posted on January 27, 2001 01:32:35 PM new
I have been an eBud user for over 3 years and used to love it, but the last 6 months or so, it has been nothing but trouble. Is anyone else having problems with it? After the last 2 upgrades, its just been quirky little stuff here and there, nothing major. I sat down yesterday to do my reports for the last 6 months to get ready for taxes and I noticed that the cost column was all reset to $0.00 if the item was a No Sale, so now I have no way of generating a profit/loss sheet. I do have hard copies of things and will be able to get things done, but eBud used to do it quickly with the push of a couple of buttons.
In the good ol' days, you could write John (creator), but now I find it hard to get a response from them.
Does AW auction management software do what eBud was capable of at one time, I do believe it is time to make a switch. I always loved eBud and would hate dumping them, but it has been so frustrating using the software lately, I just wanted to know if I was alone on this.
posted on January 27, 2001 02:17:01 PM new
It has become a PITA. I frequently have these quirky things you refer to as well making it often almost useless for some tasks. No longer will it combine multiple wins automatically. Data, as you have found, seems to vaporize on upgrades. I just got a copy of quickbooks to try out for my finances-this won't do all that ebud does for ebay, but a greater majority of my business is in real life, thus it seemed time to start using something that could also handle that besides a spreadsheet.
I won't use a web based tool so I can't give you any advice on AW's stuff, but I too am looking for something else as the reliability of ebud has certainly wained of late.
posted on January 27, 2001 02:47:28 PM new
Glad to hear it isn't just me, I thought perhaps I got sloppy and starting doing things badly, or my new computer is eating something.
posted on January 27, 2001 04:23:12 PM new
Thanks for starting this thread! I have been tearing my hair with ebud weirdness ever since I upgraded to 2.53. Sent emails to support and got canned response. Replied and reiterated the difficulties and of course no response.
Sure wish John still owned it and someone really cared. Fortunately, printed out last years records right after 1st of year when I wasn't having trouble or I would be up chit creek for taxes this year.
posted on January 27, 2001 05:07:52 PM new
I have not used eBud, but I've been using Invenna AuctionAmigo since August or September & love it! There are profit & loss reports that you can generate with AA. You can download it for free & use it for 30 days before you have to pay what I believe is a one-time fee. I believe you can also import some of your data from other programs. Anyway--you might want to check it out if you haven't already & see if it will work for you before you dump your eBud. (No, I don't work for them or anything.) I downloaded it when it was still free, but I would have gladly paid the $40 for the program knowing how well it works for me.
edited to add that the program data you can import is Auction Assistane.
[ edited by debbielennon on Jan 27, 2001 05:38 PM ]
posted on January 27, 2001 05:56:56 PM newdebbielennon I've been using Auction Amigo the last 2 weeks (had it installed for a while, but never used it) and I was also very pleasantly surprised. I haven't seen one glitch in the process yet.
posted on January 27, 2001 06:24:18 PM new
Debbielennon..could you give the url for auctionamigo? I have gotten pretty sick of all the "nasty" little bugs ebud has now and would like to see something different...but I don't want to use a web based program that stores my info on their site (as I assume AW does...or maybe I'm wrong about that?)
posted on January 27, 2001 06:43:34 PM new
debbie; I just took a look at amigo's site, they do have some things that AMpro doesn't have that I was looking for but I didn't see anything about image hosting. Did I miss it?
posted on January 27, 2001 06:46:19 PM new
The last response I got from them consisted of telling me to download the most recent version, which I was already running, I was then told to unload/reload, which I already had, than I was told to unload/reload old version/update to new. That great advice came over a 2 day period, needless to say, I was not impressed. I hope John made a ton of money when he took the backseat.
posted on January 27, 2001 06:58:00 PM new
ebud~~I've had the same problems, sometimes it will combine multiple wins sometimes not. we've always entered everything in quickbooks so we've never used the reports, I had actually upgraded during the last upgrade and went back to the old version as there were too many bugs. I reported them and it seems like they were kind of just brushed over so I just went back to the old version until last week, if I have to I'll just go back to the old version again. The only thing that I have ever used it for was to track the auctions and send emails. it is a hassle when someone emails and asks to combine their wins but it is still better than cut and pasting everything.
ok that's the bad news, the good news is I understand there is a new "ebud pro" in the works I just hope the license will extend to the current users, at any rate with 500+ days on my ebud license as long as they keep it up and running I guess I'll keep using it.
One of the things I've always said is by the time the ebud license does run out there will be dozens of programs to choose from some better I would guess and some worse. I have checked into several of the new programs that are advertised on ebay now and ebud is still the best at handling emails with the exception of the not combining the auctions problem now.
posted on January 27, 2001 07:06:21 PM new
Try this one with eBud. Go to tools and search by either the auction title or high bidder. Create a report. Now, look at the eBay fees column. It will be correct on the single line, but on the total line it doubles it. I nearly hit the roof when I did a report of all of my auctions for 2 months. eBud support? They can't read. They obviously scanned my problem report and told me to go look to eBay and make sure my account was correct. Hello? It is in the reports- it is doubling the correct fees. I've had a few people with eBud try this and it does the same thing to them. When they report it, they get the same canned response. I wish John hadn't of sold it.
posted on January 27, 2001 08:17:01 PM new
Just an FYI. John still does all the work on eBud. In fact he has more time to program that he ever did before.
Our support system can be found on the help tab at Auctiva. We dont close cases until the problem is solved. So if you are not happy, do not close your case.
We fix every bug reported that we can reproduce. The more info we get the quicker we can respond and fix things.
Please be aware that most updates to eBud are due to changes at eBay. While eBay has touted their API in their past 2 quarterly reports they haven't done anything about it yet.
We as frustrated by this as anyone! We'd love to be spending all our time on new features and less on chasing every little eBay change they throw at us without warning.
It's hard work knowing that at any second eBay could make a change that could disable all of your customers from making a living!!!!! A lot of stress there! I think this is shared by not only us but AuctionWatch, Andale, and everyone else doing this.
Since this is not our site this will be my only post, but you may fill out help requests on our site about any of the problems you have mentioned here.
posted on January 27, 2001 09:21:20 PM newjayadiaz:
You will need to find your own image hosting to use in conjunction with AuctionAmigo. I use AuctionWorks.com's free image hosting--very easy to use--no time limits on images & you don't have to generate any "code" to get the url for your images.
What I like about AA is that I can create and save my own templates for certain categories & all I have to do is make a couple of quick edits & my new auction is ready to launch. (Some of the other programs probably do that also, but this is the first non-web based auction program I have used.)
posted on January 27, 2001 09:41:17 PM new
Wow, how timely...I just refreshed the data on Ebud so I could send out post-auction emails and wow. I don't believe my eyes. I have items that have not even finished auction that have all the info in the datacard from another transaction that's been completed. Here's another one with two lines. One for the winning bidder and another for the runner up! It goes on and on.
I have no way how I'm going to get through this as I will end up having to go through hundreds of pieces of mail, etc. I have emailed ebud and made them aware of the problem. No response yet. I am trying to figure out how to fix this. I now have absolutely no idea about the status of hundreds of items. Ebud is Ebad.
posted on January 28, 2001 07:34:17 AM new
tomwiii
Glad your happy with their support, but myself and others aren't having the same experiences. I've essentially given up after going round and round-I still have problems that were supposed to be fixed with various updates etc.
And the statement that they don't close a case until the problem is solved isn't exactly true-if you don't put anything new on the case in 2 weeks they close it-this has happened to me where the last response was from them saying they would have engineering look into it-but I never heard anything after that-so the case closes with no final response from them, no resolution for me.
posted on January 28, 2001 07:36:54 AM new
tomwiii...what version are you using? This didn't all happen until the upgrade, I was happy until then. Everytime I contact them now, they keep telling me to upgrade, they can't seem to understand that I am upgraded and that is what is causing the problems. I see they are not even offering the upgrade on their site anymore, I guess they were getting too many complaints, but of course those going to the site now would never know there was an awful upgrade being offered. I guess its time to downgrade.
