I am very sorry that AW is going to a paying service - they are basically disenfranchising all original users!!! It would be a
smarter move to create a value-added service, perhaps called AuctionWatch Professional or something, leaving some basic services for free and enhanced services (such as the post sales stuff) only for paid users. As it is, they are now going head to head with other paid services, some of which, frankly, are better than AuctionWatch...though AW is alot cheaper. However, if I have to pay
anyway, I will absolutely re-evaluate the other services now before continuing to use AuctionWatch. VERY BAD marketing move! I can't believe they couldn't find some way to maintain their PROMISE of free services (yes, we signed on for a FREE service and that was a promise) without basically telling all of us pay up or else. I feel cheated, disenfranchised and abondoned...if AW has so little loyalty towards me, why should I be loyal to them? PayPal, and many others, have done the same thing, justifying it with an excuse that they need the money - that's why I no longer use PayPal and the rest. Instead of justifying & leaving us out in the cold, why not be creative and design a value added service better than the free one for the fee you need! AW just isn't good enough to pay for - sorry - I have been emailing you for a year or more (before giving up) that I have to refresh my AuctionManager screen numerous times to get an accurate listing of my auctions - and even then it doesn't always jive with what is on eBay. And SLOW is your middle name. Your Post Sale management is cludgy and I gave up trying to use it - just what are you charging for? And finally, you don't even know the meaning of customer service (which is even more obvious with this move). I used another similar fee-based service for awhile and it was actually worth the fees they charge, which are higher than AW's but more acceptable to me since they never pulled a bait and switch - they always said they had a fee, even during their initial fee-waived intro. Another good example of handling fee issues is (Moderators: these are not AW competitors) Western Union MoneyZap.com, which is free at this time, but they have always said they would be fee based...I think they are going to come up with more value added stuff to charge for and leave the basic stuff free for the time being as well, but they never promised to stay free, so if they charge later, it won't be a broken promise or bait and switch. It just feels nice and clean, a company I am glad to do business with. And refreshing. So, barring divine intervention, goodbye AW it was nice doing business with you. Despite some failings, I did appreciate AW's unique advantages, creative templates and more (not the least of which was the lack of a fee) while they lasted.
Robert Ross
Adventures Marketing, LLC
[ edited by rross on Feb 28, 2001 09:05 PM ]
posted on February 28, 2001 09:33:12 PM
Fed up is more like it. I have put up with AW's flaws and poor customer service for well over a year or two, and this is just the last straw.
posted on February 28, 2001 10:15:19 PM
To say the least, unfortunately. I was really hoping it would work out. It was worse for the last few weeks since I was forced back onto a 56K modem for awhile...making AW impossibly slow. Auctiona Manager Software isn't bad, though. I'll miss that - but it won't be so bad now that I finally got my DSL installed tonight -- and after only 4 hours of trying to work out the bugs
