posted on March 3, 2004 02:52:21 PM new
AuctionDrop, the biggest eBay Trading Assistant seller with (what is it now) 5 retail outlets and more on the way, had been allowing winning bidders to call for their items at the store closest to them.
That practice ended as of March 1.
The question is why? Currently AD uses the Andale shipping calculator, which seems to give an actual rate, and they add a $2 "packaging fee". Could be that AD is looking at going to something like 2 x the actual UPS rate, as a way of keeping its bottom line plump.
Or maybe local pickups were too much trouble. Can't see why, though, it would be easier than packaging something to ship.
posted on March 3, 2004 05:06:59 PM new
I would think that as they grow the logistics of the that feature would become a real nightmare. Can you imagine if you have 100 stores trying to track inventory shipments betweeneach other? Not to mention what happens if say... listing store ships to pick-up store but item is never picked up? Who relists, who deals with shipping? If item then does not sell and must return to original owner who eats the double shipping costs?
This is one of those ideas that is good in theory but I would think hellish in execution.
AD seems to have big plans and it's probably better to eliminate it now rather than after they have expanded their market saturation and the dissolution would be a perceived as a bigger deal.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on March 3, 2004 05:26:43 PM new
Maybe. It's really unfortunate that they've done this, though, and I think they're going to lose some local business on the heavy-but-not-expensive items they often list.
There was a 70 lb. lot today I wanted but I refuse to pay UPS to ship it two whole miles.
posted on March 3, 2004 06:09:59 PM new
OK - yeah - that I agree is silly. If the person can pick up from the original location I see no reason to stop that practice. Hell, If I ran one of those shops I would not only allow direct pick-ups I would display other items that were currently listed and have a computer available to customers that dropped in, saw something they were interested in and wanted to place a bid on them. Disallowing local pick-ups from the originating store is just kissing off an additional avenue of advertising.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on March 3, 2004 06:40:27 PM new
they must have experienced some problems with local pickups.
what if someone comes in and pick up the goods with fake id ?
what if bidder comes and look at it and change his mind and refuse to pay??
it ties up the staff waiting on the bidders .
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 3, 2004 06:43:42 PM new
i dont buy much on ebay,the experience just get worse and worse.
if i have seen the item in person,i would not want it- lavender jade turns out to be turkish quartz,lavnder jade tree turns out to be plastic ,old jade/stone petals turn out to be broken peking glass.
smelly moldy handbag and the list goes on.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 3, 2004 11:24:47 PM new
I think the staff time involved in dealing with the walk-in customers is the crucial thing for AD. There must be a reason so many of us here don't want buyers to know where we live and come to pick up their items.
___________________________________
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach that person to use
the Internet and he
won't bother you for weeks.
posted on March 4, 2004 03:13:33 AM new
I have only had one person ask to pick up at my home and that was enough. She and her mother plunked themselves down, and it was getting harder and harder to come up with polite hints to get them to move on (if it wasn't winter, I wouldn't have let them in the front door). After examing the vase for a while, they announce that it is fine and they will take it (as if the eBay bidding is just some from of cyber-layaway plan while you make up your mind). I would have rather spent the hour waiting in line at the post office. These auction services could use their time for sellers and listings.
posted on March 4, 2004 05:39:25 AM new
Actually, AuctionDrop employs a mind-bogglingly large assortment of people as specialists. The front desk people don't do photography, listings, shipping or customer service.
posted on March 4, 2004 06:04:17 AM new
i hope they are profitable.
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on March 4, 2004 10:58:21 AM new
The drop off stores should add to the flood of items on the ebay market with more and more items for sale and put more supply on the supply and demand side of the equation and depress prices more.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on March 4, 2004 12:54:07 PM new
I came across one of these type sellers - there merchandise was generally yard sale level, plus the sort of stuff you see in the classifieds of the local shopper. According to their web site, there were minimum requirements, but they must have been waiving that to get consignments, as they had stuff at 1.99 no reserve as well as some antiques and cars. The sad part is that someone must have walked in the door with a really good collection of antique glass. But since they weren't specialists, the descriptions were poor, some items listed had just one photo (this place charges per photo) when they really needed more. They got some good prices, but would have done a LOT better if items were properly marketed. I think these places could fill a niche, but many customers might get upset if item doesn't bring in what they hope, and if they see the first item sold beyond expectations will think twice about that hefty consignment fee.
