posted on November 1, 2004 06:32:04 AM new
When signing up for services, it still says free image hosting. In fact, my plan is supposed to have free image hosting. What is going on? Is it free or not?
Is there a plan that has free image hosting? If so, which one? This is all gotten a little ridiculous. Read your sales literature.
Are you aware that bait and switch is till illegal in all 50 states?
A little clarification please
Beth
www.vintageads4u.com
Our website specifies that image hosting is free for Sales Manager and Stores users, and in most cases, this is true. If your Sales Manager and/or Stores fees exceed the image hosting fees, the Sales Manager credit will offset the image hosting fee and image hosting will effectively be free for the next billing cycle. Note that this DOES NOT apply to the first billing cycle after signing up for image hosting, as the credit will be applied at the end of the next billing cycle.
If your Sales Manager and/or Stores fees do not add up to enough to cover the Image Hosting fee in a billing cycle, you will be charged the difference but the Sales Manager and Stores credit will still work to offset the Image Hosting fee. Technically, if your Image Hosting use is in line with your sales volume, you would see no additoinal Image Hosting fees after the first billing cycle.
You can delete unused or unnecessary images and adjust your image hosting plan to a lower level plan if you have unused images in your account. First delete your images and empty your Recycle Bin. Next, check the amount of storage (on the main Image Hosting page.) Go to My Account -> My Service plans. Next to your Image Hosting plan, click the "see other plans" link. Choose whatever plan best suits your current image hosting needs. Note that if you upload more images than allowed under your current plan, your plan will automatically adjust to the next level. You must manually readjust it if you delete images, however.
If you have any other questions about this, please let us know.
posted on November 1, 2004 11:09:42 AM new
Vendio writes: "Our website specifies that image hosting is free for Sales Manager and Stores users, and in most cases, this is true".
++++++++++++++++++
Unfortunately, you don't have to be an attorney to see the flaws in your logic. You should amend you sales literature to accurately reflect your charges for image hosting.
A small thing, but business integrity is build on the small things.
Beth
www.vintageads4u.com
posted on November 1, 2004 12:10:31 PM new
Hi vintageads4u,
I think there are two clarifications here. First, free Image Hosting is available and our marketing pages are correct. But is it no longer unlimited and we have removed those words from the site. It's free as long as your Sales Manager fees meet your monthly minimun set by your Image Hosting plan. You can read a more detailed explanation here in this
thread.
Second, free Image Hosting is given by applying a refund based on your Sales Manager fees for the month. The very first bill under this new pricing looked bigger because any refund will appear in the next bill. The same thread link above explains this in more detail as well.
posted on November 1, 2004 02:14:41 PM new
....correction? ....
AND Image Hosting is Free with the Yearly/Annual plan.
---------------------------------
The Vendio Annual Listing Plan includes FREE image storage and hosting along with inventory management and listing. This plan DOES NOT INCLUDE direct marketing and promotion services or post sale functionality such as invoicing and checkout.
Annual Listing Plan
Annual Fee: $250
Listing Fee: $0.06/listing
Final Value Fee: NONE
[ edited by estatesalestuff on Nov 1, 2004 02:22 PM ]
posted on November 1, 2004 03:07:44 PM new
Hi estatesalestuff,
The free part is available with any Sales Manager or Stores plan. The difference is whether it's unlimited or not. Annual plans that were prepaid before new pricing went into effect on September 30 will remain unchanged until they renew. When these plans come up for renewal, the new Image Hosting pricing will apply to them as well.
posted on November 1, 2004 04:24:14 PM new
>>>FREE Image Hosting and supersized images
Make your Sales Manager listings stand out by including your standard or supersized images at no extra cost. >>>>
I agree Beth. In my opinion, FREE means FREE. No "ifs, ands, or buts". I don't see how they can get away with this. Vendio really needs to clarify their wording about the "FREE" Image Hosting.
posted on November 1, 2004 05:04:24 PM new
"Hi estatesalestuff,
The free part is available with any Sales Manager or Stores plan. The difference is whether it's unlimited or not. Annual plans that were prepaid before new pricing went into effect on September 30 will remain unchanged until they renew. When these plans come up for renewal, the new Image Hosting pricing will apply to them as well.-----------
Well, dang. First of all, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the FIRST time this has been mentioned by Vendio AT ALL?!
... aren't most members here part of a "any Sales Manager plan"???? so 'free part' would apply?
.... and 2nd of all, my head just spins when you throw multiple numbers and charts my way! ... you're going to have to HELP me decide what is most economical for us when our Annual Plan expires in the spring.
I'm sorry but this is really unnerving.
./....... especially the "annual plan, at renewal, you'll pay too" ... that really does smack of a bait and switch ... I can't believe you didn't mention this sooner.
[ edited by estatesalestuff on Nov 1, 2004 05:11 PM ]
posted on November 1, 2004 07:05:29 PM new
Auction Watch/Vendio "USED" to be the best deal around. You had a fantastic product at a fair price. Your products offered were easily understood. Your rate chart was easy to read and understand. Now…. I have No idea how much my bill is going to be or what unwanted service you are going to force upon me if I remain a customer.
Once upon a time I sang the praises of Auction Watch/Vendio and urged my fellow eBay sellers to sign up. Now I'm sorry I even suggested they look into Vendio. They are emailing me asking questions about why their bill is so high and why they are now paying for services that were once free.
There were an announcements that a changes were coming but you didn’t bother to tell us about the HUGH rate increase.
I'm sorry you found it necessary change your product and stick us with hidden charges.
I am looking for a new auction management service.
Remember amateurs built the ark - Professionals built the Titanic.
posted on November 1, 2004 11:25:47 PM new
Hi estatesalestuff,
We have consistently stated in all our communcations that we have maintained free Image Hosting for Sales Manager and Stores users, and that the amount of free Image Hosting you received depended on your level of Sales Manager or Stores fees.
And we have tried to communicate in the simplest terms that when your Sales Manager and/or Stores fees equal or exceed your Image Hosting monthly minimum, you will pay no extra for Image Hosting.
We know that the new system will take time for everyone to get used to, especially compared to the old system of free and unlimited (can't get any simpler than that). But if you look back through our responses in these threads, I think you'll see us saying the same things consistently. Please give the new system some more time. It's not as bad as you think once you get the hang of it.
posted on November 2, 2004 03:41:35 AM new... when your (sic) Sales Manager fees equal or exceed your Image Hosting monthly minimum, you will pay no extra for Image Hosting.
LOL ... this sounds like an oxymoron or doublespeak?!
.... if I exceed my monthly minimum, I don't have to pay extra for image hosting?! so my goal is to feel free to exceed my minimum????
posted on November 2, 2004 04:08:49 AM new
OK, Free means Free if you pay us 19.95 more than you used to.
This sounds an awful lot like "It depends on what the definition of "IS", is"
Remember amateurs built the ark - Professionals built the Titanic.
posted on November 2, 2004 06:00:39 AM new
I'm sorry but I think Vendio is trying to say its free unless it isn't.
Vendio does not have a free image hosting service what they now have is an image hosting service with a declining fee structure.
This structure can end up giving you an image hosting service for no cost but that is only on a month to month basis.
To continue saying it is free is misleading and marketing hype.
Dennis
posted on November 2, 2004 09:05:44 AM new
Hi estatesalestuff,
Where I wrote "...when your Sales Manager fees equal or exceed your Image Hosting monthly minimum, you will pay no extra for Image Hosting," I the monthly minimum I'm talking about is the monthly minimum in dollars set by your Image Hosting plan.
posted on November 17, 2004 12:56:59 PM new
i have to agree with everybody here. this is not what i signed up for. every month i see a 9.95 addition on my bill, and a 9.95 credit. i am not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but why,why,why list it at all, if it is refunded the next month. keep my head from hurting, and keep it simple, please.
posted on November 18, 2004 05:26:11 AM new
I would say Vendio really needs to work on it's communication with it's customers.
Instead of burying these things somewhere that no one ever goes (or at least I don't go) why not add something in your monthly invoice that gets emailed to us. Or better yet - send each customer an email about any important matters.
I think most of us don't have a problem with these new fees now that we understand them but it was very poor communications to implement it the way Vendio did.
I can say the same about the new calculator. Didn't even know it was there until I ran across it and I was over estimating the weight until the last day. Wonder how many bids that cost me??????
posted on November 18, 2004 03:41:39 PM new
I must say, I have to agree as well. before I found this post, I was trying to figure out what I'm paying for. I just don't have time to do research of this kind. I just cleaned out my images, and will no longer need the services of vendio. may I suggest that vendio find a simple way to charge their customers? I found the site very helpfull in the past, and I never had a problem with how much $ it cost. the time I saved made it worthwhile. vendio may not notice I'm gone, but I hope they see this, and consider their remaining customers' needs. thanks for everything, Darren
posted on November 18, 2004 11:08:37 PM new
FREE!!!! How can you advertise the word FREE and then charge $19.95. That's down right DECEPTIVE. Do you think people can actually be that stupid??? I don't know, can they? Please, I was born at night but it was not last night. If you are going to make these changes please make them CLEAR CUT and give fair warning. If you want to reduce the amount of space in your computer systems, simply remove the photos automatically whenever closed listings are archived. Or at least give sellers that option. This is clearly about making more money in a deceptive mannor. When you purchase Cell Phone service, you purchase a service plan which includes XXX amount of minutes each month. You don't receive XXX amount of minutes for FREE, you are PAYING for that plan. Talk XXX amount of minutes over your minutes and your charged a little more. Talk after 9 pm and it's so called free. No charge to plan minutes. This gives you the incentive to limit talk time or call after 9pm when there's no charge against your minutes plan. The same thing will happen here. Think of how many pictures you can add this week without going over your alotment. An incentive to list fewer items or add fewer photos. This is going to make using the Vendio service much more time consuming. Going in each week and removing all of the photos from all sold items. I have all ready reduced my images down to 23MB and have opted for the so called $9.95 refundable free plan. I have previously sent an email to Vendio about this issue and received a canned responce. I have just signed up for the 55MB image plan, however my image hosting plan is still reading 135MB. Am I going to be charged $19.95 for another FULL month of the 135MB plan???? Of which I had never signed up for but was assigned to me because I was unaware of image hosting NO longer being unlimited. I would not have seen this as being such a problem, but doing it in such a deceiving mannor is definatly not good.
posted on November 19, 2004 12:50:25 AM new
dobrerecords is so right. Seems like I go in 3 or 4 times a week now to check my image space. Then, because I'm already there, I delete a few. I consider this a waste of my time and this is not a time of year to waste a minutes time.
I think it would be GREAT and the right thing to do if Vendio would have some method to notify us if we are getting close to our limit. This needs to be done in a manner that gets our attention. Say as we are getting ready to upload images (even in SMPro). I really can't believe there's nothing there now telling us what our count is??
Vendio's always been a time saving tool and this would help get it back there.
posted on November 19, 2004 06:14:22 AM new
i have used Vendio/Auctionwatch since it was free, and have always seen it as a time saver. When they started charging, i understood, but things started changing then. I remained here because of the convienence, but even that is questionable now. I just went into ebay, and unloaded 17 auctions in about the same amount of time it takes on Vendio. Ebay used to take a long time to list an auction, but they must have updated servers or something. Anyway, not sure why i even need the hassles of Vendio any more. May just go straight ebay, where there is NO image pricing, NO image limits, NO extra charges, and NONE OF THE DOUBLE TALK VENDIO IS FAMOUS FOR. Just try to get a straight answer from Vendio.
posted on November 19, 2004 09:05:56 AM new
100.000 Customers average of $12.00 for image this give Vendio extra cash flow of over $1.000.000.00 (one million !) for ever what to understand here this is the reason they did it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and if i chould i do the same .
posted on November 19, 2004 09:22:32 AM new
Vendio clearly has to re-word and re-vamp the service for casual users, but as a high-volume user (auctions and images), I pay no more since the change. So if you typically paid over $50 a month, there is no difference. It is free. I pay up the gazoo for everything else, but images are free!!
posted on November 19, 2004 11:26:36 AM new
Hi bksv99,
"May just go straight ebay, where there is NO image pricing, NO image limits, NO extra charges..."
If I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying that eBay is free and unlimited? From what I know of eBay pricing, only the first image is free, and each additional image is 15 cents. If you attach more than 20 images in a month, then you would be better off with our $2.95 for 3 MB plan.
eBay also offers storage-based pricing, like we do, called Picture Manager, but our prices are clearly better there.
posted on November 19, 2004 02:23:24 PM new
I have to go with Chuck on this one!!! I tried listing directly to ebay for about a month - it wasn't pretty!!!
I don't like their photos and you can't combine auctions later if you want. Once you post the photo, in other words, you can't retrieve your photo if you need to for any reason either.
They dropped one of mine and I couldn't get it back - I had to retake & revise.
posted on November 19, 2004 03:35:37 PM new
May just go straight ebay, where there is NO image pricing, NO image limits, NO extra charges..."
If I'm understanding you correctly, you're saying that eBay is free and unlimited? From what I know of eBay pricing, only the first image is free, and each additional image is 15 cents. If you attach more than 20 images in a month, then you would be better off with our $2.95 for 3 MB plan.
eBay also offers storage-based pricing, like we do, called Picture Manager, but our prices are clearly better there.
Chuck, you are correct, but 95% of my auctions are one photo, which is free. Unlimited for me means, i take the photo, i upload it into the file i made on my own computer, then it is there whenever i want it, no charge. just list the auction, and relist if need be. Also, my photo is there whenever i want it, and never have to remove it if i so choose. What i am getting at is the speed that they now operate. much better than before, and none of the vendio charges.
posted on November 19, 2004 03:38:18 PM new
to ladyjewels2000: You said, "Once you post the photo, in other words, you can't retrieve your photo if you need to for any reason either."
I am saying, use your own computer do the image hosting, if you only need vendio for image hosting, which is all i have need of them for. Create a file, upload all your photos into it, and they are there from now to whenever, no fees.
posted on November 19, 2004 04:24:20 PM new
no way. i have only used up 3% of my hard drive, run music from yahoo launchcast all day, shoot some pool occasionally, and run auctions all at the same time. i also use verizon, and it is quite fast. could be you need to either update your puter, or get a new server. either way, it will be cheaper in the longrun.
posted on November 20, 2004 05:51:19 PM new
Well, Verizon will charge you $30/month for a static IP address, without which I wouldn't host photos on my own PC/server. There are other image hosting services available, but they're not free either (at least not if you are hosting lots of space).
For what it's worth, I remain unfazed by the change in pricing. Perhaps that is only because my "normal" monthly fees have covered my image hosting fees. However, while I'm not an attorney, I would say that there is a difference between "FREE" and "FREE UNLIMITED" and I don't think Vendio has (in my time with them) suggested that Image Hosting would be "FREE UNLIMITED" forever.
Verizon, for example, says that it has free email accounts when you sign up for Internet Service. You get a few accounts (5 I think) that are allowed to use 10 MB of storage each. I don't see any lawsuits about this, nor do I see people boycotting Verizon for this.
Vendio, to its credit, has patiently replied to all of the noise about this. Kudos for staying patient and level. I do wish you had come up with a more "intuitive" pricing plan, but I'm sure you had your reasons (even if you can't remember what they were any more ).
Now, about that UPS shipping calculator...
[ edited by cashinyourcloset on Nov 20, 2004 05:53 PM ]
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