posted on October 11, 2003 10:24:32 AM new
I have used Vendio since it was AuctionWatch and free..and love it.
I downloaded AuctionWorks a few months ago and looked at it - didn't like it all. Vendio is much more user friendly. The cost is definitely a consideration also.
Actually I have looked at just about every auction management program out there, and find Vendio to be the best to suit my needs
Just my opinion
"Be kind. Remember everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." - Harry Thompson
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it." - A Few Good Men
posted on October 11, 2003 12:12:10 PM new
And Ditto here, too.
___________________________________
"Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humour, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking, brings us close to the actually existing world and its wholeness." --Gary Snyder
posted on October 11, 2003 01:00:58 PM new
Ditto here too. I don't know what I would do without this software. It manages my auctions and my postsale work. The only way to go in my opinion.
posted on October 11, 2003 01:36:17 PM new
I have checked the other services also.
If you want Post Sale Support, you have come to the right place.
Each step can be customized, or turned on or off, but this is how I use Vendio.
Set up correctly, once you list through Vendio, and the customer buys, they will automatically receive a Winning Buyer Notification email.
They are then directed to the Vendio Checkout.
There Vendio makes available address and preferred payment information, as well as the ability for the customer to combine auctions with other auctions for predetermined discounts.
For the customers that bypass the Checkout, and pay by PayPal, "Set Up Correctly" Vendio captures their address from the "PayPal Emails Sent To You", and more recently directly from PayPal, and puts the address information in Post Sale Checkout for your convenience. Either way if Paying With PayPal it lets you know when payment has been made, and automatically emails the customer and lets them know you received payment and will ship the item soon. (Or other message of your choice)
If they send a money order, when the payment is received, you check the payment received box and it automatically emails them that you received payment and you will ship the item soon. (Or other message of your choice)
From here you can print a packing slip/ invoice if you choose.
When you are ready to ship, you can relate the package tracking information to the auction. After I put the tracking number in the Post Sale Page and it actually ships, I mark that it has shipped and Vendio Post Sale sends the customer an email letting them know it has shipped and provides the tracking number and a link that tracks the package for them. If you want, you can check a box and Vendio leaves feedback for your customer.
All this, and you have not sent one email personally to your customer. At the same time, they have been responded to at every step, leaving them feeling like you are very responsibly processing their order.
All this said, and it is a great system, Vendio is not perfect. No service can be. They can not please everyone, and make complete functionality at every level, happen 100% of the time. So if a perfect world system is needed, keep looking, but for the best there is right now, it is my opinion Vendio is at the top.
Good luck in your search for an auction service to best fulfill your needs. You may have found it.
posted on October 11, 2003 01:45:16 PM new
I am a former Vendio user that moved to Works. Personally there is no way I would move back. Works reporting and inventory systems are much better It is a much faster loading listing system if you are a high volume seller and has been infinitely less buggy for me than Vendio was and definately not more expensive.
All of the post sale features are the same although unlike Works, you pay additional fees to add the Vendio Customer Management module to your package.
If you want to get a true look at common Vendio user issues, go the the support board and see what problems sellers are encountering.
Before you kill your Works account, I would reccomend experimenting with the free trial period and seeing if it really is going to offer you the same features and ease of use you need.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 11, 2003 02:26:56 PM new
Hey, I'm with WGM, I have used it from the very beginnig & won't change now. In fact, it is getting better all of the time. Now when you put pictures in your ad, they come up almost instantly. No morre waiting.
posted on October 11, 2003 02:30:56 PM new
When AW started charging I left.
Tried the free ones and the not so free ones.
I'm back here to stay.
They have it all, at a reasonable price!
posted on October 13, 2003 06:41:12 AM new
I Have been with Auctionwatch right since their earliest days, when they and Andale were free. I Do however only use the image hosting and listing tool/s and I think if you do just that then you might as well switch (and I will) to spare dollar, you can get the same things there for an awful lot less.
posted on October 13, 2003 07:09:03 AM new
crowderscomicshop,
I noticed you post on the Yahoo board about possibly starting to list there. If you're still considering that, then this is an important issue to consider before changing?
If you do a search for something in Yahoo auctions, most of the items that come up have a thumbnail image next to the listing. Many Yahoo shoppers (from what I've read anyway) prefer to see that image, and from a marketing standpoint it certainly makes sense.
Works will create that thumbnail image for you - Vendio won't.
With as slow as selling on Yahoo is anyway, that was a marketing disadvantage I simply couldn't justify when I looked at using Vendio.
posted on October 13, 2003 12:16:20 PM new
I tried auctionworks for several months and although I like the inventory and listing features the post management was terrible.
It isn't true that you have to pay for the extra Vendio Customer Manager feature to get the good post sale management. I don't use the customer manager feature and get along just fine with the regular post management.
I do miss the auctionworks feature of showing who the high bidder is on each of your currently runnning auctions. That's about the only thing I miss.
posted on October 13, 2003 12:43:47 PM new
ewora - what is the difference in post sale tracking and issues between Vendio and Works. I noticed no differnce in the features themselves but found Works to be more user friendly and much faster.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 13, 2003 10:17:50 PM new
I just felt like I was filling in more buyer information into the "works" pages and it was more difficult to manuver through their checkout. Vendio also lets you print out a nice invoice to include with your packaging. I'm not certain I was able to do that with Auctionworks. It's been about a year and a half since I used them so things may have changed.
posted on October 13, 2003 10:40:46 PM new
I was among the very first sellers to launch an auction through AW/Vendio when they first started. Like most of the others, I've looked at the others but have yet to find one that offeres the broad range of services and reliability of Vendio. Since you expressed in your first post that cost is a factor, I'm surprised that no one has yet brought up the fact that Vendio has several different pricing plans available. Depending on volume, you can find one that is right for you that can save you some big $$. Go over to the image hosting and sales manager forum and one of the moderators can steer you toward the best plan to suit your business. Take advantage of the two week trial to get your feet wet. Make all your beginner mistakes on their nickle.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on October 14, 2003 08:46:51 AM new
Im sure its not just me but does anyone else think that the refund process for Vendio is time consuming?
Also the fact that NPB and FVF is not supported on Fixed Priced or eBay store items makes it a real hassel as well.
Which plan do most of you use? The logical one to me seems to be the "Pay-as-you-go" plan which is the one I am using now. I list about 400-800 auctions per month and only once has my fees gone over $100.
I am a previous Andale customer but once they started charging those ridiculous prices I moved here and I plan to stay. Now if they could only improve the refund process.
posted on October 14, 2003 09:02:36 AM new
I list 1,000+ auctions/month (items selling under $30) and I use the Variable Power Plan...my monthly sales have to top $5500 for me to billed over $100 and when I do, I am doing a happy dance! You should look at the plans - if I remember correctly, the "pay as you go" was the most expensive option when you list more than 300 items/month.
posted on October 14, 2003 06:21:41 PM new
I can’t believe anyone would pay up to $100 to list a month to list auctions !!!!!
– with all the fine programs, with a pay once, and you own the system, like AuctionTammer – good grief I’ve used Auction Tammer for years – paid for it, updates are free, support is great, and it paid for itself in a few auctions......I’ve also used sold, but when they charged for their update, basically I marked them out of my book.
[ edited by jwpc on Oct 14, 2003 06:22 PM ]
posted on October 14, 2003 09:43:32 PM new
Does Auctiontamer support NPB and FVF requests? How good is the post sale management? Thats really what I need...
posted on October 15, 2003 11:13:49 AM new
AuctionTamer charges a ridiculous amount for image hosting, I think it's $0.10 per image. They also do not support FTP'ing photos to another image site, and I think this combination really holds them back in terms of growth.
I'd be using AuctionWizard2000 if not for two things - they don't support Yahoo thumbnail images and I too need a storefront.
If someone can point me to a system that allos posting on multiple sites and a storefront, and costs little to nothing, do share cause I've never found 'em.
posted on October 16, 2003 08:49:50 PM new
I don't understand why everyone needs photo hosting, don't your ISP's give you web space?
I couldn't do without the business portion of AuctionTammer - I don't know anything about photo hosting as we host our own photographs - and I have an eBay store front, and 4 web sites, so don't think I'd personally be interested in a listing service for a store front - my only interest in a listing service is for listing, and a business program.
Guess that is why there are so many different listing programs, for the various needs of different sellers.
posted on October 16, 2003 09:08:30 PM new
Someone just said they moved to Vendio when Andale went to ridiculous prices – I see for example Andale for 110 auctions is $34.95, and that is with photo hosting, and the other stuff.....
Vendio for 110 on the Pay As You Go, is about $28.00 based on at least sales of $2,000 at 1% - therefore, I don’t see a great deal of different in the prices -
THEN if you add image hosting as an extra with Vendio, it seems it would cost more.
To me it would be which program is the easiest to use, the fastest, which program can automatically down load my auctions from eBay, AND which program has the least amount of bugs!
From all the gripes I read on the support board here, I think I’d opt for Andale, it “seems” more reliable.
I don't use either, but am just speaking hypothetically, as an "outsider." Oh, I did try the old AuctionWatch program when it first started, had nothing but problems, and went back to my regular listing service. I "might" have tried it again when Vendio took over, but, although I only listed a couple of times when AuctionWatch first start the program, they still have me listed as a member, so I can't get a free trial period, and I wouldn't want to jump in without testing the water, so to speak.
posted on October 17, 2003 08:38:58 AM new
Well, trying to preview this whole subject, I checked out the "complaint" board at Andale, and there were a considerable of grips there also.
BUT, think I've found the key to complaints, it seems 99/9% of the complaints I've found regarding both Vendio and Andale relate to missing photo's, templates disappearing after posting, and such - in other words image hosting problems, as opposed to posting problems.
It would seem if someone needs a service with photo hosting ability, that the search would be for the most reliable hosting service for pictures, and the rest would just be fluff.
CURIOUS - if one uses Vendio, can you down load your auctions from eBay should there be some there you didn't create on Vendio??
[ edited by jwpc on Oct 17, 2003 08:45 AM ]
