posted on March 1, 2001 03:23:41 PM new
I do love aw and hate the idea of the % only because i make so little now, but if i pay anyone it should be aw for all the help they have given me for the past year, so i joined....but from the looks of the reactions i hope im not the only aw member after the 14th.
it is a great service and if i go under because of the charge.....well then i should hang the internet up all together. i have been having my doubts lately anyway. this may make up my mind.
if aw can help me make more money and think of new ways to draw customers i will gladly pay (if my sales go up). i must say one more expense after this one and im done with the whole "profit" idea. but for now i stay with aw.
posted on March 1, 2001 03:44:50 PM new
i did not do the power seller thing. i signed up for the standard plan. they have a ceiling on the 1% fee of $30.00 per transaction. that seemed safe .in the very outside chance i sell something for thousands of dollars they take 30.00 and a nickle. anyway the next free place will charge and after that the next one will. and you are right about only me affecting my sales and i looked at other host and felt it would affect me in a negative way.
if everyone has it in there mind that if they all walk from aw that aw will say "gee ok guys we are free again" then you are nuts. all you will do is be walking....and walking into a fee someplace else. aw is good and seems to be getting better.
ias i said i hate the 1% but really like this service.
posted on March 1, 2001 04:49:12 PM new
Well what gets me is that they gave everyone 2 week notice ONLY. I find that to be very unbusiness like, and so do a few others.
A few would have stayed had they been given the proper amount of time notification. When AW announced that they will charge in 2 weeks, they offended alot of users.
It was pretty much YOU GOT 2 WEEKS TO DECIDE WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO OR START PAYING.
A bit rude don't you think ?
Who is to say 2 months down the line you won't hear YOU WILL START PAYING 10 CENTS PER LISTING AND 2% FVF.
You said it yourself, "if everyone has it in there mind that if they all walk from aw that aw will say "gee ok guys we are free again" then you are nuts"
Exactly, AW is not going back, so they can only go forward. Prices for the service will never drop, but they will go up. And when they do go up, you will have 2 weeks to decide if you are going to pay them more or move on.
I am not the captain of this ship, so I will not go down with it.
posted on March 1, 2001 05:12:30 PM new
you are right two weeks was very wrong. and every post i read in the past before this stated "we will give you plenty of time. so yes it was rude.
but on the other hand i also read countless "get rid of the annoying banners!" post that were rude. well those people will get their wish i suppose.it was aw's only way of making money. i always read constant rude complaints from members. it was like a guy complaining about his free steak being undercooked.
as far as fees going up again. then i will have to give up my loyalty. i look at it this way , if i can leave now i can leave later, but in the mean time why not be loyal .
and the only other host i saw that looked good charged fees. the other looked bad and they were hard to use.
aw is easy to use and looks good and i feel the storefront is just the beginning of good things to come.
and the reality is, if only 10% of members stay aw will be making more than they have in the past.
now that i have kissed butt , do i get a job auction watch? please if you say yes dont keep 1% of my pay. really even if you sign up you dont have to post auctions and if you dont you dont get charged. what is the risk?
posted on March 1, 2001 05:28:24 PM new
You are not alone, we will be the only two memebers left. I joined too. The way I look at it is, I sell in two malls that charge 10 percent, so even with Paypal fees, Aw fees, and eBay fees, it is still less than the mall, and I make MORE money. I like the ease of use with AW, and it is where I started, so I will stay...for now.
The only thing I can say, and have said, is I will expect better response to questions and problems if I am PAYING for the service. I do not want to hear agin, "Let us know if is continues and will investigate", or "We sincerly apologize for the inconvenience". I want to hear this is the answer, or if I don't know the answer I will find out. I don't think this is too much too ask! I expect that from the clerk at any store I go to, and I sure will expect it from someone who is taking 1 percent of my sales...
posted on March 1, 2001 05:45:55 PM new
I am going to join also. I know, it will cost, but how long can they keep it free. AW has been a big help to me, as a beginner. My overhead in bricks and mortar store was close to $2,000 a month. I had to be there 8 hours a day, not near the freedom that I might have doing Ebay and AW.
There is always someone wanting a piece of the action, Feds, State, County, City, landlord, MC and Visa. It is a fact of life for me. At least AW makes a beginner look a little more professional. HTML is not that hard to learn, and I can keep my pictures on my ISP, so if I have to I will do so, however for now it Auction Watch.
posted on March 1, 2001 06:02:09 PM new
I'm joining also, I started with AW and I intend to stay with them. There has been talk for Oh so long when this day would come. When you leave your job you give your employer 2 weeks, This is not an employer/employee relationship it is however a relationship of service We offer service along with widgets to our buyers and we get paid, I myself do not like the per-centage of sales but I am going along with it. I know what I have, I do not know what I am going to get. At this stage of the game I'm staying right where it works for me. I am
also going for the monthly plan.
Latte
posted on March 1, 2001 06:06:33 PM new
Well, atleast there are a LOT of other auction hosting sites out there that offer as much or more for MUCH LESS in fees! Or, just listing directly through eBay (which is free!) is another viable option as well.
posted on March 1, 2001 06:22:02 PM new
the images on ebay look terrible unless you pay them 50 cents for the better ones. i like aw's images. the small one looks great and the click on looks better.
im starting to feel like i am defending aw even though the 1% really bothers me.
posted on March 1, 2001 06:39:44 PM new
taz8057- I sell in two of my local antique malls, I pay rent plus 10 percent which is pretty standard, so a nickel and 1 percent doesn't seem like that bad of a deal.
posted on March 1, 2001 06:43:25 PM new
I signed up too But I am not happy with the 1% of each sale.
Im also getting tired of all these separate fees I wish one company would come up with all in one auctions manageing payment photos all in one for one fees.
If Ebay offered a photo service more like AW and the manageing tools I would simply use mr lister then I would have the all in one service.
posted on March 1, 2001 07:26:58 PM new
I signed up also. E-Bay is a part time thing for me.I sell alot of the same items which do required a decent ad and a picture. I like to be able to click a few buttons and run another ad.Alot of my items are bought on buy-it-now so it helps there also.I will soon be busy with the Flea Market and won't have the time to put into this,so I need the service and don't mind paying for it.I do Memorial Day Flowers and that takes alot of time.But I don't want to give up E-Bay durring that time.
posted on March 1, 2001 07:53:39 PM new
Despite being opposed to a FVF being levied I too have also signed up. I have already expressed my views on AW's fee structure in the thread in the Auction Manager forum.
In the short term I felt it prudent to stay with what I know and what is generally a good service. I see no point in shifting camp just yet, not without first evaluating on a rational basis , what else is available.
I now have the luxury to check out other venues at my pace and not in the mad panic of having to find another site and figure out how to use it. Why jump out of the fat and into the fire?
To those who are thinking of jumping ship, just make sure that you've got a life belt with you. You just may need it!
Bob, Downunder but never down.
posted on March 2, 2001 06:03:26 AM new
I am amazed that this thread did not get LOCKED, as the others about the fees have. But considering it is a thread about who is staying, it will most likely remain open.
I have different opinions about this. The nickel per auction or per photo doesn't bother me as much as the 1%.
I may stay and list low end items on Auction Watch. I currently can launch auctions from my website, however, I cannot schedule them, which is what I liked about Auction Watch to begin with. I may start using my website more often to launch. I am still on the fence about all of this.
What really annoys me, is that I have several friends I have recommended this service to, once just recently in the last week has started using it. Now, I feel like I have to give them alternatives to Auction Watch and retrain them, as I trained them on Auction Watch. It is just going to be a nightmare for me. But that is my own fault, I guess-always trying to help new users and becoming support for them as well.
I have recently reviewed Auctiva and am not so sure I like that too much. First I found it very confusing - then I got errors when trying to update the many pages. It took me about a half hour to figure out what the charges to me a month would be and I figured it would be best to at least have SOME CLUE as to what I would be charged through Auction Watch.
Again, I am reviewing my own records to determine how this will affect me & will make a decision based on that. I imagine that is what we all are doing.
I do love Auction Watch's services and the message boards. It makes my job alot easier and I learn alot from the boards. Besides, what would I do with my free time if I don't have the message boards to read - LOL.
posted on March 2, 2001 08:37:15 AM new
It only took me a couple hours to get the AW image hosting down, so moving on over to PhotoPoint won't take much effort. PhotoPoint is free and highly recommended by people who use that service.
I can see if a seller is using AW other services, then the value is there. My browser hasn't worked well with AW auction launching so I only used the image hosting.
AW is crazy to think my sales have increase using their service! A FVF? Hahhahaha!
posted on March 2, 2001 09:23:19 AM new
I, too am staying. AW makes listing auctions quicker. I have other businesses to run so to me time is money. 5 cents plus one percent is ok with me.
Sure, I'd like it still to be free BUT it still beats Auction Assistant hands down - not even a close comparison.
posted on March 2, 2001 09:49:49 AM new
Count us in Too!! We are not (yet) Power Sellers by Ebay standards but we signed up for the $200 flat deal without the 1% FVF. Reason being that we have been selling antique furniture and our sales recently have averaged over $2,000 a week.
We knew the "day of reckoning" was coming so it was not a surprise. We still like AW and think its worth the money given the services they provide. Had a couple of free years. You can't say that about many other auction services out there.
HarmonyGroveAntiques
"If at first you don't succeed, keep on suckin' till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard
posted on March 2, 2001 10:07:05 AM new
How do you use photo point on auctions? I see the album area I can send people..but I can't believe I would have to set up an album for each pic I want to show up, or send them to another place to look at a photo. Can you use this, to have a photo show up in your auction in Ebay? Thanks
posted on March 2, 2001 10:32:12 AM new
DMRick, when you upload a photo onto PhotoPoint, you will have to copy and paste the URL and put it into your listing. That's exactly what I'm doing with my AW photos anyway. I haven't started using Photopoint yet but there's ebay chatboards where people will help you with PhotoPoint if there's any questions.
posted on March 2, 2001 12:11:00 PM new
I am curious, all of you that have signed up, did you check into what protection you have as a seller/user using AW? Where is anything in writing that states exactly how AW will handle items that do not launch, items that launch later than what you scheduled, non paying bidders, auctions launched with no descriptions, with no pictures....the only comment I have seen from a moderator is that they will go on a case by case basis, which in essence means AW can do anything they want.
I realize some of us that are unhappy with this new fee structure, are being called whiners and told over and over nothing is free...and on and on. Yes most of us are intelligent, we knew this was coming, we also understand having to charge for their services. What I won't accept, and I speak for myself only, paying fees with no guarantees or anything in writing from AW when things go wrong on their part (not the sellers part, before someone jumps me). Also only having 2 options to choose from. I do not utilize all of the options, only 2 actually. Ampro & Image hosting. I myself love AW. And I am very understanding when things go wrong, that is life. So yes I understand AW charging, what I don't understand is people signing up when they don't have all the TOS! If I am missing something here and somewhere on AW there is a page which shows me how the sellers/users rights are protected when things go wrong, please direct me.
posted on March 2, 2001 02:26:45 PM new
I agree with everyone who is not happy with the % charge. I personally feel even 0.00001% of the final value should not be paid to any other organization, other than Ebay. Charging a few cents to upload images or a mothly charge for their services is very fair. But requesting a % of the final value is I think a covert way of making money through Ebay. Just think!!! Every time someone buys at ebay AW gets a piece of that. They really are going for the big bucks. Wonder What Ebay has to say about this?
posted on March 2, 2001 02:47:02 PM new
Well, I didn't do it! Much as I've enjoyed using AW, there are too many other options out there. I already pay for an ISP that has free webspace, and I learned ftp and will be posting my images there. I'll either use Mister Lister, or just cut and paste the auctions together like I use to on ebay to get them launched. AW was a convenience, and a great one, but not worth paying for.
posted on March 2, 2001 02:52:25 PM new
I think your money would have been wiser spent; if you leave the computer, get in the car, go to Barnes and Noble, buy a couple of HTML books, and not have to pay Auction Watch or anyone else......
posted on March 2, 2001 07:51:44 PM new
I AM STAYING. I HAVEN'T A CLUE HOW TO GET MY AUCTIONS ON EBAY WITHOUT AW. AW IS EASY. ANY DIRECTIONS I READ ON EBAY OR IN BOOKS GO RIGHT OVER MY HEAD. SOMETIMES I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU ALL ARE TALKING ABOUT ON THESE POSTS. LOL I WILL GLADLY PAY MY NICKEL!!
