posted on March 20, 2002 11:57:36 AM
Why have I been locked out of post sale services? AW offered us the same rate as last year, but it does not include the same services? Whats the deal? You said everything would stay the same.
The new Annual Plan does not include any Post Sale Features. This was explained in the email we sent out to our Annual Plan users as well as in the description of the plan on the website.
We have 5 other plans that do include our Post Sale System. To see what these plans are, and to upgrade, you can go to My Account, Your Payment Plan. If you switch plans, please let us know right away.
-Brian
Got Questions? Check out AuctionWatch.com\'s Customer Service center at http://www.auctionwatch.com/service
[ edited by BrianAW on Mar 20, 2002 12:22 PM ]
posted on March 20, 2002 12:35:02 PM
Hi Brian,
On the email you sent out, it was written to lead us to believe that we could re-up for a "Special Offer" and maintain the same service as we had last year. But now I find out that the special offer was just a cover up for the real, bait and switch tactic. Is there something wrong with being honest and just say, this is NOT the same plan we had last year, and unless you pay us more money you will not be able to access the post sale features. Now we are in a bind in that we cannot even process the current sales we have unless we pay you more money and get access to post sale. Why would anyone pay your $200.00 special offer if it was not going to let us continue to do business. You intentionally led us to believe the special offer would be the same as last year. That is lousy business practice. Please contact us to upgrade our plan so we can process our current orders.
posted on March 20, 2002 01:04:52 PM
So now that we have signed up for one of the monthly plans what happens to our $200.00 we paid for the "special offer"? Am I correct in assuming that there is no listing fee, no image hosting fee and only the 1.25% final value fee for the Variable Power plan? Aand the cost is $29.95 month?
I apologize if our messaging wasn't as clear as it needed to be. We had no intention of misleading anyone at all. It would be pretty apparent right away that post sale access is not part of the Annual Listing Plan, and we would never risk customer good will nor the necessary customer care resources to ensure we guide these plan changes and refunds after the initial selection. We tried to make the changes very clear in both the e-mails we sent (the first announcing the new plan as well as the second announcing plan expiration). It's possible that you didn't receive the first, which may have been more explicit in describing the new plan. We also completely updated the product and pricing matrix to make sure that this change was clearly identified. I apologize our message wasn't properly communicated. We'll review the letters that are being sent to see if there is better language that better highlights the changes in plan structure.
To confirm for you, under the Power Plan Variable Rate plan, the fees are $29.95/month plus 1.25% of the final value of sold items. There are no listing fees, and no image hosting fees of any kind with this plan. This plan provides full AuctionWatch service access, and as soon as you select this plan, your post sale management will be operable immediately. You can make this change by going to MyAccount tab and selecting Payment Plan.
I apologize again for any miscommunication on our part and will do what I can to ensure your new plan selection process goes smoothly. Please e-mail if you have any difficulty along the way.
Best,
Mike.
[ edited by meffle on Mar 20, 2002 02:03 PM ]
posted on March 20, 2002 02:38:36 PM
Thank You. Here are some suggestions a little feedback. In your email say up front that their plan will be changed unless they upgrade. Maybe something that tells them what is needed to maintain their same level of service. Like a lot of people we are simple and do not have the interest in following every link on emails but if we didn't do that we could not fully understand the new plans. Our problem was the hook up front, the "we are a special customer and here is a special offer to continue the same service" stuff. We assumed a lot after that and you know what assuming does to one! Now looking back at the emails I see if I had read deeper I would have understood more, my mistake. Just a little feedback
