I am giving Vendio a try, due to total lack of andale support.
I have messed around with the free trial just a little bit and have a few questions that can probably be answered pretty easily here before we make the move.
-How do I get the 'click to enlarge images'?
Upload of images works great and I can make them all uniform or actual size by clicking the resize tab in preferences, but how can I get the 'click to enlarge link'? Sign up for image hosting???
-I have a double listing of payment, preferred checkout, shipping/handling and additional information at the bottom of my customized template.
How can I get my template to just show one set of this information?
-We already have an online store on our website; is it possible to just use the vendio store as a gallery for our auctions and not as a store?
-How do other members of this board feel about Vendio support?
-How is PayPal IPN working? Should I check my PayPal payments received against the Vendio site so I don't inadvertantly miss any shipments?
-How soon are WBN's automatically sent after an auction? Do they always go out or are there glitches? Many/few/none???
-When importing from a dbase file, is it possible to set up additional customized fields or are we stuck with the fields Vendio offers and not able to import any of our customized info?
-When importing from a dbase file, do the image locations on our hard disk upload to the vendio inventory (or do we have to add images manually)?
-How many inventory items can we list at a time before getting timed out?
-Do board members feel that the Customer Manager is worthwhile or do they still use their own email accounts?
posted on February 14, 2004 12:00:10 PM new
Randy, you're better off writing into our Customer Support center to address all these issues in detail.
For your main concern of how to use the image resizing:
The "click to view larger version" option may be enabled or disabled by following these steps:
-Click on the "My Account" tab
-Click on the "Global Preference" link
-Check or uncheck the box for "Automatically scale down large images for faster download and cleaner presentation"
-Click "Save Preferences"
Please be aware that automatic resizing will -only- be activated if an image is over 250 pixels wide. If your image is 250 pixels wide or smaller, there will be no "click to view larger version" option on your auction listing.
Also note that you must copy and paste all of the code generated by our system into your auction if you are using image hosting only in order to take advantage of this feature.
posted on February 14, 2004 04:57:27 PM new
-How is PayPal IPN working? Should I check my PayPal payments received against the Vendio site so I don't inadvertently miss any shipments?
We list a lot. The IPN has been working great.
Once in a while, for some reason an item is not tracked by Vendio, even though it is listed through Vendio. For this reason, we can not totally ignore sales and payments. Every so often we have to go through and match up Vendio Tracked and serviced sales to Ebay Sales. If you are lucky the buyer will email you and you will know their item is missing.
-How soon are WBN's automatically sent after an auction? Do they always go out or are there glitches? Many/few/none???
They seem to always go out. It make take a short period of time. Possibly a little longer with fixed price sales, than auctions that have a scheduled ending time.
As you might already realize, they may not always make it due to customers email problems. Not Vendio's Fault there.
Also, if the item is not being tracked, as detailed above, then nothing will be sent out.
-How many inventory items can we list at a time before getting timed out?
I believe Vendio reported if listing over 20 at a time, there was a chance of a timeout.
-Do board members feel that the Customer Manager is worthwhile or do they still use their own email accounts?
I use Customer manager, but there is no way to search the text of emails. Sometimes I would like to search for a certain word in the text of an email, which is inconvenient not to be able to do that.
There is no way in the post sales detail to go straight to emailing the customer. Clicking the customers email address brings up your Windows Email program.
I do like being able to get my email from any computer, and also seeing all emails concerning a transaction, from a particular buyer. Plus I can see all their purchasing history.
-Why don't these forums have a 'search function'?
I think there is a search function, but it is not published. Maybe someone can let us know where the search feature is. I would like to bookmark the search link again.
posted on February 14, 2004 05:41:06 PM new
Here is the link to the "search" feature- Bookmark it because you can't find it anywhere anymore. The "search box" is at the bottom in the left column:; check the "search message center box" too:
http://web.archive.org/web/19991013082649/http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/
[ edited by neglus on Feb 14, 2004 05:42 PM ]
posted on February 15, 2004 01:27:24 PM new
Thanks for the feedback!
Even though the customer manager doesn't allow the search, I believe we will still use it due to some of the features it offers and the ability to be on the road and still have management capabilities.
posted on February 15, 2004 09:29:10 PM new
Hi rsalars,
As usual gousainc's info is correct. I'll add my 2 cents.
The IPN works well, but I still check it against PayPal payments. Vendio does not import the "notes" field from PayPal which may contain important info from the customer. There's also a glitch when there is address line 2 in PayPal, Vendio puts address lines 1 and 2 from PayPal in Line 1 in Vendio without a space. Sometimes this doesn't appear until you "edit" step 2. So an address like this in PayPal:
Herman Munster
Box 22
1313 Mockinbird Lane
Somewhere, CA 55555
Winds up like this in Vendio:
Herman Munster
Box 221313 Mockinbird Lane
Somewhere, CA 55555
You can see the potential for a shipping mistake. Sometimes the Province for Canadian addresses is lost in the import as well.
Vendio overall has been a very stable and reliable for us, and customer service for most issues is good.
Search and sort functions are appallingly bad here. Among other things, there is no way to search Active, Unsold or Closed items. I've brought up the issue repeatedly since the Fall and have not seen any progress.
I have not found any compelling reasons to use Customer Manager in place of an email client.
Vendio is perfect for some things, inadequate for others, but at least it's not Andale!
posted on February 16, 2004 12:12:35 PM new
If your website is independent, check into the webmail programs offered by whoever hosts your website and compare features before putting all your eggs into Customer Manager. Often you can set up multiple acounts-one website one for auction business. There are no download abilities and integration features with CM with any of the common email management programs like Outlook etc. You may do better from your own site for email managemnt and still have it online.
posted on February 23, 2004 10:33:34 PM new
I used Vendio last year and was very happy with it. I kind of quit selling after Christmas and have recently decided to start up again (miss that extra cash!!) and thought I would try some of the other services. Andale just seemed so goofy to me! I tried it for one day, make that three hours, then wrote them immediately to please close my account! It was a nightmare! I then tried my two free weeks with Auctionworks- not as scary of a nightmare, but way more complicated then it needed to be. I was missing my Vendio sooo bad! So I got reinstated, which took some helpfrom customer service, and they were awesome. I think you'll find it is so easy to write up a new auction, punch in your pictures, and check on how everything is doing- I really think you'll love it!
