posted on July 25, 2002 07:07:35 AM new
heard a radio add for carnaby.com on bloomberg radio past few days....add sounds very unprofessional also when i went to their site they had NOTHING of interest....
posted on July 25, 2002 09:50:18 AM new
mrfoxy that sounds like a mixed blessing, the way you put it. A third tier does radio advertising which is a good thing but then you say it sounded unprofessional? How unprofessional can it get? Tell us what you heard.
posted on July 25, 2002 10:47:37 AM new
the idea of the add was good it sounded unprofessional in otherwards like someone talking over loudspeaker on the telephone....seems silly to spend money advertising then have a half hearted add
posted on July 27, 2002 09:39:39 AM new
caffeitalia, I'd be interested to know what your experience was with Carnaby CS and why you think it's so bad. I've found them to be superior to most other venues in terms of professionalism and responsiveness to problems. (SYI does comes very close)
posted on July 27, 2002 05:16:01 PM new
bestattic,
That is total BS. If no one sees the auctions it doesn't matter what the auction even was. If you own a store in a mall the mall is responsible for driving customers to the mall. If the mall can't do that the stores leave and the mall folds. The store should try to get some traffic there but if the store is low on funds there is not much the store can do to drive traffic to the mall/store.
I am a firm believe in not EVER sending spam ( even well-intentioned SPAM ) to any past customers. Sellers that say "I email all my old customers and tell them I'm having a sale at NoChanceAuction.com" are repulsive and are prostitutes ( that ought to fire up the 'notify my former buyers crowd' ).
Carnaby is a loser site. That is a hard fact. How and why they keep at it indicates very bad busines judgement. Give up! There is never going to be even the slightest chance of profitibilty! A company must know when to give up.
posted on July 27, 2002 05:44:50 PM new
Hiya Diechin...
yep, I know Caffe is e-pier all the way, but if there was a problem with Carnaby's CS as indicated, I'd really be interested in what that problem was.
Making a general bash without details allows for very little credibility to his/her posting.
posted on July 27, 2002 05:46:23 PM new
Quote Bids:
...I am a firm believe in not EVER sending spam ( even well-intentioned SPAM ) to any past customers. Sellers that say "I email all my old customers and tell them I'm having a sale at NoChanceAuction.com" are repulsive and are prostitutes ( that ought to fire up the 'notify my former buyers crowd' ).
Carnaby is a loser site...
-----
I agree that a mall (auction venue) needs to drive traffic to the store (seller), BUT...sellers also have a responsibility to do what they can in terms of self-promotion or they're destined for failure.
You can add me to the list of "sales whores" bids, because my customers do get e-mails from me...however, as with all things, there are proper ways to go about it.
I send out a promo newsletter once every other month to previous customers who "opt-in" to receive it. Those who wish to get my little updates are in a database that notes what type of books interests them, and as I run across subjects of interest, they get set aside until I have enough to satisfy the majority of subscribers...then the books get listed, the newsletter goes out and I generally have an increase that weeks sell thru.
So, you don't like Carnaby, big deal. There are sites I don't particularly care for, but I don't go around bad mouthing them, and there's no reason for you do so either.
If Carnaby doesn't do well for your type of goods, then that's a loss for you, Carnaby & other seller who are helped by additional listings, but it really serves no purpose to intentionally belittle any venue simply because you were unsuccessful at selling.
posted on July 27, 2002 09:07:39 PM new
Robnzak says it so well, thanks. I would just like to add that if I went to a mall where I could set up a booth for $0.00, then in fact I don't expect them to drive traffic to me. I would expect to use all advertising available within my budget to get people to come to me.
This is not to say that I don't think third tiers should not advertise, because obviously if they ever want to be profitable they will have to promote themselves.
I didn't say a word about spamming, bidsbids. There are many legitimate methods of advertising that are quite reasonable. Just hang out in the Ebay Outlook for awhile and marketing is sure to pop up as a topic with tons of great marketing ideas.
It is apparent from the first post that Carnaby is doing radio ads. That's cool, I haven't heard one in my area, but hey the net is not just a local thing. I'm pleased to know they are advertising.
There is room for all of us in this wonderful ecommerce world and thank heavens we can find places besides Ebay to sell. I love Ebay, but not exclusively. There are a few sites that I personally don't like, but I don't feel compelled to put them down because it is a personal thing.
posted on July 27, 2002 11:54:00 PM new
The numbers tell the true Carnaby story. Almost two years old and around 3,500 listings. There's a very valid reason for the very low number of listings ... the sellers will not list at a site with no traffic.
A few years ago many sellers set up a personal webpage to use for selling their various items and drove their traffic towards the homepage. Many moved their site to third tier sites where they hoped to pick up a few sales aditional from the venue. Those types of sellers often become fierce cheerleaders for the sites that have no traffic because they have the most to lose if the site fails.
posted on July 28, 2002 05:35:13 PM new
To reply to loser Rob. I had been gone for a couple of days and now it's time for me to catch up.
The problem I have with Carnaby CS is when I post any type of charity auction, they kill it asap. Then they tell me they do not allow it because it causes too much trouble, but yet if you are in the brown nose circle like you are, it is allow to stay. I let them know on a personal note they need to dump the person(s) making the trouble, not the person doing the good. At that point, never any response to good suggestions. And now that the Bidville rejects have totally destroyed the site, it isn't even worth posting. Too bad a I do like the lay out, but their CS just keeps shooting themselves in the foot.
posted on July 28, 2002 07:28:25 PM new
Caffeitalia...name calling really isn't necessary to discuss issues and it isn't appreciated...but in between your insults you did answer my question. Which leads me to ask a follow up.
If you were trying to run charity auctions, did you follow the site's policy's for such listings? Carnaby has specific guidelines for charity listings in an effort to cut down on scams and frauds. I am sure yours were legitimate, but if you didn't follow the rules, then CS wouldn't have any way of knowing that.
Bids, you should know me better than now. I have stated on many occasions that I cheerlead for no particular site, my loyalties are to my profit margin and if a site cannot provide consistent income, it's history. I do, try to accentuate the positive when possible and when negatives are brought up (such as Caffe's problems with CS), then I also try to find out what those problems are, because if there are serious problems, folks need to know about them.
My having a good working relationship with Carnaby (or any site for that matter) doesn't make me a loser, a cheerleader, or a brown noser.
I'll take my leave of you gentle people now. Should you decide you wish to discuss the issues instead of the insults, let me know.
posted on July 28, 2002 10:32:12 PM new
At least I'm still a gentle people in your eyes. Good luck with your sales and house payments on your Victorian home. Later.
