posted on October 24, 2004 05:47:36 PM new
Sorry, I am late to the party. I was just surprised by my billing, also (not pleasantly).
I have read and re-read the policies... somewhat confusing.
The pictures used to be "free"; presumably Vendio was compensated by the listing and final value fees. Now, I see I am charged $19.95 for my picture storage.
I was on a pay as you go plan. Looking over the other plans, I see a monthly plan for $12.95 with this notation:
All monthly plans give you access to the powerful automation and merchandising features of Sales Manager:
* Free image storage, image transfer, and super-sized images
My question is, why would anyone at my low sales level pay more than $12.95/month? Does the "image storage" include image hosting? If I sign up for the $12.95/month what will my monthly cost be? $12.95 + 1% Final Value + 5 cents per listing? Unlimited pictures?
I really have liked using vendio... am eagerly anticipating the shipping calculator... but there are limits. Based on what I have listed the past month or so one of the other services would have been better for me.
Also, should I decide to stay with Vendio, and choose a $12.95/month plan, can I take a few months off without being billed? Some type of suspend/cancel notification would have to be sent, I expect.
Thank you. I hope to resolve this soon... I am cleaning the garage!
posted on October 24, 2004 06:56:19 PM new
Thank you Jim for articulating my similar questions. I, too, was on the pay-as-you-go plan. And after getting my new billing notice over the weekend...my Vendio charges quadrupled...but my activity level remained the same. About the only thing I could do to stop the bleeding was sign up for the $12.95 monthly plan. And I too don't list during some months (the summer) and will not pay fees if I'm not using Vendio.
Even after reading all the various new image hosting policy changes, I'm unable to determine what the hell is going on and what isn't. Why tamper with something that didn't need tampering?
Please provide a clear answer to our inquiries.
If not, adios Vendio. Both eBay & PayPal have just about caught up with the features you provide anyways. Idiotic price gouging schemes such as this on images, especially when image storage technology is so cheap, only hasten this and other loyal sellers departure.
posted on October 25, 2004 08:30:30 AM new
I simply cannot afford to pay an additional 12.95 or 20 or any more when I do not recieve any more services than I used to.
Please review the following post for further clarification of image hosting prices.
If you aren't listing, to avoid image hosting fees we recommend you empty your image hosting of your images and you go to My Account > My Service Plans and inactivate image hosting.
posted on October 25, 2004 12:05:46 PM new
Hi all,
Free image hosting is still available to any Sales Manager plan, including Pay As You Go, except the difference now is that it is no longer unlimited. We could no longer provide unlimited free storage since we introduced the option to store images permanently - that would have strained our systems and affected performance for everyone. (Note that the auto-delete feature is unchanged. You only need to manually delete your images if you are trying to reduce your image storage.)
Now Image Hosting is free as long as your Sales Manager fees are the same or higher than your Image Hosting fees. In other words, Image Hosting is now a monthly minimum. This way we could tie the amount of free image storage to Sales Manager usage so that only users who store more than usual will need to pay more.
To make it easier for users to see this, we added more information on your statements. See the screenshot of the Online Statements page. Here, you'll see Monthly Minimum which is based on your Image Hosting plan. Below that is the credits you accumulate as a result of Sales Manager subscription fees, listing fees and final value fees. When the credit equals the minimum, you'll know that you'll pay nothing extra for that month.
Now, as for why your first bill appears larger, it's just because Image Hosting is prepaid. See this explanation of the sample billing line items:
9/30 Image Hosting Plan: 55 MB (pro-rated) $5.00
- This marks the start of new Image Hosting fees. Image Hosting becomes a separate plan with it's own pricing. Like other Vendio payments, Image Hosting is prepaid so that's why this charge appears immediately.
10/15 Image Hosting Credit $5.00
- Credits appear at the end of of your bill so that we can properly account for all credits for the month. This example shows a full refund since the credit is the same as the 9/30 charge, meaning that Image Hosting was free.
10/15 Image Hosting Plan: 55 MB $9.95
- Again, Image Hosting is a prepaid fee so this charge is for the next period 10/16-11/16. The credit that will apply toward this amount will appear at the end of the next statement. As long as your Sales Manager fees are above your minimum, Image Hosting will continue to be free.
I hope that helps and clears up everyone's concerns.
