I want to start by thanking the thousands of sellers who have already signed up for one of our two service plans. We have been overwhelmed by the number of sellers who have already chosen a service plan and we appreciate your loyalty and continued support. The AuctionWatch team is committed to providing you with the industry's leading online sales management services, helping you sell more in less time.
A number of our sellers have requested a pricing option strictly for the use of our image hosting services. We are listening to your feedback and are working to modify our service plans to meet these requests. To accommodate these sellers, we will be adding an "image hosting only" option to our Standard Plan. Sellers who desire only our image hosting services, including the original image hosting system will have the option to do so for $0.10 per image per auction with NO final value fee and NO listing fee. This covers uploading images within Auction Manager and copying/pasting the URL into your auctions as well as launching auctions through our original image hosting service.
Sellers using our Auction Manager listing tools will not be affected by this change, as they will still be able to create and manage auction listings with multiple images without paying any additional fees. Sellers who have selected our Power Plan will still have unlimited access to our image hosting services at no charge.
Best of all, sellers will be able to use our image hosting services for free until April, when we implement this new pricing option. We will provide you with a specific date shortly.
Here is a summary of the new expanded service plan. This will be published on our site on Thursday, March 15.
Standard Plan · Auction Manager Listing Tools· Image Hosting· Auction Manager Post- Sales Tools $.05 per listing + 1% final value fee
· Image Hosting only(Includes uploading images, copy/paste URL into auctions and launching through legacy IH system) $0.10 per image per auctionNo listing or final value fee
Power Plan · Auction Manager Listing Tools· Image Hosting· Auction Manager Post- Sales Tools $200 annual fee + $.05 per listing
· Image Hosting only(Includes uploading images, copy/paste URL into auctions and launching through legacy IH system) $200 annual fee No listing fee
To use image hosting only on a per image basis, please sign up for the Standard Plan, or sign up for the Power Plan if you wish to purchase an annual subscription for image hosting.
If you have already signed up for the power plan, but want to switch to the standard plan, please contact customer service at [email protected].
posted on March 13, 2001 04:51:53 PM
I'm sure that there are people who will continue to use the AW services, even for a fee, because that's what they're used to and comfortable with, or maybe because they are lazy and foolish, or maybe because they are stupid, or maybe some combination of the above. Whatever.
It is likely that the "thousands" who have signed up have done so by default, not even knowing that they'll be hit with charges tomorrow because they didn't "opt out" of them.
The same services are readily available elsewhere without a fee. Or, as others have pointed out, you can just do it yourself, using the web space most ISPs provide as a part of an account (mine is 10 megs of prime cyber real estate).
But there is much to be said for user complacency and ignorance.
posted on March 13, 2001 05:05:48 PM
Okay. everyone...
I assume you edit your pics. Within your picture editor is a method to stitch your pics together.
I don't care if you use AW...eBay...or whoever...you can stitch your pictures into one image.
This will give you one URL...one fee.
Think about it. It's also easier to upload...to your own space...AW's, eBay's...anywhere at all. You can stitch them side by side...vertically...any shape and form you choose. Then compress.
posted on March 13, 2001 05:20:50 PM
I think that AW missed the boat in this respect, and allowed too many members out the door, who now find they can do it on their own. AW should have implemented this plan for the very small sellers, and that would be.....
Auction Manager Listing Tools· Image Hosting· $.05 per listing (up to 100 auctions a month, (anything over 100 go for an advanced plan, or at 101, start charging .10 a listing up to say 150.) + $5.00 a month flat fee. Over 150, advanced plan mandatory. PERIOD! I know that I would have most definatly stayed for a deal like that. You would have kept thousands of past users that now are scattered throughout about 15 services that are giving AW er's what they want, or people have decided it was worth it to learn HTML and do it on their own. One thing AW should have learned by being in business, is never let the customer out of the store without offering a sale price! It is an issue of trust and once that trust is broken, you are not only losing that one customer, but the many, each customer has contact with as well. It snowballs, and I, for one, am so sorry this happened here. AW had the greatest service for my needs, and I have learned alot here. But the bottom line dictates what each one must do to stay afloat. AW included.
**edited by furkidmom to add the .10 fee.
[ edited by furkidmom on Mar 13, 2001 05:27 PM ]
