posted on May 31, 2009 08:51:03 PM new
Vendio is making a special offer to users of its rival, Auctiva, which will begin charging for its eBay listing tools beginning in July. Vendio spokesperson Crystal Wells-Miller said the Vendio Platform, which normally costs $10/month plus commission fees, will be completely free for Auctiva users through the end of the year, and will cost $10/month with no commission fees for the full year, 2010. The Vendio platform allows sellers unlimited listings on eBay and Amazon and also includes the company's Vendio Store offering, which is currently free for all users. The offer includes 2 GB of images (and unlimited free images for Vendio Store), templates and scheduling.
Auctiva announced last week that it was moving from a free model to a pay model in large part, it said, because of changes eBay was making. Auctiva had been able to provide free tools to sellers for the past 4 years because it had earned almost half of its revenue through the eBay affiliate program.
Auctiva sellers are mulling over their options of whether to stay with the company and pay fees, or switch to another inventory management service. Autiva is hosting webinars to discuss the changes.
Wells-Miller said she anticipates Vendio will publish this special offer as early as June 1st.
http://www.vendio.com
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As usual loyal customers get....nothing
From Auctionbytes
[ edited by davebraun on May 31, 2009 08:51 PM ]
posted on June 1, 2009 05:40:43 PM new
I don't understand why those of us who have been using Vendio for years, since it was Auctionwatch, should have to pay the full price for services, when others who have been using a rival company are now offered free services for a year. Surely it is the loyal customers, Vendio, who deserve the price break!
posted on June 2, 2009 08:55:32 AM new
Amber, it is simply a matter of corporate hubris.
I've seen this over and over as management in a head long rush for growth does whatever is easy/expedient to capitalize on growing the base while at the same time only giving lip service to the idea of rewarding customer loyalty.
Vendio feels that by simply keeping the lights on, they are fulfilling their end of the deal for those, like you, who have been on board for so long. Essentially, their position is that there is less upside to crafting incentives for you than in pulling in these disaffected Auctiva users for the basic service and the upsells that are more likely to occur with new users than old.
Frankly, Vendio hasn't a lot more to offer. They are very, very, very late to the game with this soon to be launched revamp of stores into what, I presume, is a shopping cart.
In many ways, they mirror what has bedeviled eBay; complacency.
posted on June 5, 2009 06:35:01 PM new
Hey, since I had an Auctiva account that I rarely used and closed after their fee announcement and opened this account a couple of weeks too soon, can I have one of the free accounts?
posted on June 8, 2009 04:27:08 PM new
spose it's harder to get new customers by saying if they sign up now, you can then offer your existing users a price break.
der. did everyone really skip ecomonics class to the point where they don't get why companies offer deals for new signups and not randomly discounting existing accounts for short periods of time?
sure, I get mad when I see my cell provider offering the latest phone with a new 2 year contract, because I don't even like my phone anymore, but that's just how this crap works.
personally I just list via ehay directly because I dont sell enough to justify using a third party solution. if I did, id go with the best one I could afford. the cheap and free ones are always lacking in too many ways to be worth dumping a bunch of time and energy into, and apparently they may not always be cheap or free (because apparently those companies forgot what happened in 2001 to the tech industry)
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not vintage4u on eBay
edited to add: I want a new phone, can you tell?
lol
[ edited by vintage4u on Jun 8, 2009 04:28 PM ]
posted on June 10, 2009 05:21:41 PM new
amber posted I don't understand why those of us who have been using Vendio for years, since it was Auctionwatch, should have to pay the full price for services, when others who have been using a rival company are now offered free services for a year. Surely it is the loyal customers, Vendio, who deserve the price break!
I CONCUR!!! Good grief this is a slap in the face to the loyal customers.
I started in '99 with Auctionwatch.
I feel betrayed, VD flirting with new, heck not even new customers -POTENTIAL customers.
posted on June 10, 2009 05:31:12 PM new
deur1: it does suck, but businesses do it all the time. I called Comcast to complain about TVs they were giving away to new customers and threatened to go to FIOS and they reduced my bill substantially (I probably had been over paying for years and did not know it).
Auctiva just sent me a new email lowering their fees, so they must be worried about the flight to Vendio. They don't have to worry about me. I am staying with straight to Ebay. I left Auctionwatch when they started to extract % of final sale fees.
posted on June 10, 2009 05:42:48 PM new
I still love VD.
I understand that "swooning" new customers is necessary for growth.
I understand but do not necessarily like being taken for granted.
Maybe someone could "swoon" us old timers- hehehe
I do not like the fEEBay lister, and Channel Advisor is sky high (just like VD) but looks complicated.
LOL, I feel like Tammy Wynette "stand by VD'
come what may.
posted on June 10, 2009 05:59:52 PM new
Nothing really new here... but I wonder if Vendio has a "customer retention department" like Comcast does.
$140 for expanded Basic Cable & Internet each month is absurd. I called Comcast and threatened to go to Direct TV. My Comcast bill now is $84 a month including Cable/HBO and Internet for one year... then I have to call them back again.
Inflated pricing is such a scam. It is truly the icing on the cake for businesses. These companies can "afford" lower rates that they offer all the time to newbies. They just use it to create artifical value.
Do you think Comcast would rather charge me $84 a month for something they already have set up in my house, or rock that boat and lose a customer to their competitor?
posted on June 10, 2009 07:39:16 PM new
it reminds me of the 90's when the phone companies would send you a check for $100 to change to their company. One month you'd get one from Sprint, the next month AT&T, the following month you'd get Ben and Jerry coupons from Working Assets. How could a college student pass up $100 and Ben and Jerry's??? Ben and Jerry's Apple Pie A la Mode. Mmmmmmm.
posted on June 11, 2009 01:01:48 PM new
I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask why Vendio? Users seem to love it. Is it ease of use? Save time?
I'm looking for something to use for thousands of collectible -- clean templates, etc. without a lot of coporate branding and logos.
posted on June 11, 2009 01:48:40 PM new
I also have been here 10 years and with the new fees that have hit my account the last two months, I am switching as quickly as I can HOP on over to another site.
My fees went from $50 a month to over $150 this last month!
I'm outta here permanately as soon as the last listing is converted
posted on June 17, 2009 09:35:11 AM new
Hmmmm, I might be wrong, but it appears that if established Vendio users want to lower their fees, and take advantage of the price war between Vendio and Auctiva, they will have to switch to Auctiva.
posted on June 18, 2009 09:24:34 AM new
I sent a question to Vendio customer service and asked if they had a plan to match the offer for existing customers. They shared with me the cell phone, cable tv anology. What they don't seem to realize is that business model just forced us all to change providers on a regular basis. My biggest complaint is offering new customers free 2GB space for pictures and my plan only allows 3MB. Come on, space is cheap. The other thing I use Vendio for is the "Research" tool. Is anyone aware of a competing product that works as good?
posted on June 18, 2009 11:48:54 AM new
elwood...you're exactly right.
This so-called business model is based upon an assumption that took root 10 or so years ago, driven by the whole land rush for customers during the bubble.....and it has systematically failed for all these companies based upon a too thin product base and in the case of Vendio/eBay, a failure to identify with the long term evolution of their customers....and that was an evolution into stand alone stores.
---------------------------
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posted on June 18, 2009 03:38:38 PM new
Orbitz travel refunds the difference if any of their inventory comes down in price (hotel) rooms etc.
I never recommend Vendio to friends (I'm frequently asked) Their format is proprietary which makes it difficult to port your information into any other system.
posted on June 18, 2009 04:54:52 PM new
Hello davebraun,
Their format is proprietary which makes it difficult to port your information into any other system.
That is incorrect. You can export your data in a CSV file, the standard for most companies that actually allow this method of moving data in/out of their systems. Unfortunately when users are switching over to us many of the competitors do not give them the option to get their data in an industry standardized format like that, but in those cases we can still simply scrape the data from eBay to import into the Sales Manager to still make the transition as easy as possible.
To those asking about templates above, know that there have been two meetings just this week on how best to accommodate new templates into the system and these are projects now moving forward. Please let us know if you have any questions on that subject.
Any billing related questions can be addressed to the billing team directly via the Help menu.
