posted on July 12, 2003 01:48:00 PM new
I have been a member of Auctionwatch for several years now but have nver used the listing services. I currently use eBay Sellers Assistant to create ads and Shooting Star for post-sale management. These tools have worked fine for me for years but now that my volume is increasing I am being bogged down by manually sending EOA notices and leaving feedback. I need a service which can help to streamline my activities. I would like to ask the users here that use Vendio a few questions:
1: Are you happy with the overall use of Vendio?
2: Can you easily combine multiple items into one invoice? I have many buyers who purchase more than one item at a time.
3: Can re-lists be modified through Vendio before submitting?
posted on July 12, 2003 02:00:32 PM new
The only thing I don't like, and it's not a biggie is:
On multiple sales the EOA goes out before I can get in and combine and send a combined invioce.
That mean the customers get individule EOA's plus a combined EOA.
posted on July 12, 2003 02:32:55 PM new
there is a way to avoid that one little problem mentioned. don't choose to have the EOA sent automatically at end of auction. then after the auctions have ended, use the combining sales feature then send all EOA's at that time with a check by each box and wala!
however I am a small time seller, not 100's of auctions at one time.
posted on July 12, 2003 03:45:07 PM new
I list between 100 and 200 items per week so I always have combined orders. Do you have to manually combine the multiple items and then send the notice?
posted on July 12, 2003 04:06:15 PM new
Things have not been working as well since I started listing in E-Bay Stores, since Vendio does not support stores.
However, when I was straight auction and used Auctionwatch checkout, I set my Shipping Options and the purchaser receives a Winning Buyer Notification at the end of the auction for each purchase.
When the purchaser goes through checkout, they are able to combine their auctions, and I have a percentage of shipping that comes off subsequent orders. (It would be nice if it took the discount on the lowest shipping items, but I do not think it does that.)
Many times, the purchaser goes through checkout, their auctions are combined in my post sales view, and I can see the combined shipping total and discounts, and payments applied without any effort on my part. It is also very nice that Vendio Post Sale also picks up most Paypal payments and puts the shipping address in Post Sale even if they do not go through checkout.
The checkout system could probably be tweaked a little to pick up PayPal Payments from pending e-checks, ..., but it is very slick.
If I do modifications to my auction in ebay after launching, and want to re-list through Vendio, those changes are not there.
If I relaunch through E-Bay, the changes are there but then the likelihood of Post Sale Management working are limited, and the auction might not show up at all unless I import my auctions and functionality starts to lose its reliability from there. WBN needs to be set with the correct price and shipping options and turned on. .....
Vendio is improving and before I did Stores I was quite happy. Now it is a wait and see thing as Vendio is saying they will support stores in the near future.
posted on July 12, 2003 04:07:30 PM new
Marcn,
Yes, you have to "manually" combine. There is a search for combinable auctions button. You press that and it will search over the past 30 days, I believe. You then can modify your shipping, also. We love Vendio and have been using them since they were free....oh, the good old days.....
posted on July 12, 2003 04:10:01 PM new
Anyone here a former Auctiva/Ebud user that can give me a pro and con comparison? I don't need image hosting, so that isn't a factor, but I couldn't live without some sort of post-auction management software.
posted on July 12, 2003 04:10:55 PM new
gousainc, whats that about Paypal addresses being entered without going through checkout. We must have missed that one, please let us know more. Is there something I need to do to make that happen?
posted on July 12, 2003 04:49:25 PM new
After taking a close look at all the plans avaialable, it looks like using Vendio will be more than $100 per month in fees which is very steep! I list between 500 and 600 items per month with sales of approximately $10,000 per month. Since there is no Flat Rate plan, it looks very expensive,
posted on July 12, 2003 05:14:59 PM new
marc - I decided to do some comparisions and found that I am liking Auctionworks a little more in terms of speed of preparing auctions online and follow-up. I'm also paying a lot less in my Works account. You might want to check them out also. They have a two week free trial is you you want to give it a test.
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
- Thomas Edison
posted on July 12, 2003 05:41:01 PM new
My understanding and perceptions of how things work may be incorrect, so take what I say in light of what others say.
Cramer: You asked...gousainc, what's that about Paypal addresses being entered without going through checkout?
Under My Account, Post Sale Acceleration, you can choose to:
Automatically apply the payment as a credit to the mail-specified item or order #
and --
Automatically extract and store the Buyer's 'Ship To' address into the PostSale system (if the address is not already stored)
You have to set your PayPal notices to come through Vendio and it extracts the payment information and applies it to a particular auction, or combined order. It also extracts the address of the person if it is not already in checkout and marks the order, or the combined order as paid, if they went through checkout.
This is one of the greatest features of Vendio,
Go to sleep at night, and wake up to find checkout completed, orders combined with shipping discounts, and paypal payments applied to the order.
If they go straight to PayPal instead of to the checkout, it marks the order as paid and puts their ship to address (From PayPal) in the Post Sale Screen. I then look down through my orders and see what has been paid for. Open up the Post Sale Management screen for the Order and the payments, applied. The Ship to address is right there and ready to go.
After they pay, the Post Sale Management confirms to them with an e-mail that I received payment and will be shipping soon.
I process their order through shipping and place the tracking number in Level 5 of Post Sale, shipping completed. Upon the item going to the shipper, whether that day or the next day, I click to notify, and level 6 is completed. The purchaser is notified that I have shipped and is sent the tracking number with a link to be able to track their package easily.
I do not do feedback anymore. There is an auction service that automatically posts positive feedback for the purchaser when they post positive feedback for myself.
I send ZERO emails to my customers personally most of the time, but the emails Vendio Post Sale provides, gives them the reassurance they need to know their order is being processed, was paid for, is shipped,...
I do not know of any other auction service that marks the order as paid, and gets the address when PayPal payment is made.
This is one thing that I think makes Vendio Great, and will be much better for me when Stores are supported.
posted on July 12, 2003 07:58:15 PM new
Ack..forget my question then. If vendio charges by the number of listings, Auctiva is what I'll be sticking with. I probably do upwards of 400 auctions a month and my little 14.95 a month fee is looking pretty good right now.
posted on July 14, 2003 07:05:01 AM new
gousainc,
Thanks for the info....One more question....I have been using AW Vendio forever but I do not know what my address is there. How do I tell Paypal to let me do this? Thanks.....
posted on July 14, 2003 07:20:38 AM new
Correct me if I am wrong. It is your Vendio Login AT (@) Vendio.com. So if you login to Vendio as cramer, your email would be [email protected] .
Go to:
http://www.vendio.com/promo/mailstep/paypal.html
or
VENDIO: MY ACOUNT: POST SALE ACCELERATION: LEARN MORE
The option to extract this information must be turned on in post Sale Acceleration.
Also, they have made it where you can use your own domain name if you own it to capture this information, but their explanation of how to set it up was vague last time I checked into it.
posted on July 14, 2003 08:32:01 AM new
marcn: What's the eBay id for the Silhouettes clothing? I know you've posted it here before so hopefully I'm not asking you to divulge any state secrets.
I need some cruise wear.
I am not a bathtub full of brightly-colored machine tools on Vendio.
I've been shopping for new auction management for over 4 months & finally distilled my choices down to Vendio & AuctionWorks. In a nutshell AuctionWorks has better listing tools and Vendio provides better post auction tools (at least for the way I communicate with my customers). AuctionWorks has a steeper learning curve. At this time I plan on switching to Vendio as soon as they launch support for eBay stores later this month. Cost wise they're about the same for my current sales, but Vendio will be slightly cheaper as my sales increase. AuctionWorks is 2% of sales, Vendio has several plans so you need to figure out the best one for your business. At first I had some sticker shock, but in order to grow without hiring help I need to automate more, and there are some services that cost a lot more.
posted on July 14, 2003 10:48:21 AM new
For small taters like moi & Ralphie (20-50/week), SD is the bestest way at only $4.95/month!
HOWEVER, at larger numbers of auctions, I think Venial is the best! Really, CA is a smidgen better, but they be sooooo snotty, that me giveth the nod to VD
If I were a feeBay big-poopa (>50 auctions/week), I'd be listing from here -- just think that Venial be toooo expensive for me & me dogger!
Ralphie loves Mr Blonde:
"Are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?" http://tinyurl.com/5duz
posted on July 14, 2003 11:13:12 AM new
Out of sheer curiosity, has anyone used Ebays Selling Manager? I was curious about how it handles post sale. Heck, I am just curious about all of ebays selling tools except Turbo Lister (which I have used).
Seth
posted on July 14, 2003 11:55:46 AM new
Hi Seth: YES, I use it for my PSM -- works well & has most of the customization options that I need, except that ye cannot combine EASILY!
Pretty cheap, though @ $5/mo.
SD's PSM is identical now, so, I'll probably transfer over any day I get off my DUFF! Or just throw a bone or 2 at Ralphie & let him do it!
Ralphie loves Mr Blonde:
"Are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?" http://tinyurl.com/5duz
posted on July 14, 2003 12:07:13 PM new
I recently started using it too. Works great and only $4.95 month. It saves all data for 4 months instead on the 1 month on the free My ebay page.
----------------------------------
-------------- sig file ----------------------------
"Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error."
- Andrew Jackson
posted on July 14, 2003 12:36:41 PM new
Ferretbee:
AuctionWorks was one I looked at. I have a problem with the 2%, it is a bit steep. I would be paying over $200 per month in fees. I have never been interested in services that want a percentage of the sale. I am giving Channel Advisor a try to see how it works.
posted on July 14, 2003 05:33:55 PM new
CA used to be AuctionRover (Ralphie was OBVIOUSLY a fan) and they were cheap & had the bestest software bar none!
Then they got expensive & snotty!
$30/month PLUS all the nasty attitude from their CS is an added "BONUS"
With all the services out there now that are cheap & trying-harder-to-be-better-than-the-big-boys-by-providing-EXCELLENT-product-and-CS, (SpareDollar/InkFrog/DeadZoom...just to mention 3), it makes little sense to throw moola at the over-priced snots at CA!
Ralphie loves Mr Blonde:
"Are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?" http://tinyurl.com/5duz
