Commentary from the staff of Auctiva.com
A Message From Jeff Schlicht, CEO of Auctiva
14To all of our customers:
First of all, I would like to start out by saying that as Auctiva’s founder and CEO, I am very sorry and humbly apologize for any frustration and anxiety we caused you to experience about the future of your business over the past week and a half. I know that these recent events have greatly upset our community and I take full responsibility for that. I am asking you to give me a chance to make it right.
Flat Rate Pricing
Auctiva is officially moving to flat monthly pricing: $9.95/mo. everything included
- 1GB Image Hosting
- A Faster, Easier-To-Use One-page Lister
- Bigger Supersized Images
- Better-looking Templates
- eBay’s Most Popular Scrolling Gallery
- Free Scheduling
- 24/7 Customer Support
- plus all of our other time and money saving tools
In addition to our Standard flat rate plan, we have a special Starter flat rate plan for ultra-casual sellers: $2.95/mo., up to 15 listings, 500MB image hosting.
Why Change Now?
Since we first announced our new pricing structure, I’ve been listening to the community’s concerns. Considering the frank feedback you’ve provided, through email, surveys, customer support cases, our community messages boards and other forums, a few facts are abundantly clear:
- You’d prefer a simple, no-surprises flat-rate pricing structure.
- You don’t want to pay any additional FVFs.
- You want image hosting included.
- Your margins are tight.
If you are asking yourself, “Why didn’t they just use this pricing in the beginning?” the answer is that I thought our customers would like to have the choice of picking a tailored plan based on usage. Clearly, I was wrong.
All too often, large companies fail to listen to their customers. Auctiva’s brightest future includes the users who brought us this far. I am making this change now so you can get back to doing business. I sincerely hope that this pricing change allows you continue using the tools you have come to depend on.
If you have already chosen a plan and want to switch to one of the new flat rate plans, just go back and choose a new one. If you like the plan you already picked and want to stay on it, we will support that too. If you still only want to use our free marketing tools, that is still available as well. If you would like one-on-one help for any reason, contact our Customer Support team.
Thank you for your business, loyalty and understanding.
About the author
Jeff Schlicht is the founder and CEO of Auctiva Corp. Jeff gained considerable insight into the needs of online sellers in the late '90s when he wanted to list lumps of coal from the Titanic on eBay. As he did so, he discovered how complicated and time consuming the process can be, which inspired him to create software that would automate the process. This led Jeff to start Auctiva Corp. in 1998, a company that has grown to become the largest third-party developer of tools for eBay sellers.
I am so glad you went this route. I’ll be staying with Auctiva now. (I was looking for other venues)
Apology accepted!
I somewhat confused re the free plan. Confirm this is a 30 day trial only and one needs to convert to a pay plan when the trial expires?
Re your pay plans, do you have any provisions for those households with more than one eBay account from the same IP.
sorry to say this is a week too late – with 6500 live listings I couldnt hang around based on your initial propositions – for this price I would have stayed too
Thanks for the apology, it is a very rare thing for any company owner to hold up their hands and say “Sorry, I messed up”. It takes someone with a big pair to do this. Yes, it may have been because you could your user-base was going from one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in your market to the smallest very rapidly, but it sounded (read?) honest and heartfelt.
I think it will do a lot of customer relationship repair work, although for some it wont be enough. There will always be some who want something for nothing and unless you give them that they’ll never be happy. I haven’t been using Auctiva for long so it wasn’t a hard choice for me to leave, but I have decided to stay on, using your $9.95 plan.
I just have one last thing to say, don’t always listen to the bean counters – most of the biggest customer relation disasters can be traced to them!
Hi Jeff
How refreshing to know some companies actually listen to their customers and try to provide a service they want. Maybe if you were the CEO of eBay some of that ethos would apply there. Failing that maybe you should consider setting up a rival auction to eBay – the name lends itself to that already and would pick up the sellers who are fed up when eBay keep changing the goalposts and ignore their sellers needs.
I have used Auctiva very little so did not and cannot comment on changes as I found some difficulties when I started (likely my stupidity) but will try again to see if I can get to grips with it as many of your features would be useful.
Regards David Williams
@SoCalSIndy
So glad to hear that!
@Larry
We have a free plan available http://www.auctiva.com/about/pricing.aspx. If you are a current customer, you have until June 30 to make a plan selection, or your account will simply revert to the Free Plan. New customers will have a 30-Day free trial, from the date of sign up. If you have multiple accounts, please contact our customer support. They’d be happy to put together a package for you. http://www.auctiva.com/help/requesthelp.aspx
Thanks!
I too was disappointed in the initial announcement regarding fees and plans. I’m already annoyed with all the financial bits and bites ebay takes from us. So I was looking for other options as others were. But for $10, I will be glad to stay and take advantage of your tools! Thank you so much for hearing your patrons and making life a little simpler for us! THANK YOU!!!
You’ve made my day! I was definitely leaving Auctiva, but am now happy to pay the flat fee and stay. Perhaps you could run for PM here in the UK? We need someone who listens…..
Why don’t you offer a pay as you go (per listing) plan? Some months I list items and some months I don’t. And, sometimes the quantity of items I list wouldn’t justify your flat rate plan.
wow.
i’m an occasional/hobby seller and I was initially soured by the % plan you guys unveiled (my margin of profit is super slim as it is) but after 3 years of free service i can handle a flat rate. Just as important to me was the fact you were willing to listen to user feedback. I wish other companies would do the same *cough* ebay! *cough*.
We are definitely proud of our Community and appreciate the feedback we receive on all things Auctiva. Without a doubt, we understand that the success of Auctiva is directly associated with the success of our customers and we try to facilitate a mutually beneficial relationship in all ways.
Hi a message to Jeff to hope he has a happy Christmas. Just check support case 226687 to check if me and my little boy will !!!!!!!
What a nice Web site, been surfing on it for the whole night and day and I never got bored for a single minute. Keep up your good work and all of the best in aggregate you do!
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