posted on January 30, 2002 10:18:52 AM new
I had a call form Net Merchant an auction management co. that said they are calling AW customers. Like to know how they got my Phone number? Anyway, has anyone heard them or does anyone use them? Thanks!
posted on January 30, 2002 05:36:48 PM new
Any auction services company who uses telemarketing is suspect.
Just hang up and don't give them a second of your time.
At least if something is in writing you may have some recourse if things go wrong, but a telemarketer can tell you anything and there is no record, or recourse.
posted on January 30, 2002 06:20:48 PM new
Got the same call late last week. I had nothing better to do so I listened to the blurb. I kept asking "How Much" and they would never tell me. Finally I said "How ******* much". I must have shocked the girl on the other end because she told me. $499.00 for the software and $49.95 a month, but I will be you acct rep and you can call me if you need me. Well you can imagine my answer. They have a website. I guess it is a legit organisation. Mind you how long do you think it will be before other companies start to realise how much money that they are losing by providing software/web pages etc for free?
posted on January 30, 2002 07:22:58 PM new
I wonder how they are getting the phone numbers? I find if they say they are calling up Auction Watch people they have to have access somehow to this type of personal information. I know they are not pulling it through ebay personal contact info, because I believe you have to be in a transaction for this information to be given, and also Ebay then sends you an email notifying you that this information was given out and the name of the person requesting it.
Reenie
posted on January 31, 2002 05:24:11 AM new
As to where they are getting the sellers phone numbers here are some possibilities (I doubt we will ever know):
A current auction service you use.
A service you tried but no longer use.
(Examples: active or defunct auction web sites, mail services, photo hosting, emails, auction management software etc.)
Gegy.com (My candidate for most likely to use telemarketing and spam on its lists)
A payment service.
An auction newsletter.
An e-report you bought on line.
Telemarketing is expensive, and that is why I am so dead set against any service offered that way. It has to be outrageously priced to pay for the personnel and calls.
posted on January 31, 2002 06:23:13 AM new
stopwhining, here's the official statement from the AW privacy page:
3. Our Policies Regarding the Disclosure of Your Information.
We do not sell, rent, trade or otherwise share any personally identifiable information about our users to any third party. This includes, but is not limited to the names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of our users. In addition, we will not disclose any personally identifiable financial or security related personally identifiable information such as credit card numbers and or passwords.
We do aggregate broad demographic information on our user base, which we disclose to our current and prospective advertisers. In addition, this aggregated data is used internally for promotional purposes. We use the information about the interests our users to increase the effectiveness of our marketing and promotional efforts and to customize our site's content and layout. We believe these uses allow us to create a personalized product that better satisfies our users' needs. We may also use information about you to deliver information to you that, in some cases, is targeted to your interests, such as targeted banners.
posted on January 31, 2002 07:18:50 AM new
Go to any AW storefront and click on Contact Us........All of your personal information is there. I just noticed even my phone number is there! They called me too!
posted on January 31, 2002 02:05:59 PM new
Thanks for your responses! I did figure out they must just be going down the AW storefronts and calling people. They started out with me at 399.00 and 49.95 a month. Then it went to 350.00 and unded up at 299.00. I was on the phone for 2 1/2 hours with them. I just can't see it when AW seems to do just fine and I may pay them 20 a month on average. I will say though, they have well trained sales people. I am always impressed with good salesmanship.
posted on January 31, 2002 02:07:20 PM new
I meant to add, I did ask them how they got my phone number. I was put on hold, and then they came back and said well they don't really know.
posted on January 31, 2002 10:40:03 PM new
valo3456: If a phone number, mailing address, shoe size, or any other personal information is in a Storefront, it's because the Storefront "owner" put it there, not AW. My Storefront has the contact information I entered into it - nothing more, nothing less. Editing out unwanted information is easy.
