on any sale that has been combined. Very useful information has been lost here. Mike
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rpshaverpaonlinecom
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posted on March 14, 2002 06:14:54 AM new
Jaymark has the correct solution that would work for me.
In the meantime I'm opting out of shopping cart, because this combining situation is unworkable for our business.
Please address Jaymark's ideas.
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abqsales-07
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posted on March 14, 2002 08:45:05 AM new
I know I'm harping on this, but still to be addressed is the insurance issue. We have to have the ability to make insurance mandatory or optional. They system right now only allows for "I don't offer insurance" or insurance at buyer's option. We can work out the calculation problem later, but if I can't make insurance mandatory, I will have to do everything manually and that makes the entire post-sale system worthless to me. At least give us the ability to turn off the insurance options and continue to put insurance with the shipping options.
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